GARMIN 010-00621-31 Nuvi 260 Travel Assistant

This GPS is perfect for my needs. It is easy to navigate even if you are not very electronic savvy. I would recommend it.

This has got to be the best device that I have ever purchased.....I travel extensively and I never leave without my friend GARMIN......Once you purchase one you will understand.....Nothing is worse than being in another State in a strange City and have no CLUE as to how to get to your destination.....I have never been lost since I got this unit....Also you do not have to worry about all of those pesky paper maps.....

You will be totally satisfied with this purchase.

Bernard

I find this product to be incredibly easy to use. Unlike my old tom-tom it has excellent satellite reception and takes me to my destinations accurately. I especially like the feature that tells the user which side of the street the destination will be on. Overall I would say this is an excellent GPS for the price and I highly recommend it!

I love this product. It give me streets names and exact times for arrival. Very very nice!!

I was so impressed with it that I bought one for my sisters birthday. She loves it too.

Well since it was for my wife it had to be easy to use or I'd get complaints. The menus system never leaves you uncertain of where to go next...no getting lost on the screens. Almost bot a TomTom but didn't think the menu was quite as good while trying it in stores. I could be wrong. The audio is plenty loud and usually clear. I only tried one voice. Maybe there are more? Found it does two thing well. Navigates to locations AND if you just display the map without inputing where to go...it provides a fantastic situational awareness of where you are, showing the upcoming streets, side streets etc. While actually navigating, if you miss a turn or opt for a different way, it simply recalculates the remaining trip. Takes about 5 seconds. Never suggested a u turn. At first start up it took maybe 5 minutes to find itself. Every other time it locks on in just seconds. Keyboard is not qwery due to the size. 4.5 inch model has the optional keyboard. That's my only not complaint but a request to Garmin...even if the keyboard had to be smaller to fit the 3.5 in screen. Letters displayed as abcdefg are harder to find than a typewriter type display. If it is plugged into the car and you pull the power or turn off the car it will auto shut off when it detects the power loss. It gives you a choice to allow the shut down or overide and continue ON using battery power. A lot of write ups said the 260 didn't have this feature but mine does. Bought it from Amazon Oct 2008. I paid $200. The best price anywhere Best Buy wanted [...] with a rebate. As everybody says, units that anounce the street names is the only way to go. You might not even look at the unit, just listen. Wife wouldn't take the 5 minutes to learn the unit. After two weeks finaly did. Now loves it.

My Garmin Nüvi 260 was a great investment! Its preloaded maps, voice prompts, and rechargeable and long-life battery are just a few of its characteristics which every driver needs. If you run into traffic or a closed road, its detour option comes in extremely helpful. The Nüvi 260 also gives users the option of various routes. Because time is an issue for many people, users may chose to take the quickest route. However, others may opt to take the route with the shortest distance, which may end up taking a little longer but helps to conserves gas.

Its turn-by-turn voice prompts and street names are so helpful. Many GPS devices simply highlight the directions on the screen. However, with the Nüvi 260 users can keep their eyes on the road as it verbally relays directions. This is not only a convenience for the driver, but is also beneficial in preventing vehicle accidents.

The Garmin Nüvi 260 includes a rechargeable, long-life battery. It comes with a power cable that plugs into the smoke thing.

Also on the list of pros, is the device's ability to save locations as favorites. When the driver travels somewhere often, but maybe not often enough to remember exactly how to get there each time option keeps the user from reentering the location each time. Its ability to save a home location is also helpful. Wherever you are, just touch on home and it will get you there without having to enter the address or find it in your list of favorites.

Although I have not had the need to use it, this Garmin also has a SD card slot. This allows users to upload pictures for viewing or a slide show.

These are just some of my favorite characteristics offered by the Garmin Nüvi 260. I have never had any complaints with the device and recommend it to anyone looking for a GPS device.

