Garmin Fishfinder

[jacobvz]

Hi All,

I have bene looking at the Garmin 140 as a first ever fishfinder that is reasonably priced. Anyone have any comments about this and how it relates to others in this price class? (online 130 dollars US)


Jack

[imnotafish]

pretty crappy pixelation on them. they r ok for that price tho...

[jacobvz]

Done some more research and saw a Furuno LS4100 voor 159 US w/o transducer, so add another 100 AU$ (or so for the 525ST-PWD) and 40 US$ shipping leaves me with about 320-350 AU$ and that seems according to several people to be a much better option.

Jack

[quintrex101]

dunno much about them tho on my boat i got a little lowrance x50 ds and for $ just under $300 its a good little unit

[beats]

thats not bad but don't forget if you have a warantee issue it's a drama, you have to post back & who knows how long till it returns, still ya get what ya pay for.

[jacobvz]

That is the only thing that is holding me back atm, but It is so much cheaper than in his country it feels as being robbed

Jack

[Dog Catcher]

I know it's a garmin just not sure on the model

It's tossed in the garage somewhere & if it was any good it'd be on the wittle boa.

Got a new Furuno 580 for the big boat & took it's 600L & fitted it to the wittle boat.

Honest opinion just go with the Furuno LS4100 & dont waste your time on anything else like the Lowrance, they had serious issues with some of there units & alot of peeps went without their sounders for a long time.

Duck down to Hunts @ Blakehurst they sell alot Furuno's I know this cause a friend of mine who looks after Furuno in NSW sent me there when I got my new unit.

Hunts sell volumn so their prices are good, you wont get the deals I get but worth dropping in to see the unit on simulator just ask for Mark he's up to date with the gear.

[jacobvz]

I will drop in at hunts marine and see what prices they have. I get at least a 10% discount as I have a voucher for it
If they get anywhere close to the imported price I might just be persuaded to buy it here :-)

I have been persuaded by opinions of people on this and other sites and some friends in Canada that the Furuno is definately a better option than the cheaper Garmin models.

Jack

[Dog Catcher]

If they get anywhere close to the imported price I might just be persuaded to buy it here

jacobvz not telling you where to buy but just remember this.

Tailor Marine [Furuno Aust] will not & have no reason to honour any warranties a unit purchased oversea's may carry as they did not sell it to you.

[beats]

The issue with the Lowrance units was during the take over period by a large investment company & should no longer be a problem DC.

[jacobvz]

jacobvz not telling you where to buy but just remember this.

Tailor Marine [Furuno Aust] will not & have no reason to honour any warranties a unit purchased oversea's may carry as they did not sell it to you.

I see what you are saying, but If I buy a unit here and say I move back to Europe (what moron I would be indeed) the dealers here will quite happily tell you that the warranty is international.

Now this raises a whole new question, are dealers everywhere fibbers, OR by law they are required to service the item under warranty (FURUNO picks up the service bill anyway). You may get slapped with the bill for mailing but this is how it worked in Holland and we are tight asses over there with no clue about customer support.

Jack

[jacobvz]

jacobvz not telling you where to buy but just remember this.

Tailor Marine [Furuno Aust] will not & have no reason to honour any warranties a unit purchased oversea's may carry as they did not sell it to you.

You may get a great deal from Hunts Marine, but including everything I spend 150 dollars less in the US and that is a lot of money.

Jack

[beats]

Unless stated in publications from any manufacturing company that they have a "WORLD WIDE WARANTEE" Australian importers or stockists do NOT & most WILL NOT cover your claim as you have basically done the dirty on them by purchacing O/S
That goes for anything , rods, reels, engines, electric motors, sounders etc etc....... kids toys whatever.
so be careful on your choice & check the seller covers warantees & how much it will cost you to send it bact to them to make a claim.
OR your $150 just went out the window & actually just cost you alot more !
sometimes the risk may not be worth it.

[jacobvz]

Furuno claims in their brochures 2 years international warranty so if the dealer is not willing to send to furuno australia on his own expense because he did not sell the unit, I can fully agree with that. However the importer in Australia is obliged by Furuno's own brochures to service any warranty claims. I am sure the dealer here expects their customers who take their australian bought products overseas to be serviced properly as well, based on that same 2 year international warranty.
We just get bombarded with this propaganda about warranty, but the long and short of it is that you may have to spend some time on mailing it to the importer yourself and maybe an email or two to furuno but well worth the 150 bucks I think.

