Nuvi 660 Accuracy?

 

I'm asking this question on behalf of my father who has a Garmin 660. His recent experience has been that the unit appears to be approximately 3 blocks off. Is this common? I haven't had any such problem with my Nuvi 350. The last three times he has used it, when he has programmed in a destination address, the unit has told him he had arrived there when he was three blocks away. This has happened with a residential address, a park and a commercial address (a hotel).

I've had him go through a 'hard' reset to see if it helps and yesterday, he reported that it did the same thing when he programmed in the address of an information station at a state park. It showed him as 'there' already, but he was about 3 blocks off before he actually arrived.

I could understand 20-40 feet. Or if he was traveling at a high rate of speed. But neither is the case. Do you folks think he should contact Garmin on this? He bought it last June or so, so I assume it's still under warranty?

Thanks as always for everyone's help. I tried a few searches on this but found nothing, so I'm curious if his experience is unique?

Thanks again

Ted

That's a little

far off in my opinion. If it was mine, I would want it no more than 1/2 city block out. I was lucky. Mine is right on. Sometimes it will drift 1, 1 1/2 car length but that is all. I would call Garmin, ask them. It may be a candidate for return since it's only about 4 months old.

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Garmin 660

Just curious; Was the

Just curious; Was the address that was off, one that he entered, or was it a spot that he marked while he was physically there? My 660 is very accurate, except: when I mark a spot that I am at and want to return to, mine frequently puts it on the wrong side of the road. Its not just this one spot, its happened several times. Addresses I enter are right on, spots I mark are iffy, not 3 blocks off, but 50-100 feet off.

Entered...

This was an address he entered in and selected out of the database. It wasn't marked. None of them in fact, were marked. Strangely, his house is SPOT ON. Now THAT one he 'marked' (using 'use my current location' when he set up his 'Home') But pretty much any other address, is off.

A further example: He was telling me that when he's at a stop light for instance, it will show him quite a bit back from the intersection. He makes a turn, goes maybe a block or two before it actually shows that he's made the turn.

I, like others here, have found my 350 to be right on the money. But wanted to get an overall opinion before I suggested dealing with the dreaded return. Is there any other resets or anything (besides the one in the maintenance screen, which I did) that might bring him back to complete factory defaults? Or is it just time to make that phone call?

Thanks again for everyone's input...

Ted

Samething with Nuvi 360

Ted1964 wrote:

This was an address he entered in and selected out of the database. It wasn't marked. None of them in fact, were marked. Strangely, his house is SPOT ON. Now THAT one he 'marked' (using 'use my current location' when he set up his 'Home') But pretty much any other address, is off.

A further example: He was telling me that when he's at a stop light for instance, it will show him quite a bit back from the intersection. He makes a turn, goes maybe a block or two before it actually shows that he's made the turn.

I, like others here, have found my 350 to be right on the money. But wanted to get an overall opinion before I suggested dealing with the dreaded return. Is there any other resets or anything (besides the one in the maintenance screen, which I did) that might bring him back to complete factory defaults? Or is it just time to make that phone call?

Thanks again for everyone's input...

Ted

Yes, I had the samething like you described. It little bit way off. I might have to call Garmin.

Nuvi 660 Accuracy?

Sure sounds like there is a problem with that unit. I have a 680 and it is spot on.

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Mark Ball Ground, GA

I agree with mark. I have a

I agree with mark. I have a 660, and mine is generally right on the money.

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Steve

Error

My 650 is Right on too, Did he try recalibrating the screen? If it is off all the time maybe it could be that.

I have experienced the same thing.

There are some landmarks that are at least three blocks off with my 660. I've also noticed that many gas stations, fastfood places just don't exist on the 660 that should since they have been around for many, many years. Coordinates, however, put me on the money.

Sometimes addrs are off

My new Nuvi 650 seems to be very close to the location I'm currently at, but I do know that addresses I input are often not spot on. For example, my home in Michigan was 6 houses off from the address I input into the GPS. But I always felt it was where the "software" placed the location, not the GPS unit itself. I have other identical examples with other GPS units as well.

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--- GPSmap 60CS, Nuvi 650 & Nuvi 1490T---

Nuvi 660 accuracy

To Ted1964,

According to many other posts in this forum, it seems the WAAS/EGNOS setting being on is messing the unit as to accuracy, battery life, satellites' acquiring times.
I would suggest to go in Settings > System > WAAS/EGNOS > Off.

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“There is always a solution; the only challenge is to find the best one”

WAAS OFF

My unit was off not by 3 blocks but still off quit a bit - Once I turned it off problem went away -

Nuvi 660 Accuracy

I didn't see where anyone mentioned downloading the latest operating system (unit) updates. I'd make sure the unit is up to date before contacting Garmin, etc.

Gary

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Gary

WAAS and updates

Thanks again to everyone - I JUST had him turn WAAS/EGNOS off, so let's see if that helps. He already had the latest updates, I did those for him right when he got the unit.

He's getting ready to go on a little trip up north in a few days, I'll get a final report and we'll decide on what to do from there.

On my 350, I recently canned the WAAS/EGNOS for battery reasons, but honestly haven't noticed any difference in accuracy(It was spot on to begin with and remains so). However, the satellite acquisition seems to be quite a bit faster.

gmctrashtalk I Haven't

updated my 660 since the early 3.0 version. I don't think updates would have anything to do with accuracy. It may, but in my opinion it won't. Sometimes the updates, from what I have read on here, some do more harm than good. Not all, but some. Why would I want to put an update in that updates foreign languages? I have a hard enough time with English. Someday I will have to though, 'cause it will update all that you have missed.

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Garmin 660

Accuracy

Yeah that is way too far off for me. Couple of car lengths is all i want. youre paying 600 dollars you kinda expect it to work better you know. however i would call garmin and see if they can fix the problem hopefully its still under warranty. good luck