I have finally received my replacement unit. It did not take the 10+ days to come this time, but only about 5 days.

I can now confirm that I definitely had a defective unit. This unit is more responsive and doesn't drop signal or bluetooth like the last one. I have not traveled with it for more then 30 minutes... but now when it drops, i quickly, stop gps nav and restart it and a second later I am good to go.

I am a bit disappointed in the customer service, but glad I finally got a replacement that semi works.