Back to the drawing board! I returned my nuvi 660 and thinking about my next step. Here's why:

Sorry to hear that you were unhappy with your 660. I am really happy with Garmin products and I don't believe that any brand or model GPS will be perfect. Over the years I have found that even a Thomas guide map book wasn’t always exact. I have a 660 and a 670 and I'm very happy with both and after using them for over a year I understand that they are not 100% but are close. If you find anything better please let me know. Good luck with what ever you choose.

First of all, the routing is likely going to be the same (or nearly the same) within the nuvi line as well as within most (if not all) of the Garmin line.

Second, is the area where you experienced traffic covered by the traffic service?

Third, although the MSN traffic may be better than the the TMC traffic, you may be expecting a little too much from the service. It will never be perfect as it relies on many factors.

Fourth, if the traffic feature didn't steer you away from the traffic problem then it stands to reason that the unit didn't "know" that there was a problem there, so it stands to reason the the unit would continue to try to route you along that road based upon the routing preferences you set on the unit.

You might want to take a look at this review of the 680.
http://www.gpslodge.com/archives/009315.php

We recently completed a 5600 mile trip with the 660. It did everything that it was advertised to do including alerting for traffic. The traffic feature was one that I did not think that I would like but I subscribed for a year because of this pending trip. It alerted for delays, took care of reroutes, and told me when reroutes would take me longer than waiting out the delay.

I did not experience any “hangs” during this trip. I did experience a hang (and a confusion?) on a previous trip. I had updated the software prior to this 5600 mile trip – maybe the update cleared the problem. A reboot (off and on) cleared the hang.

The routings were always on the money. Changes of routes due to construction and for just plain fun were always correct.

Our previous GPS was a 350 (now being used by my daughter – I used her as my excuse to get the 660 for myself). I had one hang with that unit and a reboot cleared the hang. I have updated that software for my daughter. She has not informed me of any hangs. She travels all over the country every week for work.

My wife is not a person that likes all of this technical stuff. But she likes the 660 more than she likes her cell phone. She will even take it (and depend on it) when she goes to visit any new local location.

I am still amazed that this little box has all of this information inside of that box.

I have found that you still have to watch signs and use some logic when traveling. The one thing that I wish I could control is that I would like the unit (660 & 350) to be able to be programmed to give pending turn information a bit earlier. On the interstates it gives this information at about 1 mile. I would like to be able to change it to a greater distance. I guess I am just getting old.

I too had some frustrating experience with finding some restaurants via GPS, but the cause was not a fault of Garmin. Apparently some Dairy Queen franchise owners put their personal address as the address of their franchise in the source information that is used for the points of interest. It might be good for their mailing address, but doesn't help them sell ice cream and burgers. I also had what began to be a frustrating experience finding Bar-B-Que restaurants in Nashville. Some addresses turned out to be former locations converted to something else, etc., but we had the time and found it a great way to see parts of Nashville we otherwise would not have seen. None of this was Garmin's fault, but rather some of the information not being up to date in the source of the POI list.

I have a 2620, 660, and a 760 and have been very impressed with the traffic on the 660 and 760 in areas where there is coverage. I find it to just be there in all of the major cities where I have used the GPS. It has been a great time saver, saving me from getting involved in long delays getting to airports on time.

When I have had any issue with a Garmin unit, their customer service has been on the spot, the problem solved and has never come up again. They are top rate in service along with their top rate products.

I'm sorry you had the unexpected trip to the hospital, but it has to be comforting that your S/O was able to easily get the GPS to route you to the nearest hospital on the fastest route. It is nice that you didn't have another anxiety causing event by having to worry about where the hospital was located or how to get there. It's just one of the services that lurks in the background and not usually a desired destination for any of us.

I hope you have not given up on Garmin and that your new unit finds you in good health.

