some improvements, some setbacks

This is the second GPS unit I have owned. After reading countless reviews on many products I selected this one since it was lower cost due to its out of production status, but had the features I wanted;… text to speech, blue tooth for hands free phone,live traffic information, and a reputation for quick start-up finding all the satellites it needs to navigate. Garmin also has a good reputation. How does it work? Well, the start-up time is affected by how long ago the last time you used it and if your position has changed much since then. In general it is satisfactory on that score. At first, the text to speech was weak, but a downloaded update improved it to the point I am satisfied. I have not tried the live update feature yet as I am waiting for a long trip to test it. The sensitivity to the gps satellites is great. This unit works inside my house which helps when I am doing planning. I also like the MP3 storage [sandisk card]. I am able to load several hours of music to this device. That said the fm transmitter is poor in my car, a Toyota camery. I can use it if I plug a 3rd party device [Radio Shack] that works from the earphone jack on the Garmin that does the fm transmitter work. This will make it possible for the Garmin unit to interrupt my music playback with navigation instructions. My experience with Garmin tech support has been good so far. After you go through the phone maze and the waiting you get an American English speaking person who, in my experience is informed and patient. There is not much of that available these days. The only improvements I would want to see is: 1. Being able to organize "favorites" into folders and 2. Having computer software that allows you to plan trips and upload them to the unit.

Garmin nuvi 780

We purchased the nuvi to help us on a trip from Bluffton Ohio to Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. My wife and I are finding the nuvi very helpful and accurate in finding specific locations, fuel stations, food, hotels. We purchased a used diesel dump truck to use on our property in B.C., and planned on having a pleasure trip as well as ferry the truck back to B.C. The trip started by flying from Palm Springs Calif to Detroit where we used the navi to locate relatives we were visiting in Detroit area for a couple of days. We rented a vehicle at detroit airport, hooked up the navi and found all the locations with ease. The navi even routes you around traffic jams which are several in Detroit area during the rush hour. We picked up the truck in Ohio and drove back to detroit area for another couple of days. Again nuvi routed us around all traffic jams and we located additional relatives. We finally departed detroit and things seemed to be going great for the first leg of the trip until we were 275 miles and the truck fuel system started acting up. The nuvi found the closest Ford dealer in Joliet IL. We fixed the truck in a couple of hours, we thought and again continued to move on. Well another 200 miles we encountered the same problem. Nuvi again found us the next Ford dealer in Iowa City. We are still in Iowa city, where we tried to leave yesterday and made it only 5 miles out of town when the same problem started again after spending $1,490 at the local Ford dealer in Iowa city. Again nuvi was accurate in getting us off the interstate and locating back roads, the only roads we could travel at the snail pace we were traveling at with the same fuel problem. The only thing I can comment on about things that could be better with the nuvi is to be able to review the actual route ahead of time like a view list. This would allow you to take alternate route, if necessary. In our case with the truck not able to run faster than a couple MPH we would like to review the list of roads to make sure our route eliminated the interstate.

Its Everything You Expect It To Be

The Garmin Nuvi 780 is an excellent GPS Receiver,
Satellite Capture is fast and the receiver appears to be very sensitive.
The additional features,using MSN is a plus.
The turn by turn audio is loud and clear allowing you to keep your
eyes on the road.

NUVI 780 and MSN Direct

Having been a long term users of GPS (since about 1999) I have watched the progression of technology with them and adopted a refresh every 2 or 3 years strategy. The technology is simply advancing and changing so fast that a premium model one year is obselete very quickly. Because of this I try to buy the last generation of premium models as they are reaching (or just past) their product run. The NUVI 780 is currently like this. Finding one for about $200 is no real problem (and with a new map set running $100, updating an old one is also not really cost effective). Lots of small things are better than the NUVI 750 this replaces but the additon of MSN Direct has been surprisingly much better than the other traffic update strategy it replaced for me. The ongoing maintenence of movie times, traffic, and the ability now to find something on BING on your home computer and then hit upload to GPS and have it find your GPS in your car in about 30 minutes (they claim 20, but 30 is more of a norm) is a huge advantage if you plan trips. Just do it the night before or if at work before you go out to your car and it normally can get there pretty quick. The internal maps and navigation on the GARMIN is pretty good but the expanded map search capability of the WEB is much better and adds a new dimension to the capbility of the GPS. THis is first big improvement in GPS technololgy since the appearence of 3D navigation a few years ago. The 780 is a good solid contempory GPS with good features but nothing really amazing for a $200 GPS. The combination of this GPS with MSN direct however makes this something else. The traffic updates are faster and more relevent to the situation in Wash DC where I live and the acting watching of convenince things like movie times for local theaters is a small but really nice addtional feature. In short I am very impressed with the new capability in MSN Direct on the GARMIN, and the NUVI 780 is a really good and economical way to implement this capability.

Garmin nüvi 760

I ended up buying the nuvi 760 model. I have an Acura GPS navigation system I purchased in my MDX a few years ago that was used many times during club soccer trips throughout the western US states. It saved us many times on every trip locating parks, playing fields, hotels, restaurants and the occasional medical facility. I purchased the nuvi 760 for its portability to be able to move from vehicle to vehicle with ease. (Can’t do that with the factory installed Navi in the MDX) Also for the price of the unit and the ease and cost of updating maps. MDX GPS cost over $2k and a new DVD disk cost several hundred dollars to update maps. While the graphics are better in the Acura system, the basic functions in nuvi 760 work just as well as the more costly unit. What I like the most about the nuvi 760 is the “live traffic” function that alerts of oncoming hazards and its ability to navigate around these areas if you choose. Also its accuracy in estimating arrival time. I know when I leave home in the AM within +- 2 minutes if I will be late for work. Some of the things I don’t like about this unit: 1. Time it takes to acquire satellite and load maps. At least once I drove .5 miles before it was ready to go, inputting an address as you navigate traffic not safe. 2. The cost to add MSN Direct antenna and live traffic almost doubles cost of the unit. 3. The ability for the nuvi 760 to tune in to an FM station on your car radio not as simple as it should be. Overall I am quite happy with my purchase. The Bluetooth function simple and easy to set up. The basic function of navigating turn by turn from point a to b, exceptional ,regardless if it is two miles or two thousands it is right on.