Car Vent Mount for Garmin Nuvi 750 760 770 650 660 670 680 200 200W 250 250W 260 270 350 360 370 GPS

by MFX2

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4 x 4 x 4 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• ASIN: B000KJBMCQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

Product Description

Innovative and highly practical, this mount uses your existing cradle. A lot of our customers worry about security. The vent is a great location for your GPS. It keeps it within arm's reach and out of site from the bad guys. The mount uses your existing Nuvi cradle. Like the factory mount, we use the round hole in the back of the cradle to attach to our vent mount. The power port can be fully accessed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A pain at first to install, December 27, 2006

By 

Rollie (San Jose) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Car Vent Mount for Garmin Nuvi 750 760 770 650 660 670 680 200 200W 250 250W 260 270 350 360 370 GPS (Electronics)

Assembly required. Instructions were just a few sentences and were not enough. The ram mount does not bolt on properly to the main unit. There is not enough space. I had to fasten it with only one bolt that was provided instead of two. It turned out not to be an issue though because one bolt holds it on strong. Yet I don't understand how the mountguys (who make this unit) sell this, knowing both screws don't fasten properly. I also had loosen the hinge and flip it so it traveled vertically instead of horizontally. It seemed this was a rubiks cube problem! You use your own garmin cradle and it attaches to the unit. There is very little space to attach one end of the garmin car charger to the back of the cradle once the cradle is attached to the mount, though it is just enough.

I finally configured it to work on my car vent despite the instructions and flawed assembled parts. It took a lot of time. However, it now works and it's pretty sturdy. I use it for my nuvi 350. I must say I am now pleased with this mount.

One other concern is the heat from the vent hitting the back of the garmin. I e mailed mountguys but they never responded. Garmin says that the temperature of the Nuvi should not exceed 145 F degrees. I measured the climate temperature with a thermometer of the heat coming out of my car vent when set at the highest temperature. It was 145 degrees F. Not good.

To deal with this, I have to turn down the heat or redirect the heat to the floor vents so I don't have to risk too much heat hitting the nuvi. After two weeks I found myself being very aware of the garmin by feeling it to see if it is too hot when using the heat. I had to fiddle with the climate control settings frequently. I tried to direct the louvers to blow the air towards another direction away from the garmin, but because of the mount, you have little room to move the louvers. Finally I stuffed velcro across the vent to block most of the heat. That works. However, when I feel the top of the dashboard directly above that vent, it is about 25% hotter than the other vents. I wonder if blocking the heat backs up the heat, causing heat sump and possible damage to the air channels or wiring underneath the dashboard. Again, I am forced to redirect the hot air to the floor.


On a plus side, having the car charger continually plugged into the cradle means that I never have to charge my garmin in my house. This is convenient and might outweigh the inconvenience of fiddling with the climate controls. I think mounting it on the vent allows me to hide the car charger wire more easily, as opposed to if it were mounted on top of the dash or on the windshield with a big black ugly wire hanging down.

I did talk to a Garmin tech about battery replacement and he told me the lithion ion battery will last 2-3 years. A probable $200 estimated charge will be the cost to replace it, said the tech.

Another plus is it is easier to reach out and touch the screen when the nuvi is mounted on the vent. It is just inches away from my right hand.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Acceptable Vent Mount, August 19, 2007

By 

Just an ordinary Joe "VJ" (Fremont, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Car Vent Mount for Garmin Nuvi 750 760 770 650 660 670 680 200 200W 250 250W 260 270 350 360 370 GPS (Electronics)

I purchased this for my NUVI 660 to be mounted on a 2002 Acura CL. I had some reservations after reading the review, but decided to get it anyway since it was the only one I could find and take my chances.

This mount must be a newer model. Although it did require some assembly, the mounting plate was already bolted to the NUVI ball adapter by both screws/bolts. Now, sliding this mounting plate onto the main mounting unit did require quite strong pressure. I received installation instructions consisting of 2 pages, but putting everything together was quite straightforward and I only referred to the instructions when I had a doubt.

In my specific case, the vent mount did not fit in the left-center vent (the Acura has two center vents) due to the design of the dashboard. I had to install it on the right-center vent, a little farther than I would have liked, but no big deal. The whole process took me less than 20 minutes and that included my trying different install options.

Overall, I think it serves its purpose as an alternative to the dash mount and it's a keeper for me.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It works with some tweaking, November 6, 2007

By 

Stephen M. Charme (central New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Car Vent Mount for Garmin Nuvi 750 760 770 650 660 670 680 200 200W 250 250W 260 270 350 360 370 GPS (Electronics)

My dashboard is curved, so a vent mount was the only way to go to avoid using the windshield.

There was very little assembly(no tools were required) though it was a little confusing because of bare bones directions.

While the mount works, I found that the weight of the unit would pull the mount out of the vent if I went over even a moderate bump. After some experimenting I solved the problem as follows:

The mount has two plastic clips that attach to the vent and a latch on the bottom that supports the weight of the Nuvi and provides stability. That latch, which I rest right below the vent against the console, was dislodging from its position when I hit a bump, which meant that the Nuvi had nothing to support its weight and would pull out of the vent.

I put a strip of velcro on the console right below the latch, and then for added thickness put another strip of velcro on top of the first strip(note--do not remove the backing from the second strip or you will have the glue exposed). Problem solved. Now the latch is lodged securely, and does not slip when I hit a bump because of the velcro right below it.

Nonetheless, even with normal driving I find that from time to time the plastic clips in the vent start to pull out, and I have to push them back in.

For my car this vent mount was the only solution. I gave it only three stars because while it works, it required the tweaking that I described above.

Update 3-4-2008: A few weeks ago I purchased the Garmin Portable Friction Mount to replace this unit, which seemed to keep loosening up and come out altogether on a very sharp turn. I have written a review for the Friction Mount and think that it is a better solution than this vent mount for my different cars.