Bill

yeah i noticed something like that with my nuvi 660 i had a department head meeting to go to and all i have was an address to a brand new store. so it wasn't in the poi database. so i venture out i knew all the main roads to where i was goin but when i got off the turn pike it took me left when the store was really to the right. luckily i had the number to the store and they gave me directions. also it has my inlaws house a half a mile down the road from where it really is. but i don't think it's enough for me to get rid of it.. maybe would just like to see some good things out of the 08 maps

I have a Garmin 370 and have successfully used it in New Oleanse to find a nursing home, in San Francisco, in Italy and of course here in Dallas. I have had what I would consider some "miss steps" by 370. When returning from New Orleans, ran into a horrific traffic backup at I-10 and I-49. I immediately exited and hit detour on the 370. Also did the same on my car unit. (I was evaluating the 370 at the time). Both gave me good reroute, the 370 actually provided a shorter route. Took the 370 route, BUT the road was closed for repair. Did a reroute and both units took be back to the original route, through the traffic jam. Nothing that I did would get either unit to propose an alternate route, other than the one through the traffic jam. As I drove further west, "recalculating" always set me back the original route. At one point, I was eventually routed through Houston, Tx which to me was a hunderd miles out of my way. After exiting I-10 onto a major La Highway and driving North a couple of miles, the 370 recalculated and gave me a nice routed parallel to the original route. After the fact, I remembered that I had the 370 set for "faster time".

I remembered the "faster time" setting when we were in Italy. Traveling from Tuscany to Rome airport, the 370 routed us on the western edge of Rome, around the city of Rome, bypassing a much shorter route on the easter side. I change the routing from fastest time to shortest distance, recalculated and got the route that I preferred. I now wonder if the 370 would have functioned better if I had changed the routing preference when managing the traffic jam in Louisiana.

When I used the unit in San Francisco and in New Orleans, I was amazed the routing, taking routes I would not have considered, always getting me where I wanted to go. It seems to work very well in those situations. I have been pleased with the 370, but I have learned that it is not necessarily a "set it and forget it" device. I have not had the unit "freeze" up, but I have on at least one occasion, cancelled a route and the did a new route after the unit seemed to be "stuck" on a previous route.

Good luck on finding the unit that is right for you.

I have had my 680 since they came out. When I first got it, I didn't think I'd use some of it's features like playing music, bluetooth, and traffic. Boy was I wrong. I drive from Prescott AZ to Phoenix a lot and the MSN traffic alerting is fantastic. I was hesitant to follow it's advice but now I know to go which way it wants me to. What I do is listen to a local news channel for traffic and watch my GPS. It hasn't been wrong yet. The bluetooth is great. It downloaded my phones contact info and now I use my GPS as my phone. I have 2 hands on the wheel and just speak to the GPS, it's great. And when I am on a trip, I play the music I have downloaded to my SD chip and play it through the speakers. I have found I can't find a good channel sometimes in a big city but on the open road, it works great. I only wish it had a few features the 760 has.

Love Prescott and I'm going home for Christmas! My father owns the Iron Horse Restaurant in Chino Valley. Every do any courses at Gunsite in Paulden? Great place!

I have used a Treo and GPS, an Ipac with blue tooth gps and now the Garmin 660.

The Garmin 660 is without a doubt so far better than the other two systems.

I heavily travel the USA and using the TREO was the worst mistake I have made for navigation. You mention how being able to listen to the radio if you are using the radio speaker. A much bigger problem is recieving a key phone call at a time you need directions from the TREO, plus the Treo locked up a lot.

I use the traffic reciever and have found that in fringe areas the reciever might not be getting data...make sure you have both green lights no yellow or red.

One trick I use in fringe areas is to hand the power cord over my rearview mirror. The cord is the antenna and will increase coverage.

Good luck

I decided to take a chance on Costco's 680 deal for $499.

I really missed the bluetooth handsfree feature and at the price and with a 90 day return policy, I figured it was worth trying the additional traffic function.

Being new to using a GPS, I've wondered if any other device would be better at the issues I mentioned. So far, the Nuvi top of the line models seem to get the best marks from reviews.

I'll post about my experience with the 680 once it arrives and I've had a chance to give it a workout.

I know that I'd like the qwerty keyboard and some of the other new features of the 760, but pricing was definitely the attraction of the 680.

Have a great Thanksgiving, all!

GeneL