Customer Reviews

Garmin 010-11043-00 City Navigator Europe NT - Benelux/France

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this for a trip to France last month, as an add-on for our Nuvi 305. Popped it in, and could instantly start creating favorites for spots we were going to be. Once in France, turned on the unit and it worked perfectly. No manual switching between maps or configuration of any kind: plug it in, and away we went. It has a huge database of points of interest, and it knows about every single street in France, even the tiniest one lane road through vineyards or around minuscule towns. If you have a Nuvi and are going to be in France, I wholeheartedly recommend this.

I downloaded the France/Benelux maps from the Garmin website ($99.99) for my Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS to use on a vacation in France, and followed all of Garmin's directions scrupulously. When I arrived in France, the GPS recognized that I was in France but did not find the maps and did not work. I reviewed the manual but that was no help. I emailed Garmin and received a reply in French saying "Due to a spate of calls and emails, please visit our main site...If you can not find the answer to your question please contact our hotline on 01 55 17 81 89."

I tried the website and any other Garmin website I could find online, but could not find what I needed. I called the hotline several times, but each time it answered with a recording in French and I found no option for English. The French recording said to connect the GPS to a computer and then talk with them, but I was in a phone booth! I NEVER got to talk with a live human.

I was never able to get the GPS to work in France. After I left I emailed Garmin to complain about their poor service and to ask for my money back. Garmin replied "Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I will be happy to assist you. I do apologize for this but the maps are already tie to your unit and we are not able to credit back the credit card did you tried and contact Garmin Europe to see if they could help you with this matter."

Garmin needs to learn how to make adding and using maps dirt simple, and Garmin needs to pay particular attention to providing fast and accurate help in English to traveling Americans. Also, Garmin needs to improve the Garmin Nuvi 350 manual to cover situations like this.

Addendum: I complained to Mastercard and was able to get my money back. Too bad I can't be reimbursed for the many frustrating vacation hours wasted trying to get the GPS to work.

I ordered the chip on the Monday prior to the Saturday departure for France. Had the chip by Thursday inserted it and it was ready to go. We set the search to direct us to avoid freeways and had a great 8 days driving the backroads of France. We could not have navigated many of these small one lane roads without the garmin. It made our trip very enjoyable without the stress of trying to read maps, watch for poorly marked small roads and asking for directions.

We used the Garmin for four days through Paris and around France and were happy with the reliability but a little perplexed by the routing. The device routed us over kilometer after kilometer of narrow (sometimes even one lane) paved and unpaved roads instead of staying with more conventional routes. It made for some interesting sightseeing, but difficult driving in the dark. We also would have liked to been able to more easily set a route through selected towns. The device required specific addresses. All in all it was very easy to load and use, and every road we were on or intersected was in the device. We were very glad to have it and I recommend it!

True plug 'n play operation. Distances given in miles and feet, which doesn't match the street signs you see but is good for a driver who is not used to the metric (i.e. "Turn right in 300 feet.")

My GPS is Garmin Nuvi350. After reading other reviews I was very cautious about buying the item. I live in the US and could not figure out how to test that the European maps I just bought worked. I bought the maps on a SD card. When in France I put the card into the GPS and that was all I had to do - it worked immediately. I am extremely happy with the product and would buy maps more ofter if they were only less expensive.

These maps are very good. I have only tested Lyon, FR and the surrounding area. Better deal than any other product. SIM card install was flawless on 265WT. I do prefer the Magellan platform for one simple reason: They ding-dong when you need to maneuver. After awhile, you tune out the Garmin lady and miss a turn. "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "prepare to turn left", "turn left". Darn, missed it again. Over dramatized but you get the idea.

Plugged the chip into the side of my Garmin nuvi 760 and it worked like a charm when we got to southern France.

We installed this update on our several year old Garmin and were able to do it without losing the existing US data. Although its directions were generally pretty good, we were occasionally misled by vague directions or, on several occasions, an incorrect count of which exit to take on a roundabout that sent us on some detours. We were better off when we converted the language to French to match the signs, but there were still things that were very confusing.

First I could not have made my trip successfully without the Garmin English language GPS guide for France. However, that said, the speaker's ability to say French words in understandable English was poor and misleading. Also the highways and primary roads I drove on in the south of France did not have posted names so the street/road names used were usually superfluous and therefore a distraction or the street names were on buildings and were difficult to locate. What was useful was the distances quoted and directions to make turns at the correct time. This statement does not apply to numbered primary highways such as the A 7 or similarly named/numbered highways.