Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Accessory Bundle
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Everything you need to hit the road is included in the Garmin® nuvi® 225W bundle. The voice-prompted turn-by-turn directions keep you on the right path. A wide, touchscreen display is sun-light readable and easy to use, and the whole unit fits in the included carrying case.
Features
- Bundle includes GPS, USB cable, friction mount, suction cup mount, 2 vehicle power cables, and carrying case
- Preloaded basemaps of the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada
- 4.3 inch color touch-screen display
- Secure Digital media card slot
- Text-to-speech technology
- Dimensions (W x H x L): 5 x 3 x 1 inches
- Weight: 0 pounds
simple and easy to use GPS
Ordered this GPS for my husband, he LOVES it! It is simple and easy to use for getting from here to there. A few glitches in the directions on occassion but I hear other brands are the same (mapquest on my computer internet can be wrong too). He likes the two mounting feature choices and extra plug, I bought him a case for it too (WalMart)to keep everything together. We compared units and this one was the best for the price.
Garmin GPS
Love it, love it, love it. We have factory installed GPS in another vehicle but not the one we were planning to take on a long trip. We purchased the Garmin and found it to be easier to use than the one in our other vehicle. Besides getting us from point A to point B (which was the reason we purchased it) we found that we were able to find restaurants, hotels and other points of interest so easily. At one point we missed a turn and normally would have panicked but the GPS recalculated our position and got us on the right road very quickly. We entered our vehicle data and were able to track our gas usage so easily. Love the graphics! Easy to see street names! Glad we chose the larger screen size which was more than adaquate. We purchased it with the adapters and different mounts and the case. It was cheaper than purchasing these items individually. Overall, a great product for the price.
Disappointing, after Street Pilot
I bought this after years of owning a Garmin Street Pilot, and I’ve got to say, while it’s acceptable and much cheaper than the Street Pilot, I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Unfortunately, the Street Pilot isn’t made anymore.
PROS:
The Nuvi is small and easy to stuff into a airline carry-on or even a large pocket. It will run off batteries for those short trips when you don’t want to plug the thing into the cigarette lighter (aka accessory outlet). The bundle of accessories included with this package is great. It uses the industry-standard Navteq maps.
CONS:
The things has a bunch of usability issues. There is no “Speak” button as on the Street Pilot to get the voice to repeat its last instructions. The keyboard beeps when you touch the keys, but not always. Often I’ve pressed a key, heard no beep and seen no character, and then pressed the button again, only to get two characters. The screen, because it’s so light, sometimes vibrates with the car dash. The battery life, advertised at 4 hours, really seems to run about an hour, and there is no warning when the thing’s about to die. Beyond that, the Nuvi seems to take longer than the Street Pilot to notice movements of my car; it doesn’t seem to track my position as well. The built-in speaker, combined with the automated voice, is often difficult to understand, particularly on common words like “left” and “right”, which is all the more annoying since the instructions can’t, as I said before, be repeated.
Finally, I find it hard to believe that this is a function of the Nuvi in particular — my Street Pilot would probably do the same thing — but on my last trip with the Nuvi, it repeatedly told me to do impossible things: take a left turn across a median, make a left turn onto a one-way street heading right, etc. Again, this is probably a function of the Navteq maps for that area (in and around Cocoa Beach, FL), but it was really disconcerting.
In short, after my previous experience with the Street Pilot (which I still have, in my wife’s car), I’m pretty disappointed. The Nuvi is a lot cheaper, but it’s a poor economy. When this thing dies, I won’t miss it. I don’t like the Magellans I’ve used, but I will definitely be checking out brands other than Garmin for my next GPS.
255w is good for the $$
got This little baby a few weeks ago. Took it on a little road trip, and discovered alot of new ways that I never knew you could go.
I would highly recomend the lifetime update. The software that is preloaded is a couple years old. Took it on vac. last week, drove from WI to AZ. It was a real lifesaver.
The only minor issue was if you pulled off the highway for some reason, and didn’t add a stop point before you did so, yo would have to listen to the lady’s voice recalculating your turns every couple of seconds, telling you to pull a u-turn. The mute button was a nice feature at that point though.
The acc. pack is a great deal. If you bought all this stuff seperatly, you would easily spend another $60
Excellent GPS
Recent convert to finding my way around town with a GPS. The Garmin 255W is a handy, portable GPS that works very well. Voice directions are very clear, and easy to follow. Adjusts well to alternate routes. I appreciated the many accessories that came with the 255W, especially the weighted pad that can sit in the seat next to you. Only thing missing was a owners manual that can be downloaded from the Garmin website. Some of us still prefer a booklet.
Garmin nuvi 255w
This is my third Garmin GPS. They only get better with each new version. I LOVE the 4.3 inch touch screen. The accessory bundle was a big plus. I keep one attachment set in each of my 2 cars. The friction pad works better than I ever imagined.
Happy with Garmin
I bought this for my retired parents just before they took a trip to Orlando. Everytime I spoke with them, they went on and on about how well it worked, and how easy it was to use in the heavy Orlando traffic. I guess thats as good a review as you can get. Great poduct!
Garmin 255w
Great to purchase unit and all accessories needed for two vehicles in one package. Although the unit that came in the package would not turn on, Garmin representative was very cordial and prompt to my needs. I sent just the unit itself to Garmin and told them I wanted a new unit not to repair the first one and send it back. She understood my concern that I paid for a new unit – not a rebuilt one. Within 4 days I had the replacement and it works very well.
Wonder why I waited….
Very easy to use. Various mounting options make it simple to move to different vehicles. Love the ease with which I can plan the route – essentially negotiating with the nuvi by entering intermediate “stops”.
Get Me There
Very pleased with the Garmin Bundle. Included all the items I wanted at a lower cost than getting them separately. A good product and easy to operate. Especially like that it tells you the mileage to the next turn and which direction to go. Can now feel confident that I will not get lost and make the wrong turn. Would recommend!!!
Returned as a Defective product
The Garmin nuvi 255W has a lousy on/off switch. I never could figure out how it worked. When you read the instructions it says to slide it left to turn it on and also slides it left to turn off but supposedly a little bit further left to get it completely off (I guess)?? I think this is why it went defective. I finally got it turned off and I never could get it to come back on again so I returned it as defective. I won’t buy this type of gps if it has this type of on/ off switch.
Exactly what I needed.
This is a great entry level GPS. I love the wide screen- Don’t settle for a smaller one. Text-to-Speech is outstanding. All the accessories work well. Downloading map updates took a bit, but went smooth. You can download different avatars for your maps. Trip features are outstanding including gas cost. Where am I feature is fantastic. The unit finds the sattelite quickly and recalculates in a second! Touch screen is responsive. Very satisfied for a first GPS purchase.
Garmin nuvi 255W
this GPS is extremely user friendly and a bundle purchase gives a lot of flexibility. Anyway, should have come with an updated maps rather than with a free option to update! This 30 days free update opportunity could be easily overlooked…