triplnikl

Can someone tell me why I purchased a Garmin Nuvi 260 instead of the TomTom XLS my daughter advised me to get? It seem that, for the same money, the TomTom has a load more capability, including multiple POI's, etc. I already have a Garmin Etrex Vista hcx, which has an abundance of bells and whistles and serves me well with the topo and maritime map capabilities. I need to feel good about this NUVI 260, but I wonder if I made the right choice. Any comments?

rapriebe

What do you mean by "multiple POI's"? I have more than 200,000 custom POI's in my 260, as well as the 6 million that come in it stock. How many more do you want? About the the only things I see in the TT XLS over the 260 are all extra subscription items except the Bluetooth, and you could have gotten that with a nüvi 360. Maybe you chose the wrong model... not the wrong brand?

Until I see something positive, I will still continue to question TT dependability. I've just read too many reviews/articles that rate Garmin as a better quality product. I have no personal experience with TT, so I can only go by what others have said.

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Rick

triplnikl

What I meant by multiple POI's was that the NUVI 260 allows only one to be inserted into your route, where the TomTom, and my Etrex allow multiple POI's to be inserted. This can help if you want to deviate from the NUVI's planned route because you know of a shortcut, etc. By inserting two or three POI's, you can force it to take that route...I think. The dependability of the TomTom is a good track for me to pursue. The other issue I have with Garmin is that map updates cost the subscriber. I understand that TomTom provides them for free.

rapriebe

Ahh... you are talking about waypoints or via points. I believe that you have to go to the nüvi 750 to get the option of multiple via points on a route. I know that the 2xx series does not support them. It isn't that hard to get around this if you don't use them all the time buy just creating waypoints and saving them as favorites, then navigating from one to the next. You can select the 2nd one as destination then pick the closer one as a via point, but you can only use one via point on a route. Hasn't been a problem for me, but I know that some have more use for them more than I do.

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Rick

dav

Yep, one of the reasons I went all the way up to the 750. I just plotted our train trip by using POI's for almost all of the train stations. Very handy, one route with 21 waypoints (19 of them POIs, 2 I had to input lat/long).

With my old GPS each waypoint was actually a destination. Talk about frustrating, you would get there, and, of course, keep driving. It would start squawking about "turn around, you missed it!". Then after a minute or two it would finally say "calculating route to new destination".

MrHorace

To my 'countryman' from VT, and my 'adopted countryman' from CO, I started with a TomTom 720, but switched (some may say it was a downgrade) to the Nuvi 260W.
In regards to your via points, while the 720 did let you program them in, it did not alert me to an upcoming point (o.k. maybe I didn't set something up right) so if you passed it, it was by-by! I experienced this last week trying to find a post office. The point here is that rapriebe's suggestion for programming them on Garmin and stepping along is probably more effective.

Another, and bigger reason for the exchange, was that I was forever getting told to Exit Left when in fact the exit was a right-hand exit. Several times I moved over only to realize I'd been lied too.

And now for the clencher. I'm west of Philadelphia, just off I-76, having stopped for coffee. As I'm approaching the entrance ramp area, Miss GPS says to take I-76 WB toward Central Philadelphia (which was actually east of me), but I did indeed want to head west.

So, from one Green Mountain Boy to another, I think you did a great job choosing the Garmin! On another note, I have found that this whole GPS selection, researching, and deciding on what unit is best process is one of the greatest examples I've ever experienced in my life that demonstrates that nothing in life is perfect!

Andy

The reason you didn't get an alert when passing a via point is because it's just a reference point to get the device to route you "via" this road/location. It forces the calculated route to go "via" this direction. If you set a waypoint then it will alert when you pass the point.

You're right, none of the devices out there give perfect directions. Some are very good, but nothing perfect.