Latest Top of the Line Garmin Units?

I have a DriveSmart 61 and I love it. I'm not sure of the difference between it and the DS 66. Mine is 6.1 inches and to be honest with my old eyes even it is getting small. Feature wise it's a very good and reliable GPS for me.

I would love to have a bigger screen for my old eyes, although I love my Nuvi 3597 LMTHD.

Yes, the bigger the better. But when traveling, I wonder if there is such a thing as "TOO Big". Needs to be able to pack it in a suitcase, or take it on a plane while traveling.

I'll have to try to see the 8" GPS in person to get a better feel for it.

But it required so much access and wants to share so much I sent it back

What did it want to share? Display too much information?

Can you please give a little more detail about your complaints ?

Thanks.

^^My guess is the complaint is more so about the link app than the unit itself¿?

To all the other 3rd party i-net companies..

I have a DriveSmart 65 and am generally happy with it. One thing that does bother me is the device occasionally spontaneously rebooting while in the middle of using it. Fortunately the firmware gracefully recovers and remembers the last route you set in it, so there is that.

The reboots do not occur with any regularity, and in fact the spontaneous reboot I encountered today was the first I had encountered in two months.

I do find the features to be quite nice. But if you want anything smaller than 6 inches, you need to go with a Drive 53. Doing so you lose most of the DriveSmart features like voice commands, 3D buildings and active lane guidance, and the junction views switch from photorealistic to basic. The Drive 53 is however very much a step back from the high end nuvi devices of old.

I also have a Garmin DriveSmart 65. Mine is the version with Amazon Alexa. While it may not necessarily be the "top of the line" Garmin unit, it is a nice screen size for my needs in my vehicle. Garmin shows that the version with Alexa is $100 more. The Amazon price, with Alexa, is less expensive than the version without right now!

I do think Traffic is a very valuable feature. I typically get traffic data via a Bluetooth connection. The power cable I use is a GTM 60 HD Digital Traffic Receiver version. That allows traffic data to be received via FM-HD broadcasters.

I chose to not get the Alexa version because I didn't feel I needed it. I still don't, but I do have Alexa-connected devices in the house so my perspective on that could change.

Traffic is very valuable, but I prefer using the Drive app for the traffic alerts as I feel it's both quicker and more comprehensive than FM. I could also use a GTM 60 if I wanted as I was given one with the 3550LM I picked up on Facebook Messenger for the cost of gas (i.e. free). In my area however FM is slow.

I don't think you are missing much of anything by not having the Amazon Alexa version. Knowing what I know now, I probably would not pay extra for it.

Traffic via Bluetooth is much better in my area of Minnesota than the traffic content over FM HD.

I'm impressed with the Garmin Drive App. It's a bit slow in identifying or releasing problem areas.So often enough you are driving in a marked area where there is no problem or stuck in traffic that has not yet been marked.
Does anyone know how/where it get's it's information. Recently we have had some snow and thus slippery spots and the Garmin drive app seems to be reasonably accurate with those.. but who/what decides where/when??