Garmin nüvi 660 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

I have named my Brittish "pilot" Nigel Garmin. I love it. I love that it tells the name of the street along with the turning instructions. I also love the larger screen of this model. I experienced a problem downloading the 2009 map - my computer got to 99% and stopped downloading.. called and Garmin person was so great. We tried things and then he offered to mail me the disk for $10 so would be able to download without worry of internet hiccup or whatever. Then I clicked the pause button on the screen and it went to 100%... but he sent the DVD to me anyway for free! great service. highly recommend the product.

Good all around product, nice screen, relatively easy to navigate the menu. Choosen over the 260w mostly because of the bluetooth and extra accessories.

Cons: Slow to find satellite at times. Turned it on when starting the car and didn't find signal for about 2 miles in the middle of a major city that I didn't know. Does not find smaller colleges on map, had to go online to the college, find the address and plug it in manually. Also, if your looking for a place that is a Boro, you will need to know the major town it is located within.

As with all GPS's, they are great when you don't know where you are going. But, if you prefer a certain way to a known destination it tries to send you "it's" best way unless you modify how it wants you to go using Way points. Example: Went on a trip done several times a year, for the heck of it went it's way, not mine. A normal 1-1/2hr trip took 2hr because it took me through a heavily congested business district at 10am.
I am a little surprised by the limits of these GPS's, I would expect that I should be able to program it for a trip my way and save it. My kids are just starting to drive and I wanted to be able to hand it to them and say this is how I want you to go somewhere. But they don't work that way, not even the expensive models. It seems like a very simple concept, especially in this day and age of technolody. But it's a good piece of mind for me when the wife or kids are going somewhere without me.

This is my first GPS navigator. I have used it on 2 trips now. It was very good navigating and telling me where to turn and where I was. I did not use the Bluetooth feature so I can't comment on that. The wireless FM audio transmitter did not work well for me. I had a hard time finding an unused frequency on my radio. When I thought I had found one, I set up the unit to that frequency. It worked ok briefly. But soon it started fading and the static or a faint radio station would cut in. I never got that feature to work consistently. I ended up playing it through my car tape player using an adaptor. That worked fine.

Worked well only a couple small complaints - it doesn't always speak the road and there were a couple of mistakes as far as roads going one way or the other.

I love the phone feature. It was very easy to link with my phone and what a joy to be in the car and not have to have an earpiece in my ear that hurts. People can hear quite well and I can hear them clear also. The audio book reader is perfect for the drive to work and back. I have enjoyed many of the features. You dont need a manual to figure out how to use it, it is very "user friendly."

Easy to use. Accurate. I love it and would recommend it to everyone. Definitely worth the extra money for test to speech and for the larger screen.

I ordered this Garmin for my husband. He previously had a 200 series with a smaller screen. He likes this one much better and it was a great price. The only problem I have is that the car charger we received did not fit the garmin nuvi 660.

I purchased the Nuvi 660 about a month ago. Set-up was easy, as I own 2 other Garmin GPS, so I was used to it. This is the first one that has bluetooth, and allows a user to connect their phone to the GPS and talk through the GPS instead of using a headset. In theory it is a great thing, but you will find many limitations. I returned another Garmin model as well as a Magellan model because their bluetooth connections were so poor. The Nuvi 660 is better, but not perfect by any means. The 660 also sent me astray one recent trip, and I ended up shutting it off because I was somewhat familiar with the area. Connections to satellites were quick, as opposed to what some have reported. I might just be in a strong signal area. Overall and for the price on Amazon, I am relatively happy with the product and will be keeping it.

Bill, NJ

I bought the Garmin Nuvi 660 from Amazon for $300 and the unit has gone through numerous software upgrades since I got it. The Bluetooth has never really worked as advertized. I opened a case with Garmin and their support has been non-existent. They pretty much told me if the phone is not on their supported list, they are not responsible. I would not buy another Garmin unit again, I should have bought a Maggelan to begin with. I am to a point where I may just send the unit back to Garmin to keep it or fix it. Garmin "Never Again".

This GPS is very good. I would recommend this to anyone who would like to have a bigger screen, accurate routes, bluetooth....Great product - Worth paying for it.

