Routing a Nuvi 650

You can't store routes on the nuvi 650.

The closest thing you can do is either create a bunch of Favorites that you route to sequentially (ie select individually in sequence) or create a Custom POI file containing these points and select them sequentially.

Once you are routing to a location which you have selected by touching "Where to?" and then selecting the location from your Favorites, the built in POIs or your Custom POIs, you can add a single additional location to the route (called an extra stop in the manual. While on the route, touch the Menu button, then touch "Where to?" and select the extra stop, and touch "Go!".

You would have to move up to the new Nuvi 700 series to have the routing features you describe. I can't beleive Garmin left that off the 600 series.

Does anyone know or expect that Garmin will upgrade the Routing feature into a new future release of the Nuvi 600 Series since it is basically the 700 Series with an External flip antenna?

"A new future release of the Nuvi 600 Series" would be the 800 series, a totally different animal asking us to shell out more dough... Garmin is calling it "job security".
As a firmware update for the existing 600 series... I wouldn't suggest to anyone to hold his/her breath on that

Garmin does not have a history of release this kind of functional upgrade in firmware releases so I wouldn't expect it to ever happen. Plus we don't really know what functional differences (internal, this is) there are between the 6xx and 7xx series. For all we know, it may not be possible to add this type of feature to the 6xx series.

I spoke with Garmin Sales and Technical Support. They are not going to incorporate that feature into the 600's, unfortunately.

What I do for routes since I have a 680 is use Garmin's Mapsource program on my PC. I plot the course (can't download it to my Garmin), but I print it out. I then say go to ????? and then go there via the routes I have selected, not the GPS. It has to recalculate a lot but so what. It figures it out.

So, I guess I can use MS Streets & Maps to do the routing, print it out (as you do) and input each location independently as we go along. For example, if we are going to Las Cruces, NM but want to go through Rodeo, NM on the way via a particular road/highway I would have to enter some places along that route as "favorites" and "go to" them to have the unit provide directions. Am I understanding this correctly? I can see that I should have done a little more research before buying this 650...I was sucked in by the great Costco price. Thanks for you advice.

Yes, you would need to enter and select the locations/Favorites individually.

If you are using S&T, you can use GPS Utility (GPSU), a software conversion program, to convert the .est file to a GPX file. This will save your pushpin information. Then you can either copy the GPX to your nuvi and import them as Favorites or run POI Loader to import them as Custom POIs.

Then if you discover places along the way, you could input them to the unit as you go.

Wow, you're all great! So glad I discovered this forum! Now, this GPSU program...is it built in to S&T or do I have to find it and download it? I don't find an option to convert the files from .est to .gpx in S&T.

You'd think after all these years, Microsoft would build in a GPX export into S&T.

Anyway, take a look here.

http://www.gpsu.co.uk/

Thanks. I found the same one when I googled GPS utility. I've downloaded it and will play around with it in a couple of days. I'll let you know if I am able to get it to work for routing. Thanks again!