Garmin - Nuvi 255W

The good: The Garmin Nuvi 255W features a large touch screen and an easy-to-understand interface. Start-up, destination entry, and trip routing and rerouting times are slightly faster than the competition. "Where am I?" feature is very useful for emergencies. Text-to-speech reads street and points of interest names aloud. All in all very fast - faster than competition.

The bad: The Nuvi 255W's feature set is rather limited. Mounting cradle is bulkier than competing models and not as portable. But those are minor issues.

The bottom line: As entry-level GPS navigators go, the Garmin Nuvi 255W is still one of the best choices available for anyone who wants speedy performance without breaking the bank. I love mine.

Not So Hot

First I wanted to give myself a piece of mind by giving Mom a gift of Don’t get lost.
She hates Driving on highways, driving at night. And reading and map just adds more distractions for a blind women.

This Unit speaks to you but from the unit only. It does not have an Fm external channel so you can hear it through your car speakers. Or a head phone jack so you can hook up through you car/truck speaker system.

And another thing it does not have a blue tooth for a cell phone. That would also play through the car speakers. So if she is in an accident she can kiss her dentures goodbye. She keeps her cell phone in her tight fat jeans or on the passenger seat. Good luck finding it.

Overall the GPS works fine. They are other GPSs that have features that are more convenient for you know bell a whistles. If you are shopping for a GPS don’t just look at the WOW it’s a great price and bid now.

Make sure that it has what you need. GPS that SPEAKS, to you, has BLUE TOOTH for your cell phone and External speaker hookup. But if you are willing to lower your car radio, reach in your pocket or purse to answer you cell phone. It would be the GPS for you. Or you can simply shop for the best one for you. One that lowers your radio automatically and displays the persons name that’s calling. And one touch calling. By pressing the name CALL HOME OR CALL pharmacy. But this phone does not have it… Well let me go now, I quest I purchase the wrong phone for my senior MOM.

Garmin 255w Falling short.

I picked up this Garmin 255W as it has high ratings across the Web and is a recommended unit for the price.

Now I know some units feature this and that and so forth, and that this unit is more of an entry level unit with missing bells and whistles.

The sound is not 100% clear... Who cares.
It doesnt have Blue tooth.. Meh..
You can't talk to it to enter routes... Pfftt..

using it as an electronic map is almost impossible.... Wait what..?
This unit when using it without a route.. will only display 50% of street names, making this unit an electronic mapping device.. useless.

Sure I can add routes and get to my destination.. sure it makes a few mistakes.. blah blah it's an electronic device it will have some mistakes and you should have some common sense before beleiveing a GPS blindly..

IT CANNOT LIST ALL NAMES WHEN USING IT AS AN ELECTRONIC MAP.. Really WTF..
this is a defective product line.

I don't need it to display it on the title bar and all this.. it should show on the map at all times when driving as a map mode only unit.

My CHEAPER TOM TOM does this without a hitch.. yet the best of the best brand Garmin can't get this simple and needed feature in an electronic map to work..

Not impressed at all.. Also my street of 7 years is still in the middle of the field.. sure its a 3rd party company responisble for it, yet Garmin as there major user should push them to update the maps.

If you have one of the Handheld units for Geocashing and mapping in the wild.. yes they are the best.. as a car device.. I know this is the entry level model but still there is no reason that this unit can not list street names.
not having every single POI i can see and accept but street names come on..

I do security work and travel alot in places im not 100% familiar with, alot of times for my rounds and destination I don't have reall addresses.. so I can use the GPS to drive around and see the street names at night so I don't get confused with the "Was Evergreen this street or 2 down". It's helpful to use even on days where you are pretty sure but not 100% I used to use this on my tom tom until it was stolen, I saw this here at a good price and figure hey it's garmin.. it has to be better.. Truly dissapointed..

I can't give it lower marks really as the main part of the GPS.. Routing and directions and so forth works fine and is a decent unit.. yet not having street names as you approch them is just stupid.. a guy in your passenger seat can do a better job.. and a GPS is an electronic map.. it should be able to outperform the guy int he passenger side on all aspects of navigation... maybe not keeping you awake or singing badly at tunes.. but names of streets.. basic basic function..

My typing is bad and my text is not in a real review form.. Meh who cares.
Point stays that this unit needs to list names of streets and get some upgraded maps.. and not the unit but Garmin as a whole.. 2-3 years missing sure happens almost 10 years and the maps are still missing streets.. not really great.

Garmin + 255W=Fantastic, owned for years and love it!

I bought this product two or three years ago when it was on sale for a great price at a black Friday sale. This was my first automotive GPS unit. Since then I started geocaching and have purchased two handheld GPS units and another automotive GPS unit. I also have since purchased a vehicle with built-in navigation. Besides the car with built in nav, I was so pleased with the 255W, I stayed with Garmin for the rest of the GPS units I have purchased and I am so glad I did.