I really saw no need to get this GPS as I have navigated on all our trips for over 30 years. I thought nothing would really make it any easier than Mapping using the Internet had. I was wrong. This little navigator takes all the stress out of going to new places. We went to Baton Rouge and had no problems getting around or even finding the best little Deli! Then a few weeks later we went to a Convention in Grapevine Texas - Dallas/Forth Worth Area. Again, no problem going anywhere we wanted. Type in an address and sit back! We are so pleased!

Very good GPS with good maps for USA and Canada, MP3, and FM Transmitter (not impressed with FM Transmitter in big sities). Wish to have a 760/770 because faster boot-up, no flip-up antenna, QWERTY keyboard, better suction cup mount, Multi-Point Routing, and a few other feature enhancements .

Researched these for awhile and went for a TomTom 510 and quickly returned it for this Garmin 660. Even if the TomTom did not die after a week, the Garmin was overall a better unit, more usable space on the screen, the built-in FM transmitter is the key, especially when using the blue-tooth handset capability with the built-in MP3 player. Great for trips in our van, with the kids using the DVD headphones leaving us to play mp3s while getting directions and having handsfree phone. The price was very good for all these features. Only cons is that the TomTom does indeed have a better route planner, the Garmin has only 2Gig of standard memory (not much for mp3s without having to install extra memory) and I wish you could quickly switch between FM transmitter and built in speaker.

This is the second one of these I have purchased. I liked mine so well that I ordered this one for a present for a close friend. I have used it on two 2,000 mile trips and it performs quite well. Loaned it to another friend who took it on a trip to the Panhandle of Florida and came home and ordered one for themselves. With the theft problem of these today, I do not mount it on the windshield; should order the mounting on the dash.

I'm used 3month now!
very easy & very good quality!
bluetooth is very nice sound!
I'm so good! ^^

By having this product it's like you program your own car to the destination that you wanna go,it's a worry free trip if you have Garmin Nuvi 660, where ever you go you'll get there on time.

This thing works really well. It acquires the satellites really fast and has great accuracy. It also has Bluetooth and that works really well as well. It is nice to be able to find a place and call right from the GPS as well as view your contacts on the gps screen. Also this unit has an FM transmitter that works quite well. And the last thing is the traffic updates that work surprisingly well. :-) I would recomend this to tech geeks that could actually use the bluetooth and Music player.

have had other gps units in the past, like this one the best so far; has been accurate, & I just love being able to choose the voice & accent for voice prompts!

I really enjoy this Garmin. I do need to update the info. as I have gone to locations that no longer exist.

The Nuvi 660 is fast, easy to use right out of the box, and the large screen is easy to navigate and enter addresses onto. I didn't realize how much easier until I used the smaller Nuvi 240 in another vehicle. The wider spacing of letter 'keys' is a nice improvement for big fingers.

The traffic indicators are helpful, but alternate routes don't make much sense if you already are on the route optimized for shortest time. These work right out of the box.

Also, when there is a traffic alert, you can't touch the lower right turn area to step through the upcoming turns. It defaults to the traffic map (only north oriented). It would be helpful to see the planned turns instead of going to this map.

The unit is very easy to unhook from the mounting caddy.

Occasionally it tries to couple with a phone in another vehicle and asks for permission to do so. A password is needed for this.

Lots of features I'll never use are included.

QUITE GLAD!!! Was shipped and delivered as promised... I havent' had the time to use it as much as I desire, but is very nice-looking, wider screen than the StreetPilot I had, faster and more accurate.
I'm very happy with this Nuvi, should I say, so far....

The 660 has a great 4"+ screen and the bluetooth feature that we in [CA] need for hands free driving and talking. The sound/speaker on the unit works well when talking and utilizes a FM transmitter works good too. I personally do not like the Traffic feature which is not technically Garmin but an outside provider. You will get three months free but I will not renew it.

Once I responded to an Ann Landers column regarding getting lost and how frustrating that was. She wrote me back! and said that it was okay, I was just "directionally challenged", which was really an understatement if you know me. I can get lost in my own neighborhood. Don't even ask. With this baby, I've been set free! It records books, plays music, even gets me going in the right direction when I turn the wrong way. It's fabulous. Even my husband loves it! That's another story :)

When we finally decided to take the plunge and get a nav unit for our classic car we read all the reviews and determined that the Garmin 4.3" units had the broadest appeal and acclaim. We were fortunate to find the Nuvi 660 for a fraction of the original MSRP on Amazon, and we have NO regrets about our purchase! The only small niggle we have is that sometimes the unit likes to choose odd routes to get around non-existant traffic problems, and at other times, doesn't alert us to slow traffic until we've been sitting in it for 20 minutes! In spite of these little issues I would choose it again in a minute!

