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I put this in the UK forum simply because if someone has got one who lives close enough to me to trade a "real life" look at it for a beer then they're going to have to live in the UK...

 

I'm thinking of upgrading my trusty 60CSx and like the look of the 62st and the Montana. One limitation I really would like to overcome with the CSx is that if I create a track in MapSource and then send it to the GPS it truncates it at 500 points. I found that the hard way when I got lost in Wokingham's one-way system when my track log to Reading got truncated and I didn't realise...

 

I'm also keen to know if anyone has mounted one on a bike (pushbike, not motorbike) with any success, and how well it works as a hiking GPS. I've seen one in my local outdoors shop but obviously they can't let me take it away and I'd like to know more about it before dropping a wedge of cash on it.

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I put this in the UK forum simply because if someone has got one who lives close enough to me to trade a "real life" look at it for a beer then they're going to have to live in the UK...

 

I'm thinking of upgrading my trusty 60CSx and like the look of the 62st and the Montana. One limitation I really would like to overcome with the CSx is that if I create a track in MapSource and then send it to the GPS it truncates it at 500 points. I found that the hard way when I got lost in Wokingham's one-way system when my track log to Reading got truncated and I didn't realise...

 

I'm also keen to know if anyone has mounted one on a bike (pushbike, not motorbike) with any success, and how well it works as a hiking GPS. I've seen one in my local outdoors shop but obviously they can't let me take it away and I'd like to know more about it before dropping a wedge of cash on it.

 

I couldn't resist and I have pre-ordered one, but not received it yet. I shall *try* and be patient and wait! :anitongue: Will post a review on my blog when I get it, but would love to also hear if any UK cachers have got their hands on one already?

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Ohhhh..... Nice one Cassandy ;-)

 

Where's offering the best deals? Anyone ordered from the us?

 

Jon

 

The places in the UK I've seen selling it are typically charging more than the revised RRP quoted by Garmin.

 

The 62st is marginally cheaper to buy in the UK than the US (which amazed me) - the best prices I've seen are a little over £290 from handtec.co.uk compared to a little under $480 from gpscity.com

 

The Montana is still cheaper to buy in the US from what I can see, although anyone ordering it and having it shipped will probably find the nice people at HMRC make sure it works out more expensive. I think the top-end 650t is around £550 (Garmin RRP) compared to $650 (gpscity.com). Obviously the US version comes with a US rather than European map.

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I put this in the UK forum simply because if someone has got one who lives close enough to me to trade a "real life" look at it for a beer then they're going to have to live in the UK...

 

I'm thinking of upgrading my trusty 60CSx and like the look of the 62st and the Montana. One limitation I really would like to overcome with the CSx is that if I create a track in MapSource and then send it to the GPS it truncates it at 500 points. I found that the hard way when I got lost in Wokingham's one-way system when my track log to Reading got truncated and I didn't realise...

 

I'm also keen to know if anyone has mounted one on a bike (pushbike, not motorbike) with any success, and how well it works as a hiking GPS. I've seen one in my local outdoors shop but obviously they can't let me take it away and I'd like to know more about it before dropping a wedge of cash on it.

 

I couldn't resist and I have pre-ordered one, but not received it yet. I shall *try* and be patient and wait! :anitongue: Will post a review on my blog when I get it, but would love to also hear if any UK cachers have got their hands on one already?

 

When you get it I'd very much like to hear how you get on with it.

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The Oregon Wiki now has a section for Montana questions so click here to see some of the issues found so far.

 

Thanks for the link, some interesting reading there. 12000 caches is pretty good stuff too. Now all we need is GS to allow us to run more than 5x1000 PQs in a day :)

 

I must admit it's getting tempting. The 1000 waypoint limit on the 60CSx is becoming an issue on days when I set off on the bike and change my plans as I go, I've had a few days now where I got home and found I cycled within 100 yards of a clutch of caches but was at the edge of what I'd loaded into the GPS.

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Finally got my Montana. :D It was waiting for me when I got back from the Wales MEGA. Only got chance to have a little play on it this morning. It's a big beast, but I really like it. Will pop up a blog post review soon, and pop up a link here.

