Garmin GTM 20 FM-Band Traffic Receiver

by Garmin

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 0.7 x 2.2 x 3.2 inches ; 2.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000F6UKTU
• Item model number: 010-00544-01
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Receiver GTM 20 FM TMC traffic

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Handy accessory, but could be better, January 27, 2008

By 

Photolita (Mineola, NY United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garmin GTM 20 FM-Band Traffic Receiver (Electronics)

I purchased this for my Nuvi 650. My husband and I do not commute to work during rush hour, but we do tend to drive to visit my parents' around the evening rush hour. We figured it would be handy to help us avoid the Long Island traffic that turns our 25 minute drive into an hour drive around that time. We have several different main road options to choose from, and we were hoping it would automatically route us to the ones that had no traffic tie-ups. Here's how it really works:

It continues to route you the normal fastest way, regardless of traffic. Once you get near the road where there is a traffic jam, a small yellow icon appears on the bottom right hand corner of the GPS, with a number inside it. That number is the amount of minutes you can expect to be sitting in traffic on the road ahead. Touch on the icon and it will show you the stretch of road that has the delay and it will give you an option to "Avoid traffic?". ONLY if you click yes, it will route you to a different road to avoid the traffic. (After you click yes, it will ask you something like "are you sure you want to avoid, this route is already the fastest", but click yes again. That route is the fastest WITHOUT traffic, but not with. You can tell this by the new arrival time you are given when you ask for the reroute. It's usually earlier.)

Overall, I like the receiver, it does what I need it to do, only with a few extra steps. Ideally of course, it would ask you right off the bat when you program your route if you want to avoid all traffic, because that small yellow icon can be easy to miss if you're driving alone in the car and not continually glancing over at the GPS. They should play a little sound or something when it pops up! Then it's kind of dangerous to be poking around on the unit while it asks you twice about the reroute while you should be driving! I definitely don't regret buying it, but hopefully future models will have worked out the kinks.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not so sure if it is worth it, October 25, 2007

By 

D. White (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Garmin GTM 20 FM-Band Traffic Receiver (Electronics)

I don't do a lot of out of town highway travel, so I'm not sure this really helps me with my local traffic. I have found it very accurate, but if I have chosen the freeway route, I typically already know what the traffic will be like from the TV or radio. Where I do see some value...it helps to make the ETA on the GPS route more accurate. I think if I drove cross country it would help me decide whether to use through town or perimeter routes as I am approaching large cities. It works, I just don't think it does anything for ME on my daily commutes. I often find myself saying, "oh yeah, there's the traffic jam I see on the GPS". In Atlanta, at least, it does nothing for the surface streets.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars User beware, September 20, 2008

By 

Gary D. Howell (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Garmin GTM 20 FM-Band Traffic Receiver (Electronics)

Use of this device requires the tightening of the fuse cap every few times that you remove it from the cigarette lighter. If you forget to do this, the cap will eventually unscrew and the pressure from the internal fuse spring will cause 1/2 dozen metal and plastic parts to explode all over your car's interior.

And just when you nicely get into the habit of performing the above, the plastic screw cap will break in two, making the device useless.