Really impressed with this unit. I had an older Garmin that I finally upgraded. Easy to read, and program, nice features, and very portable.

I purchased the Garmin nuvi 660 GPS navigator for my husband for our 39th anniversary. I knew this was the particular system he wanted, so selecting it was a no brainer. I was delighted with how thrilled he was to receive it. The Garmin nuvi 660 GPS navigator is great and so easy to use...we will never loose our way now! Thanks for making my shopping experience so easy and quick!

I bought this a cpl weeks ago and used it extensively on my recent trip to LA and San Diego. Its a good unit with some caveats

- there seems to be a bug when you insert a waypoint along the way of your destination. I inserted a gas station and after that it led me to a totally weird place as opposed to my original destination

- I was on my way to a restaurant in the Bay Area. It found it but led me to a place which was off to another street (in a totally residential nbd). Ofcourse, I was familiar with the nbd and I knew there is no restaurant that it was leading me to.

- Its not that easy to slide in the unit to the included dash mount. you have to angle it in at the correct angle.

These things are annoying. The unit is made well and software is in general better than what I am used to (in my Acura TL and I also owned a tomtom before)

I like the product all around. I live in San Francisco but work on the other side of the Bay, in Hayward. The unit is able to take the traffic info and tell me if the Bay Bridge or the San Moteo bridge will be faster. That is the main reason I got the unit.

The traffic info could be smarter. For one I wish I could filter out the slow traffic icons. In the Bay Area the screen is riddled with dozens and dozens of slow traffic icons, making it very difficult to see if there is more serious traffic conditions such as accidents.

Another is that on the traffic screen it would be nice to be able to just touch a selected traffic icon and get the information. Instead you have to scroll through each incident which places them in order by distance from you current position, despite if it is on your route or not. Again, being in San Francisco Bay Area with the dozens and dozens of slow traffic icons, one must do much scrolling in order to get to the traffic icon they are interested in.

The traffic only is monitered on main freeways and highways. The unit will direct me through downtown SF finicial district during rush hour which is a parking lot. So its good to tell me which bridge to take, but cant avoid street traffic. The directions are accurate, but you may end up in grid lock. (For SF folks: It does monitor 19th Ave traffic, but not Highway 1, aka The Great Highway).

If Garmin did these improvements in a software update this unit would be awsome, especially for those who purchased the unit to monitor traffic in one of the worse traffic areas in the country.

As far as the volume goes, it could be louder as many has said. I have found that the male voices are easier to hear than the female voices. The FM transmitter is basically useless in San Francisco as every FM frequency is being used here.

Nice GPS so far. First time I've had the traffic function, seems to work quite well.

Only negative is the screen could be a little larger, height not width.

Its easy to use. Turn it on set your geographic location and it does the rest; mounting it on the dash was just as easy. Comes already charged up. It's loud enough that I can hear even with the radio on. If the highway/expressway is jammed it will send you down the access road or side streets. The only down side is the map has not updated within the last 6-8 months.

Not being one for purchasing "new" technology, I thought getting a GPS device might be a little over my head (I still don't have a camera phone like everyone else in the world). However within a few minutes of opening the box, I was utilizing most of the features on this product and enjoying it immensely. The 4.3 inch screen is more than adequate to view while driving and the volume can be adjusted to any preferred level for prompts on upcoming turns. I found the maps and ability to calculate directions accurate. Besides being able to get you easily to your destination, the preloaded POI's (points of interest) are immensely helpful. On a mini-vacation we took, we found ourselves in need of finding resataurants, movie theaters, a grocery store, department store and a beach. This Garmin found all with a few touches on the screen and got us there without any hassle. For the couple hundred I paid for it, I feel it's already paid off in lack of getting lost or depending on locals for directions. We are considering a new car purchase and have already decided to forgo dealer installed navigation (which typically will run near two thousand) and will keep the Garmin stuck to the windshield (easier to see there anyway).