 

So if anyone's interested I'm now in a position to recommend the place I got it from: Mes Ltd. Great service, and they put up with a few impatient emails from me asking if it was in stock yet. They always emailed me straight back and it came next day delivery with a tracking number so I could keep an eye on it. I wasn't sure on using them at first to get it as I hadn't heard of them before and the price seemed too good to be true, but they are definitely kosher! :anitongue:

 

I noticed they were flogging the Montana 600 at the event for the "bargain price" of £480. Mes Ltd. sell it for £380! Not such a bargain afterall. The 650 (Which I ordered) is £440, and the 650T is £460 (Includes the City Navigator maps) Postage was 6 or 7 quid.

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I think some of the 'higher' prices may include 1:50000 UK maps. Might be wrong but would appreciate any further information on maps as I thinking of buying a Montana and am not sure what is exactly in the box so to speak.

 

There are some deals online for the 600 + 50K maps, although personally I get by with Open Street Maps (Free!), and creating my own Garmin Custom Maps for footpaths so mapping isn't a concern for me. With the 600 and 650 you will just get the basemap which has a few roads, not much else really. With the 650T you get the City Navigator maps which allow you to essentially use the Montana like a Nuvi. The Montana will speak to you with turn-by-turn directions. Was a bit disappointed there wasn't a lanyard in the Montana box, but there's the quick guide, cables, and charger. Think that was it... Oh and a Montana! :laughing:

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I think some of the 'higher' prices may include 1:50000 UK maps. Might be wrong but would appreciate any further information on maps as I thinking of buying a Montana and am not sure what is exactly in the box so to speak.

 

As I understand it (and I may be wrong, having not bought a Montana) what you get in the box is the Montana and a few basic accessories for it (e.g. the battery). The 650 has a camera built in and the 650t has the topo maps built in (I believe they are Europe-wide if you buy the European model).

 

Some places may bundle the unit with other maps (the whole UK in 1:50,000 seems like a popular bundle) but I believe that's something the retailer does rather than Garmin. So in other words they give you one box from Garmin with the Montana in it and another box from the OS with the maps in it, and charge you a single price that's (hopefully) less than the total of the prices on both boxes.

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Having seen the Montana at the MEGA, I think it's too big and chunky. I can't imagine it on the handle bars of my mountain bike. It doesn't support Wherigo and unless you're DrSolly - who really needs a 12k cache capacity? By the time you get round to doing them, the PQ's will be out of date anyway.

 

There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

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Having seen the Montana at the MEGA, I think it's too big and chunky. I can't imagine it on the handle bars of my mountain bike. It doesn't support Wherigo and unless you're DrSolly - who really needs a 12k cache capacity? By the time you get round to doing them, the PQ's will be out of date anyway.

 

There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

I'm a little concerned about the size of it, although if you put it in landscape mode you can have your map, four fields down the right hand side and still have enough map to be useful. On my trusty 60CSx if you have four data fields you lose so much map space it' just not funny.

 

I looked at the Oregon but just didn't get on with it. Even under the shop's fluorescent light I found it very hard to read and I'd rather not be dealing with that when cycling trying to figure out which junction I'm meant to be turning at. Sometimes with the CSx I struggle to figure out just where I'm meant to be turning, especially at weird junctions or where there are lots of roads close together.

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I think it's too big and chunky.

 

Not big and chunky, big and beautiful! :laughing:

 

You would indeed have a job getting it mounted on a bike though. Will get a chance to try it out for real this weekend. The screen is amazing and the extra information down the side is brilliant. Just a bit disappointed that I'm having a problem finding a car mount for it. They don't seem to have hit the UK yet. I shall rig it up on a universal mount and plug a mini speaker in instead though to get the sat nav features working for now. I do love my gadgets! :anibad:

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There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

Oh that is soooo sneaky ... I love it!

Not that I would even think about fooling my other half .... but he didn't even notice that (after only 3 months of caching) my old GPS 60 turned into a Oregon 300 overnight.

So I don't think I will have any problem turning my Oregon into a Montana! :rolleyes:

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There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

Oh that is soooo sneaky ... I love it!

Not that I would even think about fooling my other half .... but he didn't even notice that (after only 3 months of caching) my old GPS 60 turned into a Oregon 300 overnight.

So I don't think I will have any problem turning my Oregon into a Montana! :rolleyes:

 

You gotta be careful with the 60... bang it too hard and that chunky antenna falls right off. It's an amazing design, it falls off leaving a nice clean curved edge underneath it. Hit it hard enough and all the buttons fall off as well, and as that bottom section falls away so the touchscreen suppression technology stops functioning.

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I think it's too big and chunky.

