Nuvi 660 Traffic vs. Nuvi 680 MSN Traffic

I bought a Nuvi 680 but after I purchased it I found out I'm not in the MSN coverage area.......so it does me no good.........oh well..............Dave

Check the coverage maps, to me they both look like they cover the same areas.
From what I've seen/read from users, there isn't much difference in the traffic systems.

It all boils down to what is reported and transmitted for our receivers to receive.
If it's not reported it can't be transmitted. If it is reported and not transmitted, it's still not reaching us.

If traffic service is the only issue you are concerned about between the 660 and 680 and not the other MSN services. I think you just made your choice.

I had both a 660 and now have a 680, I do like the traffic on the 680 but the movie icon on the 680 rarely shows the movies close to my home. The weather is also sporadic showing just certain areas, some close and some far away from my home base. For the money if I was to purchase it again, I would stay with the 660 until Microsoft increases its coverage area.

I have the traffic subscription on my nuvi 660, so far it has been pretty good. It gives details of what lies ahead and how long of a delay one faces to their destination. For the most part, it is accurate as far as where slow traffic is. I work in LA so this info is vital to me. Can't speak for the 680 though, but I will renew my subscription for the traffic service when the times comes.

I have a 680 and so far I love the movie times function - spot on accurate. I like the weather feature. Gas prices have been 50/50 on accuracy. Traffic service so far is the most inaccurate of the 4. I love the theory behind msn direct but so far it has a ways to go before I consider it reliable.

Hey,

Yes I'm on vacation in Tenn and I live near Fort Lauderdale FL. Well in TENN I never needed a paper map with this unit I'm so happy.

In Fort Lauderdale I've had to use the TMC traffic alet system . I am over all impressed with it. It told me how long the delay and where it was. During Rush Hour while my friend from NY was in Visiting me and we went to the Miami Sea aquirum. We left at 7:15 am and arrived at 8:25 am. This unit Found numous delays on 95 and rerouted me on to the back roads of miami. Granted it was mostly in bad areas where no one likes to drive. I didn't care all I cared about was getting to the destination early. BTW it's not NUVI's job to reroute you only in good areas. Just to re route you when you are in traffic. (I heard a complaint on another blog about the area it re routed to and I found it funny.)

Normally this trip would take about 2 to 3 hours so yes this works.

As far as MSN direct Well I'm a computer technican and personally I feel anything that comes from Microsft is flawed in the beginning. My point has proven true by this and other blogs. if I need to know whats playing in the movies I can either buy a newspaper, or call Verizon wireless and ask the operator. If I need to know the gas prices I can just look at the station signs as I'm passing. (THE NUVI WILL ROUTE YOU TO THE NEAREST GAS STATION IN ITS DATABASE) Once I'm in an area and I'm low on gas I'm stuck anyway. So on 1\8 of a tank am I going to travel 40 miles to find gas 5 cents cheaper.:)On ten Gallons thats .50 savings If it's .20 cheaper on 10 gal thats $2.00 savings. unless you are a trucker I don't see the true benifit to this.

Personally I'm happy with the Nuvi 660 and I will stick with the 660. TMC is made for traffic specifly and this is what it is providing me. Traffic updates and directions that is what I buy a GPS for. My GPS is accurate on rual roads and city roads and has been right on about traffic. What more can I ask for. (oh yes to play music) well thats what I have an mp3 player for or better yet a car stereo for. have a good one. Feel confident about the 660 I do. I'm not even going to look at the 680.

Now that is a very cool feature that it can look up gas prices.

I would agree that driving miles out of your way for cheaper gas would be counterproductive. Sometimes cheaper gas is just around the corner, especially around interstate exits, so I see some benefit from this feature.

if anyone have experience with the traffic alert on the 680 MSN direct in the LA area, i would like to hear it, because i'm thinking about picking up this unit (or the 660), and i want to know if its worth the extra $100 or so.

basically i want the best traffic alerts.

I live in the Cleveland area and it works great for me. A friend has the 680 with MSN and he says its not all that. He's sorry he paid the extra money!!

I live on the fringe area of Houston and have to drive accross the city every day. I count on the traffic info to determne my route. I have found that whenI have a weak signal if i hang the power cord on the inside mirror (suspect it is the antenna) my range is increased.

Actually the idea of using microsoft for anything you don't ahve to scares me, hence no 680. I did renew my 660 traffic license so i guess I feel it is a good value.

I, too, just bought a 660 and then found out that the new model, the 760, is just around the corner for the same price.

I have a bit of time to return the 660 without a penalty, so I'm wondering what others would do in my place? Keep the 660 or return it and get the 760?

It seems that the early 760 reviews suggest that the "small" differences between the 660 and the 760 are in the 760's favor, but that there was a slight suggestion that the 760 was "dumbed down" from the earlier Nuvi's. I'm not sure what the reviewer meant by this.

I'd appreciate any suggestions on making the choice between the two models.

Thanks for your thoughts,

GeneL

I am not sure which I would do, I don't like the 760's battery life. It says 5 hrs, so that probably means that you really get about 3, which isn't enough for me.