We just finished a 5 day driving trip (using side roads and the scenic/long route) from L.A. to S.F. and back using the Garmin, and it was great. My wife also uses it for work. Overall, great unit, very easy to use, nice features, I'll never use a paper map again. Good audio clarity, nice flexibility when you upgrade the firmware online for additional voices, good direction timing. It was really great to be able to find restaurants, gas, landmarks, etc. on the fly, and it also has a pedestrian mode. It also is very flexible if you ignore the instructions about suggesting some pretty good alternate driving instructions on the fly. Lots of nice stats available too, and it's very easy to use, both my wife and I can use it with ease now.

Cons: Weak signal, sometimes it takes a few minutes when you start it up to locate the satellites, and won't work at all inside my apartment, while a cheaper competitor will. Also, some of the directions try too much to optimize, and will take you off of what is in fact the fastest route, like a small stretch of a city street between a bend in the highway, taking you off, then on again, when clearly you should have just been kept on the freeway. Once again, a cheaper competitor's unit seems to work better on this (whichever one Costco sells regularly). If they can fix this, the unit would be perfect, but meanwhile, you end up having to second-guess the instructions a lot and know where it is you want to go and how.

Have had a chance to use this GPS on several trips now. Very happy with it. Currently using suction cup but may try some sort of air vent clip. Small size makes it easy to carry in pocket. Some small drawbacks: sometimes "Mother" seems to wait until the last second to give directions. I kinda miss the spoken 'next turn' directions as reading that information from the green band at the top of the screen can be difficult, in bright sun especially. The POI feature is very useful but still misses many targets (ie enter the name of a chain restaurant and it finds four of them 60 miles away but not the one in your town...). Still, we're glad we bought it and would highly recommend it.

I just received the Garmin 260 for my birthday. I researched all the brands to death (especially Tom Tom and Garmin) before coming to my decision on what I wanted.
Here are my reasons for choosing Garmin over TomTom.
1. From everything I have researched, Garmins U.S. maps are much better than TomTom's. Since I don't travel in Europe, Garmin seemed to suit me better.
2. The Garmin, in my opinion, is much more "user friendly" out of the box.
3. In using the Garmin, the satellite aquisition is very good.
4. There are not a lot of extra fancy items to have to filter through.
Just get me to where I need to go the best possible way. Garmin does that.

Also, for anyone who is trying to decide between saving a few bucks and just having the voice say "turn right in 400 feet" or paying a little more and having the text-to-speech say "turn right in 400 feet on oak street. PAY THE EXTRA COUPLE OF BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are driving in a city where the streets are right on top of one another, turning right in 400 feet (or even when right when the voice tells you to turn) may only narrow it down to 2 or 3 streets.
You really should have the street names given to you (text-to speech). It helps!!

Another thing. I have read reviews from people saying that they knew how to get to a certain place and the GPS didn't take them on the most direct or quickest route. A gps is NOT supposed to be used to get you to where you already know. Of course you will know little side roads that might be shortcuts. A gps is to be used to get you to where you DON'T know any route to where you are heading. It works well when you use it the right way and will definitely get you to where you need to be.

One of the best purchases I ever made. Don't go without it. Adds more excitement to your trips.

After reading many reviews about this item, most of them at Amazon, I purchased this for my son who is on the road everyday and he just raved about how easy it was to set up and use - until he did I was holding my breath because so many GPS devices are not designed for the non-geek. Documentation that came with it was understandable and their website is very useful too. Exceptionally pleased with it and it is still working without a glitch.

I like the portability of this unit. I do not leave it attached to the windshield so that it will not be in sight. It is very easy to use. There is nothing complicated to learn to set it up and is easy to navigate.

I've had the garmin for almost a year. The garmin is great. I've used it in the U.S. and Canada. Works pretty much perfect. The only time I've had a problem was where there are multiple roads running over top of each other in big cities. It would loose track of which one we were on. You need to stay ahead of the directions in these cases. The multiple destination feature is great. You can map out final destination and pick places along the way to stop so you don't have to reset final destination when looking for places to eat on way. I also like been able to turn highways off in big cities when traffic is bad. Helps avoid Interstate setting during construction. I would highly recommend this product.

