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I am quite Satisfied with this GPS. It is pretty good with accuracy. But it sometimes hangs up or gives wrong directions in Cities.
It allowed us to be spontaneous.We ran into an issue with our rental car where the aux output failed and even though the Garmin was plugged in, it was not getting any charge. Seriously, if I could give this thing 10 stars I would. We did this each night as we planned the next day's journey. This particular model suited my needs perfectly and while I know there are fancier editions available, for my purposes, I didn't need Bluetooth, to pick up email, an MP3 player or anything else like that.
But once acquired, it never went away.The voice was easy to hear, we had no problems even in loud driving conditions (radio on, noisy road, rain). Having the volume right on the first screen was great because we didn't have to go hunting for it when we did want to turn it down.It was easy to dismount, pop in my bag and take with us. We also purchased the UK map add-on, popped it in and we were ready to go. to a minimum. I was wrong; it was an INDISPENSIBLE tool.
One time we ran into some emergency construction work in Cardiff and we were unable to turn where it was directing us. However, it recalculated quickly and we arrived at our destination only a few minutes later. But it was good to know that in an emergency, with a little tweaking, you can get several more hours of use. We changed it over to the British voice for fun and was a god-send.Especially helpful was the ability to download locations and addresses directly from Google Maps into the Favorites folder. This, of course, was not the Garmin's fault but it left us kinda stuck until we could get the car fixed.
Each time it required the signal quickly with no effort and we were able to get over 8 hours out of the four hour battery charge. I've never used a GPS unit before, but with a two-week driving trip to the UK coming up, I thought it would be a useful tool. I especially liked how easily it found gas stations as we were in rural areas for the most part. We never lost a signal, although on occasion in a dense and close city like Edinburgh it took some time to acquire the signal when first switch on, probably because of the very tall buildings.
The screen was plenty bright, even in daytime. The touch screen was very easy to use and very easy to change. All I just needed something to get me from A to B in one piece with a minimum of stress.
It saved my life on numerous occasions and lowered the stress level of driving in an unfamiliar country (on the left side of the road, with roundabouts instead of intersections, driving late at night and on rural roads). This did the trick and then some. But we simply turned the Garmin off when it would tell us there was a long stretch of driving (five or more miles) with no road changes and then turned it back on just before the change (using the rip meter) We also turned down the brightness.
But once it was plugged in and getting a charge as it should, there were no issues. Apparently, these little gems are stolen a lot in the UK, when we entered Stratford, there was actually a sign that said Welcome to Stratford, be sure to take your SatNav out of your car if you don't want to lose it.Upon my return to the states, it's functioned perfectly with the US Maps.I don't write that many Amazon reviews, but this product was so good and such a life saver that I really wanted to tell others. Considering that without the Garmin we would STILL be wasting our vacation time arguing over maps and missed turns and trying to figure out the unfamiliar UK road system this little guy was worth twice the price I paid for it.I love it and I'm going to buy a couple as Christmas presents.
So for me this GPS was fantastic. Tons of features for the price. This GPS works great. Love the feature of finding stores, gas stations,. Yes voice announcing of the road would be nice but it's also rather annoying. The GPS graphically displays each street as well as the next street that you turn on. Only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that they did not include Canada and Alaska for the road database. I had to purchase that database separately and I felt that if they had North America roads then they should have had all of North America.
Directions are clear and undestandable. For the money, this is the best GPS navigatoron the market. It is absolutly easy to program and operate. Places of special interest are loeaded nad ready to go. It even gets you around out here in Montana on very lonely roads and remote locations.
The screen shows the car making incoherent movements and this forces a route re-calculation. It's supposed to be faster than the previous line of products (thanks to a faster processor) but it doesn't feel that way. I had a Nüvi 350 (hated the flip up antenna though it seems it really helped with the reception) and a TomTom One (2d generation) and I don't remember them being much slower than the Nüvi 205W.My other grip with it is that it will act-up when I am stopped (at a Stop sign or red light for instance). Everything goes back to normal when I resume the driving.Further, it takes a pretty long time to acquire a lock on satellites signal It really pisses me off. My only device slower than this is my Nokia E71 cellphone (sucks at GPS).Last, I would recommend the widescreen over the regular screen size to the ones who are hesitating/ wondering whether it's worth the extra money.
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