Customer Ratings & Reviews

This GPS is the best thing I ever purchased. It is great. Best Buy had a great price before Christmas and I am so happy that I bought it. This thing is taking me where ever I need to go without a problem. The traffice feature is great. If there is a traffice jam or accident, I hit a button and the GPS will give me alternate routes around the problem area. I am writing this review from the road, I am driving from New York to Florida, and the Garmin is going a great job. It gives me hotels, restaurants, etc. I'm in Georgia today and will be arriving in Florida tomorrow thanks to this wonderful GPS.

Got this for a vacation in AZ. Worked great. Only had one instance where I had to make a six lane quick change during the whole trip. Looked up destinations easily, sometimes seemed a little slow on the fly, but you are not supposed to use it on the fly anyway. Had a Tom-Tom 1st but it locked up and died as soon as I did the 1st "free" map update Like the ecotrip feature, use it a lot. Still working on the understanding the traffic updates, but hey I'm not paying for it. Overall a great product for the money and returning my Tom-Tom and exchanging for this was effortless at Best buy

This is my first GPS device so I was looking for something simple and affordable in case I didn't really like using the technology. I have to say for the price I am quite surprised at how much this little Garmin does. I have used it to find a couple of places that I am familiar with to see if it would bring me there w/o trouble. Yes it did and not only that warned me when traffic was ahead. Would recommend to friends.

I got this gps mainly for my job. I'm a social worker, and I make home visits all over the city of Philadelphia. I got tired of going online and printing out directions for all of my home visits and case openings, so I decided to get this as a X-mas gift to myself. This unit was really easy to setup. Even though there's no user manual included in the box, you truly don't need one. This unit is very intuitive, and almost anyone can figure out how to use it just from playing with it for 5-10minutes. I wish a USB cable came with it, but you can buy one easily while you're at Best Buy. I got the free map update, but it did take forever to finish downloading everything. It took about an hour and a half to complete the update. I use this GPS alot, as I make a number of visits every month to addresses in parts of the city I'm not too familiar with. I've never gotten "lost" when using my gps, and I'm sure it has saved me much time and gas. It also has shown me better routes to clients' homes that I'm already familiar with. I realized that for a few of my clients, I was not driving the quickest/shortest route. I also like to use the points of interest feature often. I spend some days out in the field making visits all day, and sometimes need to find a place to have lunch, get gas, or use the bathroom. I think this unit is best for those who want a unit to get them where they need to go, with a few nice features. If you're a real "techie", and are looking for something with tons of extra useless features, this probably would not be the best choice.

My dad loved his GPS so much and after playing around with it myself, I think I'll get my own! I think that the automatic map updates is a really cool plus, not to mention the ease of use and the size of the screen is perfect! I would only reccommend Garmin over any other GPS systems.

I would recommend you to get the one without the traffic updates. I decided to get the one with the traffic transmitter (which is included in the power source for the car) since I'm in the Dallas area (HEB area) but I haven't really seen a change of what I would do with or without. I would say the only thing that "bothers" me is that sometimes I have problems turning the unit on/off. I slide the switch and some times it takes 2-3 slides, or sometimes it turns on at the 1 slide. This is the reason for the 4 star rating. Other than that, it's a great device. Easy to use, easy to navigate, easy to setup. If you get the one without the lifetime traffic, you would save even more money.

easy to use and setup, very clear voice commands, large screen, traffic updates are super. overall an excellent value for the price; can't be beat.

We tested this out on a 60 mile drive. The Garmin provided directions to our location. It directed us on an alternate (slower) route. We went the way we normally go and let it recalculate. Worked great. On the way home we followed the Garmin directions. I think the travel time was close to the same and the distance might have been slightly less. all in all it works great. I have a good level of trust that it will continue to get me to locations. This has worked on business travel when I did not know the route, but arrived at the expected location.

