Garmin nuvi 660 4.3-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator

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Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.6 x 2.6 x 2.6 inches ; 6.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000H49LXQ
• Item model number: 010-00540-00
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,528 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #999 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 1, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com

Amazon.com With a gorgeous widescreen display, the Garmin nüvi 660 GPS Personal Travel Assistant is your answer to the call of adventure. A sleek navigator and a keen travel assistant, the nüvi 660 is preloaded with highly detailed City Navigator NT road maps for the entire United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. This map database features nearly six million points of interest (POIs), including hotels, restaurants, gas stations, ATMs, and attractions, and the data is provided by NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.This preloaded navigator brings all this fantastic map data to your fingertips with a super-bright, 4.3-inch widescreen display for improved map viewing, day or night. Use the touch screen interface to select destinations, look up POIs, and play your favorite MP3s and audio books. The display also helps you control hands-free calling, traffic alerts, and the FM transmitter, all from the screen of your personal travel assistant.

Which nüvi is Best for You?: Click here to see a quick, simple comparison of features for all Garmin nuvi GPS navigators

Wider screen lets you see more of what's around. Compare these actual size views of a 3-inch (diagonal) screen



and a 4.3-inch diagonal widescreen
Widescreen -- See Better, See More
The widescreen format gives you 70% more actual screen area than a 3.5-inch screen. Primarily this translates into a better view of the area through which you are driving. This is especially useful in showing you what parks, restaurants, ATM, gas stations, etc. are nearby, or in letting you know whether a detour is a good idea. Also, the device itself is larger, meaning controls on the screen are more widely spaced and somewhat easier to push.

FM Transmitter -- Hear Better, Hear More
Instead of straining your ears to hear turn-by-turn directions or your favorite MP3s, you can enjoy wireless FM audio transmission via the nüvi 660's wireless FM transmitter. Tune your car's radio to the appropriate station and you'll hear all the nüvi's audio, including voice prompts, MP3s, audio books, and more, directly through your vehicle's stereo system. The nüvi 660 includes many "must-have" entertainment and travel tools, including digital music and audio book playback, JPEG picture viewer, currency converters, and more. All these great features make the nüvi 660 a complete Personal Travel Assistant.

First Rate Map Data
The nüvi 660 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a hefty POI database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nüvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. Garmin gets its map data from NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality mapping.

In addition, the nüvi 660 accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs

Important note about map updates: Due to our high volume of sales, almost every Garmin portable GPS navigator sold by Amazon.com will come with the most recent map version. If you ever do need a map update, you can purchase one from Amazon.com at our Garmin Store.

Hands-Free Calling
In more and more places, it is becoming illegal to use cell phones while driving without a hands-free kit. The nüvi 660's Bluetooth capability, microphone and speaker lets match it to any bluetooth-capable phone to make hands-free mobile phone calls. Simply dial the phone number with the nüvi's touch screen keypad to make a call on a compatible phone. To answer an incoming call, just tap the screen and speak into the built-in microphone. Making and taking calls on the road has never been easier, or safer. In addition, Garmin makes it a breeze to look-up and dial numbers from your personalized phone book or even tap into your cell phone's call history log.

Integrated FM Traffic Receiver

Steer clear of traffic with an integrated FM traffic receiver designed to receive alerts from TMC Clear Channel about traffic tie-ups and road construction that might lie ahead on your route. All you have to do is simply touch the screen to view traffic details and you'll be ready to detour around any problem area. And if you end up missing a turn, or you're forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nüvi's sophisticated automatic routing will get you back on track in no time. In most areas, TMC Clear Channel traffic broadcasts are continuous — there's no waiting for scheduled traffic news updates or random alerts. Because traffic broadcasts are received via a "silent" FM data channel, you can still listen to music or news programming on your car radio without interference from incoming FM traffic data transmissions. A 3-month subscription to TMC Clear Channel's Total Traffic Network is included with purchase of this device. For more information on subscription fees, coverage in individual cities, and traffic data networks in the United Kingdom and Europe, check the Garmin website.

Easy To Use Interface
Garmin's interface is a key to their success and one of the things that makes their devices such a pleasure to use. Simple controls and sub-screens make it easy to enter or search for destinations and get data about your trip.

Beyond Navigation

Browse your stored pictures with an easy-to-use JPEG viewer.