However, I really love the fact that you can put in up to 10 routes with the 760.

Those are the two differences that I care about.

Since I always use the device plugged in, the battery life wouldn't be an issue for me. I haven't used my 660 long enough to get why the multiple routes and waypoints are important or even how they'd be used.

I assume that as I become more familiar with using a GPS device, that I'll get why others feel that this is an important feature, so I guess it's something that I should have???

For me one new 760 feature that I really like is that I could choose a QWERTY keyboard layout, but the internal antenna presents a quandary for me. On one hand, I like the idea of not having the antenna sticking out, but one reviewer suggested that the 760's ability to acquire the satellites would be diminished by its internal antenna. I presume that if this is so, it's not a "good thing."

So I'll ask again, are the differences in the 760 worth switching for, considering that it should be around the same price that I paid for the 660? Also, there may be a price drop on the remaining 660's that I might take advantage of.

I appreciate the feedback from you experienced GPS users.

GeneL

Has anyone here had both the TMC and the MSN direct and can offer an opinion as to which is better?

It really depends on where you live, from what I have gathered.

Gas prices are not quite cheap where I live in Chicago. When I go to church on Sundays, Indiana gas stations are some three or four miles away. Checking gas prices on the MSN receiver lets me see where those prices are 30 cents or 40 or even sometimes 50 cents lower than where I live. I fill up the tank for the week and save a couple of bucks. Why should I pay 3.20 for a gallon when I can pay 2.65? On 10 gallons, that sure is something. I do not think this goes for everyone. The MSN receiver does its job, for me.

I live in Southern California and use my 660 to drive to LA regularly. With the myriad of freeways there, it's very easy to get stuck in traffic on one route when just a few freeways over, it's flowing at speed. Since I've gotten the 660, getting to downtown LA from just about anywhere has become much less stressful - although I've taken several different routes to get there due to the traffic alerts and the re-routing the system does for me. Also worked great going from Manhatten to eastern Connecticut as it routed me along a back road where 278 and 95 come together at the NY-CT border which was plugged up to a near stop.

In a nutshell, I love the feature and find it most useful around the cities.

Jill = less stress

I will not go to the local walmart without my GPSr

I live in atlanta and I am driving to Baltimore soon I will update with how the 680 performs.

In my opinion if you don't need the feature then it's not worth getting it I personally don't need muti routes. True I have 3 clients a day in my business but I still rather punch in one at a time.

Maybe I'm old fashioned. Would Multiroute be nice? yes But I would not take the time to use it.

It's like computers the differnce between a 400.00 computer and a 2000.00 computer (for the most part is a gaming video card.) If you need a comptuer for business you are still getting ddr2 memory, and a highend processor and your 300 gig drive. But if you want to play doom and (you play it alot) then go out and spend the extra few hundred dollars or in some cases thousand dollars. Both will preform equally as good it's just a matter if you truly want awsum 3d graphics for the latest games

I guess I really don't need multiple routes, but one or two would be nice, if I understand them to be what I think they are.

Can't you basically say how you want to be routed? So even if the interstate is not the faster/shorter way, it will still take me the way I want.

be aware that it does take some time for the gas price information and movie times to update. wow, can you believe we even have the technology to show movie times and gas prices for nearly all of north america? remember, the technology is new, not perfect, and we need to be Un-American in our thinking and patient for a change.

I got a 660 for Christmas and I've been using it daily since. I live in the SF Bay Area and I commute down to San Jose daily. There's always heavy traffic and delays in this area during my work commute. I have mixed reviews about the live traffic feature. I find the incident reporting to be very useful. However, I've become suspect of the 660's ability to provide me with the optimal route when there is a traffic incident. Many times, it will tell me to get off at the next exit and then immediately get back on the freeway. How could that be optimal? Does anyone see this with the 680 or 760? Or, is this the best it gets with the nuvi series with live traffic updates?

I have used the traffic alerts as a gauge of how much delay may be ahead. Last week while driving through Atlanta the delay time was up to 20 minutes. That would usually be enough to cause me to want to reroute. Often the delay is 1 or 2 minutes. That is probably not enough to worry about since the route has been optimized and if you try to go around chances are that it will cost you more than the 1 or 2 minutes. On the 20 minute delay I did decide to let 'Jill' reroute to see how she would take me. As it turns out several others were taking the same route which was surface streets with plenty of stop lights. So I made my way back to GA 400 and by that time the delay was back down to only 2 minutes.

I have the 660, the 680 and the 2720 and have had an opportunity to use both and I think the consensus is that it depends on the area you are in. I live in the Phoenix area and get pretty good coverage with both. Since I like the added benefits of gas prices, weather and movie information, I personally, will stay with MSN Direct, particuarly since it appears they will be adding additional features or information.

I have heard that the traffic from MSN direct is much slower than the FM traffic. Just something to keep in mind. I have a 660 and the traffic works great... if only there were coverage on streets other than expressways.

I have been pleased with the MSN traffic here. It has offered me what I have needed. I always listen to the radio, as well.

I also like the additions of the other MSN icons (movie theaters and times are my wife and daughter's favorites, I like the gas prices as they give me an idea of what is out there. With the 7xx, I was able to get the new additions on MSN Direct v2.

