Customer Reviews

Garmin nüvi 760 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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

 

 

I received my first Garmin nüvi 760 as a Christmas present a couple years ago. At first I was very impressed by the gorgeous display and all the neat features, but I soon noticed that the route suggestions were highly inaccurate, no matter how I configured the navigation settings. More than once it tried to guide me onto a gravel drive called "Jenkins Road" that deadended at the railroad tracks. Distressed by my apparently homicidal GPS, I contacted Garmin and got a replacement unit.

Thankfully the second 760 I received actually gave me directions to where I needed to go and never once tried to kill me. All was well until about a year later (right as the warranty ended, of course) when the battery suddenly stopped functioning. No matter how I try to charge it, the moment I unplug it the screen starts flashing a "low battery" warning and then about 15 seconds later turns off. Because it's out of warranty I know Garmin won't replace it, and none of the troubleshooting steps or firmware updates I've tried have helped.

These technical issues have been all the more frustrating because the nüvi 760 is otherwise a very neat gadget. Everything is highly customizable, from route avoidances to favorite locations to countless languages and voice navigation choices. The 760 also comes with a surprisingly robust music player, which I really like. You just put whatever music files you want on an SD card, pop the SD card into the GPS and then it categorizes everything by artist, song, album, etc. Unfortunately the unit's FM transmitter is too weak to be worth bothering with, but its built-in speakers are okay and certainly better than silence. Another feature I appreciate is the "estimated arrival time," the calculation of which seems to adapt to your driving habits and therefore becomes increasingly accurate over time.

Unfortunately none of this comes close to outweighing how inconvenient it is that this doesn't work when it's not plugged in. I have other devices that use the cigarette lighter so I really need a GPS that can run on battery for a couple hours.

I bought this Nuvi in December 2008. This Nuvi model is a little slow to start up. Other than that I have no complaints.

Update: In February 2011, I had to replace the suction cup mount because the previous one lost its suction after two years of regular use.

Update: In July 2011, the GPS quit working. I opened the GPS and found a loose electric connector. After re-snapping the connector it started working again.

Garmin is easy to use and intuitive. Garmin products are durable and dependable. I have used two garmin GPS and have been very satisfied.

I will apologize for the long review to follow (I usually try to keep it to one screen).

Over the past three years I have used three different GPS units from three different manufacturers. I thought a side by side comparison might be useful. The technology continues to advance, as does the feature set offered in the way of traffic reporting/rerouting and map updates, so I will try to stick the general feature set/usability of each unit unless it pertains to a feature that I cannot see buying a GPS without.

The three GPS units are a Motorola Motonav TN765T, TomTom XL 350TM and Garmin Nuvi 760.

Motorola Motonav TN765T
Pro:
* best screen resolution of the three
* fast trip calculation/recalculation and voice input or destination is a great feature
* best overall display and on screen information content pertaining to speed, direction, etc.
- light weight
- plenty of expansion features (at a cost)
- 2D or 3D map rendering
- phone Bluetooth integration is easy to setup
- satellite lock is fast and stable

Con:
- the mount is wonderfully articulated, so that you can mount and adjust it to your heart's content, but it vibrates/jiggles constantly in my car so that it makes it hard to read the display
- Motorola decided to place a couple of controls on the back of the unit, and I found that I was constantly triggering them while adjusting the unit
- can you say advertisements? I knew you could
- traffic information was often slow to load or incorrect (either I was already fifteen minutes into a delay when it finally loaded, or it reports a delay on a stretch of highway that was completely open), but the TomTom and Garmin are no better
- use with Bluetooth next to useless, even with the top up and windows closed my Miata is too noisy to make this usable (all of these GPS units rate the same in this respect, so I won't bother to repeat this)
- limited map updates (I think it was 6 months or less)
- the accompanying software never worked successfully on my Windows 7 64bit system (maybe they have remedied this by now, at the time Windows 7 had just come out and Motorola was apparently not concerned as their support personnel never responded to my contacts)