The Garmin 260 is a useful feature-rich GPS device without all those marginally useful features that do little more than jack-up the price.

I have a friend who has a more expensive Garmin and I was impressed with what I saw while riding around with him in his vehicles. GPS technology has really come of age over the last decade since I last owned a GPS device.

This unit locks on to the the requisite number of satellites in short order and the maps are quite accurate. One drawback is that sometimes the unit will direct you in some weird routes, but on the whole it will get you where you need to go when you don't have a clue yourself. The main thing to remember is that you can't disconnect your brain when using it.

Even when I'm just driving around town going places I'm familiar with, I like to have the unit on, because it tells me exactly where I am and lists the cross streets as I approach them. Sometimes when I'm lost in my own thoughts, it's nice to just look at the device to determine exactly where I am on my route.

The unit provides a wealth of information at a glance, including direction, speed, maximum speed, elapsed time (moving and not moving), estimated time of arrival, miles traveled, miles to go, coordinates, and elevation. Of course, the turn-by-turn directions and the text-to-speech features are what this device and others like it are really known for.

The points of interest feature is very useful I have found, not only while I'm driving, but for planning my errands. It's like having a compact yellow pages with you. Of course, it's not comprehensive, but it is a good, quick resource.

I bought this unit after spending hours on Amazon researching the various models. I bought my unit at WalMart just as I was leaving for a long trip during which I was going to traverse Dallas/Fort Worth, which is one of the most challenging drives I've ever experienced. Even though I was skeptical of the route offered by the device, it got me through the Dallas/Fort Worth maze of freeways better than I have ever done it before. That alone made the unit worth the price.

The Garmin 260 wasn't the exact unit I wanted, but it was the closest that WalMart had, so I went with it. I could have saved a significant amount if I had planned my trip a little better and purchased my unit from Amazon in advance, but as I said, I feel I got my money's worth.

I had wanted to get one of the wide units, but now that I have this one and realize that it is plenty legible and easily fits into the front pocket of my jeans, I'm more than pleased with it.

I felt that the unit should have come with a USB connector, since in order to upgrade the unit and even to register the device, it must be connected to a computer.

The instruction manual is the very model of minimalism, but being a gadget freak, I enjoyed teaching myself how to navigate the software. Regardless, it is true that you can get this thing mounted and plugged in in short order and be on your way, even if you are only marginally competent in its use.

I don't think that an AC adapter is necessary, although I might buy one later. It runs fine plugged into one of the DC outlets in the car and it seems to me that it charged even while I was using it. During my trip, power was never an issue. I have a battery jumper that I plug the unit into at home, so I don't have to plug in while driving around town.

I think that the Garmin 260 is a fine instrument for use while traveling or just puttering around town. It has some quirks, but a sentient driver should have no problem dealing with them. The 260 has just the features I like, without a bunch that I'd never use.

The 2009 map upgrade was free of charge, by the way.

It's a keeper, for sure.

I've wanted a GPS for sometime, and was surprised by my wife for our anniversary with the nuvi 260. My requirements for a GPS were pretty minimal, but I'm glad my wife bought this one.

Pros:

- It does actually have the voice that indicates when and where to turn. Very handy versus having to look at the screen

- Nice and portable, I love being able to bring it with me in different cars. It was fun, we did take it on a train ride, and it even was able to track us on the railroad.

- Fairly decent maps - I've had very few issues locating a place. There were a few instances, but I'll go into those later.

- Menu system works well - Everything is pretty straightforward. It isn't difficult even to type in a specific address. The GPS usually picks it up quite quickly, and provides you with the various options it could be for your selection.

- Remembers recent locations/items

- Does have an expansion slot to view photos, etc. Not a big deal for me, but is a nice advantage

- If you take a wrong turn, etc. it picks right up and tells you where to go to compensate.

Cons:

- It can take FOREVER sometimes to acquire the satellite signals. Sometimes I type in an address, and I could be halfway to the location before it picks up the signal. This is very frustrating, especially when the destination is one that I'm not at all sure where it is. For those destinations that I know the general area, it's not too bad.