 

Not big and chunky, big and beautiful! :laughing:

 

You would indeed have a job getting it mounted on a bike though. Will get a chance to try it out for real this weekend. The screen is amazing and the extra information down the side is brilliant. Just a bit disappointed that I'm having a problem finding a car mount for it. They don't seem to have hit the UK yet. I shall rig it up on a universal mount and plug a mini speaker in instead though to get the sat nav features working for now. I do love my gadgets! :anibad:

 

I can tell you're regretting it all ready. :P Even walking along the road with it, you'll look like you're carrying a small portable tele! :D

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There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

Oh that is soooo sneaky ... I love it!

Not that I would even think about fooling my other half .... but he didn't even notice that (after only 3 months of caching) my old GPS 60 turned into a Oregon 300 overnight.

So I don't think I will have any problem turning my Oregon into a Montana! :rolleyes:

 

I'm on borrowed time. Ali notices everything eventually....

 

& Team Tisri - As I know everything on the internet is true - I'm just about to try that with our old 60Csx. My lawyers will give you a ring in about half an hour. :ph34r:

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There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

Oh that is soooo sneaky ... I love it!

Not that I would even think about fooling my other half .... but he didn't even notice that (after only 3 months of caching) my old GPS 60 turned into a Oregon 300 overnight.

So I don't think I will have any problem turning my Oregon into a Montana! :rolleyes:

 

I'm on borrowed time. Ali notices everything eventually....

 

& Team Tisri - As I know everything on the internet is true - I'm just about to try that with our old 60Csx. My lawyers will give you a ring in about half an hour. :ph34r:

 

:)

 

My next project is to stretch my 60CSx so that when the touchscreen suppression technology module breaks off it will have a bigger touchscreen. It will make the Montana look positively puny.

Edited by team tisri
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There's nothing in the package at the moment that would tempt me to change from my Oregon. Plus it's easy to change from a 300 Oregon to a 450T without the person who put you on a gadget ban noticing. :ph34r: Claiming your Oregon grew overnight and changed name might be a bit more difficult to pull off....... :rolleyes:

 

Oh that is soooo sneaky ... I love it!

Not that I would even think about fooling my other half .... but he didn't even notice that (after only 3 months of caching) my old GPS 60 turned into a Oregon 300 overnight.

So I don't think I will have any problem turning my Oregon into a Montana! :rolleyes:

 

I'm on borrowed time. Ali notices everything eventually....

 

& Team Tisri - As I know everything on the internet is true - I'm just about to try that with our old 60Csx. My lawyers will give you a ring in about half an hour. :ph34r:

 

:)

 

IT WORKS!!!!! It's turned into an Oregon 450T!! Right, now to convince Ali.......

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You gotta be careful with the 60... bang it too hard and that chunky antenna falls right off. It's an amazing design, it falls off leaving a nice clean curved edge underneath it. Hit it hard enough and all the buttons fall off as well, and as that bottom section falls away so the touchscreen suppression technology stops functioning.

 

:huh: Lucky that I sold it for more than I paid for it then! :P

 

Do you know what I hated the most about the big yellow GPS60?

You couldn't hide the dam thing from view and you could NEVER stick it to your ear and pretend it was a mobile phone. :unsure:

 

Now the Montana is big .... but it isn't yellow .... is it? :lol:

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I'm on borrowed time. Ali notices everything eventually....

 

& Team Tisri - As I know everything on the internet is true - I'm just about to try that with our old 60Csx. My lawyers will give you a ring in about half an hour. :ph34r:

 

:)

 

IT WORKS!!!!! It's turned into an Oregon 450T!! Right, now to convince Ali.......

 

If only you'd hit it just a little bit harder it would have turned into a 550T :P

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Thanks everyone for the information. Lots of things to think about. Will amble down to a couple of shops and have a feel of the item and when I decide will have a look at the various websites etc. Will let you know later what decision to I come to. I have an Etrex Vista which is so old that the only cable to connect to a computer is pre USB (multi pin) and there is not a lot that can be downloaded from any websites. It does work well for its age but is not very accurate when compared to newer models. I was at an event a month or so back and there were two or three GPS's switched on on the event table and I put mine down with them and mine was by far the worst in terms of accuracy and satellites found - time to change I think.

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I'm on borrowed time. Ali notices everything eventually....

 

& Team Tisri - As I know everything on the internet is true - I'm just about to try that with our old 60Csx. My lawyers will give you a ring in about half an hour. :ph34r:

 

:)

 

IT WORKS!!!!! It's turned into an Oregon 450T!! Right, now to convince Ali.......