I was in Mpls/St.Paul southwest side and traveling around on 494 at 5:00am Friday morning after Christmas. It reported a delay of 20 minutes and wanted to direct me through St.Paul to 94 I stayed my course and there was nothing, nadda, zip. Traffic was traveling well at or above speed. Same type of notice coming through St. Louis the next day this one was spot on bumper to bumper three lanes down to one. 20 minute delay so I would say hit or miss. I was not going to go down to some area in St. Louis I did not know pulling a U-Haul trailer. So it was a nice day to sit in traffic jam, jamming on Classic Rock.

tmc isnt very useful :<

I live in Prescott AZ and drive down to Phoenix. If I17 is having problems, my 680 has taken me off the freeway, down streets, gotten me to another freeway and back to work. My buddy has a 660 and we tested it one day. I told him to stay on the I17 and I would do what my GPS said. I got to work 20 minutes ahead of him. I can't live without it for the freeways here. As far as the movies and gas, it has been right on. I also like that the first year is free and then the charge is less for yearly after that. Just my 2 cents.

I live in Dallas and for the most part have been happy with my 660 traffic reporting. It is sometimes inaccurate just becuase not all traffic issues are reportd.

I am near the Dallas area, too. My MSN has been good for when I go to Dallas, but since I live and work north of Dallas, I haven't had to use it much.

I also listen to the radio in case. I have enjoyed the MSN Direct

I live in Atlanta, and like said before i rarely go anywhere without my 660. I recently renewed my traffic subscription, so i figure 60 bucks broken down 5 bucks per month is not bad. I have had no problems with the traffic and find it to be 100% accurate in located traffic jams or accidents, although the delay times it states are seldom correct, but i know know 1 min. delay means about 10 mins, but then again whose to say how fast it updates, at the least i know if i have to reroute. the gas price things seems great is that only a 680 item or can i get that on my 660. Also just to add, went to Key West for Thanksgiving and down loaded my 2 free books from Audible, i highly recommend this for long trips.

This 1 min delay notification is fixed in the latest unit software (v4.20). You can download from this page: https://buy.garmin.com/shop/store/downloadsUpdates.jsp?produ.... With this update, the delay times are more realistic on my 660.

I find the MSN traffic updates accurate but way too late to be of any help, the notice comes on just abpout the time I see brake lights up ahead.

I just got my 660 and was interested in the TMC traffic option. Does this require an antennae such as the GTM™ 20 , Part Number: 010-00544-01 or is it built in?

It is built-in.

It is built into the power cord you should have gotten with your unit.

I have a 680 and my friend has a 660. While in southern California we compared the traffic info. The 680 was much better. It was real-time info and I found it very accurate. The only issue is coverage....not many cities that I travle to have the coverage....ie..Palm Springs.

Hope this helps.

I have the 660, I am in the chicago area. I find it ok most of the traffic delay times are correct but some are way off. also some times the delay doesn't pop up till I am already in the traffic or about to come up on it and have no way of getting off the highway.

I drive in the Los Angeles area and use the Nuvi 680 for traffic. The information is usually pretty current but, I have to admit that I don't follow the directions off the freeway onto different side streets. Part of the reason is I don't want to head into streets that may also be congested and I am optimistic that the blockage will clear up. By staying on the freeway, I still usually arrive within 5-10 minutes of the ETA.

So far so good with my 680 in the SF Bay Area.

--Does the Nuvi-660 give you a free trial for their FM Traffic service, like the MSN will on the 680, and for how long?

--Also... what is the likelihood that the 660 FM Traffic-Receiver will some day offer similar info as MSN, like weather, and gas-prices, etc, just to compete? Anyone heard anything up & coming?

i bought both cables and prefer the MSN because of all the extra services they offer over the just traffic option on TMC

Can you hook MSN-Traffic up to a 660?? I was told by others that you could not make this work-

I had been led to beleive that some units are made only for the TMC-FM-Traffic, like my 660, while others are only compatible with MSN-Trafic, like the 680, but not both on any one unit.

What unit were you able to hook each cable up to, and see them each actually work, and how did ya do it? ...Or did you do this with two different units?

I would rather have MSN to get weather & gas-prices... on my 660. Is it possible?

The 660 is not compatible with MSN. The 680 is compatible with both

Awww NUTZ, I reeeely hoped it could just work!!

Thank you for providing an answer none the less, Bobshort1!

Now to revisit my other questions--

--Does the Nuvi-660 give you a free trial for their FM Traffic service, like the MSN will on the 680, and for how long?

--Also... what is the likelihood that the 660 FM Traffic-Receiver will some day offer similar info as MSN, like weather, and gas-prices, etc, just to compete? Anyone heard about anything up & coming?

--

From what I read, it is only a 3 month subscription. If you are only in it for the traffic, I hear the FM traffic is good.

I just got the 760 because I saw it came with the MSN. I guess I am a typical male. More icons for the dollar.

You still have a great unit.

I got the 680 from Costco and am now eying the 7xx series because of msn2. I really like the idea of being able to send information to the gps via live maps.