Customer Reviews:
 Great bang for the buck!!! September 2, 2008
The new Nuvi 260w has an improved user interface as the one shown in the pictures.
- In less than 30 seconds(!) and trust me I've tested it while driving (also when alternating departure locations)it just finds satellite signals in 10-20 seconds.
- Recalculation of the route is almost instantaneous and in most cases you'll be corrected on time.
- You can save as many favorites as you like. Nuvi will mark them on the map while driving with a customized icon of your choice.
- POI database is just great, not perfectly accurate but much better than others (e.g. TomTom's)
My only complaint is the TTS, while very useful, the quality of the speaker/sound circuit is pretty low and thats annoying. if you set the volume of Samantha-US English above 70% the sound is squeaky. I set it to UK-English voice since it sounds better, but it switches to Yards instead of feet.
To summarize, if you don't need the useless Bluetooth, the MP3 player or questionable traffic capabilities save $100 bucks and buy the 260W. (I was considering the 760)
 Decent, but could be better September 1, 2008
Garmin nüvi 260W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
This is unit is not bad at all, in that it does what it's supposed to do. The screen is wide enough, clear enough and has both 2D and 3D options. It automatically switches between day and night when the light level reaches certain points.
The matter at hand is, how well does it do it?
Almost everything about it is very good with a few small exceptions.
1. The woman's voice on this unit is broken-up, grating and it actually sounds like it has an attitude. I could get this from my wife without having to pay $200 plus. There's no option to change it either. Mute works quite well however.
2. The detour function is a mess. While needing to take a detour from the highway, it directed me off, drove me in a circle and sent me right back on again. Another time it wanted me to turn left when it would have been illegal to do so.
3. It doesn't have a list of area hotels, gas stations or restaurants for your given location. This would have been a very useful extra that other models have.
4. The mounting unit only attaches to glass so if you have a car where the windshield is not within easy reach you'll need some other option for mounting this unit. They provide a sticky pad which they claim is almost impossible to remove once attached to your dash, however mine fell off within a couple days of being in the sun.
As said, it's not bad. It definitely works, as it should. If the price is not much over $200 I would recommend it, however for more than that there are better options.
 99% OK September 1, 2008
It's response is great except for those times when it can't find the address Using Map Quest, I can find the location, whereupon leaving the address it couldn't find, it can lead me home from that address. Quirky or normal from other GPS units? Other than that, it's great. I woulod recommend that a bean bag type of holder for the unit be purchased to avoid that round stain on the windshield.
 Garmin 260w - As difficult to set up as all other Garmin August 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I recently purchased a Garmin 260W. Although I was frustrated by earlier Garmin purchases, I still considered the device to be useful enough to buy another. I own a Garmin Edge 305, a Garmin E-Trex Vista Cx, and the Garmin City Navigator North America Map Data. Here is the frustrating part. It seems that no matter what product you buy; it needs to be registered on-line at the Garmin Web Site. Not only that, but also you will also discover that the internal software is not up to date, or that the maps are not up to date and then you must go to the 'Updates & Downloads' page on the Garmin site in order to refresh whatever you have just bought. This is where your problems will begin. When I bought my first Garmin device, the download procedure actually disabled the Garmin software on my computer as well as the device itself, making both unusable until the following Monday when the help desk opened. Of course, the person at the other end of the help desk was able to get everything going again, but it did take almost an hour. When I purchased the second device, the same issues occurred. It seems that Garmin is so paranoid about having someone steal their maps that they purposely introduce files onto your computer that prohibit any modification or change to any of their products, making the ones that were previously installed unusable without calling the help desks.
I originally thought that if I stayed with Garmin devices that I would be able to exchange data between the devices, that if I purchased City Navigator I could use it to update the maps in my Edge or E-trex. That is true, but instead of using a common folder for each device, Garmin creates a new folder for each one. This means that if you want to use the City Navigator map data for each device, it will have to be copied into each device's folder. That's about 2 gigabytes of data. In my case, one folder for the Edge, one folder for the E-trex, and one folder for the City Maps. 2 gigabytes times 3 equal 6 gigabytes of my hard drive used up and not available for something else. When I got a message that my hard drive was nearing capacity, I first un-installed all of the Garmin devices in order to free up some space. After I cleaned up the rest of the system, I decided to re-install the E-trex. Guess what? I am locked out from doing that. Evidently there is some little gremlin security file in there to protect Garmin's precious software data. Looks like I'll be on the phone with India again. By the way, if Garmin support is outsourced to India, why is it then limited to the hours of 8 AM to 7 PM, Monday through Friday?
OK, now back to the story of the Garmin 260W. I brought it home and hooked it to the computer so that I could register it. Guess what? I was told that the maps on the unit that I had just purchased were the 2008 version and that a 2009 version was available either by download or by ordering a DVD. I elected to order the DVD. Although both of my computers are running Windows XP, neither will open the DVD that Garmin sent. So I guess that I will have to call the help desk again in order to get this thing running. Of course, I bought the device knowing that I had problems with earlier purchases, but like an idiot, I went ahead. How frustrating!
I would not recommend that anyone purchase any Garmin devices. Maybe the others are just as frustrating, but I have never run across such difficulty with any other computer-based equipment.
great product! August 30, 2008
I spent a lot of time researching different Portable Navigation Systems. This is worth it for the money! With a wide screen, it is very easy to see the map. You never have to look at the screen since the voice speaks to you. It's a great item!
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