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Never have to stop for dierection again. If you don't own a navigation unit by now you are probably lost or missing out on a lot of things to do. Not only a great mapping device but it has lost of extras as well.
This was a 2008 Christmas gift for my wife. She uses it constantly here in Texas and in Germany. It is one of the few digital devices she like to use. She's happy-I'm happy.
It works great on both continents and I have not had any issues with it except my own stupidity. We used this feature to advantage on our last trip back east where we needed a hospital fast. I got this a couple of years ago because we were going to Germany and this model has both European and N. I will say that in Germany it kept us off the autobahns for fifty miles so we saw more back country until we figured out the odd roundabout directions we were getting. The newer model is the 775, which as some added features, but is essentially the same product. Twice now, once on each continent, I accidentally left this in 'walk' mode while driving. One of the little discussed features is the ability to take you to 'lodging' or 'hospital' if you need to.
But, I have to say, over-reliance on any navigation system can get you into some trouble because you forget the skills that could get you around without one. American maps. It really allows you to appreciate where you are and not worry about getting lost. You can imagine the comedy of errors that resulted. It wanting to take us up sidewalks was a little disconcerting, but I can't really blame the Garmin for that. Take a map, but take the Garmin, too. BE SURE you get an international model if that's what you want to do.
We absolutely love it. It has all the features we were looking for. The only thing we would change is the built in FM transmitter seems to be weaker than our Ipod transmitter. It's harder to find a clear channel for the Garmin.
And, it was definitely set to "fastest route". I did experience some round-about issues, but a quick u-turn got me around that. Once it sent me down a dirt road on the side of a mountain when there was a paved option close by.I've gotten used to my Dash GPS, so was expecting the same level of quality in the software interface. We may have made a mistaken turn, but I distinctly didn't remember the characteristic "recalculating" it speaks when you do so. I'm just very disappointed that a company that has been around as long as Garmin has such a poor interface and design flaws. This will make you angry unless you have a saintly disposition. The switch is buried three icons-deep, which is tough to do in situations where you really need it. And, calculations can take up to 30 seconds.
Third, you are presented with the arrival time, but you cannot change the display to duration or total miles. But, if you are using it for walking and POI's, it's a slippery thing to keep from dropping. I assumed that by now there would be plenty of good POI data and content for Rome. First, you cannot toggle easily between North-up and 3D views.
We lost an hour driving through Tuscany because of this. This is often critical when driving through cities that are not laid-out on a grid, or on mountain switch-backs with turns. The roads are accurate as can be expected, so it will definitely get you around the cities if the roads are open. Again, I was spoiled with my Dash, which does this.As far as the physical characteristics, it is a nice, big screen with a clean design. I purchased this because it had the European roads pre-installed. So, you are always calculating how long you have left. Second, you always have to review the total route before proceeding because it may send you down crazy paths that are obviously not optimal.
Dash.net gives multiple route options and a complete overview of the route (but doesn't include Europe). This happened a few times while driving, too. I just returned from Italy. And - my biggest annoyance - is the lock-switch that is the same as the on-off button. If it is in the locked-position and you try to unlock it, you could go 2mm too far and turn it off - requiring 2-minutes for it to re-boot. If you intend to use this for POI's, be warned.
Additionally, if you want to try to go along a parallel route (such as along the ocean instead of the inland highway), there is no way of forcing a re-route except to choose an interim location along your route. All that being said, I'm unsure if there is a better value on the market for European travel if you reside in the US. I was very disappointed. If it is something that I'm not understanding about these formats, the Garmin website is of no help in educating anyone on the topic. And, because it only gives you one option to choose from, I'm unsure how to force it to re-think the provided route. This can be very dangerous to do if you are already driving.
I tried downloading gpx and gpi's from some websites and failed to make most of them work.
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