Light, compact and easy to use icons. It gives mileage and approximate arrival time. Generally, it is very fast and accurate. Once in a great while, it will be off. I don't know why it does it, just a electronic glitch. It has a 4 hr battery, so you can use it while walking around in a new city. You can punch in, for example, "Starbucks" and it will list all the locations close to where you are. Will not route multiple addresses in order, only one address at a time. Will need another model, if you want to do that.

This is a great gps. It is replacing an older Nuvi for a fraction of the cost. I have been very happy with the Gramin products. They are easy to use and seem to be more reliable than some other brands that I have tried. The 255w. I tend to take the gps with me instead of leaving it in the card. Having to unlpug the power each time is a pain. My older Nuvi had the power integrated in to the bracket. I got the model with the traffic alerts. The updates for traffic are very poor in the Pittsburgh area. But I hope that they get better over time.

This is my first GPS unit and it works very well. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it. I would imagine it's a good value for this type of item, but as I've never seen or used another GPS unit before...I'm obviously limited on my ability to compare such items. I will tell you that it had a few difficulties locating the satellite while trying to use it in the downtown district of Chicago, assumably because there are so many skyscrapers blocking a direct view of the sky...but elsewhere, it worked just fine. My only real complaint is not with Best Buy, but that I was under the assumption there would be free map updates for as long as I own the unit. You do get the initial one free (if you update your maps within 60 days of your first use of the product), but afterwards there's a cost. You can choose to update only when you need to and pay a price for that, or you can subscribe to lifetime updates (maximum: 4 times a year) at a higher price. That was a little disconcerting to me. Otherwise though, the unit's worked out fine and I'm pleased with my purchase.

I love my new garmin. It is easy to use and the traffic function is really easy and sooooo much help!!! I'm still figuring out all the functions and buttons on it but so far it's been great! I wish you could sort through listings easier when looking a place up by the type of place (instead of the name or address) but that is the only frustration I've had so far. It has bee great!

I have owned a 255W for a year and bought another one instead of buying a software map upgrade (2010 maps to 2011). I am very happy with its performance. Easy to learn. Clear screen. TTS voice clear but a little fast for my ears. Instructions for moving Favorites to new machine poor. Found them on Google. 2011 maps definitely worth the update. With 2010, the unit was always treating places such as highway splits as way points even if you never got off the main road and the other road was an exit ramp. Too much unnecessary talking. You never knew the distance to the real way point. This is gone now. I still think map updates; either purchased separately or bundled with the unit are way too expensive. One final thing. To this day, I cannot figure out the differences amoung the 37 versions of 4.3" Garmin units. They all seem to do the same thing except maybe the new ones are thinner and some have bluetooth and speech recognition. Do the newer models have faster processors?

I bought this for my wife for Christmas and she just loves it. It is very accurate, fast, great at rerouting, the turn by turn voice prompts is great, easy to use and stick to the window. The only bad thing is, my wife can watch my speed easier. Since the GPS has the speed limit and my speed posted on it. Just kidding, it’s not a bad thing at all. It really is nice to have a speed limit posted on it for some of the roads that have no speed limit posted. This GPS is great and I highly recommend it to anyone.

The only reason I got this model was because of the FM Traffic feature. I've had the unit for a week now and it has never received any updates. I will be returning it. If you don't mind not getting the FM Traffic updates, then the unit will be perfect for you. All the other features worked well and the maps and directions are very clear and easy to follow.

Found this at BB online for $129 on Black Friday. Great deal considering what you get. Life time traffic is nice and tells you when you are coming up on an accident or slow/stopped traffic so you can avoid. No blue tooth but I don't use that anyway so no big deal. Screen is sharp and changes to a darker picture for night time automatically. Very easy to use and set up. No user manual so some things you have to figure out but it did not take long to get the hang of. Would buy again.