I have worked in retail outlet in Holland selling top of the range outdoor gear (Northface, Mountain Hardware, Lowe Alpine etc etc) and had customers coming in with warranty claims on overseas products and the importer just serviced the warranty claims as if they were bought in Holland, however teh shop was not obliged to send the goods to the importer on their own expense but asked the cutomers to pay for that.

North face was a tricky one as the company was actually a different company for North America with a whole range of different products/qualities.


Jack

[storms72]

Jack, why not save the carry on and just e-mail furuno and ask them....An international warranty is as it states, shouldn't matter where or who you bought it from so long as the dealer is recognised by Furuno.

Alternatively you can just rely on the fact that the 4100 has been around unchanged for a few years-unlike other brands who bring out new models more often than pommies have a shower :pottytrain1: .
Furuno have a great product there and it would be fair to assume that their product would be free from fault for more years than the warranty period!

Has anyone here had any problems with a Furuno product within the warranty period?


Jason

[Dog Catcher]

jacobvz as beats said

Unless stated in publications from any manufacturing company that they have a "WORLD WIDE WARANTEE" Australian importers or stockists do NOT & most WILL NOT cover your claim as you have basically done the dirty on them by purchacing O/S


No good emailing Taylor Marine cause they wont even answer your email they are only the Australian Distributor & not Furuno.

Yes your product is covered by Furuno but it's your prob to freight it back to Japan if indeed it ever requires warantee work.

Another thing you need to bear in mind an oversea's model may not be identical to the Australian version so even years down the track if you want spares you may not be able to get them.

[storms72]

So many neg's and no positives....Jack, you can check the US v's Aus specs on the net, and I find it hard to believe if I purchased a Furuno product in another country that I would have to send it back there for warranty repair.....International warranty, wouldn't that mean the product is covered worldwide or wherever the product is sold by authorised dealers. Just had a look at the Furuno website and couldn't see anything saying you would ahve to send the item back to place of purchase also the 4100 appears to be a worldwide issue so parts shouldn't be a prob!

Just to go a little further on international warranty when working for Sony and the rare item we recieved for repair under international warranty it was up to Sony in Japan to cover all costs in relation to the parts and labor that goes into the repair of the faulty product....The repair was done by a service centre who put a claim under warranty through to SOny at North Ryde then North Ryde sent the claim onto Japan! I'm sure Furuno would have a similar process reguardless of what the local importer thought of the matter!

[jacobvz]

Ah well, I guess it's up to anyone to choose where to buy and what gambles to take. For this much difference I will most likely buy stateside. Rods and reels I'll support the local shops.

Jack

[storms72]

Good on ya mate, my digital camcorder and digital camera were both purchased overseas and saving almost 50% on the purchase price here left me with quite a few extra $$$ and warranty so far hasn't been an issue!

[Dog Catcher]

and I find it hard to believe if I purchased a Furuno product in another country that I would have to send it back there for warranty repair.....

I'll answer that with another Q ??????

If you walked into Woolworths & purchased a toaster for example
Then it broke down after shatting itself.

Would you take it back to Woolworths for warranty of would you take it to Coles because Coles is just around the corner &Wolloies is a 1/2 hr drive ???????????

What would Coles say to you if you expected them to honour warranty on a product you purchased from one of their competitors ????????

[jacobvz]

to be quite honest they will probably say "bugger off"

Now let's agree to disagree.

Jack

[beats]

Jack i'ts not about agreeing to disagree !

you asked a question about the 2 units & have had your questions answered & possible problems highlighted by members.
In the end it's you decision entirely & advise you to make that choice as long as you are happy that the warantee issue is exactly as explained.
so do what ever you want to, as long as you understand.

It's free advice that people have offered & some by experience :banghead: .
Good luck with your purchace.

[jacobvz]

Man After all this....

It suddenly hit me.

I really like the colour sounders :-)
So why spend the extra money on buying the LS4100 whenthis is still not what I want?
Why spend even more money on a colour fish finder when I do not yet know what I really want from a sounder (never used them yet)?

So I went and bought a hummingbird 525 which was fairly inexpensive and after a couple of years can be replaced by a colour one with all the bells and whistles (if need be). As I will only be fishing in fairly shallow water (port hacking mainly some botany bay) this should do me just fine for now.

Now see how long it takes to get here from the US :-)

Thanks for all your replies and comments.


Jack