Traffic on 265wt - does it work for you? (Not sure it works for me)

I live in Toronto Canada and my traffic alert only changes colour (Canadian spelling of colour) when I'm in the eastern part of the city. DVP etc. It seems I only get traffic data in that part of the city.

I just bought a 765T and have not yet been in an area with traffic coverage. I will be going through Birmingham tomorrow, which is supposed to be covered. I am concerned about the sensitivity of the traffic receiver. I have my Nuvi on a vent mount, which is mounted on the A/C vent to the left of the steering wheel. The part of the power cable with the traffic receiver is laying across the top of the steering column. Do you think it will be able to pick up the traffic signals from there? It is partially obscured by the top of the dashboard. I'd hate to have to move it to one of the center vents. The Nuvi is in a perfect location for me right now and it's really not blocking the A/C air flow from that smaller vent.

I have gotten traffic using mine without problem once I relocated the unit and the traffic receiver in the cord. I had mine originally mounted on the center of the window of my truck and the unit draped down and I think it was blocked by the dash. I relocated the Garmin to the left side of the window (which I like better) and the traffic receiver is now on the dash. Reception immediately improved and I got all the traffic and redirection suggestions on a recent trip from the Chicago area to North of Milwaukee.

On my 885 the actual receiver is in the plug that connects to the power receptacle. As the signal is FM, as long as the antenna, which is siamesed to the power cord for the Nuvi, receives sufficient signal the traffic works. I believe most of the Navteq/Total Traffic units work the same way. It's the antenna that needs to receive signal, but it doesn't necessarily need a clear view of the sky.

I'm in Houston and I don't find mine to be accurate, sometime there are traffics and it shows none and sometimes there is traffic on my route and it doesn't display it. Overall, that traffic alert only works around 60% or less.

Check what is covered by traffic info in your area as well. For example in Chicago, IL area traffic info is only for highways (those with letter I, like I90), regular roads (even those of interstate category) are not included. And sometimes there is delay with update, so even if gps shows 30 min delay there is actually no traffic on the road.

My Navteq cord worked ok, but I am now using MSN and it seems to be more accurate.

I have only traveled in a few areas that have Navteq coverage (Atlanta, Orlando, St Louis, Nashville). I started out with traffic avoidance on, but i didn't like the false positives and reroutes, so I turned traffic avoidance off. In one case where the red condition was correct (bumper-to-bumper traffic moving very slowly) I tried the detour and it was even worse.

I was stuck on I-95 in Washington DC and the traffic indicated stayed green. Not impressed with this feature.

Press and hold the 'service status' from the traffic screen for 15 seconds... you'll get to a page that shows the station you are receiving traffic from, and the signal strength. Try draping the cord over the rear view mirror, or repositioning it in the car to see if the signal improves.

(This works for MSN, I believe it will work for FM traffic also).

Larry

Thanks, John.jcb and a_user. I guess I'll know for sure tomorrow morning. I appreciate the responses.

I also just got my Garmin Nuvi 265WT today. It's my 1st GPS. I'll be playing with it, trying to figure it out and checking out the traffic feature over the next few days. I'll post if I have any info or questions.

Mine works fine and is really great.
It sounds you have to return it and get a new one.

I also have a 265wt and can say that the traffic info works, but its a mix bag, sometime it'll say there is traffic ahead but there is none and other time it is correct.

I'm starting to believe its more a "gee wiz" than helpful.......3 straight days of getting on US60 east bound at 3pm all backed up and a nice green traffic icon staring back at me.

Sometimes my fm traffic on my 265wt works sometimes it doesn't even light up. I called Garmin and he had me do a reset and it came right back on. Now sometimes I may drive for an hour with no symbol and then it comes on. No apparent reason. Within supposed green zone the entire time.

Have any of you tried using TourGuide POI's on your 265wt's? I've had nothing but problems. I wonder if I am alone or if I have a defective unit between the sporadic fm reception and the TourGuide POI failure. I won't bore you with details in another thread. Just wonder how many have had luck with them

Mine worked on the 255w at one sluggish exit in CT, but the delay was not accurate. It then failed completely when crossing the GW bridge. I've only used it for one trip and don't quite understand all the 'features'.