Garmin 010-00540-00 Compare, Reviews, Discounts
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Garmin 010-00540-00 Compare, Reviews, Discounts.
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This is the first GPS unit I owned and couldn't be more delighted. After consulting with friends who have owned multiple GPS units and reading various reviews, this is one of the nicest, feature-packed, and most importantly, legal unit on the market. Impartial this morning, I opted to consume a longer route to fetch to the highway because the street I usually steal was under construction. I've driven sparingly on that alternate route for 4 years and never realized there was a diminutive intersecting street in a business district I can crop through to glean to the highway more quick. The Nuvi 660 pointed that out, basically shaving off over a mile in distance, traffic congestion, and plenty of frustration. GPS owners whine me having one will change my life... I'm starting to beget.
To define on another review: It DOES approach with 6 million POIs... for free. It's located under the subcategory of "Where to? " in the "Food, Hotels..." icon.
Update 10/22/06 - Unprejudiced took this Nuvi on an East Hover spin to Washington, D.C., VA, NJ, PA, NY and its performance exceeded my expectations. It found unprejudiced about every addresses and POIs I entered, except for one because the store recently changed its name. Needless to say, I never got lost. In one instance, I searched for the nearest Target in Fairfax, VA. Not only it got me there, but told me where to drive around inside the shopping center's parking lot, leading me suitable up to the front of the store!
Update 11/08/06 - After nearly two months of exercise, the unit mild works well. However, I found that staunch time traffic indicator is not as useful as initially understanding. It would give me the typical positive traffic jams around town, but who doesn't already know it, unless one is not from here. I've near to realize that no GPS has the capability of shining which encourage roads to rob to avoid traffic plight in all instances. Only you (the user) being familiar with local roads and its driving conditions can earn such a decision.
Update 1/30/07 - The unit suddenly stopped receiving satellite signals yesterday. Tried every device from resetting/rebooting to installing lastest software, but no success. Called tech aid this morning and they were able to fix the corrupted software remotely within an hour without having to send in the unit for service.
Originally, it wouldn't aid my 4gig SD memory card, but with the latest Garmin software 3.20 update, it now recognizes it. I'm using the RiDATA PRO 4GB Fetch Digital (SD) Flash Card Model SDCR4G. Also, my Verizon Treo 650 links up a minute better now when in talk mode, albeit aloof won't fill a stable connection, ie. phonebook, when in standby mode.
Update 6/4/07 - My brother-in-law was so impressed with the 660 that he upgraded from a lower-end Garmin this past Christmas. Last month, his Nuvi stopped receiving a signal. He tried calling tech abet, but was unable to fix it remotely like I had. He ended up sending his in for repair. They collected were unable to moral the jam at the repair center, so they gave him a tag fresh replacement. Despite the misfortune of the malfunction, he came away jubilant with Garmin customer service.
6/29/07 - This unit links up with my iPhone via Bluetooth without a hitch. Bye-bye Treo 650...
My wish list for a better Nuvi:
- have option to choose a default city, instead of asking for set & city every time
- alphabetize the common list and let user construct sublists
- have an alternative qwerty keyboard layout
- obtain a better mount.. suction cup sucks!
6/11/08 - Although the Nuvi 660 served me well, I upgraded to the Nuvi 760. Overall, it's a better unit than the 660. If you're deciding whether to gain the 660 or 760, judge the 760 because it comes with a newer device version, faster boot-up (but unruffled has concern picking up signals indoors like the 660), no flip-up antenna, slightly brighter cover, QWERTY keyboard, better suction cup mount, and a few other feature enhancements. On the downside, the traffic receiver marginally works and the FM transmitter is detached staticky like the 660. By the scheme, the 660 has been discontinued by Garmin as of January 2008 (if that's a inconvenience to anyone) . But if you already have the 660, no need to upgrade because it's peaceful a very well-behaved unit.
6/23/08 - Garmin has a 2009 Procedure that one can upgrade for FREE if examine within the 30-day period of the unit's registration date. My Nuvi 760 came with 2008 preinstalled. Since I was unable to gain the free upgrade via Garmin website, I had to call in and was place on contain for 25 minutes! Anyway, the tech befriend guy was very beneficial in taking me through the steps to register for the free procedure update. I opted for the CD instead of download. It costs $10 for the shipping/handling via UPS Ground, but he waived the fee for me. Nice! Although I did this with the 760, the same offer should work for the 660, except for the waiver on the shipping 
)
7/8/08 - I sometimes arrive across comments about the unit's inability to search for the "best" route. For example, a fresh reviewer states that "The Nuvi frequently wants to route me off the highway and thru towns that I know will be great slower." - MY SUGGESTION IS NOT ONLY YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF CHOOSING SHORTEST ROUTE OR FASTEST TIME, BUT YOU CAN Lovely TUNE THE GPS TO AVOID TRAFFIC, U-TURNS, TOLL ROADS, ETC... PLAY WITH THOSE CONFIGURATIONS TO Peep IF YOU Pick Up BETTER RESULTS.
