Customer Reviews:
  Very pleased with my Garmin 260W January 4, 2009
This is my first GPS, I did my homework before I bought it. CR rated it a "best buy" in their "basic navigator" tests a few weeks ago. It works well for me. The 260w's "text to speech" feature is nearly flawless and helps me stay focused on driving, instead of upcoming turns.
This Garmin 260W is a very good: "beginner's GPS".
 False advertisement December 29, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agreed to purchase a factory refurbished and boxed item. This item was just used, with no indication that it had undergone factory review. The item works, but it is false advertising to say that it is from the factory. The box doesn't even have the name of the item on it. I believe I should receive some form of refund.
Further, I paid for express delivery and it took a week to get the item. I should also receive a refund of the express fees.
Garmin nuevi 260 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Factory Refurbished)
BJ Morton
 GARMIN 260W packs a lot of value December 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I;ve been using GPS navigation in my truck and on my motorcycles for over 10 years. Back then, GPS was very expensive, often difficult to program, and the data was spotty at best (great for locations in large cities, not so great for rural areas. I've have several Garmin GPS units in the past five years which I use both in my vehicles and on my motorcycles. I liked the Garmin units because they were rugged, easy to program, and the map could be updated fairly reasonably every few years. I purchased the 260W to have a second GPS unit and I am very pleased with the unit. The screen is much improved over previous smaller sized screens and appears easier to see and read. The 260W has all of the basic components needed and is a bargain at below $200. You don't need a lot of the bells and whistles being offered in more expensive units like bluetooth, traffic reporting (which only works in certain large cities anyway), or MP3. You really needed accurate mapping and directions with a understandable speaking voice giving directions. This unit has the basics and works very well day to day. There have been a few POI's that are not in the database that has surprised me but nothing major. I purchased the "bean bag" mount that sits on the dash which is what I've used for years with my other Garmin GPS units. I like the bean bag mount because you can take it down and put under the seat and it does not leave a tell-tale imprint on the windsheild advertising the fact that your car has a GPS to steal. In sum: the Garmin nuvi 260W is a lot of GPS value for the money and works well.
Old maps - be careful ! very slow at searching for places December 14, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Bought this for $149 from bestbuy during CyberMonday. Pros are a nice big screen, decent text to speech, bright screen visible in daylight. However, the maps are really old - probably from 2007. I can't find places that have opened in the last year. Garmin charges a ridiculous amount to update maps. Furthermore the LCD display's touch screen keyboard is flaky. It is slow to respond. The search function is useless. All you will see is an hourglass spinning up and down. The user interface leaves much to be desired. I would have probably bought a TomTom instead of this one. And like all Garmin's at times it can take 10 minutes to find a satellite signal.
 Good, but could be better, especially for the price. December 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I did a lot of research before buying the Garmin Nuvi 260W, and debated heavily between getting a Garmin, or a TomTom. Finally i settled on a Garmin for the more positive reviews it received, especially in regards to map quality.
I will say that the product DOES do everything it says in the description. The display is easy to see (definitely recommend getting a 4.3 inch if you can afford it), and the text to speech easy to understand. The controls are dead simple, and so far the maps have been pretty accurate, although I have found a few small errors.
I also have to give props to Garmin for designing a really good window mount. I had it stuck on my window for a month, and it didn't come loose once.
My criticisms:
1) The battery is stated to have UP TO a 5 hour charge. In real life it's closer to 3.5 hrs. Also, the low battery pop-up starts showing up when it gets to 50% charge (even though there's a good 1-2 hours left), and this is really annoying.
2) The power button sticks. I don't know if this is common to the Garmin nuvi's, or just my unit, but the power button sticks a bit, and often I have to take it off the month to get a good enough grip to slide it over.
3) Lack of routing functionality. This is a big gripe of mine. If you have a specific route that you want to take for a long trip, for instance, Garmin doesn't let to choose the route beforehand. It will recalculate the route as your driving if you miss a turn, but if you have a 500 mile trip, and you have a certain route you want to take, the only way to do it is put a "via point" in your trip (more on via points below), and hope the unit calculates the way you want to go.
The lack of routing customization may not be a legitimate gripe for some people. The unit description doesn't say it gives you this functionality, and some of the more expensive units do have it as a feature. However, for a $250 navigational tool, I think it should have at least the same functionality as Google Maps.
2) You can only select one "via point" per trip. Again, if you have a long trip, and want to make a few stops along it, you have to enter a "via point", but you can only select one per trip. More expensive units have multi-point routing capabilities, but this brings me back to my complaint of this not having the same functionality as Google Maps.
3) 3D maps resize as you take turns. This is kind of annoying. If you have the 3d map view, and you take a turn, the display tends to resize the view as you make the turn.
4) Routing preferences. The unit does have a "route avoidance" that will let the unit avoid certain things like toll roads, u-turns, highways, etc. However, I think it should include a route preference so if you want to stick to highways, it will do that. It does have the option to select "fastest" or "shortest" route, but I've seen a few instances where it took me off highways onto heavily trafficked roads with lots of stoplights, when a highway route would have been better.
All in all, I think this is a good unit to have if your in an area that you don't know well and just want basic directions for getting around. If your a road warrior, and want something that has lots of navigational choices, a more expensive unit might be a better choice. Again, this unit does everything it says it does, but for $250, I would expect more features.
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