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Magellan Roadmate 1470

No Comments Written by Kate on July 3, 2009 – 11:37 am

The Magellan Roadmate 1470 has a slim design and a really easy to follow menu. The new Magellan Roadmate 1470 features the new “OneTouch favorites menu. The basic process is you turn on the Magellan 1470 and you have five options available to you: Go To, View Map, Local Options, Settings, and Favorites Menu. One thing that is bizarre about this menu is that the Favorites and the Settings options are just icons while the Go To, View Map, and Local Options are spelled out… I definitely find that confusing for the new user. Anyway, the OneTouch favorites menu is in the top right corner (the icon is a circle for some reason) and you press that, then you see your favorites menu. Magellan already puts your Home and Emergency icons in there, but the other ones you can customize. This is a nice feature for the Magellan Roadmate 1470 because if there are places you regularly go to like work, friends house, etc, you can program them in and easily set up a route to the destination no matter where you are.

One of my favorite features of the Magellan Roadmate 1470, and this is an option on other Magellan GPS models, is the AAA Tourbook. Growing up, my family always ordered the AAA city guides every time we went on vacation because they were always well done and very accurate to use to help us get around the city. If you have the Magellan Roadmate 1470, you do not need these guides because they are part of the AAA Tourbook feature. Basically when you go to a city, or even your hometown, you can look restaurants, events, hotels, and more using the AAA Tourbook feature. It will provide the AAA rating and a description for each place you look up! How easy and awesome is that! Then of course the Magellan Roadmate 1470 will lead you to the restaurant, hotel, event, etc that you pick out, easy and effortless. This is great for when you are on vacation, on a business trip, and even around town.

When you are driving around guided by the Magellan Roadmate 1470, you will always know ahead of time what lane you need to be in when making exits, getting on highways, and when you are near your destination with the Highway Lane Assist feature. This is really helpful because I hate when you are in the right lane and you see last minute you need to be in the left lane to get on the highway and there is a ton of traffic blocked up creating barrier between where you are and where you are trying to go. Then you end up trying to make a UTurn and as soon as you do, of course their is traffic you get stuck in order to reach the ramp to the highway… the Highway Lane assist feature takes away that headache and makes it easy for you to know ahead of time where you need to be to reach your destination.

Rather than reading the directions on the screen of your GPS and risk taking your eyes away from the road, the Magellan Roadmate 1470 speaks the directions to you so that you can safely drive to your destination and always know where to turn and when.

After recently going on a roadtrip and using a GPS that does NOT have this feature, I am really excited about Highway POI. When you are on the highway and want to find a bite to eat, a hotel, or a gas station, you can press the Highway POI icon and it will tell you which exits have which POIs. This is awesome! On my recent roadtrip with the GPS that does not have this feature…we were looking for a dinner spot in Indiana and we wanted something quick and healthy… so we found a POI and drove towards it… it took us OFF the highway for 15 minutes and THEN it wasn’t even there anymore! Argh! That was so annoying. I really wish I had this GPS on that trip, we would have saved a lot of time.

If you are driving around and you ever have any trouble, another great feature of the Magellan Roadmate 1470 is that if you get stuck in a bad situation on the highway… let’s say you blow a tire or run out of gas… there is an “Emergency” icon that basically gives you the “Where Am I” Magellan feature. This feature tells your exact location and gives you a member service number where you can find the nearest AAA approved service shop so that you can find help right away!

Cons of the Magellan Roadmate 1470

There is a feature you can use to find out if there is traffic on your route… but you have to pay extra for it at around $79.99… ouch. Also if you want to use the AAA Tourbook or AAA Member Roadside Assistance features, you have to be a AAA member. I don’t really see why you would buy this GPS model if you don’t have an AAA membership. This model also does not have a lot of the fancier features like bluetooth so that you can talk on your phone through it. Finally the beginning menu, like I mentioned above, is a little confusing because finding the favorites menu is not really clear because it is marked by a circle… I am not really sure how anyone would know circle means One Touch favorites when the other icons are spelled out like “View Map” with a little Map icon. But, once you understand it, I guess it is easy to remember and is only confusing in the beginning.

Pros of the Magellan Roadmate 1470

If you have a AAA membership, this GPS is a great to have on trips and even in your hometown because it gives you access to a lot of the AAA amenities including the AAA Tourbook and AAA Member Roadside Assistance. The Magellan Roadmate 1470 will also not break your bank at a starting price from Magellan of around $249.99. The OneTouch Favorites menu is also convenient because you can find your favorites so easily… when a lot of GPS models have a favorites menu but you have to go through a couple of menus to find it.

Overall there is a lot to like about the Magellan Roadmate 1470, especially if you have a AAA membership. What do you think? Leave a comment!