Is the Lowrance Endura fading into obscurity?

[wahoowad]

I was an early adopter and bought an Endura Sierra. Returned it within a week or two, pretty disgusted with both the seemingly false advertising and the range of issues I encountered. Saw other posts of similar sentiments. Now nothing. Stillborn?

 

I have kept an eye out for possibly patches/improvements, especially for Lowrance to enable the mapping it was supposed to have, but didn't. No new threads, no releases from Lowrance. Definitely no follow-up from them to my well documented support tickets other than the typical knee-jerk responses from support that resolve nothing. They don't know I returned it, and appear just willing to let me live with the bugs I reported. I'm not a GPS industry person, but this sure looks to be shaping up as a disaster for them. Too bad, I've dropped a lot of dough on Lowrance products in the past.

 

As an aside, I am near deliriously happy with my Oregon 300.

[+user13371]

Ya gotta wonder about stuff like this. It's vaguely reminiscent of Magellan.

 

Magellan, a few years ago: Good products for their time. A small core of loyal users. Then the company was sold. Brought out a new product line different from their tried and true. Then they were sold again and brought out another completely revamped product line. Now it's hard to find anyone who can say anything good about their consumer products -- and a lot of people with short memory or no knowledge of history forget how good the older Magellan devices were.

 

Lowrance, a few years ago: Good products for their time, real price-beaters on features. A small core of loyal users. Company was recently sold. Brought out a new product line different from their tried and true...

 

... next chapter?

Edited September 24, 2009 by lee_rimar

[+Indotguy]

What a shame. I had high hopes for the Enduras. Just glad I didn't rush out and purchase one. I've been satisfied with my last two Lowrance GPSers and I was starting to consider a third. Now I'm having second thoughts.

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

I've got an Endura Sierra I'm testing and should have a review posted in a few weeks.

 

On the subject of Magellan, they have recently made huge improvements in their auto line. MiTAC appears to be pouring significant resources into the company, so I wouldn't count them out yet.

[+Surferjo]

Ya gotta wonder about stuff like this. It's vaguely reminiscent of Magellan.

 

........... Now it's hard to find anyone who can say anything good about their consumer products

 

I have to disagree, respectively of course, but it would seems after this latest round of patches the Tritons are quite accurate and dependable. Granted I only use mine (1500 and 500) for caching so there may be other areas where it falls short but for the price I think they are a fantastic bargain for somebody looking for a basic, no-frills, very accurate GPS. As to the Endura I cant really say as I have no experience with the unit.

[+user13371]

...hard to find anyone who can say anything good about (Magellan's) consumer products

I have to disagree, respectively of course, but it would seems after this latest round of patches the Tritons are quite accurate and dependable ...for the price I think they are a fantastic bargain for somebody looking for a basic, no-frills, very accurate GPS

Okay, I stand corrected.

 

Would you accept a more carefully worded: "Fair or not, few people give Magellan's consumer products favorable reviews now?" I have read that the Triton's most recent round of software updates have improved things. But the initial release - along with changes in their customer support - did serious harm to their reputation, even among their old-time fans.

 

Going back to the OP, I fear the same could happen to Lowrance's handheld GPSR line and reputation. Unless firmware updates come fast and furious, and customer support is excellent -- they'll be facing the same uphill climb as Magellan/Mitac.

[+StarBrand]

I am still using my Endura Out&back. Sure it is a bit quirky but no terribly serious issues to date. I am still hoping to see and update soon to address those minor but annoying issues.

 

The BIG problem I have is the promised mapping updates and availability. Just not there right now. Also the pricing I have seen is nearly completely outrageous for very small data sets.

[+Indotguy]

I am still using my Endura Out&back. Sure it is a bit quirky but no terribly serious issues to date. I am still hoping to see and update soon to address those minor but annoying issues.

 

The BIG problem I have is the promised mapping updates and availability. Just not there right now. Also the pricing I have seen is nearly completely outrageous for very small data sets.

 

In my view the mapping options were the primary selling points of the Enduras and in this respect they have let their customers down. Even if they provided software updates and corrected the map issues tomorrow it would not excuse them from the total silence and lack of customer support to date.

[+Colonial Cats]

In general, we like Lowrances. We bought a Sierra and returned it. It was a good GPSr however a bit buggy. I'm sure that they will get the bugs out. What our BIG problem was that we could not get use to the touch screen (dim and we were always touching it when we didn't want to). So it was not the Sierra itself we didn't like; it was the touch screen we didn't like. We now stay away from all touch screen GPSrs. So we bought a DeLorme PN-40 and love it.

