nuvi 765T hands-on

Just a note about my 765t exchange experience with Garmin. I purchased mine through Amazon and my first one had a dead pixel so I went online and filled out the forms, etc. and had a replacement unit in 2 days, including a prepaid return label for the old one.

This second unit had some sort of internal error and couldn't be updated so I called Garmin support. They logged into my PC and tried several things before declaring #2 dead. He offered to ship me a replacement but I would have to pay to ship the bad one back so I declined. I called Amazon and had a new one coming again in less than 2 minutes and again it arrived in about 2 days with a prepaid return label.

Luckily #3 has been working great but I wanted to point out just how easy Amazon was to work with on returns. I've used them for years for this very same reason.

I have to agree amout Amazon and the ease of returning items.

As long as it's not "YOUR" fault, it's very easy to return items. Plus theo do email you a free return label.

Even if it is your fault, all you have to pay is the return shipping.

BUT... be sure you purchase an item that says it's supplied or sold directly by Amazon and not one of their suppliers or independant seller. If som you have to deal with that store and not go thru Amazon.

And many of the store have the same sort of very restrictive return policies as a lot of online vendors have. Including restocking fees.

So just be aware of that when you purchase thru Amazon.

I made my first lengthy trip with my new 765T this Labor Day weekend. Went to Memphis to visit my daughter. I had tested all the features of the unit at home, before leaving, except the FM Traffic component, which had to wait until I got to a city with coverage. When I approached Birmingham, I acquired the Traffic Icon on the Nuvi's screen. Traffic was pretty clear through Birmingham, so it stayed green the whole way. When I got away from Birmingham, the Traffic Icon disappeared, which is what I would have expected. It appeared again when I approached Memphis. On Monday morning, The Icon showed yellow, even though there was extremely light traffic that time of day. I did come upon a railroad crossing and a long train was keeping traffic from proceeding, so I assumed that was the cause of the yellow. Later, however, on my way out of town, the Icon turned red. I don't know what this was from because, again, traffic was extremely light and there were no delays at all. Instead of disappearing, like it had when I left Birmingham, the Traffic Icon stayed on the screen (Green) all the way home. There was no traffic coverage along US 78 after leaving the Memphis area, but the Icon did not go away. Not sure if that's what's supposed to happen or not. The only other problem I had with the unit was with the Bluetooth feature. It seemed to take forever to link the Nuvi with my cellphone. I used it before leaving Montgomery and it appeared to work fine. When I got past Jasper, Alabama, I tried calling my daughter. The sound on my 765T went completely dead. I had been playing the sound through my car stereo via the FM transmitter feture. I disabled the Bluetooth feature, but could not get sound back until I disconnected the Nuvi from the car's power source and rebooted it. After that, I couldn't get the phone and the Nuvi linked again via Bluetooth. The following morning, I did a little shopping and tried calling my daughter from my cellphone (not intending to use the Bluetooth feature). Lo and behold, it connected to the Nuvi, via the Bluetooth feature (even though I had disabled it in both the phone and the Nuvi). That sort of thing continued to happen, off and on throughout the rest of the trip. Very frustrating. Except for the Bluetooth problems and the suspect traffic reporting, I was pleased with the performance of the unit. Have any of the rest of you 765T owners experienced any of these issues?

Bluetooth support is quite bad on the 765 and later series. The same phone that worked 100% with my 760 does not like to transfer the phonebook or do voice dial when pared with the 765. It will work only perhaps 10% of the time. It depends on both the phone and the nuvi. Some phones have no issues at all pairing/operating correctly while others are marginal or don't work at all.

Spotty/inaccurate traffic service is to be expected with all traffic enabled units. Reports can be late or even non-existent. It all depends on the data that the traffic service provides to the nuvi and also your reception and the area you're in. It should always be taken as additional info and never be relied upon 100% of the time.

I have both a 765T and a 885T, my phone (ATT Fuze) works ok on the 885T but great on the 765T. Only thing is the 765T is in my wife's car.

I just ordered a 765t. I am upgrading from a 650, which I have been happy with. I am hoping I don't have all of the problems some of you are talking about. I can't wait to input routes.

I placed an order for 765T based on Amazon reviews, but after reading through some of these posts, I emailed Abes of Maine to see if I could cancel my order. The cost was $239 for refurb. -$20 through Bill Me Later and free shipping.

I was looking for a unit that had lane assist. Will have to go back to Garmin's site and rethink the other choices.

I've had mine for about a month now and other than the issue(s) with it still being off by about 60 feet, my home was on the wrong side of the street ( after a hard reset it was on the correct side but off by about 3 houses) it was a good buy.
I upgraded from the 360 and while not used much the traffic seems worthwhile. I wasn't happy with the volume so used the editor to pump up the volume.
I really like the lane assist and as has been pointed out the junction view is good but sometimes it there and gone so quickly it isn't much use.

