[AlanHo]

Anyone still using a Garmin sat nav and who wants an easily removable mount – or as in my case, needs to use the Garmin in hire cars on holiday – should consider the Garmin Portable Friction Mount.

During our recent holiday we hired a Ford Focus Estate – but the top of the dash was sculptured and lacked a flat area near enough to the driver to use a flat pad mount. As you can see from the photos below the Garmin mount has a lead core and can be easily moulded to surfaces – in the case of the Focus – a sculptured groove. Upon parking the car I used to lift it off the dash and tuck it out of sight under the front of the car seat.

One niggle with the Focus was that the cigar lighter socket was permanently powered rather than connected to the ignition circuit. So I unplugged the Garmin each time.

There was a Ford sat nav in the head unit – but it was a bit of a game entering destinations and the maps were almost 5 years out of date - so I didn’t use it much. The Garmin maps were spot on.








Garmin Automotive Portable Friction Mount: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

[CraigB]

Seems like a huge thing to lug around on travels what about one of the reusable gel mounts Spigen Car Mount Stealth SGP11359

For my own travel set up I use a magnetic vent mount as I get complete world maps on my iPhone via TomTom GO Spigen Magnetic Air Vent Mount SGP11583

[Dazzler]

  I use one of those magnetic mounts with my Garmin when I travel. Very compact. 

Plus mine was only something like  $5 from ebay and works perfectly!

[AlanHo]

I have tried several mounts over the years, including Gel, bean bag and flat rubber pads with a central hard disc for a sucker mount etc - but none have proved to be as steady, vibration free, non-slip and easy to deploy as the Garmin one. It folds almost flat and sits in the bottom of my suitcase without a problem. Vent mounts are not practical because some hire car vents will not accept them, and if the do, the heavy Garmin wobbles. The vents on my Niro will not accept a vent mount - and if they did, they would be in the wrong location.

If you guys are happy with your mounts - so be it - it's horses for courses. Mine's a winner.