- I realize the maps are outdated (although the copyright for the software is 2008 on the GPS), but some of the restaurant locations I've tried going to were completely wrong. For my anniversary, for instance, we were trying to find the local Dairy Queen. It also listed a separate restaurant option called Dairy Keen. Turns out, there has never been a Dairy Queen in the city. Not sure how the GPS had that. Incidents like this have happened on several occasions.

In the end, I'm still very satisfied with the unit. I'm glad I have it, and really have no reason to look at getting another. It does all I've ever needed in a GPS.

This is my first GPS unit and it has been very simple to use. It has been very accurate in most cases. I tried a few known tricky routes that it did not know what to do. So I know to be a bit prepared for an occasional mis direction. But I am excited at the ability to take new and better routes that it suggests. It is also quick to re route a destination if I turn at an unexpected place.

After doing some research I decided to purchase the Garmin Nuvi 260. It quickly became named Shirley. Maps are up to date. Speaking voice good on pronunciation. Quickly recalculates if you don't like the route it sends you on. Easy to program and well worth the price. Excellent Amazon service.

I recommend this model because it gives you the turn by turn announcing the street or road names. vs "Turn Left in 300 ft." Also you need not pay the extra for a wide screen, I found myself not looking at the screen since it was like having someone next to you in the giving you exact directions. You keep your eyes on the road and watching for the streets or roads it announces. It calcualtes your time of arrival and it was accurate within one minute on my last trip.
Why buy the extras of MP3 and Bluetooth when you may never use them.
Put away your maps and pick one of these up, you won't regret it. Oh by the way...Amazon had the best price by far...
JB

The Garmin Nuvi 260 was exactly what I wanted, and I am pleased with the purchase experience from Amazon.com.
The price was the lowest I could find and month later it still is!

The text to speech is a great safety feature along with all the fully loaded addresses and mapping that come with the GPS unit.

I purchase the gps a few weeks ago, and i use it everywhere even places i know how to get to. It's great and i love it. Recommend this product.

I'm not completely satisfied with this product. The directions are delayed up to a half mile. It recalculates unnecessarily and is almost useless when it does this. Overall, I love garmins but this model is not good!

This is my second GPS unit - the first being a different model Garmin that I use for geocaching - and I am impressed. My wife insisted that I buy a navigator that gives spoken directions for a recent out-of-town trip I was making by myself, because she was scared that I, in my ever advancing years, would take too long looking at a map, not enough time looking ahead, and plow into somebody from behind. She has some historical justification for this. So we bought the least expensive Garmin we could find that featured audible directions.

The unit performed very well. I found the voice to be pretty easy to understand (although at top volume level, the unit feeds more signal into the speaker than it can handle, so you get clipping, which makes it a bit harder to understand. Solution - turn down a the volume a little - it's still plenty loud). The unit is also intuitive to learn to use for basic functions. And basic functions are about all I use it for. It seems to be capable of many more things than the absolutely execrable user's manual informs you of. Or at least, a look at the Q & A in the tech support section of Garmin website describes capabilities not even hinted at in the manual, not even remotely.

The unit is not perfect. It mispronounces some street names, which is no surprise, and perfectly tolerable, especially with the redundancy of information on when to make a turn (it tells you what street to turn on, and how far away it is; either piece of information would be sufficient. So you get a belt and suspenders). I also wonder occasionally, when on familiar turf, at the routing it chooses. It has directed me to routes that I know to be longer than necessary. But when you are on unfamiliar territory, it'll get you there. I also find the feature that tells you about what time you should arrive at your destination to be very helpful. It's pretty accurate, too.

I recommend using the unit on familiar ground for a while before trusting it for navigating your way around someplace new to you This helps you get used to how it expresses itself in certain situations. For example, you will learn how to tell the difference between an upcoming turn with a significant distance before the following turn, and a turn with another one right after it.

