Great GPS - Helpful in an Unfamiliar Area | Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth,...

Trust but verify | Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth, Text-to-Speech, North American & European Maps

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	• Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Bluetooth, Text-to-Speech, North American & European Maps Garmin Garmin, 2006 average customer review:based on 196 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

exelent navigator

Exelent product, I never realized how handy it is having a navigation system. This unit is easy to use and is verry acurate.

Great GPS - Helpful in an Unfamiliar Area

Garmin NUVI textlinks">370 Review

I have owned my Garmin NUVI 370 since mid-January, 2008 and so far have been quite satisfied with it, and would recommend purchase. However, don't throw away your paper maps quite yet! As with anything, you will need to use some common sense and discretion in how you use the tool. Here are some pros and cons for the unit:

PROS
1. The display is clear, and shows up well even in bright sunlight.

2. The volume is good, and the speech is easy to understand.

3. Once you learn your way around, the menus are easy to use. Definitely worth spending an evening playing with the NUVI, and going through the provided instruction manual (on a CD).

4. If you do get off track, the "recalculating" feature is very nice, and will get back in the direction of your destination. Traffic and other conditions may not make it safe to make the turn suggested, so this is a very nice feature.

5. You can program in an address prior to leaving, so when you arrive at your new departure point (say a rental car pickup) you can quickly set up your NUVI and get on the road.

CONS
1. The 370 does not have route planning capability. This means that you can't sit at home and plan a route from one point to another in advance. This would be a really nice feature, so you could familiarize yourself with your route in advance. This feature is available in the Nuvi 770, which at time of publishing this review is running about $650 - $700 on various websites. By comparison I paid $397 for my 370.

2. In more rural/remote areas I've had problems with poor directions. In one case the unit had me turn left, when the actual address was to the right. No a huge deal, except that it was a five mile detour. This can be especially confusing when jurisdictions change, and the house numbering changes depending on whether you are in city or county boundaries. Verifying the directions, by looking at a map or talking to someone at your destination is always a good idea!

3. As other reviewers have noted, there are times when the instructions to make a turn may be made just as you are approaching the turn, so slowing down definitely is a good idea. A hint..... glance at the bottom right hand side of the screen after you have made a turn. It will tell you how far you have to go to the next turn, so you know if you can sit back and relax for a bit, or need to be expecting another turn in just a short while.

4. At some Y-intersections the device is not really clear about which fork in the road to take. It may say something like "Take De La Cruz Blvd," but the road signs may not be clear which fork this refers to. It would be better if it said something like "Take the left fork to De La Cruz Blvd."

Other Hints:

1. If you change the "voice" on the NUVI (there are a number of different accents you can chose), then check that the volume is satisfactory. I tried the English (as opposed to American) woman's voice, but found the volume to be very low.

2. Pronunciation can be a bit awkward at times, especially if you chose an accent from outside of your contry. For instance, "Expressway" is shortened to "EXPWY" on the display, and the Garmin verbally says "EXPEEWAY. Not a huge deal, and you can always glance at the top of the display to see what the street name is.

3. If you don't want some of the additional features (such as the Bluetooth connectivity, the MP3 player and the picture viewer), then consider the less expensive NUVI 270. However, with a number of states, including California, passing laws that require the use of hands-free devices for cellular telephones you might find the Bluetooth capabilities helpful.

Overall, I would say this device is worth the money, especially to help navigate in areas you are unfamiliar with. Play with it before you leave home, so you're not learning the functionality while also driving in a new area, and possibly a different car!

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Trust but verify

I've had the unit for a few months. It changes the way we drive in that we can focus more on the road and less on the signs. Unfortunately, it does makes mistakes. On more than one occasion we were told to get off at places that made no sense. When I knew the roads, I just ignored the instructions but it's not so great when one doesn't know the route.

What I like most is that I use the unit to listen to my audio books and the unit cuts in rather talks over the speaker. I believe that makes for a safer trip.

Some of the interfaces are not as smooth as they could be. For example, when placing a call it should assume you want to call the place you're driving to as a default. It doesn't.

Overall, I like it very much.

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Worked well in the US and the UK

This textlinks">GPS system worked very well in the US and when I was in the UK.
Easy to set up and use.
would recommend this item to anyone travelling inside the US and in Western Europe.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, page 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

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