I bought this for about 600$ when it came out and it lasted a year and a half before it died. That is ridiculous for how much I spent on it! They said originally that to get it fixed would cost another 230$!!!

The directions it made were terrible a lot of the time. It would take you on the most indirect paths to get places. Consistently, it would take a very long time to locate satellites. The battery life is terrible and it stopped holding any charge about a year after I bought it. The suction cup is horrible.

When I called customer service to fix it, I was on hold for no less than 45 minutes to try and get help. The finally said they would replace it for free since the battery died and the battery has a 5 year warranty on it. So not all is lost but I feel I would like to try another brand instead.

I purchased 2 of this Garmin Nuvi 660, so my wife & I would have the same GPS. I downloaded the 2009 map version; believe it or not, the whole download was just over 2GB. I allowed Garmin install their downloader that somehow combined 4 of their servers. I have a cable connection for my Internet, but I just let it download and walked away from the computer. I think it took a couple of hours, I really didn't time it. However, once the program was downloaded, I tried to upload it from my regular work computer, which has partition and only about 4 GB of free space on the C drive, while I had about 15GB on my data portion of free space. It wouldn't install because it said there wasn't enough free space on my hard drive. I think the program explodes the zipped 2GB file that is downloaded from Garmin. At any rate, I used my other computer, which is not partitioned, and it installed with no problem. However, it does take a long time. I installed the 2009 version on both GPS that I purchase. The map is great; it has streets on the map in my town that is not even finished yet. BTW, when you explode the 2GB file, I know that took over 2 hours to install on the GARMIN.

The 660 are a great purchase. Consumer Report rated that particular model as a Best Buy.

I was heavily deciding between the 660 and 360. I decided to go for the 660 because of the bigger screen (bigger is better), FM transmitter and traffic. I thought the $75 difference was cheap enough for the added features. FM transmitter is $150 more if you buy separately for the 360. While the basic features work great, text-to-speech, ease of use, the FM transmitter is a disappointment. I live in the Bay Area and couldn't get any decent signal without any interference. A 3.5mm headphone jack with cassette adapter works a lot better but every time i use this it pains me because one of the reason i bought 660 was for me to direct the audio to my speakers. The headphone/cassette jack will work no problem with the 360 if you want this feature.

The traffic feature i haven't used too much but when approaching a route with traffic building up a small icon comes up and shows how many minutes of delay it would take, you then have the option to get a detour if you want. Cool feature but i don't see any much use to it unless maybe i'm in area i'm not too familiar with. But it's a feature i can have if i needed to.

I uploaded the 2009 maps thinking it already showed the new ramps and roads constructed near our place, i tested it with my officemates on board and it led us to a dead-end. It was embarrassing, it kept telling turn left when there is no road and kept recalculating. But with all this gps stuff, i learned that you must not depend too much on it and use some common sense as well.

Other than that one funny incident it guided me through places with ease when before could have got me tense and depended on printed mapquest directions on hand. I like that i know when is the next turn and the distances. Overall, the Nuvi 660 is a very nice and useful gps but if you're in a budget and want to have bluetooth, get the 360.

LOVE IT! Precise directions & blue tooth capable makes it fun to use. Large screen is also a plus. I'm from California. My husband & I used it when we drove to Arizona. It was fab. Didn't have to ask anyone how to get around. Good feeling to be able to get to anywhere you need.

What a great GPS! It works great in the city helping us get quickly to a new restaurant. We used it to help us get to several remote locations in the Northwest. When we got lost, it quickly recalculated and got us back on track. The features we used worked as expected. In defense of Garmin: Acquiring satellites in the city took about 2 minutes when the surrounding buildings were tall and about 30 seconds when they were not. In the country, it took under 30 seconds. To those who criticize the satellite acquisition, I say, "Remember what you were doing at the time and reset your expectations to reality." To pick some nits with Garmin: 1) Hey guys, include the automobile adapter in your base package. We shouldn't have to fork over an extra $25-30 to get it. 2) How about providing additional voices -- like Darth Vader or George Bush or Bill Clinton or Captain Jack Sparrow or Batman -- free as downloads or as part of the delivered package? 3) Like other GPS devices, the system sometimes calls out a route segment by its street name instead of the route number. This was no problem once we figured out what was happening.

