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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.
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).
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.
