I've also been using an Aera 500 for a few years.
It's a really great device but a bit of time reading up on how to use it pays dividends as whilst the touch screen is fairly good and easy to use, it's not 100% intuitive. The defalt settings also are not necessarily the best ones - as I learned once when I accidentally clipped a bit of class A airspace, which it turned out wasn't automatically on the list of things it warned me about. I got told off !
It's not supposed to be an IFR device, but it also does aid situational awareness IFR, as well as it's main use VFR. The terrain map is good and intuitive, and I find using it point to point within a PLOGed route makes for really nice navigation - either as primary or secondary, with the PLOG or some other radio nav system as backup / primary.
I'm sure that if it broke I'd have a good look around at alternative devices, but right now I'm in no hurry at-all to replace it.
G