I just purchased the garmin 660 this week and it worked fine out of the box, but after two days, I noticed that the device would automatically shut off. After making a several configuration changes I still could not get the device working correctly. I am returning this device to amazon. I would not recommend the 660.

Solid value for the money. Lots of handy features and accurate directions. The Blue Tooth works well.

A fine product that is easy to use. I would not pay the difference for the FM transmitter feature again as that functionality can be accomplished by using a $30 ipod or Mp3 transmitter.

Bluetooth is great and helps with the Califonia hands free law.

The real time traffic adds delay time to arrival forecasts and is very helpful to manage being on time to sales calls or letting clients know expected ETA. The trip feature insures accurate bill back of mileage.

Overall, does the job. The 4.3 screen, MP3, traffic and Bluetooth features have improved the driving experience. My kids like the Austrailian man's voice for directions.

The suction cup windshield holder is weak and will need to be replaced with a dash holder for long term ease of use.

Having the bluetooth feature to make phone calls is a plus. The garmin works great.

This Garmin came damaged. It looked like it had been returned by someone else and then sent to us. The Garmin was not re-wrapped in its original packaging, so we knew right away the item was not brand new. The screen was dirty, it has obviously been handled and maybe used by someone else. We returned it and got a quick credit back from Amazon, but no apology. We purchased the same item somewhere else and love it. I would defintley recommend the product, but am now a little more cautious ordering online.

This product is now listed on the Garmin site as discontinued, along with most of the 6XX Nuvi's. Just so you know.

This unit had all the features I thought I'd like initially. I was looking to get a unit with bluetooth hands-free connectivity, FM transmitter and the FM Traffic receiver. I hardly, if ever, use the FM transmitter as its never clear and I just hook up my Creative MP3 player through the tape player. The FM traffic receiver was nice to have it was pretty accurate for the 3 month trial period but not really necessary. Funny story: one time as I was about to take an alternate route suggested by the Garmin, I noticed that there was a longgg line of cars - figured I would stay on the original route and it turns out that was quite free - kind of funny to think that those people might have all had GPS units leading them on the wrong alternate path and creating a traffic jam ...

The bluetooth really disappoints me though. I have a blackberry Pearl and it cannot connect half the time. When it does connect, it stays connected, but when it doesn't there's an irritating beep and it continuously tries to re-connect. I usually have to de-activate the bluetooth on the Blackberry.

As for the maps, I am very impressed. It does a great job in re-calculating and doesn't have you do u-turns as much. In fact, this is the major factor in my rating: the core functionality is really accurate and the TTS works well. My friends have bought other cheaper alternatives and the directions have not been upto par.

We've used our new Garmin nuvi 660 widescreen GPS navigator frequently for the last two months and find it almost indispensible now. I've used it to find parks and trailheads in rural areas, etc. The interface is intuitive and easy to use, the screen easy to see in bright light. The touch screen is easier to use with a fingertip than the one on our Magellan 4250, which sometimes requires using a pen tip. The only problem I've noticed is that the unit sometimes seems confused at major freeway maze-type interchanges and gives strange directions which would take you out of the way, but if you ignore instructions you know to be wrong, it will quickly recalculate the correct (faster) route.

Excellent, love it! It has only been fooled by one address I have input into it and that was an obscure business location (water treatment plant)

I'm a long time user of Garmin products, owning the StreetPilot 2610 for many years. I loved that unit, and had planned on keeping it until New Jersey passed its handsfree cell phone laws. I hate using a bluetooth headset, so I decided to retire my great StreetPilot and purchase a new Nuvi 660.

The concept of the Bluetooth "handsfree" capability with "FM tranmitter" concept is great, but Garmin's implementation is only halfway there. Yes, it is "handsfree" but I find myself fiddling with the stupid thing trying to make a call that I nearly drive off the road.

The problem is that you cannot easily access the functionality you need directly from the map display. Even though they easily could have had some soft keys enabled down the left and right sides for "one touch" operation, they didn't do it. You constantly have to navigate back through the main menu, taking your eyes off the road.