 

If only you'd hit it just a little bit harder it would have turned into a 550T :P

 

Dam dam dam ... I knew I should have kept that big yellow brick!

Do you think it would work with an old gecko?

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If only you'd hit it just a little bit harder it would have turned into a 550T :P

 

Dam dam dam ... I knew I should have kept that big yellow brick!

Do you think it would work with an old gecko?

 

The trouble with the Geko is that it doesn't have the aerial to knock off. I must experiment with my old Geko 201 although I suspect if I stretched it out enough then it might just turn into a Montana 650t.

 

Anyone testing my theory is encouraged to post photos of the results :laughing:

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I can tell you're regretting it all ready. :P Even walking along the road with it, you'll look like you're carrying a small portable tele! :D

 

Ooh no, quite the opposite I don't regret a single penny spent. Coming from a tiny Dakota screen to the big montana is a big leap, and probably not so much of a big deal for those who have Oregons. The massive screen makes all the difference to me. It's about the size of a Nintendo DS Lite, flip it on the side and muggles will simply think I'm playing mario!!! :laughing: I discovered last night that if you flip it on its side you also get a QWERTY keyboard. :yikes: Makes field note typing a lot easier.

 

Now to work out how to actually hack it and get Mario on it... ;)

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Well, I went out and bought a 600. Very pleased with it. Only been trying out a few things for an hour or two but I did navigate home in the car with it. It was showing me the directions as text but I cannot find out how to switch the voice on. I have selected 'Emily' and am in automotive mode but no voice. Maybe this only works with a cradle or headphones. Have downloaded a cache or two and this seems good except I cannot see the hint decrypted or encrypted. I suspect I will get there but if anyone can give me a pointer on these two topics I would be grateful. Thanks.

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From the reviews I've read the Voice prompts require either the car mount, which has a built in speaker, or headphones.

 

The hints for caches are probably work the same as the Oregon, you must be navigating to the cache, then in the geocaching menu there is the option to display the hint.

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Thanks for that Madproforg. I finally found a manual on the Garmin site and found that you either have to have it on the cradle (which I have not yet got) or plugged in earphones to adjust the volume. Was wondering how to do that since I thought that the volume could have been right down and thus not hearing anything. I have tried the earphone but not while driving but will try that tomorrow to see if it works until I get a cradle.

 

Found that the hints for a cache are on a different screen to the cache details which is logical really as there appears not to be an encrypt/decrypt option and keeping the hint separate it does not spoil it for those who do not want to see it (at least initially).

 

Have been out and about today and have done a series of 7 caches in woodland in the Forest of Dean near the village of Sling. The GPS worked absolutely brilliantly under the tree cover. I had my 10 year old Etrex Vista running at the same time and this kept losing the satellites and was not very accurate in some areas whereas the Montana never missed a beat. Am really pleased with it but am still getting to grips with all of the options.

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Thanks for that Madproforg. I finally found a manual on the Garmin site and found that you either have to have it on the cradle (which I have not yet got) or plugged in earphones to adjust the volume. Was wondering how to do that since I thought that the volume could have been right down and thus not hearing anything. I have tried the earphone but not while driving but will try that tomorrow to see if it works until I get a cradle.

 

Found that the hints for a cache are on a different screen to the cache details which is logical really as there appears not to be an encrypt/decrypt option and keeping the hint separate it does not spoil it for those who do not want to see it (at least initially).

 

Have been out and about today and have done a series of 7 caches in woodland in the Forest of Dean near the village of Sling. The GPS worked absolutely brilliantly under the tree cover. I had my 10 year old Etrex Vista running at the same time and this kept losing the satellites and was not very accurate in some areas whereas the Montana never missed a beat. Am really pleased with it but am still getting to grips with all of the options.

 

You should also find the manual on the actual Montana under the 'Documents' folder. I haven't been able to find a car mount that I can order so far, but if you find one anywhere let me know. To get around it I use one of these. Small, compact, and loud enough for the bloke to tell me where I'm going. I have mine set on 'James'. He seems very calm! :) Whilst fiddling with the settings the other day I found under the 'Routing' settings that you can change the sat nav route calculations from "Time" to "Distance". It was sending me on longer routes to caches simply because the longer distance was 60mph whereas the shorter distance was 30mph so therefore it thought it was the longer route.