The Nuvi 260 did exactly what I expected it to at a price that I found to be very reasonable. What could be better?

After seeing a friend's GPS, I knew I had to have one. After much research and review reading, I decided on the Garmin nuvi 260, and I'm glad I did. I got it last month, and have taken 2 road trips with it, and it performed (almost) flawlessly. There were a few times when I KNEW a shortcut, and it took me a different way, but it was very quick to recalculate the route based on my "wrong" turn. Since it is illegal in Calif to mount it from your windshield, and I don't like the dashboard mount, I just keep it on the center console. It calls out the street names, so I don't have to look at it anyway. I also love all the points of interest. We needed to find a mattress store (of all things) on one of our recent trips, and it listed about a dozen in the area of the motel where we stayed.
All in all, a great little unit for a great price on Amazon.

If you want to go some place but you don't know how to get there this is the one for you this will tell you text-to speech. Instead of telling you turn right at 15 feet will say turn right on Alamo street. This let you keep the eyes on the road

This is by far the best GPS I ever had! Besides the text to speech function, which is great, it works flawlessly.
Doesn't have any problem locking on to a signal, as a matter of fact it took a few seconds, it has SO many points of interest, dinning, recreation, shopping, travel, just to name a few, this puts my previous GPS to shame.
For $199 you can't go wrong with the Garmin Nuvi 260. I didn't have any problems with the suction cup not sticking to the windshield, like other reviewers, and it doesn't leave a circle either on the windshield.
It also comes with a dash mount which I think I will use so my vision is 100% clear, sometimes having a device on your windshield can obstruct your view slightly.

The one and only negative thing I will say about this GPS is it doesn't come with a home charger, you must buy that separately, but it does come with a car adapter, but who wants to charge it in their car.
But since this only costs $199, I'm not complaining.

My first GPS, purchased for a 2-week vacation trip to an unfamiliar area. Found this to be extremely helpful, interface in general well developed and easy to use, 3 1/2 inch display was plenty, though if the wider display provides some of the additional controls discussed below, would be better. Plenty large map display for use, easy to read most of the time, clear voice instructions.

Greatest aid - instructions like "in one half mile take exit 130, on left, to U.S. route 28, then turn right." Giving detailed instructions for how to get through complex unfamiliar interchanges avoids lots of u-turns and 10-to-30-minute delays doubling back to get in the right place, and provides instant notice that you've taken the wrong turn if you do happen to.

Very useful to have the big database of points of interest - could find an ATM or place to eat, buy groceries easily near current location or destination.

I recommend the friction mount Garmin Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for Nüvi Series and StreetPilot C5XX Series GPS Navigators (C530, C550 and C580). This mount worked very well, easiest way to remove the unit and mount when you want to.

Recommended, in spite of the shortcomings listed below.

Missing:
(1) Can't program multiple waypoints for trips where you're visiting lots of places not in a quickest route to the end point, so doesn't estimate trip time accurately until the last waypoint is entered, 3/4 of the way through the trip. Workaround is to select each new waypoint one a time after you have reached the last one. This is easy if you've already set up the points in your favorites, BUT not having your travel time estimate right is a pain.
(2) Takes 5 clicks to mute the voice and get back to the map - needs a mute toggle for when you are off the route it wants you to take and you know and intend it.
(3) Some addresses aren't placed right, such as when a highway is also a named road and then splits off from the named road - addresses on the named road were bunched up at the join point.
(4) Need a zoom to trip, zoom to destination.
(5) Can't seem to understand addresses unless it's in an incorporated city - have to enter city name first. Had lots of trouble trying to enter addresses, had to go to a map to find the location then enter it as a location rather than by address.
(6) I can't find a way to exclude a link from a route or the data base. Can exclude all ferries and toll roads for example, but not specific ones, so have to get around this by programming a way point, but that's limited as discussed above.
(7) Search ignores spaces in its database, so makes some things hard to find (search for "REI," for example, turned up things that had a word ending in "RE" and the next word started with "I")

This is a cool gadget. Shows upcomming side streets as you hit them. Screen turns black when it gets dark to show night navigation. How cool is that. It is off with directions though. You'll get there but not always the most direct route. It did have me turning onto a one way street.....from the wrong end. The trip I took today, I knew where I was going but had it map it for fun. It send me a route that would have traken me 20 mins longer and kept redirecting me back to that route when I turned where I was supposed to, untill I passed the last side street I could hit to go the way it wanted me to. Then it rediredted me the way I intened..except for the wrong way on the one way street (a short street, cut off from 2 main rds.) So a few glitches but I like it.