Here's my summary:

good - Bluetooth connectivity works great. Telephone pairs up fine.

bad - To make a voice dial call when the map is displayed (which is what I usually have up), you need to go back to the main menu, press the telephone icon, then press "voice dial." A simple "voice dial" icon on the map would have been great. How could they miss that?

good - FM transmitter to use the speakerphone through the radio

bad - Although you can toggle the FM transmitter on and off through the on/off button with a double press, you can't easily change the channel if you get interference with a single press. You need to go back to the main menu first and go through some submenus. Again, all they needed on the map screen was - you guessed it - a button that says "autotune" that you press so it could find the next station. Good thing I don't live near any cliffs.

good - the turn by turn directions with street name readout works great. I loved it, and it was accurate.

bad - When a cell phone call is in progress, the turn by turn directions are disabled. So you don't hear any more prompts. In other words, you can't be making a call and hear a direction. I can't believe it!! How'd they miss THAT?

good - Decent satellite reception

bad - what's with the high profile antenna???? If you have a raked windshield, and want the unit out of your way, the antenna mast can't be opened up all the way, otherwise it knocks against the windshield.

bad - My 2610 displayed the distance and time until turn directly on the map screen. Now I have to press a button to see it. Uggg.

bad - the stupid thing asks me every time I turn off my engine "do I want to leave the unit on or off." I can't seem to have a default settings. Another crummy thing.

bad - Now I have to choose either "faster time" or "shortest distance" for ALL of my trips. On my 2610 I could have it prompt me every time I asked for a new route. Sometimes I know I want the shortest difference, but now I have to go through the menus before I go through a route.

In summary - I'm returning this Nuvi 660 and looking for a different product. I think Garmin really screwed up this from a user friendly standpoint. They added all sorts of graphical features, but when it came down to raw functionality and allowing ease of use from a driving position, they blew it.

Did they forget that we need to watch the road, not push the stupid buttons?

As a former lover of Garmin technology, I think I'm going to look at TomTom or Magellan to see what they've got.

Or does someone know if Garmin simply has a better product?

i'm using this item almost 2 months already but still she cannot point out the direct route instead she brought me to local street even i choose fastest time or shorter distance. I would give you a short view. Driving Interstate 278 East she want me to exit to local street and after a couple of blocks she want me to merge to 278 East again. I'm thinking probably the map of this GARMEN IS NOT UPDATED. Can you check this problem for me or whatever you can recommend. I had a GARMEN BEFORE similar to this kind a flat one but it's good ,I forgot the model the only thing i can remember is that no extras, no intersections, no recently found, no cities,no audio launch box icons and you can adjust the volume thru a small botton at the side and have louder voice. Somebody stole it.

I previously owned the Garmin Street Pilot 330 and liked it but the Nuvi 660 is great. Its features are easy to navigate and very helpful on the road. The prompts are timely and well marked on the screen. As an insurance investigator I travel alot of roads that don't have signs so the GPS makes it easy to find them. The traffic avoidance feature offers an avoidance route which usually saves you time from sitting in traffic. Its not always perfect but does offer an alternative. The bluetooth feature works surprisingly well. The volume and clarity of the speaker are very good. Some kinks that need to be worked on are re-dialing and turning the bluetooth on and off with the phone. The screen size makes it easy to see while driving, suction cup is better than the C330 and the flat nuvi holds well on the glass. Recently took it to Florida and it performed flawlessly. Highly recommend the unit. Best feature is the ability to see future turns before you come up to them.

Looking for a GPS system and being a believer in Consumer Reports, I selected the Nuvi 660 which was identified as a "best buy". This was my navigation tool from the San Francisco Bay Area to and around Medford OR, proceeding to and around Vancouver WA, and back to the Bay Area. I had no paper maps, and although I-5 is a pretty straight shot, I knew that finding addresses and restaurants in unfamiliar towns would be a challenge.

The Nuvi 660 didn't let me down. I didn't get lost, and the mapping appeared to be correct. On the negative side, I wish the "lady's" voice was less abrasive; I wish there was a soft alert tone prior to route change announcements; I wish I had a little longer warning that my next turn would be to the left or right since often heavy traffic made the correct turn impossible. On the other hand, when I couldn't make the correct turn I heard "recalculating", and was provided alternate directions to get back on track.

Would I buy a Nuvi 660 again? Most likely yes because of the price point. However I would consider saving up to buy a higher version that may have the more user-friendly options I'm looking for.

The product arrived quickly. It's a great product.... just wish we could keep it from slipping off the dashboard.