A handy MP3 player lets you play songs stored on SD memory cards.

nüvi 250W accepts custom points of interest (POIs). View larger.

Navigation is just the beginning. The nüvi 660 features travel tools including JPEG picture viewer, MP3 player, world travel clock with time zones, currency converter, measurement converter, calculator and more. It also comes with Garmin Lock, an anti-theft feature, and configurable vehicle icons that let you select car-shaped graphics to show your location on the map.

This device is compatible with optional content plug-ins available via SD card, such as the  Garmin Travel Guides and Garmin SaversGuide provide detailed data for attractions and information on nearby merchants offering discounts, so you can customize nüvi for your travel needs

Garmin has also added the ability for customers to add custom points of interest (POI’s) from third parties such as school zones and safety cameras.

Trick Your GPS Ride

Custom vehicle icons let you ride in style, at least inside your GPS. See more icon options

All Garmin nüvis support configurable vehicle icons. These fun, customized car-shaped icons come in a variety of colors to add a personal touch to your vehicle's position on the map.

With this GPS system on board you'll be prepared to steer clear of traffic with the integrated FM TMC traffic receiver. The nüvi 770 is designed to receive alerts about traffic tie-ups and road construction that might lie ahead on your route. All you have to do is simply touch the screen to view traffic details and you'll be ready to detour around any problem area. And if you end up missing a turn, or you're forced into a detour that is not relayed through the traffic receiver, the nüvi's sophisticated automatic routing will get you back on track in no time.

What's in the Box
nüvi 660 GPS navigation system, preloaded City Navigator North, America NT data, vehicle suction cup mount, A/C charger, carrying case, FM traffic receiver/12-volt adapter with 3-month free trial subscription, dashboard disk, USB interface cable, sample language guide content (preloaded), sample travel guide, sample MP3s (preloaded), sample audio books (preloaded), owner's manual, and a quick reference guide.

Notes

• Optional software for language translation, detailed travel guides, and savings programs allow you to customize your nüvi to fit your travel needs
• The FM transmitter feature is only available in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand
• Like most USB Mass Storage Devices, the nüvi is not compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me.

Which nüvi is Best for You?

Note: All nüvis come with detailed NAVTEQ maps containing more than 6 million pre-loaded point of interest locations.

Device	Screen Size inches (W x H)	Included Maps			Text-to-Speech (Directions in Real Street Names)	Traffic	Bluetooth	Media	FM Transmitter (audio through car stereo system)	Multi-Point Routing	Battery life (hours)
		Cont. U.S., Hawaii, and Puerto Rico	AK and Canada	Europe
nüvi 660	3.81 x 2.25					FM (receiver included)		Photos, MP3s			up to 7
nüvi 205	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 205w	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 255	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 255w	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 260w	3.81 x 2.25							Photos			up to 5
nüvi 265T	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 265WT	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 275T	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 285WT	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free);		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 465T	3.81 x 2.25					FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 755T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 760	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 5
nüvi 765T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 775T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 780	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 5
nüvi 785T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 850	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 855	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 885T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (receiver included; 3 months free); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos, MP3s			up to 4
nüvi 1200	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1250	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1260T	2.8 x 2.1					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1300	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1350	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (with optional receiver)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1350T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1370T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1390T	3.81 x 2.25					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1490T	4.4 x 2.5					MSN-enhanced (with optional receiver); FM (receiver included; Lifetime Traffic)		Photos			up to 4
nüvi 1690	3.81 x 2.25					NAVTEQ Traffic, 2 years free (Garmin nüLink! service)		Photos			up to 4

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1,216 of 1,230 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Pocket GPS On the Market (at the time), September 28, 2006

By	ThomasN (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This is the first GPS unit I owned and couldn't be more pleased. After consulting with friends who have owned multiple GPS units and reading various reviews, this is one of the nicest, feature-packed, and most importantly, accurate unit on the market. Just this morning, I opted to take a longer route to get to the highway because the street I usually take was under construction. I've driven sparingly on that alternate route for 4 years and never realized there was a small intersecting street in a business district I can cut through to get to the highway more quickly. The Nuvi 660 pointed that out, basically shaving off over a mile in distance, traffic congestion, and plenty of frustration. GPS owners tell me having one will change my life... I'm starting to believe.

