garmin 3

1. Posted: Jul 31 2008

   I saw an add for another brand advertised for the same price as the nuvi 200. After checking the reviews, I found the nuvi had much better comments. I bought the nuvi, and Amazon delivered in record time, as usual. I am so impressed with the product. Something that is not clear in the description is that the nuvi does have voice directions; it just doesn't announce street names. Instead of "Turn right on First Street," you get, "in .5 miles turn right." The display is clear, bright, and easily readable. I had it up and running within minutes. It only takes about one minute after having been off for a long time to resync to the satellites. If it has been off for only an hour or less, it is ready to use as soon as you turn it on. Mine shipped with the current map software, City Navigator 2009. So far, I love my Garmin :).

2. Posted: Jul 29 2008

   This is the 4th Garmin nuvi that I have purchased and the best price by far. I was the first to get one and I am sooo impressed with it. Very user friendly and very accurate. Have bought them for my sons (they were constantly borrowing mine) who can't find their way out of a paper bag and even they are able to navigate with it. I would highly recommend this product for anyone.

3. Posted: Jul 28 2008

   I purchased this item anticipating a trip into unknown areas. I loved the low price and easy use. The set up was quick and easy, and I started using it right away. My wife liked it also, so I bought a second one for her. She's not much of a techie, but still is able to use it without trouble.

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1. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   I bought my nuvi 670 before my Austria trip. One of the main reason I took this one was the built-in map of Europe. It works well in cities like Vienna as it supposed to. So it is a good product. This is my second GPS. Compared to my old Mio Digiwalk, I don't think the software of nuvi 670 is designed well. The following is a list of blunders: 1. The list of "favorites" is short and easily run-out, same as "recently found" 2. When you go to "favorites" and touch a place you stored, there is only two options: either "back" or "go". If you want to "set location" and search things arround, you have to go all the way back and start from "view map" and painstakingly drag the map to that location. This is one of the most stupid blunders. 3. While driving, my Mio always provides a sign of the next move (turn left, right, etc), and Nuvi doesn't until getting near the turing point. I would certainly like to know that earlier. 4. Garmin wasted the big screen by providing so little information on it. My Mio has a 2.7" screen and shows a lot more, such as battery meter, speed limit, distance to destination, and next turn, all missing in nuvi. For example, when I want to check battery while walking in Vienna, I had to go back to "home" screen to see it. 5. It appears that there is no place to store a list of contacts. I can put my friends info in my Mio, but not on nuvi. 6. The travel kit misses an extremely important feature: alarm clock. My Mio always reliably wakes me up when I am on trip. How can the Garmin engineers forget this one in their travel kit? 7. When I play MP3 music on my Mio, it automatically turn-off the screen to save battery and turn it on when it is needed. Whoever designed nuvi 670 MP3 player needs to be demoted for missing this simple battery saving feature. 8. It is nice to have FM transmiter. But the quality of music broadcast from nuvi is lousy. My suspision is that the transmitter is too weak. 9. The flip-up antenna is a bad feature in pedestrian mode. I like Mio that hides the antenna. Also, Mio provides a wrist band to make it easier to walk with it. However, you have to hold your nuvi with the stupid antenna sticking up while walking. To be fair, nuvi offers some better features than Mio, such as text-to-voice that tells you the street name and the building is "on right". The Euro map is important for inter-continental travelers. So I'd like to give it a four-star rating. It could be easily a 5-star if only the Garmin hired smarter software engineers. Those people wasted a fine hardware.

2. Posted: Jul 28 2008

   I have used the Nuvi 670 on one trip of about 1400 miles. The product works well. The user interface is straightforward, and the navigation aids work about as well as any of these products. I have used several, and none of them are any better than thier map database, which is usually good, but ocassionally there is a bit of a flaw - usually something benign, like indicating a turn to go straight along the same section of highway, or something like that. I found the FM transmitter used to hear the voice on your car radio to be no better than other such FM transmitters that I have used with my i-Pod ... not very good. Using the headphone jack and a jumper cable to the line in on my stereo worked very well, however, and I can use the 670's built-in MP3 player to listen to music while waiting for navigation voice prompts. I was pleased that the 670 allows setting Favorites via latitude and longitude entries, as I have had to do that a couple of times. One feature that I was not really very aware of when I bought the unit was the capability for a language translator add-on. The 670 came with a 'lite' version. After trying the lite version for a bit, I bought the full version from the Garmin web site. I look forward to using it on an upcoming trip to Europe.

3. Posted: Jul 28 2008

   great product, only freezes from time to time when cell phone is conected. other than that it's a great product. I've been able to us it as an MP3 player by conecting it through the radio transmiter. also I been able to access my phone book on my cell phone through it, as well as dialling numbers off of the navigation.

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1. ( 0 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Aug 13 2008

   this GPS is delivered with the old map program installed and it takes countless hours to download and install the new maps. After that it seems to be very user frendly.

