Garming GPS 76s

Although this item might be excellent when I purchased it I was leed to believe tthat the gps unit came with out a car charger. The gps unit comes with a car charger not a house charger. When Amazon tells people that this item is usually purchased with the gps unit their wrong. I will be returning this product to Amazon.

Did not work in my car. It’s a total waste of money. I DEMAND A REFUND!!!!

I have been using the Nuvi 350 for a few years now and think it is an outstanding device. Not only does it help you keep your eyes on the road longer (you can see the distance to an upcoming turn and also whether you need to be on the right or left-side of the road.) It is also good on dark and rainy nights when street signs in rural areas are obscured by tree branches. It also helps when on an overpass and the signs are not clear whether to be in the right or left lane for entering on to the highway below.

The navigation is excellent with few exceptions. This device will save you gas when going to an area for the first time. For the most part, it is intelligent enough not to direct you the wrong way down one-way streets prevelant in many cities downtown.

I would like to see some additional features or improvements:

1. When simulating a drive to a destination I would like to see an option to increase the speed by 5 or 10x. Currently, it is too slow and takes a very long time to complete a 10 mile trip.

2. When saving a new destination it would be nice that there would be an entry line for a suite number and/or phone number.

3. The selected destination is visible in text somewhere either on the footer or header.

4. The ability to save a route and then be able to reverse it. The algorithm is smart enough and should be able to take one-way streets into account on the way back.

5. Even on the brightest setting, the display is a little hard to see when wearing sunglasses. Just a little more screen brightness would help.

6. When on battery power only, the display will ‘timeout’ and go dark after 30 seconds regardless of the display timeout time period selected on the settings page. This is overcome by just touching anywhere on the screen, but when in an area where a lot of turns are needed, it is an annoyance.

7. When retreiving a saved location under the ‘Recent Selections’ tab, the locations will come up displayed with the addresses only and not the saved names. You must remember what address goes with what name.

Overall though, this is one of the best consumer devices I have purchased in years; I bought one for my daughter after a short while of using it myself. It is amazing how many locations for hotels, gas stations, etc… are pre-stored in there. On a trip cross-country I was able to find a hotel off the interstate very late at night by using the pre-stored list. Many of the pre-stored lists have phone numbers, and in this case was able to call ahead to make sure of room availability first. A real time saver after a long day of driving. Also used the pre-stored list to keep track of gas stations when driving long stretches in remote areas.

Some miscellaneous items: the Nuvi 350 takes a little time to acquire the satellites in heavily treed areas and also has a little difficulty maintaining satellite signals in downtown areas. (There was a firmware update not too long ago addressing the unit’s ability in obtaining new signals and updating it’s position quickly after exiting from a tunnel).

The device is intuitive to use and enhances safety while driving to and from unfamilar places. It is also small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. A great, great device.

I bought this GPS in 2007 and it still works great after 2 years. That is the reason I came out to write this review. It is a great product and the signal is strong and quick even in the raining day. I saw some larger screen product but this screen size is perfect for me. Don’t waste your money on the larger screen. The battery last about 6 hours and I need to re-charge it every two weeks. My friend bought a TomTom about the same time and the battery only last for 3 hours after one year.

My husband moved here from another country and is not familiar with the roads in the area. He carries it on his person when he goes out walking so that he can find his way back around the maze of curved suburban streets. We also run it in the car frequently so that he can see the area we’re driving and get used to the names of streets and curves in the roads. It’s very compact yet easy to read. The voice is loud enough to hear over all the environmental and car sounds. The voice states things several times and really does a great job navigating. It states the name of the street as well instead of just saying “turn left” It’s been invaluable to us.