Garmin Nuvi 250 - 3.5 in. Car GPS Receiver

INTRODUCTION. I've always wanted to buy a GPS navigation system for my car since the device became popular a few years ago. I knew the price was steadily declining, as most of electronics tend to do the first couple of years, and I had to guess at what price stabilization would occur. I was guessing about $250. Then, CostCo offered Garmin Nuvi 250W at $100 discount for a limited time -- $299.99 for a device that contains maps for the fifty states and Canada. I decided to take that opportunity and order one on-line.

WHY BUY GPS? Before I provide my opinion on device's functional characteristics, I think I need to offer my opinion on why anyone should buy one, instead of using traditional maps. For $300, you can buy a lot of maps … sure. If you are going from point A to point B, you would look up a map, jump in your car and drive. But if you are also going to points C, D, E, F, …. so on, it becomes little bit of nuisance to look up maps -- especially if you have to go to these places with short times in between, and at night when fumbling through maps is not so easy. What about places that you want to go but they are not shown on maps? For example, you are driving in an unfamiliar town, and need to find a hospital, ATM, motel, auto repair shop? What about those occasions when you notice signs for fast restaurants or gas stations on highways and you exit just to find out those places are ten miles away on some winding country roads. With a navigation system, you can easily obtain distance information so that you don't waste time. Need to find drug store, grocery, park, shopping mall, police station, library? All these answers are at your finger tips. Ever get stuck in a traffic because there is an accident a few miles up the road and everyone is barely moving forward, but you don't know any other way to get to your destination? Navigation system will find a new route for you. GPS is a life saver when you are in a strange city, or, when you are in a chaotic city (driving-wise, that is, like New York or Boston) with so many one-way streets and diagonal intersections. Keep in mind that if you usually have a routine – same places that you normally go day after day – GPS will not be used often. But if you like going to new restaurants, new stores, or venture out to places that you'd never been, say, once a month, then, GPS is worth a consideration. Remember, this Garmin plugs into any of your relative's car or rental vehicle (If you have it charged, you don't even need to plug in.).

IN THE BOX. Garmin Nuvi 250W is so simple to use it only came with "Quick Start Manual" that has less than a few pages of very basic instructions. And, these pages are your palm size. I'd bet you don't even need to look through the manual to use it right out of the box. The "W" in the name stands for 4.3 inch "wide" screen. I like the wide feature, as it shows wider range of map. It has a sliding on and off switch on top, and, "power and mini-USB connector" on the back. A SD card slot is on the side; I imagine you can view personal pictures on the GPS screen, if that's what you want – or, additional maps, perhaps. A tiny speaker is in the back of the unit; a female voice gives you instructions. An internal battery fully charges in four hours and supposed to last five hours. Nuvi 250W is a flat device, like a Palm Pilot, that snaps into a cradle. The whole thing can be mounted on a windshield by a suction cup. The suction cup is easily mounted and dismounted by pushing down or pulling up a small bar. A small flap is provided to easily remove the sticky suction cup from the windshield. The price I paid did not include an optional AC adapter. That's no problem for me because I have an adapter for my cell phone which also works with the Garmin.

SET-UP/MOUNTING. Now, let's get to the navigation features and let me share my opinions. Although the device can be mounted on top of a dashboard, with a sticky two-sided tape, I like to use the suction cup instead. I think the suction cup holds the device more securely, but more importantly, the suction cup approach reduces the chance of theft. That is, if you have a "permanent" cradle stuck on top of a dashboard, I think that's a dead giveaway to potential thieves. I heard recently that over 700 GPS systems were stolen last year in Maryland alone. I can see why GPS systems could be more attractive than, say, automotive radios and CD players; GPS systems are usually more expensive and they can be used in any vehicle. Some bad guys even look for suction cup marks on windshield and break in, even if they don't readily see the device in sight; they assume the owner has removed it and hidden somewhere like in a glove compartment. So ... make sure the inside of your windshield does not show very obvious circular marks. And, don't attach the cradle on the dashboard.

BASIC START. If the GPS is already plugged into the power outlet, it will automatically start when you turn on your engine. The starting screen is a disclaimer about agreeing to input your information NOT while you are driving. Even if you don't touch the "Agree" button on the screen, after a few seconds, the next screen pops up. This is the main screen that starts the GPS features. Two icons are [Where to?] and [View map]. These are pretty generously sized icons, and, even a huge finger can select the icons easily. [Tool] button and [Volume] button are at the bottom of the screen. By touching [View map], the screen changes to a map. Garmin takes about a minute to receive satellite signal (as opposed to about 15 seconds for in-dash navigation system that comes with a car) and figure out where your car is. Maps are shown in three different formats: (1) 3-dimensional view, (2) north is always shown on top, on 2-dimensional map, or (3) your driving direction ahead is always shown on top, again on 2-dimensional map. I like the first two; the third option kind of gets on my nerve, because the entire map keeps rotating either clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on which way you are heading. In the middle of the screen is "your car," or a truck if you choose. I want this car to be smaller, so that I can see more map -- a bright arrow or something would be nice, rather than a car. Sometimes, when you zoom out several scales of the map, your car looks like the Godzilla standing over a couple of blocks! At the top of the screen is the road that you are currently on. As you approach intersecting streets, the top line will show the names of those streets. Lower left corner shows the speed of your vehicle. Lower right corner shows compass direction. Main roads are usually shown in yellow, major highways are in red, and small secondary and tertiary roads are in gray. You can set the level of detail so that you don't have to see all the small roads. A [Menu] button at the bottom takes you back to the main menu.

MENUS/SUBMENUS. By touching [Where to?] icon on the main menu, navigational submenus appear. There are abundant submenu options and some of them are five levels deep. I do not wish to explain all those submenus and sub-submenus, etc. So, let me hit on a few important ones, and the rest is only listed here.

[Where to?]
*[Address]; State – City - Street
*[Points of Interest]; Spell Name – Food – Fuel – Transit – Lodging – Shopping – Bank/ATM – Parking – Entertainment – Recreation – Attractions – Hospitals – Community – Auto Services
*[Recently Found]; lists all your recently navigated sites.
*[Favorites]; you can store all your most-visited destinations like your home, which is a useful info if you are returning from unfamiliar place. You may want to set a password to this Home entry (Think about a thief stealing your car one day. The Garmin will take him/her to your house and inside the car you may even have a garage door opener!)
*[Extras]; extra features you can purchase from Garmin, I suspect.
*[Intersections]; enter two streets, as your destination.
*[Cities]; enter city name, as your destination.
*[Browse map]; touch the location on the map, as your destination.
*[Coordinates]; enter latitude and longitude, if you know them.

[View map]

[Tool (shown in icon)]
*[Setting]; System (GPS Simulator, Usage Mode, Units) – Display (Color Mode, Screen Shot, Brightness) – Navigation (Route Preference, Avoidance) – Time (12-hour or 24-hour Clock, Time Zone, Daylight Savings Time) – Language (American English, British English, French, Spanish, Turkish, etc.) – Security (Garmin Lock, Security) – Map (Detail, View, Vehicle)
*[Help]
*[Picture viewer]
*[Calculator]
*[Currency Converter]
*[Unit Converter]; like kilograms to pounds, or miles to kilometers, etc.
*[World Clock]

[Volume]; 0 to 100%, or mute it.

NAVIGATION METHODS. There are five basic methods to get to your destination: (1) by inputting address, (2) by pointing a spot on the map, (3) by specifying intersections of two streets, (4) by inputting coordinates, or (5) by picking out a destination from the device's various database. The first four are pretty much self explanatory. The fifth option is based on selecting one of the submenus listed above within [Points of Interest], [Recently Found], and [Favorites]. Here are some examples, for the fifth option. Let's say you turned on the GPS to find a nearby Italian restaurant. You would touch [Where to?], then [Points of Interest], then [Food], then [Italian]. The device will list all Italian restaurants in the order of proximity (and distance to each one will also be shown). If you know a part of the name, you can narrow the search. For example, if the restaurant you are looking for has "Anthony's," you can touch [spell] at the bottom of the screen and type in "Anthony's" or any part of the character strings like "Ant." The search result will come back with all Italian restaurants with "Anthony's" or "Ant," depending on which one you have typed in. Similarly, if you want to go to a golf course, the required sequence is [Where to?], then [Points of Interest], then [Entertainment], then [Golf Course]. The screen then fills up with all local courses sorted by distance.

If you want to revisit a place that you have been guided by the GPS before, you would use [Recently Found]. If you periodically go somewhere but you don't go there enough to remember the direction, store the location in [Favorites].

When the GPS is in navigational mode (i.e., guiding you to certain location, rather than just showing a map of where you are), the screen follows a different convention and shows you a different set of information. First, the screen will not tell you all those intersecting street names; probably because you don't need to know them. Second, the lower left corner shows the estimated arrival time at your destination. Around Washington Metro area where I live, the traffic is usually lousy such that the estimated arrival time gets constantly pushed out to later and later time. Third and most important information, in my opinion, is shown on the lower right corner. In this box, a distance is shown and that is how much you have left on the current road, until the next turn. Garmin engineers left out one crucial information on this box – an arrow pointing either left or right. When a driver doesn't know his/her way around, navigating person usually tells him to either move to the left lane or right lane, because a left or right turn is coming ahead. Why doesn't GPS device show you that information? Here is another related problem. When Garmin approaches an upcoming turn, it gives you a "warning" about 10-15 seconds before you actually make the turn. This 10-15 second warning is not good enough in heavily saturated streets of Washington Metro area. Due to the amount of traffic, people are not as friendly as before, and, changing lanes is not a piece of cake. The Garmin does tell you as soon as you make any turn, whether the next turn will be left or right; but the problem is that you may not make the next turn until ten minutes later or a couple of hours later. And the final difference on the screen, when in navigational mode, is that your guided route is in light purple color – it does stand out, kind of like using a yellow highlighter.

OTHER USEFUL FEATURES. This Garmin also has trip recorder. Before a trip, you reset to zero. After, or during the trip, this recorder will provide information like average speed, miles travelled, time it took, etc.
While you are going somewhere you may want to spot a location that you want to come back later. You can simply touch the location of the map and save it under [Favorite]. Then later, you can retrieve that information and go back.

In the Color option, you get to choose Auto, Day, or Night. For Day setting, screen is brighter. But either Day or Night setting provides pretty good visible view at anytime.

The Route Preference option lets you choose Faster Time, Shorter Distance, or Off Road. Time is money for me; so, I like Faster Time option, which tends to guide you through highways, and I prefer highways, anyways. You can also avoid U-Turns, Highways, Toll roads, Ferry, Carpool Lanes, or Unpaved roads by checking off any number of these in Avoidance option.

COMPARISON WITH IN-DASH GPS. Arguing with your spouse about whether to buy a portable device or automobile-factory built-in device? Well, right off the bat, it's $1,800 (in Acura TL) vs. $300. The Acura's screen is 8 inches diagonally, so it's like watching a wide-screen TV. It is in the dashboard so you do have to constantly look down, away from the road that you should be looking. It does, however, come with a voice recognition command driver that you simply speak into (i.e., no need to touch the screen, thereby keeping your hands on the wheel). The Acura GPS hooks up with satellite signals much quicker – about 45 seconds quicker, when initially turned on. Its voice instruction never interferes with music or radio, as they work in harmony (i.e., whenever the navigation speaks, the music or radio automatically silences). One feature that Acura has, but not Garmin, is the capability of finding commercial outfit just by using published phone number. Whether this outfit is Burger King in CA or San Antonio Children's Hospital in TX; by entering a phone number, the GPS will come back with the outfit name and an address for you to confirm. This is so nice, as you don't have to input the whole address; a phone number is much simpler. Another thing that Acura's GPS differs from Garmin is when you miss or intentionally pass your turn point, Acura immediately knows it; for Garmin, you have to pass the junction by a good 5-10 seconds. Basically, the Garmin still wants you to make the turn, when you have actually passed it and it is impossible to turn. Then, the Garmin realizes that it needs to reroute you and starts recalculating. Of course, the Acura GPS has no dangling wires hanging down, to the power outlet. And, there is no nuisance of mounting and dismounting the device. One thing that Acura's GPS bugs me is when I am on some highway. When this highway intersects with a major exit, I think the GPS is little confused as to which one is actually an exit. For example, let's say I am on Highway 100 and approaching Exit 7. Even if I am continuing on Highway 100, the navigation system tells me to "exit left onto Highway 100." So, some directions I retrieve may show a total of ten turns but five of them could be on a same road. The Garmin, so far, has not done that.

OTHER PROS AND CONS. Here are things that I like about Garmin Nuvi 205W and things I don't care for, in addition to what I have mentioned above. The compactness is definitely good; I can actually carry the device in my pocket. It actually has Walking and Biking modes, but, I am not quite sure what additional value these modes offer. Once, I walked around my neighborhood with it but the screen kept rotating one direction or the other, maybe because I wasn't holding it steadily enough, but nevertheless it was little bit annoying. Besides, even at Walking mode, the vehicle icon was still on the screen as if I was driving. If I happened to forget to change from the Walking mode and driving down a highway at 60 mph, the top of the screen says I am "walking on xxx road." So, the device is not smart enough to change automatically back to Driving mode. I did mention that certain menu and submenus go five levels deep, right? In order to get back to map, you will need to keep touching [Back] button one by one until you get back out to the main menu screen and then choose [View map]. Why didn't Garmin software engineers think of a way to jump to the map screen with a touch of one single button? That would've been very nice.