Many times when I miss my turn, Garmin is very slow in telling which is the next turn to take. Yesterday, there was a u-turn i had to make but the system didn't tell me whether the u-turn was on the left or right which made it a lot more difficult for me to get to my destination without making the drivers behind me exasperated.

This Garmin Nuvi is a great little unit. Here are my pluses and minuses:

+ size
+ battery life (you don't have to have it plugged in all the time!)
+ intuitive interface (you won't get lost in the menus)
+ bright, clear, display
+ good "text to speech" (calling of street names)

- no ability to specify a route or have more than one way-point (but at this price, you've got to give up something!)
- dimming is based on time of day, not ambient light - so for example it doesn't dim in a tunnel
- no "TURN NOW" ding like the Magellan

All in all, I just love this unit and don't think you can get a better, easier-to-use unit for the money. I highly recommend it.

We did our research and visited the local electronis stores. We were looking at the Garmin 200 but were unsure about the 3.5 or 4.3 screen. With a satellite radio already on the windshield we didn't want to clutter the window more than we needed to. The sales associate recommended the 3.5 Gramin 260 for 2 reasons. If we "upgraded" to a unit that announced the street names and turns, we could select the smaller screen as we would be listening more than watching the screen. He was so right ! This is a great unit for the price. We ordered this on a Sunday, selectd free shipping, and we had this in our hands on Wednesday. Be sure to register the unit and get the upgrades to the software. Great price, great delivery, and a GREAT UNIT. We will also use this for geocaching to get to those hard to find locations. Thank you Amazon.

This is a great GPS. Sometimes the GPS routing will tend to route you on more rural routes, but I find that the displayed arrival time is somewhat accurate.

The points of interest database would be better with more locations. However, it's pretty good, and you can search for places along your current route (such as gas stations, food, etc.).

My main gripe with this product is that the unit will NOT charge unless it is turned off. If you plug it in while it's on, it will simply run off the electrical power from the cord, and not charge the battery. This can be bad if you need to unplug it in your car to charge your iPod.

Most reviews have already covered the finer points of the Nuvi 260. I will add that Amazon service was great (as usual) and that the 2 units I received already had the latest map (2009 version) installed.

This unit fits my needs exceptionally well. Highly recommended if you want a good nav unit and do not need the "non-nav" features such as bluetooth and MP3.

I like everything about the Garmin Nuvi 260 except the voice quality. I also have a Tom Tom, and it's a very basic one, but the voice quality is consistently very clear and better than the Garmin.

Bought this item as a gift and was pleased with the ease of use right out of the box. Nothing to do but plug in and use.

Excellent directions. Audio street names are very important. To both myself and my grandchildren. I have purchesed 3 Garmins since December '07.

we had fun using the garmen. we had more accessw to places we have not sen before. the fredom this product gave us is unmatched. we love this "other women" in our life. we would not leave home without it.

Love my Nuvi! After doing extensive research, I ended up purchasing this GPS. And I'm glad I did. I would definately recommend getting a GPS with Text-to-Speech feature like this one. Having the streets and highways spoken in addition to seeing it on screen gives you piece of mind when making the instructed turns, and allows you to keep your sight on the road where it belongs.

The only other decision I had to make was whether or not to get the wider screen. I opted not to, and I don't regret it - I don't see where having a little wider screen for the map is an advantage at all.