2. Posted: Aug 12 2008

   It worked great for two weeks. I was just over the "learning curve" when the unit developed a problem. I've had to send it back to Garmin for warranty work. Everything worked fine except when you typed in a street address and hit the "Done" it would power itself off. Support techs at Garmin spent quite a long time with me on the phone trying to solve the problem but I had to settle sending the unit back for warranty repair. I think the unit is great. I especially like the MP3 playing my favorite tunes through my bike speakers (UniqueCyle). I also enjoyed downloading planned routes for our SCRC chapter rides. I liked the idea of knowing the route via the Garmin rather than relying on someone else. I can't wait to get it back. It's a great unit for the money if you don't need the Bluetooth. I would give it 5 stars except for the fact that I had to send it back for the warranty work.

3. Posted: Jun 30 2008

   Caution..., Product price is good and advertised as new, but I received a previously used Zumo missing a part. When I contacted Customer Service however, they were very cooperative and immediately shipped what appears to be a new, not previously used Zumo. Very suprised with Amazon. Thought it would be better experience as this was my first order with them. Bottomline: I should not have had to go through that hassle.

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1. Posted: Aug 2 2008

   This is the first GPS I have used, and the product lived up to the reviews. I had read that the units were being shipped with the 2009 maps installed, but this was not the case, however the update was free at the Garmin website after registering the unit. Be warned though, even with a high speed connection the update does take several hours to complete. Also, Amazon recommends a couple of products that you dont need to purchase seperatly. They recommend buying the auto charging cord, and a carrying case, both of these things came with the unit in the box.

2. Posted: Aug 2 2008

   My last GPS (Garmin street pilot) was stolen so I bought the nuvi 360. It works great. It finds satelites much quicker. I don't use the bluetooth often but that also seems to work well. I recommend this GPS.

3. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   I figured I was getting a good product, but I never expected to be so surprised at how REALLY good this one is. It's very easy to use, and the screen is plenty bright to be seen even in the sun. It's about the size of a pack of cards, making it very easy to travel with - you don't feel like you're lugging it along with you, it just tucks away. We took this on a trip from Central Illinois to Kentucky, including several stops and detours along the way. The directions were very good, and in the one instance where a road no longer went through when Garmin thought it did, the device recalculated the correct route in seconds. It was equally good when we hit a detour on the way back home. I pressed the Detour button, and immediately had a new, very efficient route that only added three minutes to the total estimated time. The Points of Interest feature works well. It helped us find several restaurants and parks that we wouldn't have known about otherwise. It obviously doesn't know about *everything*, but it is still very helpful. When searching for POI's, you can look for locations near where you are at the time, along your route, near your destination, or near a different city. The POI's are also very nicely categorized so you can quickly find exactly what you're after. You can store locations in a "Favorites" list. These and other locations (such as but not limited to the POI's) can be inserted as "waypoints" on the way to your main destination, which is a nice feature. The most helpful feature is how much time the device gives you to make your next turn. You get about a mile on the Interstate, which is generally plenty of time even in heavy traffic. Unfortunately this time is cut down when you're driving in town, and sometimes you don't get enough notice to make the turn on time. However, the device compensates for this somewhat by giving directions such as "In .3 miles turn right on Main Street, then turn left." In that case you at least know what you're going to have to do next and can be ready to do it quickly if you need to. I also like that it tells you which side of the interstate your exit will be on. It will even tell you when you need to "keep left" or "keep right," so often you don't even need to watch the highway signs. The text-to-speech feature works well and provides audible directions that are loud enough to hear easily even over an older vehicle that has a lot of road and wind noise. Accuracy on the open road is usually about 9 or 10 feet, which is shorter than most cars and therefore plenty good. The device will tell you what time you can expect to reach your destination, which is very accurate. It tallies the amount of time you've spent driving and the time you've spent stopped. It also tells your current speed, your average moving speed, and your overall average speed including time stopped. As far as the "extra" features go, the MP3 player is remarkably full-featured (browse by album, artist, etc.) and easy to use. The speaker isn't really good enough to get great sound, but it's nice if there's nothing good on the radio. The bluetooth feature is also pretty good, although not outstanding. I can hear callers well, and they can hear and understand me okay, but they do hear some background noise. (I don't know how you'd avoid that in a moving car.) There are a couple features that I'm not sure are mentioned in the owner's manual that are worth pointing out: 1.) From the menu screen, you can tap the GPS signal strength icon for a report of current positioning accuracy 2.) While traveling to a destination, you can tap the "Turn In..." icon at the lower right to have the next turn read to you, or to scroll through the rest of the directions for the trip with a map and mileage and time estimates for each step. 3.) You can get a short list of remaining turns by tapping the green bar at the top of the map that displays the current information. 4.) Tap the "Estimated Time" button in the lower left to pull up your current speed, average speed, distance driven, etc. I am highly satisfied with this unit. I can't imagine going back to traveling without it. This makes trips so easy.

