Garmin Drive Track 71 Review

The Garmin Drive Track 71 is an in-car GPS system that can also be used as a navigation system, as well as an in-car tracking system to pair with your dog tracking handheld. Garmin first introduced the ability to pair your handheld dog tracking devices with a car navigation system with their Drive Track 70 unit. They then upgraded that unit with the Drive Track 71, creating a lighter, more powerful navigation and dog tracking system. The Drive Track 71 will pair up with Alpha 200i, Alpha 100, Astro 430, and Astro 320 handhelds to provide a 7-inch display that is easier and safer to read while navigating after dogs. When you are not hunting, this unit functions as a regular Garmin GPS navigation system.

Specifications

The Garmin Drive Track 71 is 6.8 inches wide by 3.9 inches high by 0.7 inches deep, of this, 6.0 inches by 3.5 inches are the display screen (6.95 inches diagonal). The screen resolution is 1024x600 pixels, which makes seeing details on the screen easily visible. The overall weight of the unit is 8.57 ounces. The battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a battery life of up to 1 hour unplugged, although the unit would be plugged into the vehicle charger with typical use.

Compatible Devices

• Garmin Alpha 100
• Garmin Alpha 200i
• Garmin Astro 430
• Garmin Astro 320
• Garmin Astro 900
• Garmin Fenix 5 Series GPS Watches

New Features of the Drive Track 71

Touch Screen Upgrades – The Drive Track 71 now has multi-touch, allowing for pinch zoom and other functions not available on the Drive Track 70. The screen resolution was also increased to 1024x600 pixels, around a 60% increase in pixel density.

Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity – You can now update your software and maps from your vehicle wirelessly over Wi-Fi.

Live Traffic and Live Services – Live Traffic allows you to outsmart traffic jams by avoiding them altogether with time-saving alternate routes. Live Services enables features like sharing your location to other devices while travelling through a smart phone app.

Smart Watch Connectivity – When paired to a smart watch, the Drive Track 71 will now provide compass directions to a destination while outside of the vehicle as well as a compass back to your cars location when returning.

What comes in the box?

The Garmin Drive Track 71 comes with everything that you need to get navigating and tracking your dogs from your car. Included in the box is the Drive Track 71 unit which is preloaded with US TOPO maps, 1-year of BirdsEye Satellite Imagery subscription, and street maps of North America. Also in the box is a vehicle suction cup mount for mounting the Drive Track 71 to your dash or window, the vehicle charging cable, an USB cable for connecting to a computer, and a quick start manual.

Garmin Back-Up Cam Compatible:

The Drive Track 71 is compatible with both the BC30 Back-up cam and the new BC40 Back-up cam. The BC40 back-up cam is the newest wireless backup cam available from Garmin. It installs with no car modification or professional installation required, simply mounting into your license plate screws using the included bracket. Once installed, the BC40 wirelessly connects to your Drive Track 71 to provide up to 3 months of backup camera view (per battery charge). The BC30 is an earlier version of Garmin backup cameras that requires professional installation and some vehicle modifications. But once installed, will provide endless backup camera stream due to it being hardwired instead of battery-powered like the BC40. Both backup cameras wirelessly connect with your Drive Track 71, as long as the Drive Track 71 is within 26 feet of the camera.

Staff Experience:

“I have used the Drive Track 71 in my car on several long trips. The navigation features are great and the unit automatically switching to night mode as it gets dark is a great feature to not be blinded by the white screen in lower light. Pairing the Drive Track 71 up to my Alpha 100 is super easy as well, though I don’t find myself in many scenarios where I have needed to use it, but I have the peace of mind if I ever need to find my dog if they ran off with their collar on, I can do so using the Drive Track display.” - Michael Cassatt, Director of Marketing

Conclusion:

Whether you need an in car navigation system for road trips or need to track your dogs from your car, the Drive Track 71 meets those needs. Need to justify it with the wife? Let her use it during the week for standard in car navigation, you get it during hunting for tracking dogs, win/win!

Have a Drive Track 70 and wondering if it is worth upgrading to the Drive Track 71? Check out our Garmin Drive Track 70 vs Drive Track 71review.