Garmin has the best reputation for their products. I'm here to agree with the concensus of consumers. VERY easy to use. Once set up (which takes reading a couple of instructions to do) it's a breeze to operate. Buy this product and you'll be very satisfied.

This item is great!!! I should have gotten one a long time ago, it would have saved hours of agrivation and frustration. It does everything it claims to do and more. I have loaned it to my son and used it on long and short trips. A great product!!!

My Garmin is what I thought it would be - great, so far at least..

It's big enough and very easy to use. It has really taken the stress out of our travels. All the features you need are there.

Not impressed with this unit. Yes, it's easy to use out of the box but most of the POI's we've looked up are incorrect, (either not there at all or the address is wrong) & it got us lost 2 out of the 3 times we've used it so far!

Let me begin by saying I get lost just driving around town!! This thing is wonderful beyond words. I tried it for the first time to drive across town to pick up an item from a residential area. I typed in the address, and I was absolutely amazed as to how it got me there with such detail! I wanted to give it a big kiss! It tells you every street, and reminds you where to turn as you approach the street. When I got close to where i was going, it told me I am approaching my destination and it will be on my left! It was right on! I'm going to use it for garage sales and actually feel excited about venturing out of town. Thank you Garmin for this wonderful little driving companion!!

This model speaks the name of the street - important if you cannot (and should not) take your eyes off of the road... It also does a wonderful job calculating average speed, time to destination, miles driven etc... Whether the others do these tasks or not, the 260 was well priced for what you get... I've borrowed the more expensive ones and I am satisfied with this model...

Outstanding! I'm glad I bought this particular version that announces the actual street names. Very intuitive and user friendly, and generally has a quick response (the exception is when carrying out an open search on a name -- this seems to take forever). It has been accurate and reliable and has a nice "via" feature. The places-to-eat list is very useful.

I was hoping to be able download maps of Europe, but the instructions and information for updates are very poor (nothing in the instruction manual and the website puts you in a closed loop).

The heavy stand is a must and well worth the extra few bucks -- much better than those horrible suction cups.

This is a wonder unit. It's compact, but the screen can easily be read while driving. The sound is loud enough to beat any road or wind noise. The directions are precise. The user interface is easy to navigate. It is cool that i gives you an estimated time of arrival. I have had the unit for about a month and love it. Two small things held it back from being a 5-star product. First, the address book is dated. Several times if I asked it to find a place in it's 'favorites' the place would no longer be in business. It sucks that they charge for the updates. But since most places I have an address for, this isn't that big of a deal. The other issue is that if you start from a parking lot, the orientation of the map before you start can be a little confusing. That said, I'd gladly recommend this gps unit.

We have had a GPS before and wanted to up grade. This one is lager yet thin, very easy to see when you are driving. We also like the fact then when you have to make a turn it calls out the street name. Over all very happy with this product for the price we paid.

We traveled from Michigan to Colorado using our GPS. We were taken to a dead end road in Des Moines.We were able to navigate most places without problems. Sometimes it would call a road by street name and we were expecting a road number. Voice can be annoying at times(but can be muted) especially when you are just getting gas and it wants you to pull a u-turn because you are not on the prescribed route. The best thing was that as the usual map reader,when we were lost the GPS was blamed instead of me!

Purchased this as a gift for my son. He said it is as good as all the high priced ones. Just plug it in and go.

This Nuvi solved a big problem for me: reading maps while traveling. I got a chance to relax and enjoy the drive, knowing the Nuvi would get me there.
It had one glitch during a 1,400 miles trip. Mysteriously, while I was on a major freeway, it said it was recalculating and told me to make a[non-exsistent] left turn. In about 3-4 minutes it suddenly showed the car icon right back on the freeway. It did so well for me that this one glitch was not a big deal.

One thing I am noticing is that the voice is not as loud as it was. I didn't adjust it to do that and wonder if anyone else has had that happen.

Two things I like are being able to get off the freeway, go into a town for food and not worry about the turns to get back on the freeway, and the other is being able to find out ahead of time when a turn is coming up and which lane I should be in.