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1. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   We have been very happy with our Garmin Nuvi 260W that we purchased recently. This is the first GPS system that we have purchased. I've only used one with a car rental a couple of years ago. With that one you could not program or put in any address if the car was moving. With the Nuvi, we get streets and turns announced by name which was very important to me. Can't put up with the "turn in .3 miles" prompts. So far we have located new places and businesses and doctor's offices just around our own area. It has already saved time AND gas by keeping us from getting lost. Maps are easy to see with the wider screen too. When we can travel (if gas prices get better) it will be very helpful. I would recommend this one to everyone. Mary Ann

2. Posted: Jul 30 2008

   found the garmin 260w to be all i expected it to be evens finds locations in remote areas were i didn't think it would work!can't say enough about this product other than it worked much better than expected

3. Posted: Jul 30 2008

   I used the 260W to get me from central Maryland to Nags Head NC. The unit directed me through major cities instead of around them (Washington DC, Norfolk, Richmond), but as soon as I used the beltway around that city, the unit would recalculate and find my way. The unit was very helpful to find stores in the area of my destination. For example, if I wanted a restaurant, I could easily find it in the menu system, and then select directions (Take Me There!). The unit has a battery, and I charged it before leaving on the trip. I had to plug in the car charger along the way, and left the unit on this connection for the rest of the trip to the destination. I used battery for the weekly short jaunts to ice cream, or golf, and by the end of the week, the battery was dead. When the battery dies, all previous points (including home) were lost. It's not difficult to type the information back in, but it would have been nice if the unit would retain information when the battery gets low. In other words, have the unit power off at the battery threshold necessary to be able to retain the information. I recommend Garmin GPS products from experience with competitor models. My brother has a Garmin 600 series, which is very nice. I selected this 260W model over the 600 series because of the difference in cost, and that I don't need a GPS unit to play music or store photos. I need a GPS unit to get me from point A to point B, and tell me what's around an unfamiliar town. For that purpose, this unit is perfect.

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1. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   This product is awesome! I bought this for my husband who has a blackberry. He is always getting directions from his phone, but I think it is totally unsafe to do while he is driving. I was impressed immediately. It is very accurate and gives directions with enough time to change lanes or turn. The voice is easy to hear and understand and the large screen shows enough detail that you can keep your eyes on the road and glance at it periodically. I do recommend using the car mount. I didn't the first time and I was by myself in a city that I had never been in. It was a little difficult to look at and I had to keep sliding it back and forth. It is suggested that you purchase one (along with a car charger) when you purchase the Nuvi, but they already come with them in the box so don't buy them separately. A quick tip, you have to be outside for it to locate you. I didn't realize this when I first used it and spent 20 minutes trying to tell it that I wasn't in my home city. I was in the parking garage of the airport rental lot. As soon as I pulled out of the garage and stopped it zeroed in to exactly where I was. All in all, I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

2. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   Don't leave home without it, I bought one 3 months ago for my wife and bought this one (3 months later) for me.

3. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   The product is great except for 1 thing, the bluetooth. The device connects immediately to my phone. The problem is that the device is not loud enough for me to hear. The response I get from the person I am talking too is "It sounds like you are under water". So, this device is not any better than the regular bluetooth devices for your phone. I would recommend not getting this device for the bluetooth capabilities, stick with the devices from your cell company. I use the bluetooth in the device to see who is calling and I pick up the phone to talk to the person.

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1. Posted: Aug 2 2008

   Excellent product; very simple to use; accurate as advertised. Just wish it had these two improvements: - An ability to mount to dashboards without having to use the adhesive mount. It would make it easier to see, use, and hear if it was on the dash and closer to the operator - An ability to save destinations for future use.

2. Posted: Aug 2 2008

   It would be hard to live without my Garmin...it's moved me across the country and helped me get around my new city. Highly recommended!

3. Posted: Aug 1 2008

   The Garmin Nuvi 650 is one of my greatest joys when it comes to useful gadgetry. It has taken all anxiety out of driving, especially at night. No need to ask for directions or strain one's eyes with a map. It is so easy to set up. California doesn't permit it on the windshield, so I have it right on the dash board. Installation takes two seconds. When I leave my car, it is easy to pop the Garmin into my purse. And it is so easy to program! Whether it is an address, an intersection or a store or building, it will find it for you. It is simply amazing. Best of all, it talks to you: "in 300 feet turn right on Shimel Rd." Suppose I miss the road, it patiently says, ""recalculating route," and then tells you how to proceed. It beats any backseat driver. I dislike to get lost at night, especially since road signs are hard to read (I'm 76) and so have declined many dinner parties because of the driving hazzle. NO more. Thank you, Garmin, the best gadget I ever had!! Roswitha McIntosh (author of The Madman & His Mistress--History in the making)

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