I recently purchased the nuvi 660 for a road dart from the Midwest to Current England. I am now using in my daily commute. The product has performed large overall. Most of the features worked well, and the advertised capabilites are fairly represented. I strongly recommend the product, subject to the caveats below.
I also considered purchasing the nuvi 360, but ultimately decided on the 660 because it has the traffic data receiver and the ability to establish the audio through the car stero using an FM transmitter.
Now for the issues I have encountered:
1- The FM transmitter works well in rural areas and microscopic urban areas, but not so well in major metro areas such as Chicago or Original York. There are simply too many radio stations in major metros for the nuvi to be able to glean a set on the radio dial that is peaceful enough to not have interference.
2- The auto-tune feature for the FM transmitter is essentially useless. This feature is supposed to procure a set on the radio dial that is unexcited enough for the nuvi to exhaust. However, I found that it did a very abominable job of this. I almost always had to manually tune the nuvi to a blank location on the radio dial. This is not hard, but a bit of an annoyance.
3- The nuvi will lock up if the FM transmitter is on and you go through some electronic toll collection gates. I only ran into this assert in Pittsburgh. I-Pass/EZ-Pass don't have this attain. The manual does mention that this can happen.
Note - if you have a line in jack on your car stero, you won't have to deal with the above problems as the nuvi has a line out jack.
4- Navigation instructions in areas with multiple merging roads are often spoken slack, and sometimes are inaccacurate. I have accelerate into this jam in 4 different areas so far. Each place had several interstate highways with various merges and exits, and the nuvi was hard pressed to retain up.
5- Routing around traffic is not very valid. The traffic data is obvious and good, but the features that finds routes around the traffic mostly suggests routes that are not going to assign time. I rep it more useful to exercise the traffic draw reveal and earn my beget arrangement around the traffic (of course, you have to know the situation to be able to do this) .
With this unit, Garmin has blown TomTom out of the water. The 350/360 were slick units but arguably came up a bit short in the indicate department when compared to the TomTom - that's all a distant memory now.
This is the most stunning AIO (all in one) GPS navigation solution I've approach across to date. IMO, it represents the best compromise between size and functionality on the market today. Beyond this point, increasing the camouflage size enters the diminishing return territory. The SiRFstarIII chipset, while no longer the absolute best on the market, remains a superb workhorse with speedily satellite acquisition under even less than ideal conditions. The mapping details are estimable though, as with all mapping programs, is not beyond reproach. The 660 has the most unusual highly detailed City Navigator NT maps.
The deliver prompts are loud, positive and timely. The ease of exercise is impartial extraordinary and the visibility and quality of the expose are now the gold standard in the industry with a 4.3" WQVGA LCD hide and 480 x 272 pixels. It uses the same improper reflection cover as the 360.
POI access is obliging and can be navigated to distinguished more simply than the TomTom unit which requires additional cumbersome steps. The attachment system for the Nuvi is superior and very collect. You can access your POIs directly by name rather than having to go through a cumbersome category menu and then only getting the POIs by proximity as is the case with the TomTom 910. Garmin simply blows TomTom away in the POI functionality department.
This contrivance is intended as an extremely simple point to point navigating AIO GPS navigation solution and is not intended to enable the expend of scheme points or easily changing the course selected by the unit. You have essentially two options: the shortest route and the fastest route. Fortunately, the mapping program selects routs that are very acceptable. Personally, I like to gape at the overall route and fiddle with it. This unit is not designed for such utilize. Microsoft Streets and Trips is ideal for this kind of tinkering, but dreadful for point to point navigation while on the go at which the Nuvi has no peek.
Make certain and obtain the most unusual firmware updates on the Garmin website which will fix the known bugs and further improve the functionality. Insofar as functionality goes this unit is as simple as the 350/360. Even my 85 year ragged father can expend these things! He is, to set it honorable, technologically challenged but his 350 is so intuitive and easy to expend that he's had no problems whatsoever. He doesn't like to be distracted while driving so he plans his promenade before leaving and simply listens to the disclose prompts.
The fresh bluetooth feature enables the exhaust of your hands free bluetooth enabled phone. It's a nice feature, but as with all bluetooth devices that I've customary it's unruffled not as marvelous as talking directly on the phone. I personally have not customary the built in FM transmitter and so cannot comment on it.
I can heartily recommend this product. Garmin has knocked one out of the park.