To clarify on another review: It DOES come with 6 million POIs... for free. It's located under the subcategory of "Where to?" in the "Food, Hotels..." icon.

Update 10/22/06 - Just took this Nuvi on an East Coast trip to Washington, D.C., VA, NJ, PA, NY and its performance exceeded my expectations. It found just about every addresses and POIs I entered, except for one because the store recently changed its name. Needless to say, I never got lost. In one instance, I searched for the nearest Target in Fairfax, VA. Not only it got me there, but told me where to drive around inside the shopping center's parking lot, leading me right up to the front of the store!

Update 11/08/06 - After nearly two months of use, the unit still works well. However, I found that real time traffic indicator is not as useful as initially thought. It would give me the typical obvious traffic jams around town, but who doesn't already know it, unless one is not from here. I've come to realize that no GPS has the capability of knowing which back roads to take to avoid traffic jam in all instances. Only you (the user) being familiar with local roads and its driving conditions can make such a decision.

Update 1/30/07 - The unit suddenly stopped receiving satellite signals yesterday. Tried every method from resetting/rebooting to installing lastest software, but no success. Called tech support this morning and they were able to fix the corrupted software remotely within an hour without having to send in the unit for service.

Originally, it wouldn't support my 4gig SD memory card, but with the latest Garmin software 3.20 update, it now recognizes it. I'm using the RiDATA PRO 4GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Card Model SDCR4G. Also, my Verizon Treo 650 links up a little better now when in talk mode, albeit still won't maintain a stable connection, ie. phonebook, when in standby mode.

Update 6/4/07 - My brother-in-law was so impressed with the 660 that he upgraded from a lower-end Garmin this past Christmas. Last month, his Nuvi stopped receiving a signal. He tried calling tech support, but was unable to fix it remotely like I had. He ended up sending his in for repair. They still were unable to correct the problem at the repair center, so they gave him a brand new replacement. Despite the inconvenience of the malfunction, he came away satisfied with Garmin customer service.

6/29/07 - This unit links up with my iPhone via Bluetooth without a hitch. Bye-bye Treo 650...

My wish list for a better Nuvi:
- have option to select a default city, instead of asking for state & city every time
- alphabetize the favorite list and let user create sublists
- have an alternative qwerty keyboard layout
- design a better mount.. suction cup sucks!

6/11/08 - Although the Nuvi 660 served me well, I upgraded to the Nuvi 760. Overall, it's a better unit than the 660. If you're deciding whether to get the 660 or 760, consider the 760 because it comes with a newer map version, faster boot-up (but still has difficulty picking up signals indoors like the 660), no flip-up antenna, slightly brighter screen, QWERTY keyboard, better suction cup mount, and a few other feature enhancements. On the downside, the traffic receiver marginally works and the FM transmitter is still staticky like the 660. By the way, the 660 has been discontinued by Garmin as of January 2008 (if that's a concern to anyone). But if you already have the 660, no need to upgrade because it's still a very capable unit.

6/23/08 - Garmin has a 2009 MAP that one can upgrade for FREE if request within the 30-day period of the unit's registration date. My Nuvi 760 came with 2008 preinstalled. Since I was unable to get the free upgrade via Garmin website, I had to call in and was put on hold for 25 minutes! Anyway, the tech support guy was very helpful in taking me through the steps to register for the free map update. I opted for the CD instead of download. It costs $10 for the shipping/handling via UPS Ground, but he waived the fee for me. Nice! Although I did this with the 760, the same offer should work for the 660, except for the waiver on the shipping :o)

7/8/08 - I sometimes come across comments about the unit's inability to search for the "best" route. For example, a recent reviewer states that "The Nuvi frequently wants to route me off the highway and thru towns that I know will be much slower." - MY SUGGESTION IS NOT ONLY YOU HAVE THE OPTION OF CHOOSING SHORTEST ROUTE OR FASTEST TIME, BUT YOU CAN FINE TUNE THE GPS TO AVOID TRAFFIC, U-TURNS, TOLL ROADS, ETC... PLAY WITH THOSE CONFIGURATIONS TO SEE IF YOU GET BETTER RESULTS.

