[Rastoff]

I understand peoples reluctance to buy an iWay. There has been a lot of bad press on this site about it. I have written my share of it. But, I also understand the desire to defend it. It has many good features and is beter than other units in many ways.

I guess we could compare it to the Edsel. The Edsel was a great car in concept. It brought many new inovations (some that you use everyday) to the car industry:
# Self-Adjusting brakes (new with Edsel - still used today)
# Floating speedometer that glows when a pre-set speed limit is exceeded
# Transmission locks in park until ignition key turned (new with Edsel - still used today)
# Top portion of seats slant forward to provide shoulder support
# Triple-thermostat cooling system (head/block/radiator) during warm-up for increased fuel economy & heater performance (E-475 engine)
# Front-mounted distributor, coil, fuel pump, oil filter dipstick for easy access.
# Hood hinged in the front for safety (Although this somewhat limits access to the aforementioned distributor, etc!)
# Hood release controlled electronically, from inside the car.
# The front seats were split 60/40 for better driver comfort.

Alas, Ford's desire to push it out to the public cost them big. It was built on an assembyline that wasn't designed specifically for it and that caused many production errors. Consequently the car didn't sell well and it developed a bad reputation. After three years they discontinued production.

The iWay is similar. It's marvelously simple to use and the inclusion of a large MP3 player was pure genius in my thinking. Garmin has jumped on that bandwagon and now offers MP3 players in several models. However, Lowrance's problems with screen suppliers and QC issues has created problems for many buyers.

There are still about 6,000 Edsels on the road today. I'm sure that there were many happy Edsel owners when they were in production. I have no idea how many iWays are out there, but there are many happy owners.

I'll bet the iWay 500c will go the way of the Edsel. After three years of production marred by some production flaws, they will probably replace it with a newer model, the iWay 600c. The new model will keep the stuff that works, learn from past problems and be a better all around unit.

Don't judge Lowrance too harshly. They have been making direction finding equipment since 1959. They must be doing something right. The new satelite imagery on the iWay 600 looks fantastic. I hope it works.

 

[luckyman]

Thanks for bringing up old memories. My Dad owned an Edsel in the early 60's. I drove it with some regularity.

I think first time Edsel owners would consider your description as....................generous.

 

[JimRo]

I agree with everything you said about the Edsel. In fact, Henry Ford could have given one to every Ford employee for free and lost less money for Ford than he did trying to sell it. (Famous Business School Case).

If Henry had named it something other than the Edsel (For his dead son) that might have helped. Maybe Lowrance can take a lesson from that and name the 500C the 605F and gain some market share.

As for me, I really was going to buy one of these basically for the screen size. But after reading the comments here and a few other places (comments about it are pretty consistent) across sites. I for one don't want to be part of their development efforts. So, I am going to buy a Garmin 2820 (Pretty sure)

Thats what makes a free market economy great, lots of choices