Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 255W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Accessory Bundle

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

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...

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:
This thing 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.

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.

This is my second Garmin (the first got stolen), and I like almost everything about it, particularly the price. Definitely get the weighted stand. It's easier to mount and adjust, and it's easier to remove to hide. (Thieves can see the suction cup marks on the windshield and will break in to search for it. Trust me.) Lots of options for voices. Speaks street names which makes it easier for me to navigate (my first GPS--not a Garmin-- did not speak street names; what a hassle!) and in enough time to make the turns. The worst part of the GPS is the maps are NOT updated. Nanny, as we call my GPS, still doesn't know about the new traffic circle that was built four years ago, even though I just bought the GPS in March. I guess I will have to pay to update the map, which I think is foolish. We should get the most current map at the time of purchase. Besides this issue, I've been very pleased. Again, splurge for the weighted stand instead of the suction cup. You'll thank me later.

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.

I have only used this once.

I plugged it in,it set up immediately and I could start using it.
Tried several different directions. Went a different way and
it adjusted to a new route very easily. The voice was very pleasant

Much easier to use than an old Tom Tom that I had.

Garmin has dozens of models to choose from. I carefully compared features and chose the 255W because it has all the features I want and none that I don't (FM, traffic, Bluetooth).

I bought the kit that includes GPS, stand, suction cup mount, and power adapters for two vehicles. Great price for all that.

The screen cracked after two weeks of use -- total mystery as to why. Amazon replaced it.

Lots of Web reviews. Take advantage of the Compare Products button above in the Product Details section. I found this site very useful for this model and others: [...]

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.

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!