I purchased the Nuvi 255WT at Best Buy after my Nuvi 350 died on me a few days ago. The 255WT has a large, backlit display, which is very sharp and easy to see. The voice is loud and clear and the device quickly recalculates your route if you make a wrong turn.The battery was fully charged upon opening, the signal strenth was very strong even indoors, and the satellite signal was quickly picked up. The Garmin was up and running within minutes of taking it out of the box. I am happy that I am able to use the accessories I had already purchased with my Nuvi 350, which are the AC adaptor and the USB cable, both of which are not included with the 255WT. I had also purchased a bean bag for the dash board for my Nuvi 350, which I am also able to use with the 255WT. A few good tips from the salesman at BB: do not leave the device in the car in extreme temperatures, hot or cold; do not keep it plugged into the car charger, as this will burn out the battery; use only the battery and then resort to the car charger if the unit needs charging. I always left my Nuvi 350 olugged into the car charger, which is why it may have died after 2 years. You should also register the product within 30 days of purchase, to take advantage of the free map update from Garmin, which the salesman told me could take a few hours. And finally, it pays to get the extended service plan, which would give you 2 years insurance from the date of purchase. I did not get this plan, but after a lot of thought, I will go back to BB this weekend to purchase the $40 service contract, which includes replacement even if the unit is dropped. I know from experience that this plan will give peace of mind. I did not have the service contract with the 350, and it died in 2 years. The service plan can also be renewed if you want to extend the coverage. All in all, I am extremely pleased with the Garmin Nuvi 255WT, as I am sure you will be too.

I've owned this GPS since January 2010 and this GPS is merely adequate. It gets the job done, but for the price you pay for the lifetime traffic and the widescreen, you can get something better for cheaper. This GPS has a pretty good battery life, it gets you from point A to point B and it seems pretty durable. However, I specifically chose this GPS for the lifetime traffic feature. So far, it's been horribly disappointing. You can be stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and the traffic indicator won't show any traffic, even on some main interstates. Forget about secondary roads, you won't get any kind of feedback on those. When the traffic warning does come on, it gives you very inaccurate delay times like 1 or 2 minutes when in reality, you've been stuck in a backup for 20 minutes and counting. At times, the GPS can take a little long to detect satellites. Not always, but I think it's worth mentioning. Also, the touchscreen is off. If you want to press a button, you have to select some buttons by pressing below it and to the left. Otherwise, it won't register you pressing the button. Not usually a problem, but this can be a hassle when typing in an address or searching for a specific location by name. Anyway, not a horrible product, but skip this one if you are interested in getting a GPS with traffic features.

I have moved up to the Nuvi 255W from a Nuvi 205 (square screen) and I'm very happy for the upgrade. When I was a bit disappointed w/ the performance of my 205 -- slow to search for destinations by name, re-routing not the fastest -- the 255W came on sale for $129 and I picked one up. I had considered the 205w, but just the wider screen wasn't enough for me, even at the great $89 price it's at right now. The 255w does ADD over the 205 FM traffic updates, a new economy driving feature that takes in current gas prices & your specific vehicles MPG for city/hwy & gives you up to date info on your driving style & efficiency. I do believe this is now a free download from Garmin.com for older units, but it's a nice feature that was pre-installed. Also, this unit seems to respond faster for re-routes and searching for destinations by name than the 205. Overall, it was a great upgrade for my needs. I don't see BluTooth being that valuable, I've never desired it nor do I need it. I wear an ear piece & that's more than perfect for me. For the price, whether you got the Black Friday or the current 3-day sale @ $129, this unit is well worth it, especially if you are considering it against the 205. For the extra $40, if you have not used the 205 before, you may not appreciate the new features. For those who have the 205, this is a slight upgrade, well worth the money for a 2nd unit.

The Garmin Nuvi 255WT has been working great and it's easy to use. My kids love to watch it while we're driving and we've had fun changing the icons and voices for the holidays. They have numerous icons and voices available for free download on Garmin's website. So far it has gotten us everywhere we needed to go.