Real World Nuvi Review

If you're interested in the Garmin Nuvi 750 than you've probably already read some basic reviews and ad-hype. My review is just a "real world" experience with the thing.

OK, I'm 61 YO. Yeah, I know ..... but wait. Come to find out I'm still fairly lucid! .... Because in mid July I ordered a Nuvi 750 from Amazon! ..... and it was less than a week later my wife and I had to make a semi-emergency trip from Raleigh, NC to Burlington, VT. The Garmin was dropped on our door step the DAY we had to leave. Lucid indeed. Lucky is more like it.

We packed luggage fast - I stuck the 750 on the windshield of our 2002 Highlander, punched in our starting address and the destination hospital in Burlington, put Maggie Mae the Schnoodle in her huge travel crate - and away we went.

I made one mistake with the Nuvi. Not a huge mistake but kind of annoying. I opted to exclude toll roads from the preferences menu. (because I'm a cheap - and according to my wife - heartless, bastard). We made 6 calls using Nuvi's POI phone numbers for lodging 'cause we were getting tired. Nothing available. Finally found a room at a Holiday Inn near Cooperstown. Nuvi got us around all the toll roads ok and I avoided most of I-95 like I wanted to ... but going towards Albany Nuvi made us exit I-88 and participate in a local biking marathon. Two wheel spandex gridlock. (Nuvi didn't know that YES there was a toll road coming up but NO we didn't actually have to pay anything. Just grab a Tollcard and then turn it back in at the end. No charge).

So I punched in DETOUR on the Nuvi to get us out of the bicycle traffic. .... and we did. Very quickly we were told to take a left, and another left, and a right and left and .... we weaved through the 'burbs for 15 minutes.

Finally Nuvi got us back on I-87 North out of Albany. Nuvi then tried to make me take some early exits but I knew better and stayed on 87 until the Fort Ann exit. The rest of the trip Nuvi was dead on.

Coming home two weeks later we decided to visit my son in New Jersey. Punched in the Nuvi parameters from Burlington to Jackson (including $11 in tolls) and made record time.

In summary, My wife and I (and Maggie) love the Garmin Nuvi 750. Only one hairy moment coming from Jersey to NC when we were in heavy traffic, Nuvi said stay in the left lane and then 4 seconds later said exit right. THAT wasn't going to happen - so (English Jack) calmly told us to proceed to the next exit number and continue on.

I've got a TomTom 3rd Edition but it has sent us in some weird directions before .... and now I don't trust it.

That's why I got lucid and ordered the Garmin in case of an emergency trip. What a great decision!

(Update 8/14/05) - In order to upgrade your Nuvi map (s), you must do this: In your browser, do Tools/Internet Options/Connections/Advance LAN in the lower right corner and check Auto Detect ... This messed me up for three weeks 'cause I didn't do it. Check Auto Detect and turn off your Firewall ... when your Nuvi is good to go (about 2 hours) then turn your firewall back on in the Control Panel.