TomTom XL 350TM
Pro:
* lifetime map updates is very nice (updates are restricted to quarterly)
- interface is easy to navigate
* traffic monitor included (no ads or expiration) (however, it is still often wrong)
* plenty of POIs, many available via downloads (on the Con side, the parent companies don't seem to maintain these POI lists or the accompanying graphic, go figure, you would think that Starbucks and McDonald's would want you to know just where to find all of their locations and be able to readily identify them from the little icon)
- map color modification, though I have not been able to get it to look just like the Garmin, which I find to be the best of the bunch in their default setting
- I like the on screen information content, the essentials are there, but the Motorola rules this feature
- accompanying software works well

Con:
- mounting bracket is good but not great, I get the least vibration, but it often breaks loose on me, such that I need to verify the ring is rotated fully clockwise (a simple locking mechanism would have been a great addition)
- I have been bitten a couple of times by allowing the unit to reroute me past delays, beware that it does not monitor surface street traffic (I tried to bypass the local fair highway traffic only to have it reroute me onto the surface streets that wound directly past the fair turning a 30 minute delay into a 90 minute delay)
- satellite lock is often slow to connect when the unit is turned on, especially in cloudy weather and can lose lock if the weather is poor
- limited set of downloadable voices and vehicle avatars (unless you are willing to pay)

Garmin Nuvi 760
Pro:
* simplest interface, intuitive, required little or no documentation to get started using the device
* the mounting bracket was by far the most secure with the least vibration and the easiest to fasten and remove the unit
- best set of downloadable features from voices to vehicle avatars, most free
- accompanying software works well

Con:
- no map updates
- 3 months free traffic information, then you pay to subscribe to the free information (I see that both of these items are available in the newer versions of the Garmin product)
- while I prefer the default color scheme of the Garmin, the overall graphics display on this devise is below the minimal display I would expect from a GPS now

Overall impressions: I found the Garmin to be the easiest to use and I notice that the current versions include many of the feature that I found preferable in the other manufacturer's models. I currently use the TomTom as the most functional of the units that I currently own, however, if I were to buy a new unit at this time, I would opt for a Garmin based upon my experiences with the above units. P-)

How disappointing. Garmin always made excellent gps and fish-finding equipment for boating. That's why I chose the Nuvi 760 over competing units four years ago. After a few months, the first updates came. I diligently hooked it up to my laptop and updated all the software. Performance suffered severely ever since. Unit required two restarts every time before successful start up - and even then, half the time the voice commands would quit - requiring another reboot (not convenient while you're driving). Long delays in screen response while typing - so much so that it frequently caused double letters when spelling destinations because I had pressed twice before anything showed up. And even though they never bothered to correct the firmware issues, they had no problem displaying a 5 second beggar screen every time the unit booted up reminding me that I should really download new maps... for a price, of course.

So you're probably wondering why I decided to finally review it after four years. Because tonight, while on a business trip driving in a city I'm not familiar with, it croaked. Just wouldn't turn on when I got in the car to go home. Thanks Garmin, you rock.

I would not buy another Garmin. The 760 does not have the "ding" before it announces the turn. The marketing info never tells you that. More importantly, I have had this for about a year and the battery holds a charge for about 60 seconds. I called Garmin - they will not replace the battery and it is not under any kind of warranty. So I am buying the replacement battery from Amazon and seeing if that works. If not, it's Tom Tom for me.
June 2011 update: I bought the third-party replacement battery (Garmin Nuvi 760 Battery Replacement Kit with Installation Video, Tools, and Extended Life Battery. #361-00019-11 Sold by: Innovate88), installed it according to the directions on you tube and on the provided CD, and now the battery holds a charge. Thank you, Garmin, for nothing.

works great the maps do need updating since it's last years model but that's no biggie, just a garmin site update, the combo of bluetooth & FM transmitter is awesome . i have a convertible so i cant run a high dollar stereo without it getting stolen so i use this as an mp3 player using the fm transmitter plus in most convertibles you wouldn't be able to hear the gps but its loud & clear when coming through the stereo speakers as are my phone calls via bluetooth through the car stereo via the fm transmitter , easy to use great features , & affordable. I'd recommend this model to anyone. great value for money

The unit could not be installed as the factory wiring in the car was removed for my after-market stereo; the gps ties into the stereo wiring.

When I returned it it came back as "no such address" which made me extremely suspicious as they had no published address or phone number. The problem was I was inadvertantly given the wrong address by the merchant and there was nothing shady or deliberate on their part; they're just a mom and pop in Brooklyn with no real store front so I want apologize here to Overstocks.