 

Garmin seem to be working hard on firmware updates. They're up to update v2.8 now. Mine arrived a few weeks ago with v2.6. It seems sometimes that the firmware updates can break more things than they fix, however it's possible to roll back to previous updates. If you get in that situation, drop me an email and I'll tell you how to do it - it's very simple. My Montana seems to routinely crash 2 times each day I take it caching (There have been 3 full days so far) That doesn't bother me too much though as it's happy as soon as I turn it back on. Can't say I've had any major problems with it yet though. For any little problems there are workarounds. It's a great bit of kit! I'll agree with you about still getting to grips with the extra options. There are A LOT of options! Have you looked at the 'Shortcuts' yet? They look like a great idea. Will just take a bit of fiddling to get the ones that I want.

 

By the way - Did you notice in the manual the mention of "Adventures"? Sounds a bit like a 'to do list' of caches/waypoints. It's not currently available on our Montanas, but I emailed Garmin and they got back to me saying that they are still working on them and will release that feature in an update soon. Sounds good!

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I've got the sound working now. I plugged in some earphones, switched them on, hit the on button on the Montana (when its already on) and then was able to take off the mute and set the volume and went into automotive mode, chose a local destination and hey presto a voice came into my head.

 

Next question is how to delete caches. I note that caches appear as waypoints as well as caches. I can delete either one waypoint or all of them but cannot see a menu to delete caches. I tried turning the unit off and back on again after deleting all waypoints but the caches are still there. The only way I could delete them was to plug the Montana into my puter, chose 'my computer', go to the appropriate drive (G in my case) and use file manager to delete the GPX files. That did it. There must be an easier way.

 

Thanks to all re the various bits of kit to get a voice out of it. I haven't tried shortcuts yet but will soon. I am very pleased with the Montana - amazed at its performance yesterday under the tree canopy here in the Forest of Dean and there is still full leaf cover.

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The only cradle or mount for the Montana that I could find on the net in the UK is from www.lovingoutdoors.co.uk. With suction cup for windscreen fixing - £52.99 or with a non slip pad for dashboard mounting - £66.99. A cradle is not a high priority for me at the moment but I might opt for that little fella, the X-MI, you mentioned, Cassandy.

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Next question is how to delete caches. I note that caches appear as waypoints as well as caches. I can delete either one waypoint or all of them but cannot see a menu to delete caches. I tried turning the unit off and back on again after deleting all waypoints but the caches are still there. The only way I could delete them was to plug the Montana into my puter, chose 'my computer', go to the appropriate drive (G in my case) and use file manager to delete the GPX files. That did it. There must be an easier way.

 

It's not just a Montana thing. You can't delete caches from Garmin GPS whilst out in the field. I suppose the best thing to suggest is just to mark them as 'found' to hide them? The way to do it is just what you said about plugging it into your computer. I've never really had a reason to delete caches in the field. The more the better! 12,000 with the Montana in fact! :laughing:

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The only cradle or mount for the Montana that I could find on the net in the UK is from www.lovingoutdoors.co.uk. With suction cup for windscreen fixing - £52.99 or with a non slip pad for dashboard mounting - £66.99. A cradle is not a high priority for me at the moment but I might opt for that little fella, the X-MI, you mentioned, Cassandy.

 

Well spotted! Last time I saw that one it was out of stock. £53 for a mount though is crazy money considering all sat nav's come with them for free. I'll stick with my universal mount and X-MI for now and cross my fingers that they come down in price.

 

BTW: I've heard word that the v2.8 firmware update is brilliant and has made the Montana work a lot smoother. I'm yet to update.

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The only cradle or mount for the Montana that I could find on the net in the UK is from www.lovingoutdoors.co.uk. With suction cup for windscreen fixing - £52.99 or with a non slip pad for dashboard mounting - £66.99. A cradle is not a high priority for me at the moment but I might opt for that little fella, the X-MI, you mentioned, Cassandy.

 

Well spotted! Last time I saw that one it was out of stock. £53 for a mount though is crazy money considering all sat nav's come with them for free. I'll stick with my universal mount and X-MI for now and cross my fingers that they come down in price.

 

BTW: I've heard word that the v2.8 firmware update is brilliant and has made the Montana work a lot smoother. I'm yet to update.

 

Yes, that is crazy money. I won't be buying one for a while. The Montana sits snugly in the sweet tray in my Nissan and the X_MI will sit behind it. Job done.

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