just bought my garmin 660

Just bought my garmin 660. I bought TomTom 720 last month and returned it for little bugs here and there with the software and the navigation directions had issues on some of the addresses i gave it. However, Garmin has excellent directions but when it comes to the software, it falls short.

For example

1- I like to see the POI's on the 3D map, it only show it on the 2D and even there, the icons are so small, you have to be zoomed in all the way to see them.

2- Tomtom has better routing where you can schedule multiple routes and its alternate routes are calculated much faster

3- I did feel that the Garmin is a bit slow when it comes to notifying me of the next turn. It only tells me when I am so close to it, and at that time I might not pay attention and miss the turn. Tomtom on the other hand used to give me a warning a head of time.

4- Tomtom's FM receiver is better than Garmin, this is tested on two Honda cars.

5- I love the hands free capabilities where you hear the phone conversations over the FM radio. Tomtom doesn't let you do that.

6- Plenty of internal memory on the Garmin, Tomtom seems to have a design flaw where it has only 2 GB internal memory yet the map on the memory is around 1.6 GB leaving you only 400 megs for sounds and other mp3 files. Garmin on the other hand does utilize that much and I am able to use a 4GB SD card that is dedicated to music and pictures. When you add an SD card to Tomtom, it uses that to store some of its sounds and operating system files. I remember that all updates had to be duplicated on the SD card along with sounds, filling the SD card!

7- Tomtom look slick but it used to shut off while driving for no reason! too many features that were not fully tested.

So, at the end I decided to get a gps that knows how to give the right directions, garmin was the one. Although I like the customiations form the Tomtom (colors for example) I would consider those to be secondary.

Tomtom last month was $350 from Samsclub + taxes = $378

I got my garmin for $330 from Amazon.com and then the proce went up to $339, then went down to $320 and this is when they are going to refund me the difference of $10. So basically I got it from Amazon for $320 with shipping included and no taxes! a price you can't beat for this garmin model.

Garmin is coming up with new models and that's why they are dropping the prices. I didn't see much difference between the new gamrin models and the 660 as far as software. i think the only noticable difference is the addition of games and MSN traffic/weather subscription.