Consider purchasing outdated Garmin MFD display

[pcg]

I’ve learned a lot about Garmin displays recently and thought I would share the fruits of my research. I’m dividing this into two posts – “Consider purchasing an outdated Garmin MFD display” and “Who knew Garmin MFDs displays could do this?” This is the first of the two posts…and I wrote the bulk of this in spring of 2023 and some prices have gone up, but the general idea still holds.

To start with, I was looking for a 12” Garmin display with built-in sonar support. That narrowed my search to the 8612xsv and the less expensive 12” GPSMAP 1243xsv. I eliminated the latter because it’s lower resolution than the 86xx series (xxx vs. xxx), has only one sonar port, and has no HDMI IN port (more information on why I wanted this in the other post).

Then confusion set in. I found different names, model numbers, and prices online. What I eventually learned was that there are three versions of the Garmin 8x12xsv family, that differ only by the maps that are loaded, as follows:

Garmin 8412xsv #010-02092-02 Worldwide Basemap
(current Garmin list is $4000)
Garmin 8612xsv #010-02092-51 Navionics+ maps
(current Garmin list is $4100)
Garmin 8612xsv #010-02092-03 BlueChart U.S. coastal, LakeVü HD maps
(discontinued, list was $4100, but Hodges Marine sells for $3214)

While at the Gamin booth at the 2023 Seattle boat show, I asked the reps why one wouldn’t just buy the discontinued -03 version (Hodges Marine had over 60 in stock back the), and then buy the new Navionics+ card for $149.99, and end up with the current -51 versions, saving over $700 in the process.

Their response was that there was no reason at all not to do this and, when I told them I would be using the boat in Alaska, they encouraged me to do this rather than buy the newer version, because I would end up with better maps for Alaska. According to the reps, the Bluechart g3 maps that are preloaded on the discontinued -03 model show more detail for Alaska than the newest Navionics+ maps. After installing a Navionics+ card in the discontinued model, if you want to view the preloaded Bluechart maps, just remove the card. On the other hand, according to the reps, the Bluechast g3 maps can NOT be added to the newer MFD versions. I failed to ask why this was since you can purchase Bluechart maps on the Garmin website. At any rate, adding the card to the -03, gives you a -51 for $700 less, plus you also get the more detailed maps for Alaska which you can swap out, as desired, for the newer Navionics+ maps. Note that the Bluechart g3 maps are frozen and will not be updated, but Navionics+ maps will continue to be updated, if you choose to subscribe to the updates ($100/yr).

So, if you are about to buy an 8xxx series Garmin display, I suggest you consider buying the discontinued version and save money and get better maps.

[thataway]

One comment: Garmin purchased Navionics (Oct. 27th 2017), and then made it possible to put the Navionics charts on their chart plotters. In some of the older models there was no way to put Navionics on the chart plotter.

If I read this correctly, the Garmin rep told you that the older Navionics was better detail than the newer charts Garmin was putting in the 12" current plotters.


I have used only older Garmin charts in AK, and they are more than adequate for the C Dory, especially since the first GPS I owned was on the Cal 46 I cruised AK during 4 seasons. That was only a digital readout--and SA was still on. I had used GPS on a friend's boat in Australia during Dessert Storm, when SA was turned off for a short period of time, for military use. At that time a chart plotter cost $10,000 (Trimble) and each region an a CD was $1,000.

[pcg]