I received my Nuvi 765t last week. Other than volum is a little bit low, it works perfectly. Backup was very fast since it has usb2 not usb1.1.

Why are you baling out on the 765T? I've had mine since July... no problems except for my battery only runs for about 1hr. I use in the car so... not a problem for me.

with my 765t, from Chicago to Georgia without a problem. Loved the routing feature. Bluetooth worked fine, traffic worked fine, also. The only thing that was off was the location of my Brother-in-law's house, but its off by the same amount when I used my c550. The addition features of this unit so far have worked fine for me. If anything comes up I'll be sure to post for everyone.

I just bought a Garmin 765t. I own a Maestro 4250 and it allows me to enter zip codes for destination. How do you do this with the 765t?

Go to Where To? | Address | Spell Zip Code...

Since the plastic cover over the speedometer/tachometer was curved, I cut two pieces of thin plexiglass, one 3/8 inch longer than the other and clear glued them together. The longer edges fit between the the curved plastic cover and the dashboard tightly and gives me a perfect flat mount over the tachometer (which I never use). Most convenient place to view, speedometer on left, 755t mount on right, and because it is recessed, hardly noticeable. Am able to leave the mount in all the time without causing any attention to it.

Searching by zip code does not work on US maps...Canadian maps, yes.

It would great if it would allow search by zip code. Some of the areas in NY are broken up into little hamlets (i.e., Bayside -- Oakdale Gardens; Far Rockawy - Arverne) and if you don't put in the right city name, you can't get any directions. At least, they should let you put in the zip code to see which areas the zip covers.

I was able to get search by zip code working for the United States. I did the following steps:

Where To? -> Address -> Change State or Country -> Spell City -> Zip Code -> Done -> Search All Cities -> House # -> Street -> Done -> Select Street

and it actually listed the correct address I was looking for zip code and all!

I will try it out.

Is there anyway of backing up my nuvi 765t's favorites and settings?

With my Magellan Maestro 4250 they had a backup/restore option that allowed you to save all your settings and favorites.

I would be interested in this also.

There's no way to backup/restore the nuvi's user settings but you can however backup and restore the unit's favorites using the simple method I've outlined below.

From the nuvi drive, copy x:/Garmin/GPX/current.gpx to your backup location. To restore them, copy current.gpx back to the same folder on the nuvi but rename it to temp.gpx (important). On the next power cycle*, the favorites will be read from temp.gpx into the non-user accessible memory area on the nuvi where they are actually stored (current.gpx is only a shadowed backup of your favorites).

*Note that a "power-cycle" (or power-on/power off sequence) on the nuvi 8x0/8x5 \units consists of removing, then reinserting the battery into the unit. Using the power switch on the unit to power it off only puts it into a "sleep" mode.

How do power-cycle a Nuvi 765t?

Simple...turn it off, then turn it back on.

All nuvis are the same in this regard *except* for the 8x0/8x5 series which has a removable battery and only goes into a sleep mode when it's "powered off" via the power switch. You can also power-cycle the 8x0/8x5 series by holding the power switch in the "on" position for approx. 10 seconds...this eliminates having to physically remove the battery from the unit.

I'm just waiting for delivery and a wee bit concerned over the issues posted here. I expect it to do what it advertises it will do, and being my first GPS unit I will probably exercise every feature available in my area ... and expect to learn some hard lessons.

I'm glad to have found your forum.

I haven't yet found a way for the 765t to repeat an instruction? Was this possible in the older series?

To repeat an instruction while on a route, simply press the green "next turn" indicator at the upper-left of the map screen. The spoken instruction will be repeated along with the display of the next turn detail.

I've got a 760 and really like the traffic feature even though it certainly isn't "perfect". I'd like to get a unit with traffic for my wife as it would provide tremendous utility for her. Let's pretend the 760 and the 765T are the same price right now. Are the ads on the 765T that much of an annoyance long-term? (Let's assume the $60 lifetime subscription fee is NOT a factor). Which unit is more desirable at this time?

Thx.

the ad on screen is very small, does not cover important map or route detail, and will only appear after you are stopped for 10 seconds, and then disappears when you begin moving again.

In route mode, I found a differnece between city and rural.

In the city, the green bar at the top shows what street is being travelled on.

However, in rural, the green bar at the top displays the next turn street, not necessarily the next cross street, but hte next turn street (in one case this was 30km ahead. On the same trip once I hit the city, the "next turn cross street" disappeared and only the street I was travelling on was displayed.

I recently updated my 765t with new software since myGarmin indicated there was an update available. Is there a way to find out what fixes they are applying to my unit?

Change Log is at http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=4357

Is there a recommended friction mount for this 765T?