[+gpsblake]

Lowrance for a few years didn't update any of their handheld GPSr units and are now playing catch up again. Magellan made the same error. Garmin is always coming out with a new flavor of GPS every other month or so... sort of like Baskin n Robbins 31 flavors. People might say they got too many on the market, but it keeps them on their toes in the development of the units.

 

Geocachers by far are the ones who will find errors & will look for every single bug. This forum micro-manages GPS units (which is good). If they (Lowrance and Magellan) would just GIVE out 100 handheld GPS units to hard core geocachers, let them report the bugs, and tune those bugs, the general public would get an outstanding unit.

 

Garmin has a great history of putting out beta software to the public for the purpose of finding and squashing bugs. Then take Magellan who has only a handful of beta testers and keeps their beta software a total secret from the general public. That's why you get buggy software.

 

It might mean a 3 month delay in the getting the product out to market, but it's worth it in my opinion. Do the alpha and beta testing right.

[+Indotguy]

Has anyone with an Endura Sierra (the one described as "“Fully Loaded” with detailed topographic outdoor maps and content in a high performance GPS computer..." and is the winner of the "Outdoor Industry Award 09") had any communications from the Lowrance support folks regarding when, or if ever, they intend to do anything to get the pre-installed and/or user installed mapping up to speed on this device?

[wahoowad]

Has anyone with an Endura Sierra (the one described as "“Fully Loaded” with detailed topographic outdoor maps and content in a high performance GPS computer..." and is the winner of the "Outdoor Industry Award 09") had any communications from the Lowrance support folks regarding when, or if ever, they intend to do anything to get the pre-installed and/or user installed mapping up to speed on this device?

 

Thank you for your inquiry. We do apologize for the delay in responding. We are currently at the peak of our busy season and responding to all inquiries as quickly as possible. You are very important to us and we will be happy to assist you. Satellite imagery is active at certain zoom ranges. When zoomed in past 20 miles, the map screen will revert to the standard basemap detail.

Mapselect.com was originally launched for our XOG units but we have not yet received details as to whether it will be revamped for the Endura units at this time to provide the same type of e-topo, satellite imagery and BLM mapping. At the present, the units will accept non-proprietary mapping files from many websites for geocaching, backpacking, off-roading and others-they simply need to be downloaded to the unit. The same can be said for the Accuterra mapping. The units are compatible but are not fully loaded with Accuterra maps for every region of the US.

 

Thank you for your inquiry. There are a few small differences between what's actually loaded on the units from manufacture and what the photos taken during preproduction show. Units coming off the the line at this time will have hillshading available in Hybrid mode and at zoom ranges greater than 32 miles. We do apologize for any confusion that this may have caused.

 

My Endura return went very smoothly and I am loving my $100 cheaper Oregon 300.

Edited September 30, 2009 by wahoowad

[+lanko21]

I have an Outnback. I did speak with customer service about several issues including multiple cache among others. I was told they had a meeting the next day and the issues would be brought up. They said I would recieve a reply in a day or two. That was two weeks ago and nothing....

[+Airmapper]

Well I was ready to try one, but wanted to wait for some reviews before buying one. I waited, and waited, and waited a little longer. Nothing good came.

 

I'm still tickled to death with my Expedition C, and it still runs like a top so I don't guess I'll want a new GPS for a while. This new stuff just crashed and burned it seems to me.

[+Indotguy]

Thanks for sharing the somewhat depressing Lowrance communication. Like the poster above me I waited anxiously for the Enduras but they have obviously been over hyped and misrepresented. A big disappointment.

Guess I'll just keep my dependable ol' H20c.

[+Indotguy]

According to the support response "the units will accept non-proprietary MAPPING files from many websites for geocaching, backpacking, off-roading". If this be the case, what map formats can these units accept?

[+Redwoods Mtn Biker]

At the present, the units will accept non-proprietary mapping files from many websites for geocaching, backpacking, off-roading and others-they simply need to be downloaded to the unit.

 

I suspect this is limited to non-mapping files, i.e., .gpx files.

 

The same can be said for the Accuterra mapping. The units are compatible but are not fully loaded with Accuterra maps for every region of the US.

 

The Accuterra website doesn't show any maps available for the Lowrance Endura series, not that I could find anyway.

[+StarBrand]

I spoke with both Accuterra support and Navteq support about mapping options for the Endura series. Both companies reffered me to the existing mapping page on the Lowrance website and told that was the only way to purchase maps for the Endura series. Lowrance tech support directed me to the ridiculously expensive Mapselect options page (my county alone was going to cost about $200!!!).

