Garmin recalls 1.25 million Nuvi GPS units because of battery trouble

Garmin, an electronics manufacturer originated from Kansas announced a 1.25 million Nuvi GPS units recall out of which 796,000 were sold in the United States.

Garmin spokesmen sais that the reason for the recall is that the affected Nuvi units use batteries, manufactured by some other company that could lead to the overheating of the device to and possibly even to catching fire. Not all the Garmin devices are affected, only the Nuvi units bearing the model numbers 200W, 250W, 260W, 7xx and 7xxT, where xx stands for two digits. Garmin has created a website to help customers can check whether their Nuvi device is subject to the recall and the American and Canadian customers can also contact Garmin on the phone for more information. If the model numbers match the customer’s Nuvi device, Garmin will replace the battery so there is no chance that it will overheat again and ship the unit back to them. Garmin’s sales have dropped in the past year mostly due to availability of the GPS applications on smartphones, but the analysts do not believe that the Garmin recall will affect in any way the company because product recalls in the consumer electronic area are not unusual, especially the ones involving battery problems.

One of the Garmin units, Garmin AT, which is a provider of satellite navigation, plans to open a new technical support center in Salem, Oregon. It will add to Garmin’s existing technical support centers and will employ about 200 people. Gloria Sukraw, Garmin AT’s General Manager, says that the purpose of the center is to help the company interact with our customers who need to resolve technical issues or have questions about the Garmin products. One strong point of the new technical center is that it will stay open two hours longer because it is located in the Pacific Time Zone. The construction will be completed in January and will be less than three miles away from the current Oregon facility located at the Salem Municipal Airport. They are already searching for qualified applicants with technical expertise who want to work for them and the city of Salem granted tax incentives and workforce training to help them accomplish their plan. Garmin AT currently employs about 230 people and is focused on the design, manufacturing and support of communication and navigation products for general aviation customers. The new technical support center is crested with the purpose of helping customers who have doubts regarding Garmin’s products.