Customer Reviews

Garmin nuvi 465/465T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Trucking GPS Navigator

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(39)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Let me start by saying my review is just like others its my opinion! Myself ive been using Garmin GPS systems for 3 years plus. I own a garmin nuvi 660 and me buying the 465t was based on my experience with the 660 no cons if you ask me!
The first thing i noticed about the garmin was the light weight not bulky ,very sleek looking which is a plus in my book. Before going on the road with it i did the necessary updates to the 2010 north America 2.0 takes a while but is expected. The easiest way for the maps is the SD card just stick in and you are good to go will do that in future as i did this with my 660. Ive heard alot of complaints about the volume if you have a radio and CB going then no you will not hear it! The screen is big enough if your vision isn't awful. As far as sending on wrong routes Ive not experienced this problem its pretty accurate. I myself use mcnally my gps and sometimes google maps to compare. Thats the smart way of travel but i did do some runs where i solely used the 465t and had no problems. The truck specific features are nice and was nice to see you can switch back to car mode! So this isn't just a big truck GPS its an all around GPS. The detail of the maps is very good i was also worried when i seen it was a internal attena however it picks up 4 bars most the time it is 5 unless bad weather but never had a reception problem. If you have never used a GPS garmin is by far the easiest to pick up and use. But realize GPS aren't fool proof so use with caution . But hands down the 465t is for any trucker that needs that extra help. Hope i helped anyone debating on buying this product. UPDATE.... Garmin has released firmware updates that fixed some bugs people where reporting! Also the 2010 version 3.0 maps was released and it has proved to fix some bad mapping in a few areas ive noticed! Hands down im still very pleased with the unit and i know with time it will only get better because in the 2 months ive owned they have fixed alot of bugs. So i hope i help someone make a sound decision on this unit. Its by far the best unit for truckers!

The 465T is not quite there yet. It feels like a car gps with a couple truck features thrown in.

PROS:
Nice Display w/auto night/day.
Free Lifetime traffic.
Categorize your favorites.
Excellent signal reception.
Multiple vehicle profiles.
Bluetooth speakerphone.
Multistop routing.

CONS:
Favorites limited to 1,000 entries.
Custom POI's are downright painful and can't be modified without a computer.
Can't route with a via only with stops.
Crashes alot if you aren't sticking to the route. (reboots quickly on its own though).
No way to filter out car only points of interest.
Can not rely on its route to be legal. (It has tried to route through truck restricted areas)
Missing many truckstops and weight stations, and has no rest areas or designated parking locations.
Doesn't seem to use the weight limit settings.
And Many, Many More....

SUMMARY:
If I'd known better, I would have stuck with my TomTom One car GPS. It was more reliable and not nearly as expensive. If Garmin would fix the map truck data and add a couple of features like navigate via and turning off the car stuff, it wouldn't be too bad. But as it stands now, you should save your money and wait for something better. This is a very disappointing product.

Ok. I've had this GPS for about 5 days now. I'm a truck driver and so far I've traveled with it to Sacramento, CA, Albuquerque, NM, and Denver Co.

I've done research on a couple of different trucker GPS out there and decided on this one. I never left a review before, but I'm gonna do so now since I myself use other peoples reviews before I make a final decision to purchase something.

Packaging: No this item DOES NOT come with the suction cup to place on window. Luckily for me, I bought a GPS Garmin 1350t from walmart and took it back to purchase this one. Well, lets jus say I kept the suction cup and returned the rest to walmart. :) I believe they're like $10 or so....

Download: When you register this product with garmin, they'll give you a free maps update. Give yourself a couple of hours for it to complete. Its not that big of a deal. Just download it and go clean or watch a movie or something til its done.

Features:

LANE ASSIST

I love this feature, Especially of you know about traveling thru CA, they have highway exits to left and right. So this lets me know well in advance which lane I need to be in.

SPEED LIMIT

This is really cool and pretty accurate. Jus know that when there's construction and they change speed limit in that area, GPS won't pick that up. (common sense). Also in area like CA, truck speed is 55mph, but rest of traffic is 65mph. GPS will recognize the 65 limit. Not a big deal to me.

SCALES

This is nice. I'll get a notice of scales about 2-5 miles in advance. it missed a couple of scales. Both in CA. But one looked like it was closed down. BUT, out of 8 or so scales I've passed, it missed one and recognized it after I already passed it, I'd say its pretty accurate.

ROUTING

Is good to go, accurate re-routing as well. OHHHH!!! I was in CA and I attempeted to get on freeway. GPS told me there was a weight limit of 4.5 tons on that highway. Sure enough about a half mile on that freeway a HUGE sign was posted and said jus THAT!! I got off the next exit. In truck mode the GPS will route you away from that type of situation. You'll all get notices from gps when an downgrade is about and also sharp curves. It doesn't tell you EVERY downgrade. From what I can tell, ONLY REALLY STEEP downgrades.

VOLUME

There was some complaints about this. To me its not that bad. I mean if you have your radio BLASTING, then you can't hear it. But having radio at respectable volume, even my cab noise, I can hear it just fine. Should the volume on this unit be improved? Probably so? Its not as bad as some people is making it out to be.

What I'm I forgetting........

I believe that it. You can switch to truck or automobile. There's other features like favorites n stuff like that. I mean that is what it is, you either use it or you don't ya know?? But I think I touched on main features. If I forgot something, I appologize. Hope my review helps.