313 of 317 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Generally great product with a few small issues, December 1, 2006

By	Glenn (IL United States) - See all my reviews

I recently purchased the nuvi 660 for a road trip from the Midwest to New England. I am now using in my daily commute. The product has performed great overall. Most of the features worked well, and the advertised capabilites are fairly represented. I strongly recommend the product, subject to the caveats below.

I also considered purchasing the nuvi 360, but ultimately decided on the 660 because it has the traffic data receiver and the ability to put the audio through the car stero using an FM transmitter.

Now for the issues I have encountered:

1- The FM transmitter works well in rural areas and small urban areas, but not so well in major metro areas such as Chicago or New York. There are simply too many radio stations in major metros for the nuvi to be able to find a space on the radio dial that is quiet enough to not have interference.

2- The auto-tune feature for the FM transmitter is essentially useless. This feature is supposed to find a place on the radio dial that is quiet enough for the nuvi to use. However, I found that it did a very poor job of this. I almost always had to manually tune the nuvi to a blank area on the radio dial. This is not hard, but a bit of an annoyance.

3- The nuvi will lock up if the FM transmitter is on and you go through some electronic toll collection gates. I only ran into this issue in Pittsburgh. I-Pass/EZ-Pass don't have this effect. The manual does mention that this can happen.

Note - if you have a line in jack on your car stero, you won't have to deal with the above problems as the nuvi has a line out jack.

4- Navigation instructions in areas with multiple merging roads are often spoken late, and sometimes are inaccacurate. I have run into this problem in 4 different areas so far. Each location had several interstate highways with various merges and exits, and the nuvi was hard pressed to keep up.

5- Routing around traffic is not very good. The traffic data is clear and accurate, but the features that finds routes around the traffic mostly suggests routes that are not going to save time. I find it more useful to use the traffic map display and find my own way around the traffic (of course, you have to know the area to be able to do this).

389 of 407 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!! Just unbelievable! Run, don't walk and get one NOW!, September 28, 2006

By	JanSobieski (United States of America) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

With this unit, Garmin has blown TomTom out of the water. The 350/360 were slick units but arguably came up a bit short in the display department when compared to the TomTom - that's all a distant memory now.

This is the most elegant AIO (all in one) GPS navigation solution I've come across to date. IMO, it represents the best compromise between size and functionality on the market today. Beyond this point, increasing the screen size enters the diminishing return territory. The SiRFstarIII chipset, while no longer the absolute best on the market, remains a reliable workhorse with rapid satellite acquisition under even less than ideal conditions. The mapping details are excellent though, as with all mapping programs, is not beyond reproach. The 660 has the most recent highly detailed City Navigator NT maps.

The voice prompts are loud, clear and timely. The ease of use is just fantastic and the visibility and quality of the display are now the gold standard in the industry with a 4.3" WQVGA LCD screen and 480 x 272 pixels. It uses the same low reflection screen as the 360.

POI access is excellent and can be navigated to much more simply than the TomTom unit which requires additional cumbersome steps. The attachment system for the Nuvi is superb and very secure. You can access your POIs directly by name rather than having to go through a cumbersome category menu and then only getting the POIs by proximity as is the case with the TomTom 910. Garmin simply blows TomTom away in the POI functionality department.

This device is intended as an extremely simple point to point navigating AIO GPS navigation solution and is not intended to enable the use of way points or easily changing the course selected by the unit. You have essentially two options: the shortest route and the fastest route. Fortunately, the mapping program selects routs that are very acceptable. Personally, I like to look at the overall route and fiddle with it. This unit is not designed for such use. Microsoft Streets and Trips is ideal for this kind of tinkering, but terrible for point to point navigation while on the go at which the Nuvi has no peer.

Make sure and get the most recent firmware updates on the Garmin website which will fix the known bugs and further improve the functionality. Insofar as functionality goes this unit is as simple as the 350/360. Even my 85 year old father can use these things! He is, to put it kindly, technologically challenged but his 350 is so intuitive and easy to use that he's had no problems whatsoever. He doesn't like to be distracted while driving so he plans his trip before leaving and simply listens to the voice prompts.

The new bluetooth feature enables the use of your hands free bluetooth enabled phone. It's a nice feature, but as with all bluetooth devices that I've used it's still not as good as talking directly on the phone. I personally have not used the built in FM transmitter and so cannot comment on it.

I can heartily recommend this product. Garmin has knocked one out of the park.