Garmin nüvi 350 Car GPS Receiver

I'd wanted a GPS navigator when I got lost on the way to a customer. I looked at several, read a lot of reviews and felt the Garmin Nuvi 350 was the one to buy, so I did. In the Circuit City parking lot, I inserted the plug into the accessory socket, put the connector in the Nuvi and turned it on. I pushed a couple of buttons and entered my home address and said "lets go". Actually I pressed "Go". I headed out on the road and got a kick out of the directions. First it gives about a two tenths of a mile warning, and then just at the turn. The unit wanted to direct me to my home via a route with only a couple of turns. I have a shortcut so I ignored the instructions. Every time I passed a recommended turn it said "recalculating". When I got to my shortcut, it directed me through the turns and lanes remarkably well. I was impressed. Of course, at this point I hadn't bothered to read the instructions.

Then came the sales call in Canada the next day. The streets in British Columbia can be baffling and I've gotten lost before. The Nuvi led me through tunnels, across railroad tracks and did a great job. I was more impressed. Even when I thought I knew the way and turned it off and got lost, it straightened me out.

One reviewer said he liked the female Australian voice so I activated that. It is distinctive but we kept hearing something strange. Eventually we figured out that where we come from "WA Rt. 3" is "Washington route 3", where the voice comes from it's "Western Australia route 3".

The Nuvi did direct us to a museum location that didn't exist, but all the other directions have been dead on. I highly recommend this unit. My wife, who's far from a gadget enthusiast says, and I quote: "This is really neat, can I borrow it when I take a trip".

Addition to the above. I've now used the unit for about a month and have nothing to add and nothing to complain about.