For all of my needs, driving around town, unfamiliar areas, finding food or motels, geocaching, etc, the Garmin units have been great.

I have had my 255W with me in Minneapolis, SoCal from San Diego to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, all over rural areas of MT, WY, ID, ND, SD and more, all with no problems at all. Well, there is one interchange in Fargo where this unit will reboot every time but I think that has to do with the version of the map I have instaled, not the unit itself and I hardly ever go there so no big deal.

I mentioned geocaching, no this unit is not what you should plan on using for geocaching but if you are already geocaching, have a handheld GPS AND this great little unit, you will already know what GSAK is. Well there is a script you can get for GSAK and the Garmin POI Loader that will let you export caches with descriptions, recent logs and everything you need for paperless geocaching to the 255W and many other nuvis. This is great when caching in unfamiliar cities.

This GPS may not have bluetooth and some other newer features but it does suport traffic with an upgraded power cable if you live in an area with traffic coverage.

I could go on and on. I am very pleased with the 255W and Garmin. I have not had trouble with any of the Garmin units I ahve owned.

My Dad was shopping for automotive GPS units and of course I will be tech supporting from hundreds of miles away. I started looking at features and the interface is slightly different on the newer models (though basically the same features) so I thought it would be nice if I had the same model... So I sprung for two nuvi 1450LMT models, one for each of us. I checked eBay to see what my now extra 255W is selling for. Are you kdding me, less than $100! What a steal. I will not give mine up for less than that. I will keep it as a backup / loaner or just dedicated to geocaching. I don't want to give up the 255W though. It is way too valuable to me to sell it for 50-75 on eBay so I will hold onto it. Yes, we call her Lola and she is like an old friend. We have yelled at her but she keeps us pointed in the right direction.

The LEADER is the LEADER for a reason: THUMBS UP!

We've used a laptop-based GPS program for nearly a decade. We liked the ability to add Via-points and stops, to deviate from the routed path and have it report that it detected we were "Off-route" and "recalulated" a new path based on our real location. We have resisted buying a portable GPS because of the expense and the "missing" features. A few weeks ago, we gave in, and bought the 255W, after returning a TomTom 350XL (that's another review).

First off, it's a nice, compact unit. There are thinner units on the market, but how important is a quarter-inch? It has a nice-sized screen, simple on-off button, includes a windshield suction cup mount that seems to work (tho we won't know about durability of that until we've moved it a few times). Its screen is readable in all kinds of light conditions except direct reflection, and the mount allows you to tip it to remove reflected glare. We like it in the lower left corner of the windwhield.

There's a LARGE map update included with the unit, which you must retrieve via PC interface within 60 days of purchase. We executed the 3-hour download from their web site on day-one. If we want continued map updates, we'll have to pay a fee each time, or pay $119 for a "life-time of the product" update subscription. This is a considerable expense that affects the price-performance of the product. We don't know what option we'll choose for map updates, but we know we'll need them.

We love the menu interface! It's intuitive (for us, maybe not for you). Wherever you are, you can go forward and back in the menu structure. We like that there are (apparently) thousands of points of interest included in the Garmin's database, so we can, for instance, find the nearest Subway with a few touches of the screen.

We also like its flexibility. One doesn't always follow the prescribed route, either by choice, by road conditions, or by mistakes. We've used a TomTom 350XL, and found that once a route is set, it almost insists that you return to it if you go off-route. The Garmin does what our laptop program does: roll with the flow! We've tried it several times on known local routes, and taken it off-route purposefully to see how well it copes. Happily, it easily "recalculates" and gives us a route that is the shortest to get where we're going from WHERE WE ARE. Yes, it suggests turning around if the total distance is shorter, but once we reach the magical "break-even" mileage point, it does a fine job of getting us where we want to go without fuss.

If you are at a point where the road is obstructed, say from an accident, you can select "Detour" from the menu, and it will immediately find the best way to avoid the upcoming intersection and get you where you are going. Sometimes, this is NOT the route the roadworks folks have "planned" for you, which can be a nice thing!

We don't like that we have to purchase the PC interface cord (who wouldn't need it?) and a case (same question) as accessories. On the other hand, we found this $179 retail unit on sale for $119, so total outlay was competitive with other brands and accessories. The 255W does not include real-time traffic consideration. Know what? It's just not that important to us.

It's compact, it's readable, it's loud enough when needed, it's accurate, it's flexible. It's the company that's been doing consumer GPS the longest time, from 'way back in the 1980's in aircraft. Thay have it down pat! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!