 

While mapping appears available for the units - the price is near astonomical.

 

The "community" based non propritary maps are so ill defined that I am uncertain what in the world it means. I was told to search for GPX based free maps. Never heard of such a thing. They also said the unit was compatiable with "numerous" free maps found on the Internet but they could not point me to even one.

[+Rockin Roddy]

Not sounding good for the Endura series? Will not be offering this as an option to potential buyers until I hear better...

[+TotemLake]

I spoke with both Accuterra support and Navteq support about mapping options for the Endura series. Both companies reffered me to the existing mapping page on the Lowrance website and told that was the only way to purchase maps for the Endura series. Lowrance tech support directed me to the ridiculously expensive Mapselect options page (my county alone was going to cost about $200!!!).

 

While mapping appears available for the units - the price is near astonomical.

 

The "community" based non propritary maps are so ill defined that I am uncertain what in the world it means. I was told to search for GPX based free maps. Never heard of such a thing. They also said the unit was compatiable with "numerous" free maps found on the Internet but they could not point me to even one.

That sounds familiar to the old DeLorme pricing and Bushnell's current pricing for their systems. It would have set me back $17,000 to do all of WA color aerials which I was able to accomplish on a single $30 annual subscription with time to spare.

[+Indotguy]

That's what I thought. The description on the Lowrance site says "accepting many public domain files and community-based content such as GPX trails and general outdoor POIs". I didn't interpret this to include maps. Par for the course, the support person who prepared the response in the thread above apparently doesn't have a clue about these units. Bottom line? There are no maps available for Enduras other than those pre-installed and they are not as advertised. I would like to sit in on a Lowrance Executive board meeting. I wonder what they talk about these days?

[+Healthcrazy]

I use an Expedition C for all my caching and I am very happy with it. I purchased an Endura out and back about a month ago and was pretty happy with it. I just use the o/b for logging my finds and entering notes as it really is not a great GPS to use for caching. Today though the logging stopped working. It stopped displaying the hints, recent logs, size of cache, etc. It will let me enter a found cache but when I enter field notes for a particular cache it also adds the same notes to all the other found caches. So today I am not happy with it at all. I would not recommend this GPS as it is not really user friendly in the field.

 

Has anyone else ran into these problems? Thanks,

 

Healthcrazy

[+TheRedArmy]

wow. i'm sure glad i didn't wait for the out&back to come out and went ahead and picked up my garmin Legend HCx when i was on sale.

 

for everyone who picked one up, hopefully they fix the bugs and the mapping issues.

[+Indotguy]

From a BoaterMouth.com blog - "According to Scott Roy, Navico’s Product Marketing Manager, Outdoor Business Unit, the company plans to sell a series of regional (5-6 state) upgraded detail maps for the Endura units. These will feature more detailed contours, hill shading, more outdoor Points of Interest (POIs) and depth contours for several miles offshore, which will be sufficient for all but the most hardcore of bluewater fishermen. They will likely cost just under $100 per region."

[wahoowad]

From a BoaterMouth.com blog - "According to Scott Roy, Navico’s Product Marketing Manager, Outdoor Business Unit, the company plans to sell a series of regional (5-6 state) upgraded detail maps for the Endura units. These will feature more detailed contours, hill shading, more outdoor Points of Interest (POIs) and depth contours for several miles offshore, which will be sufficient for all but the most hardcore of bluewater fishermen. They will likely cost just under $100 per region."

 

He won't be selling one to me. The one I bought should have had the more detailed contours and hill shading. I already paid top dollar for a premium unit, no need to pay for what he advertised my unit as coming with out of the box. Bah. He really screwed the pooch on this rollout. I bet they do not even cover their engineering and manufacturing costs on this product.

[+Indotguy]

From a BoaterMouth.com blog - "According to Scott Roy, Navico’s Product Marketing Manager, Outdoor Business Unit, the company plans to sell a series of regional (5-6 state) upgraded detail maps for the Endura units. These will feature more detailed contours, hill shading, more outdoor Points of Interest (POIs) and depth contours for several miles offshore, which will be sufficient for all but the most hardcore of bluewater fishermen. They will likely cost just under $100 per region."

 

He won't be selling one to me. The one I bought should have had the more detailed contours and hill shading. I already paid top dollar for a premium unit, no need to pay for what he advertised my unit as coming with out of the box. Bah. He really screwed the pooch on this rollout. I bet they do not even cover their engineering and manufacturing costs on this product.

 

I don't own one but you won't get an argument out of me. It appears they are preparing to release the Enduras to the European market. I'm curious to see how that goes.