If you’re after a budget-friendly, feature-packed fishfinder with GPS functionality, the Garmin Striker Vivid 4cv is a standout contender. Compact, clear and capable, this unit is well suited to small boats, kayaks, and tinnies — offering CHIRP sonar, ClearVü scanning, GPS waypoint marking and custom contour mapping, all in one rugged, easy-to-use package.
At the heart of the Vivid 4cv is its 4.3-inch QSVGA colour display, offering seven vivid colour palette options. These improve contrast and visibility, making it easier to distinguish fish, bait, and structure in varying light conditions. While the screen size is on the smaller side, it’s still effective — especially given the high resolution (272 x 480 pixels) and the sharpness of Garmin’s sonar return.
The unit comes bundled with a GT20 transducer, supporting both traditional CHIRP sonar and CHIRP ClearVü scanning sonar. Together, these deliver crisp images of what’s beneath and around your boat. CHIRP sonar separates targets effectively, while ClearVü gives detailed snapshots of structure, vegetation, or bait balls — ideal when you’re tracking snapper off a reef or chasing kingfish through midwater columns.
One of the standout features is the built-in GPS, allowing you to mark waypoints, create navigation routes, and track boat speed. For those without chartplotters or mapping software, this is a huge plus. It’s accurate, reliable, and gives you enough confidence to find your way back to that productive drift or reef spot again and again.
The Garmin Quickdraw Contours function is another win. It enables you to create detailed, one-foot contour maps of the water you’re fishing — up to 2 million acres stored internally. For lakes, harbours, and backcountry estuaries where charts are unreliable or outdated, this feature is especially useful.
Installation is straightforward with a tilt/swivel mount and multiple mounting options for the transducer, including transom and trolling motor mounts. The interface is button-operated and intuitive, and power draw is minimal (0.4A typical), so it suits smaller 12V setups often used in kayaks and small runabouts.
There are a few limitations. The unit doesn’t support external maps, and landscape view isn’t available, which some users may miss. The screen size, while clear, can feel cramped in split-screen mode. But for its price point, the Vivid 4cv offers solid value.
In summary, the Garmin Striker Vivid 4cv is a well-rounded fishfinder with excellent sonar performance and built-in GPS. It’s an ideal companion for New Zealand’s coastal and freshwater fishing scenes — whether you’re drift fishing for snapper off a tinnie or charting new ground in a backcountry lake from a kayak.
