Electronics : Garmin Nuvi 250 Widescreen Satellite Navigation System with European Mapping

Rating: - Let down
Brought this for a trip to Portugal and was fairly impressed... however, having got back to the UK the reason I thought it worked well in Portugal was because I didn't know any better.

Over here, this unit has been useless. Finding satalites can take anything between 5 and 15 minutes.

Driving around Bedfordshire several roundabouts and roads were not even on the map, despite being at least 5 years old.

The unit has also recommended taking "A" roads through town and city centres which are absolutely heaving the majority of the time and can be easily avoided by a more sensible route.

Once you've had several problems with a unit, you don't exactly have much confidence in it to take you elsewhere... now, where's my road map...

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Rating: - My first satnav
Bought this about 9 months ago and in general, pleased with it. No problems whatsoever travelling anywhere in England, but not so good in Scotland. Glasgow, with its tightly packed streets, can be a tad confusing for it. And entering an address can be a bit of a gamble; it can sometimes take you (if you let it) to a totally different town that has the same street name as the one you wanted to go to, simply because it's the nearest one to you. In which case, opt for inputting a post code if at all possible rather than just an address.

I see complaints about it not knowing how far from a junction you are. Bear in mind the accuracy of thse things is plus or minus a few meters. It's GPS you're buying, not DGPS, so don't expect any satnav to tell you where you are to the nearest centimeter.

Love the display, and the extras like finding ATMs, petrol stations etc is fantastic. Great at telling you which lane you should be in at large junctions too, which is VERY useful in places you've never been.

The only real criticism I have is, maps in Scotland don't seem to be as up to date as those in England. Just try taking a route around Edinburgh north to the Forth bridge for instance. It's not at all happy about you ploughing through what it thinks are still fields. ;-)

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Rating: - So disapointing
I have had this unit for about one month now and I am really disappointed as the maps seem years out of date. I initially put the misdirection down to the odd error in mapping but after using it in a few towns now it is driving me nuts with the number of serious errors. It also has a glitch in that it fails to obtain satellites for hours, unless you reset the trip details and unit then allow it to seek satellites whilst stationary and out of the car. It also goes berserk when it comes to the bad mapping data, you have to stop the vehicle to allow it to catch up, the voice prompt sound like she is having a panic attack! Often I end up going round in a loop when a road has changed and it tries to get me back on a road that does not exist.
It works fine on main roads and motorways but around town and cities it is a nightmare. This would be a great little unit if only the maps and POI were up-to-date.

Good points
Nice wide screen with good graphics.
Easy to set up route
Camera data accurate (you need to pay for updates though)
Nice suction mount
Isle of Man map

Bad points
Poor mapping and inaccurate POI
Slow to respond with directions at times or gives them too late to turn safely
Serious glitch finding satellites can take forever (seems to be a bug in the software)
The picture viewer not really sure what the point is?
No case
No USB cable

Come on Garmin you were so close to having a first class sat nav but no excuse for badly out of date maps.

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Rating: - Lost in Scotland
Mmmmm. Not too impressed so far. I bought the Nuvi 250W on the strength of the reviews on here. First problem was that the battery was low and it wouldn't charge when connected via a USB cable to my computer nor using the mains charger I bought for it. It charges fine in the car though. I haven't experienced any of the problems picking up satellites that other people have even though I live in SW Scotland. So far, it has taken under two minutes each time I've used it. My wife took charge of it and she had it up and running, no problem at all, five minutes after getting it out of the box. A plus point. My wife isn't famed for her technical excellence. First day we had it we thought we would try it around our home town, to see where it would take us on routes we normally use. First off, how would it get us to my wife's workplace? Within 400 metres of our home it tried to take us up a narrow side street which is really the service street at the back of two rows of shops. There hasn't ben a car through there since the year 1342. Ignoring that it put us on a normal route people might use. Next, at an admittedly complicated intersection, "she" (the 250W not my wife) went to pieces and if we hadn't known where we were going we would have been totally lost. The map, however, showed the correct route but was no help when it came to which lane to be in. Once past there it was fine. Next day we thought "let's see if it can find its way to the castle where our Living History group has its events. If it can find that it can find anything". A dismal failure. It tried to take us to the wrong side of the river which flows past the property then, having ignored that, amidst shouts of "Recalculating", when we came to a T-junction where we turn right map and voice indicated to the left. After that it gave up and showed us in the middle of nowhere. Actually the castle is in the middle of nowhere, down an unclassified road, but it might have been helpful if we had been able to get to the entrance to the road first.

Next month, we are off on holiday. Firstly, for a weekend with friends in Liverpool then a week in Derbyshire. Given how it has tried to get us lost, when we know where we are going, I fear we may end up in Blackpool and Denbishire. Watch this space.

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Rating: - London to Switzerland
I bought this satnav because i was driving from London to Zurich. Generally it was a great piece of kit. The main pros being very easy to use straight out the box (I plugged it in for the first time on the day before my trip), the unit is much thinner than my previous tom-tom and the instructions are clear, not to mention the decent price. The only downside I found on the 800 mile ish journey was that, in some places (rural France and near lake Geneva), the Garmin tried to take me on 'shortcuts' when they weren't strictly a good idea. For example, where a relatively main road meets the next required road 5 miles ahead, it might take me on a more minor road which may well be shorter in distance but of no real benefit, due to it being smaller and usually poorer quality. That said though, the Garmin saved my life when a motorway on the border of France was unexpectedly closed with no diversion signs. All in all i would absolutely recommend buying this.