I drive a truck in 48 states and this thing never loses signal not sure why this other guy is. maybe he needs to call garmin. I never lose signal and when going threw a tunnel its able to calculate were i shold be and keep showing me on map screen without me ever knowing it lost signal in a tunnel. I have used other gps brands and they all are terrible. Even though this is not perfect it is still the best brand of gps's on market. Screen size is ok for me even when i'm sitting way back but i guess some people have weaker eyes. The only thing you should know is on all brands of gps always read ahead on what it wants you to do. that way when merging all over the place you know ahead of time what you need 2 do. on a garmin push top left to get a pic of next turn and push top center to get a list of written directions on what it wants you 2 do..

I drive a 40' motor home and live in it full time as well. We like to travel on the 2 lane highways and the 465T has helped me avoid low clearances and narrow bridges. I would recommend this unit for all RVers. Lots of features. I even used it on our trip through Canada. Switched the units to metric and I had a digital speedometer that let me know what speed(in kilometers) I was traveling. It was great.Garmin nüvi 465T 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Truck GPS Navigator

I drive a very noisy truck.The 465t can be heard and the screen is very easy to see regardless of the light outside.The only drawback that i can see is that if you are on certain roads that trucks can travel the unit sends a alarm that trucks should not be on that road.The unit is very good about sending a alarm for steep downgrades before you get to them,also curvy turns.I have not had it alarm for overpasses as I believe that if you put in the truck specs it routes you accordingly.I have tested it in areas that i know have more then one way in and every time it has routed me in according to the truck specs.I have lifetime traffic but i have not been able to activate it yet.overall i think it is a very good unit providing you put the correct truck specs in.The arrival times that the unit shows for a trip are right on.

We purchased the 465T a few weeks ago and have used it in both the truck mode and the auto mode. We are happy with both navigating versions. We bought it with the understanding that no GPS has everything that anyone wants on it or there would never be anything new to sell. Anyway, we went on a trip with our Dodge Dually and a 37ft fifth wheel without the GPS. We bought the GPS before we headed back home and used it on the way back in the truck mode. It put us on better roads and it took us a 1/2 hour less to get home. We've used the 465t to find campgrounds we never knew existed and other points of interest. It changes the speed limits that it displays at just the right time and seems very accurate in the mapping. I have downloaded vehicle icons and redlight cameras and speed cameras which I had never done before and was able to figure out how to do it. I plan to add more custom POI's that will be useful to us. I also pared it to my Blackberry phone. We are very happy with it so far.

have to agree with above review. GPS functions great but just cannot hear ANY messages over the background noise while going down the road. also the truck specific poi are missing a lot of locations, at least around where i live.


UPDATE:09/2009 4 stars not 2
old nuvi660 is about dead so decided to give nuvi465t another try. volume seems to be a little louder on this unit but still not as loud as the 660. Deactivated the text to speech function and it got almost as loud as the old 660. Also found that you need to go into the NTTS folder before searching for a poi and it found way more truckstops, scale houses etc. Can't give it 5 stars because of some minor glitches(phantom weigh stations, posting CAR speed limit vs TRUCK speed limit in multi speedlimit states,routing thru Atlanta).Also wish ETA didn't automatically adjust to the timezone the destination is in. This is my second 465t, Amazon refunded my purchase price on the first one with no hassles what so ever.

Picked this up at J&R for my uncle, who's a truck driver. He gave me his feedback and I returned in a few days.

Here's why:
Pros -
- Functions just like a Garmin - easy to use
- NAVTEQ maps are the best - he said it had roads that PC Miler never heard of
- multiple vehicle profiles

Cons -
- The speaker was awful - he said even with the window closed, you couldn't hear the thing at ALL. So you had to watch the screen for every turn. This also rendered the Bluetooth connection useless as you can't hear the caller.
- Can't avoid a specific road (!) The GPS sometimes put him on highways that were not ideal, and there's no way to tell it NOT to use that road.
- When using the dash mount, the GPS signal was not great. It worked fine in my car, but in my uncle's truck the dash was apparently too far from the window to see the satellites. It would need an external antenna.

Some of these things we could live with, but the speaker and road avoidance were deal breakers. I'm looking at other options, so should you.

Driving a motor coach with weight/height/road restrictions, I needed a GPS that covered all of those options. Currently have a Garmin NUVI 755 and, although an excellent unit, does not cover restricted roads and offers no choices for inputting weight and size of your vehicle. After reading about truck GPS units, decided on the Garmin 465T. Wrong.......!!!

If I never owned a Garmin before, I would not have noticed the differences. The 755 has MP3 capabilities and a headphone jack (both making for more pleasant driving. No-one hears my directions or my music). The 465T has neither. The 755 has substantial heft to it. The 465T is make of plastic and weighs less than half of the 755.

But the primary drawback to the 465T is its inability to route you around restricted roads. For instance, the 755 will route you through Storrow Drive in Boston even though Storrow drive is restricted to cars only (Height limit 9'). The main reason I bought the 465T was to avoid situations like that, but the way the 465T avoids them is, when it calculates the route, flashes a screen that says Storrow Drive is restricted to trucks. Period. It doesn't route you around it. It just gives you the choice of canceling the route or accepting it. It also gave me no indication of a problem when it routed from New Bedford, MA to Newport, RI, even though a bridge on the route has an 18 ton, 2 axle limit (It has had for years, and the latest map in installed). Same was the case for routing from Providence to Boston, even though another bridge on 95North with an 19 ton, 2 axle limit (along with a posted $3000 fine for crossing it) is on the route.

Not feeling comfortable with what your GPS is telling you does not make for a confident driver.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a total waste of money. It looks like Garmin is heading in the right direction, and trying to break into the trucking GPS market, but this product just doesn't make the grade (no pun intended).

Another minor (but irritating) problem is the voices. The 755 voices are crystal clear, and although the same voices are available for download, they sound garbled and are not clear at all.