I have been borrowing my brothers Garmin NUVI 600 or 700 series off and on for a while, now I HAVE to have my own.

I have been looking at the 260 and 260W based on his recommendations, he has a lot of features that he doesn't need. I definately want the street data, I'm not sure if I "need" but I think that I "want" a wide screen, I don't care about the blue tooth. I also know to look for one with the latest 2008 maps, what are your recommendations?

Also, does the 260 include the leather case, suction cup mount, and DC charger plug as part of the purchase or are they extras? I chose the 260 because it was the first model with the street names, other suggestions are welcome.

 

Not sure of the Garmin line, but I"ll let you know what I've experienced with the Mio line. They are quite good, lower in price and do what the higher priced ones do. My wife has a C220, which is entry level and fine for her. Heck, all she wants on a cell phone is 10 numbers and a call button. So I bought a C320 which has the wide screen option, which is really great, as you state. I had a friend who wanted one, so I sold him the 320 and bought a C520. Now, it has bluetooth capability, and advanced traffic notification (with a subscription), neither of which I use. For the money they do fine jobs. They all use the same map data base. If you buy NIB, they usually come with the suction cup windshield mount, DC power cord/charge and mount. Just for info.

 

I have a Tom Tom One GPS and it works great. It has voice and many features making it user friendly. Low cost and very good product support. Suction cup mount on windshield or carry it by hand for hiking. Downloaded upgrades are easily installed.

 

I bit the bullet and bought a garmin 260W. I have used it twice so far and it works great! It works much like the one that I had borrowed so it was easy to use right out of the box. Circuit City had it for $100 off and I added an 8% discount from AAA plus I had a circuit City gift card with$32 on it. I poped for the plastic screen covers from Ebay, I'm ready to travel!

 

I recently bought the Garmin NUVI 200, it does a good job. priced just under $200

 

I think that you really can't go wrong with any Garmin, a recent test showed that Garmin was the best over Magellen and especially Tom Tom. I went with te 260W because it gives street names, the 200 is almost the exact same except it just says turn left not turn left on second street.

Who needs maps now???

 

I used to run mapopolis until they stopped updates and closed the door.

Street names are not so great some get misspronounced often so was not an option I wanted in a GPS.

 

Yeh.. I know what you mean. Some of them sound like a poor British pronunciation. You would think with all of the software available today, it would have been a little better.

I am however amazed at how many and how accurate the street names are. Even in the mountains of PA where there are dirt roads, most have names. How they ever got that data is beyond me. I was out on the State Gamelands yesterday and the roads were on there.

 

I bought the Garmin Nuvi 260 for my wife because she gets lost coming out of the driveway. She loves it, even though she will never use all of the features. She also loves the STT with street names so that she doesn't have to stare at it. It included the suction cup mount and the DC charger plug.

I believe that once we registered on Garmin's web site we received a 10" off coupon for the on-line Garmin store. I used it to purchase the leather carrying case and a USB cable for connection to our home computer. This is useful if you want to download and install additional vehicles for use on the display. It is also needed if you want to upgrade the pre-loaded maps when new ones come out.

 

The 260 included the computer cable but not the leather case. I wish I had waited to purchase the $17 leather case from Circuit City, I didn't know about the coupon when I bought it. CC did give me 10% off which helped.

So far so good...I love it!