Customer Ratings & Reviews

I was fortunate to pick this unit up from Best Buy yesterday morning on Black Friday for $299 (Black Friday price of $349 minus a Best Buy Reward Exclusive coupon on Garmin GPS units for $50)! My two previous cars already had navigation, so this is my first portable unit. All I have to say, is WOW!! Apart from having to mount it on the windshield and taking it down everytime (for security purposes), this unit has far more features than any car's OEM navigation system! The MSN Direct feature allows you to check out the region's major highway traffic alerts, gas prices, news headlines, and more. My favorite feature is the unit's ability to look up movies in local theaters with ratings, actors, and showtimes - much faster than you could search online. The only disppointment for me, was the fact that I could not sync the blue-tooth feature with my HTC Pocket PC phone from Verizon (It was one of the major criteria for purchasing this unit), but I could not pass it up for the price I was getting it for. Although I have not fully tested the traffic avoidance feature, I would highly recommend the Nuvi 780 for anyone in major metropolitan areas who know what it is like to wish they had gone another route home...ending up being stuck in traffic for a long period of time. Bottom Line: This navigation system does everything! It plays MP3's and audio books through your car's speakers, displays slideshows of your favorite pictures, teaches you common phrases in foreign languages, compares gas prices from dozens of gas stations in your immediate area! For a lot of $$$ more, you could add voice input with the 880, but entering addresses takes about 20-30 seconds! This is the premier navigation to own...Happy Shopping!!

So far it has been absolutely fabulous. I travel quite a bit and usually rely on directions from websites but without a co-pilot reading directions while driving can be dangerous and confusing. It redirected me around traffic and continually updated roads. Roads in Boston can exist one day and then disappear the next, and website directions to places in Jamacia Plain are impossible and more times than not wrong. This got me to places that didn't exist on the websites and my brother's in-dash GPS in a 2008 Land Rover. Sometimes the directions seem to be a little odd on short trips while I was playing with it in my area (it keeps you away from the backroads where possible). Can't wait for my next road trip to CA. The only negative I have has more to do with my car than anything. Using the bluetooth was difficult. The person on the other end had a hard time hearing me but understandable in a soft-top/door wrangler its hard to hear a person seated next to you.

I have used this product in everything from long road trips to local directions, and it has always been very reliable and accurate. It is extremely easy to use. Only complaint is sometimes the voice commands don't give much notice, but I have heard most GPS units are the same way. This is completely worth buying.

I purchased this Garmin because my brother has one, and after watching his work, I was amazed! Bluetooth and all. He has the 200 series. I purchased the 700 series (Nuvi 780). I drive for a service company. I was getting around with the online mapquest on my laptop via wireless. What was I doing wasting my time! Now all I do is input the information on my Garmin and it takes me exactly where I need to go without a blip. When I initially purchased this item almost a month ago and had no service calls, I drove around trying to get it to fault, just to give me a reason to take it back and get a full refund. Guess what! I'm keeping it. The automatic re-calculation is amazing! Just when I think it can't re-calculate and it's confused, it makes a fool out of me! Yes, there was two ocassions where it sent me to the wrong street number, but it definitely took me to the right street. It's not 100% but definitely 99.9%. I use it every single day to find companies by names, address or even find the nearest stores or banks. All I can say is amazing! And I have'nt even mentioned all the other features it comes with. I don't leave home without it. Now, all I need to do is convince my boss to pay for it under my yearly tool allowance...

I have owned this unit (Garmin nüvi 780) for a couple of days and have managed to test just about every feature. For the price, it is an outstanding GPS unit though there are some annoyances. I have found that the FM transmitter does not supply enough power on the battery unless the unit is right on the radio. My solution was to keep it plugged into the vehicle power but it still needs to be within 18 inches or so of the radio. The Bluetooth is clear, from what I’ve been told on the other end, and easy to set up with my cell. MSN Direct is a nice feature though it’s not available in all areas.

I bought this version over the Nuvi 260 because of the following: Bluetooth is a must, Multiple Route Planning (I am a road warrior). The GPS Side of this works great. I must say the Multiple Route Planning has made my daily Sales Calls much easier. The bad thing is that the Microphone SUCKS horribly. Everyone I call has a hard time hearing me. Its distorted, muffled, or incomprehendable. I bought this on Sat, returned it on Monday, and the 2nd unit has just the same problem. I also bought an external microphone to assist with this problem, but I cant stand the extra cord needed to operate. The microphone did little to help the situation.It is required in CA to have the unit in a friction mount (suction cup mounts are not legal in CA or MN). I suspect that because of this, the Microphone may be too far away from my mouth (from where I have to place the Unit in the Car) The sales person at Best Buy was very helpful to let me know that other customers have reported this same problem. He also suggested the Tom Tom 700 series. I see that from other consumer reviews, I may just try the FM Transmitter...I cant believe that would help, given that people on the other side of the line are reporting not being able to hear me. I hear the unit just fine. I dont have any problem with the speakers. I may try plugging it in the Aux to see if this corrects the issue. If you are looking for an Outstanding GPS but dont care much about the quality of your phone calls, this is ok. I will keep it for a few days to see if I can correct the problem myself. I also tried seeing if my Parrot Hands Free worked in synch with the Bluetooth on the GPS, and my phone does not allow me to connect to the two devices at the same time. Oh, and the price was not bad...$269 at Best Buy.

I love this device. It's the first GPS I've used that provided Traffic alerts, Fuel prices, Movie Information and more. I now use it all the time instead of just when I need directions. It helps me get to where I'm going faster with the traffic alerts even if I know where to go. I also love saving gas by finding the cheapest gas station near me and seeing when/where the movie I want to see is playing. This GPS is a dependable and great featured device. I highly recommend to anyone considering getting a new device. I've owned several devices but this one is hands-down my favorite.

I bought this product for 670 dollars at best buy on 2/17/2008. The navigation on this machine is spectacular. