Help me decide whether to keep a nuvi 680

With such comprehensive list of issues I don't see why you need help deciding, seems like nothing the Nuvi680 has or do would be to your satisfaction.

Yes, I agree, I liked my wheel better on the c530, but that was really touchy too, it was all or nothing at the lower levels.

Not understanding you here. If I want to take another road, I go and then it recalculates based on where I am. Perhaps I am misunderstanding you.

If you know that it is congested, why would you go down that road? Go another route and it will recalcuate. If you are in a new area, you wouldn't have setup a detour anyways.

I agree, it would be nice if it could do that instead of trying to get you back on the original route.

Ditto, It does sound like there is nothing you like about the unit. Have you checked out the 700 series or maybe the 800 series may work better for you. I have the 650 so don't have bluetooth or MSN,but all of your other issues have never been a problem for me.(maybe because this is my first GPSr, so never got used to another unit.)

I elected for the c580 over the nuvi, more for the price than features. But it still has my map scale, volume on the side and I feel decent poi's. I have had to learn that sometimes it is better to only put in a partial name. The unit will only display the closest 50 matches. So if you are wanting to look at something farther away you have to use the search along route, or near a city ahead.

There are (this is my opinion only) some things that I feel could be done or improved upon, but are not fatal to me. As a guy who works on computers electronics the interface and choices are simple and lack some control I would like to have. But they are also trying to market the products to people like my wife/sister/parents - who are not technically inclined. They have been able to use my Garmins with no trouble and that is why Garmin has done so well.

You are just going to have to figure out what is important to you. If you can't live without a map scale or the ability to select a particular road without turning on it, then you probably aren't going to be happy with the 680. You could try the c580 instead. I chose to live with the "quirks" and am very satisfied. It gets me where I want to go and a little more. Here in Wichita KS the gas updates every other day or so, and is usually very accurate. I just got back from Atlanta, GA and the MSN worked great for me. I found cheap gas and avoided major traffic jams (4:00 pm on friday). I will assume that all cities are not equal though.

My friend is buying a 660, and I am going to evaluate it as I am contemplating buying a 680 for my wife's car to replace the c330.

Daniel

My volume control was way to touchy, I even put tape on it to keep the level constant, but even this did not help.

Quite the contrary...I actually do like a lot of the features of the nuvi 680. My list at the beginning of the post was simply a rant about the things that it seems to be missing.

The screen is absolutely gorgeous compared to my old M5, the satellite acquisition and calculation times are MUCH faster than the M5, and I like the ability to set up custom POIs including proximity warnings. Not to mention that the nuvi hasn't crashed on me - the M5 seems to crash about once / month, requiring a reboot.

Basically the point of my post was to see if anyone else thinks that these things are annoyances as well, and to see if anyone had any suggestions for a better/different unit.

I have looked at the 700 & 800 series units, and it seems that the only thing that they add is multi-point routing and the ability to store tracklogs and routes. They still don't have any advanced detour logic or avoidance settings.

Let me provide a little more clarification on this issue. I'm a consultant who frequently travels to clients around the region, often in areas that I'm unfamiliar with. Let's use an example, a couple expressways in my hometown of Cleveland. I-271 runs north/south and I-480 runs east/west. For the sake of argument, lets assume that I'm completely unfamiliar with the side-streets and only know the freeways (common if I'm in an unfamiliar area of town)

If I'm traveling to a client that is on the west side of town, I'd head up 271, get on 480 west, and then get off near my client. However, if before I leave I heard on the radio that there is an accident on I-480 WB @ I-271, I obviously wouldn't want to follow the usual route.

On my M5, I would have done the following: Told it to navigate me to my client. It would give me the standard route. I would then click on Route->Detour and select "Upcoming Turn" which would give me a list of all turns in my route. I would then click on the turn from I-271 to I-480 and choose from either "Selected Turn and Road" or "Selected Turn Only". It would then give me a route that avoids the I-271 & I-480 interchange.

On the nuvi, assuming you know that the I-271 & I-480 interchange is backed up, you have two choices.

1) You wait until you get near the I-271 & I-480 interchange and then click the "Detour" button. That will, hopefully, route you around the interchange. However, if you click it too early in the route, it will simply route you off I-271 and then back on.

2) You get off of I-271 someplace south of I-480 and just let the GPS recalculate your route. Using this approach, the GPS is going to initially try to just turn you around and have you get back on the freeway. Eventually, it will plot a new route, assuming that you've driven far enough that it stops trying to get you back to the ramp you just exited on.

In either case, the GPS probably isn't giving you the best route to have avoided the backed up interchange. If the GPS had known to route you around the interchange earlier (using the Upcoming Turn detour functionality), it can analyze surrounding roads looking for the most efficient way to avoid the detour area.

I agree that this isn't the end of the world...and maybe the nuvi is smart enough that if you're 10 miles away from a major interchange and you hit detour that you mean that you want to detour around the interchange - and not simply get off and back on in 3 miles.

Have you had experience using the detour functionality of the nuvi? How "smart" is it?

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Wow, thats a long list of problems for ya... I would just return it and move on to some other GPS.... For me, I am happy with my 660...

Well - I am like you in that it would be "nice" to say use this road in your calculation or avoid this particular road - but it doesn't. What you can do is to check avoid highways when you do your forced detour to keep you from trying to get back on the interstate. If you go to Where 2, recently found you will see a list of all your destinations (last 50) and then select it again. Does not take much time.

Daniel

My 660 has developed a "no volume" problem that has caused me to need another unit without waiting for my 660 to get repaired. I ordered a 680 for $479.99 from BJ's online yesterday and it will be here tomorrow.

When the 880 comes out, it'll be time for another upgrade.

1.) With your several concerns about relative volumes and quick volume control, you should consider adding an aux input to your radio, or, the poor man's approach -- using a cassette adapter like me.

2.) Tweaking routing. Use of the Avoidances might help you here (especially with freeways), but if you know enough to form opinions about the routing, why are you using the GPS to route you in the first place? It kinda sounds like you are annoyed that it doesn't agree with what you are convinced is the best route.

3&4.) Detour capability as on your old unit sounds wonderful, but way too complicated for 99% of users. I agree a general re-route choice would be nice. My FM traffic is pretty good about warning me of major issues. If I hear of it on radio, I can count on the GPS to offer a detour. I realize not all cities are covered, but problems of major delays typically happen in large cities.

5.) If station XYZ had the cheapest gas price 2 days ago, it is probably among the cheapest today. The exact price is not important -- just their price relative to the others.

7.) Charley explained about it showing 50 closest.

8.) You didn't say how you decided the restaurant is not in the database. If you just scanned the closest 50, maybe it is just not among the 50 closest. The solution would be to spell the first part of the name and search. If still not there, I'd tell myself it's just too new, or a lousy restaurant.

10.) I think routing should be on all units of this price range. I don't understand Garmin's reluctance here.

11.) See #1.

12.) If you are in a situation with guests in the car that you don't want to hear both ends of the conversation (the only reason I can see for a problem), you could, before getting in the car, just turn off bluetooth on the phone, or change to pair with a BT earpiece if you have one.

13.) Time to next turn is meaningless in an off-freeway environment with lights and traffic, and time in minutes is close enough to miles on any freeway without traffic jams. I would never even think of using the feature you describe.

14.) If you click on the wrong spot for any info, you get the wrong result. Have you tried to recalibrate the screen?

15.) I don't often have a waypoint set, so that might change things, but I don't lose my destination when I turn the unit off -- just like Charley. If you find the inclusion of a waypoint is what causes this, you might want to advise Garmin -- they might not know of the issue/problem.

Thanks for all of the comments. I'm a new member of this board and so far have been very impressed with the quality, quantity, and speed of the responses that I've received. Regardless of whether or not I keep my 680, I'll be sure to continue to visit these forums.

Point 3/4 - I just talked to a Garmin Tech support rep and she told me that the advanced detouring functionality is going to be back in the nuvi 880.

Regarding point 14 - this seems to be a known issue with the nuvi as I know I've seen someone mention it on another website ( I can't track down the site now...). I think it said that the problem was introduced in a recent firmware upgrade. It's not a calibration issue - as I have tried re-calibrating. If you click on the next-turn corner of the screen, the alert box (traffic/weather) flashes as if you clicked on it instead - and you're brought to the alert page. The only way to get to the next turn info is to almost click on the frame of the screen.

And point 15 - I will have to monitor this one - as sometimes it loses the route and other times it hasn't.

Keep it! Its the best bang for the buck. Return it to costco in a year and upgrade. Or when you get a $1000 to burn, get the latest and greatest, but keep in mind the the latest and greatest is gonna change in 6 months.

Ive had the c530, c580 and ive used a magellan. The nuvi 680 is by far the best. Yes it still has a lot of work to get done on it, but in few years we should start seeing perfection out of the garmins.

I am also new to this website. After I bought the Nuvi680 from Costco for $400, I read the entire manual and have used it frequently. I agree with all of your points, but I do have a few comments. BTW, did you know you can buy the Nuvi660 model from Costco online for $300? The only difference is the 660 doesn't have the MSN direct feature.

On point #1, I would recommend using the FM transmiter feature and crank up the radio to hear better, I own a Ford Excursion Diesel, which is loud inside, and this help greatly.

On point #5, do you leave your MSN direct adapter plugged into your cigarette lighter at night, so that it receive the MSN information?

On suggestions for enhancements, I was thinking more in the lines of adding a radar detector and a calendar feature, so it can dial my conference call numbers for me. However as a workaround, I found a free website called Cozi that reads me my schedule (and grocery lists) over the phone via a toll free number. Cozi is a web based shared family calendar, pretty cool and safer than looking at my treo while I drive.

I have the Nuvi 660 and love it! I went with the 660 because I needed the bluetooth but if I didn't, I probably would have gone with the C530 which is now on the discontinued list. That's the way it is for electronics, if it isn't in the unit you have now, just wait 3 months and it probably WILL be at a PREMIUM price.

I think the biggest Problem at Garmin is that they thine they are making the Nuvi Series more user friendly, I had used an Etrex legend, and loved the routing and the scale and the north arrow as I traveled...I didnt like the small screen that much but it was and still is great. And from the passenger seat I still love the etrex.

What we experience GPS users see as a "problem" it is what the new users need, something simple to take them from here to there without too much fuzz.

The great majority of new owners fall under that category; they just want a tool that is dependable and easy to master.

I too have an Etrex and a Magellan color; they both run rings around my Nuvi when it comes to features, but as far as navigating from here to there the Nuvi is as “gooder” or better, if you don’t believe me ask my wife, she never ever touched my old units but feels at ease with the Nuvi.

Yeap, my 74 year old father doesn't use (or needs too) all his features on the T2, and some that he has tried to use, confuse him.

sounds like the nuvi 680 is not for you. Return it to costco.

The nuvi is my first GPS, but even I could see that it had a fairly limited feature set. I figured if the missing features bugged me enough, I could upgrade later. I do think the positives outweigh the negatives, for me anyway.

My only real beef is the Nuvi constantly wants to route me through certain intersections that I know are bad, even though it might be 1 minute faster. (If it's only going to save 1 minute of time, then it should opt for the shorter route.) It's a minor point, as I just ignore it and drive where I want. This is because I usually know where I'm driving and just want the time estimate.

I have not done any experiments to see if really tries to get me on the original route, or if it's just a coincidence. I suspect the latter. I could test it by letting it recalculate, and then cancelling the route and starting over. Has anyone tried?

What they should implement is a friendly avoidance interface. When you are looking at the turn-by-turn list, you should be able to click one of the route segments and say "avoid". (Extra points if it then allows you to avoid it permanently, as opposed to just for now.) Something like this really wouldn't detract from the overall usability of the product.

It seems that you would be better suited to a 700 or 800 series...

I called my local Costco and asked about the return policy on GPS units. They told me that it's part of their 90-day policy and not their unlimited policy.

Have you found otherwise?

Sorry about no response from my previous post. I hit send button before I replied.

I agree with wongman, about it being excellent buy. However, it doesn't sound like you will be satisfied with the 680 at any point in time.

I have the 680 and absolutely love it. It is an excellent GPS as far as quality, ease of use and flexibility goes. The screen quality is outstanding, it finds the birds within 30 seconds and the 680 handles my several thousand custom POI's very efficiently.

You may want to try the 7xx series.

I hope you find one that you like.

This item is covered by Costco's guarantee to refund your purchase price if you are not completely satisfied. Costco's guarantee applies, even though this item may not be covered by the manufacturer's warranty, because Costco is not an "authorized" dealer of the merchandise.

Says Nothing about any time limit.

I just got this GPS today as my first and absolutely love it. As others have noted, my only complaint is the sometimes strange routing it chooses. I have heard this is common with Garmin in comparison with Magellan. The FM transmitter static issues are also there.

All in all, however, it is great. I got it from Costco and plan on keeping it!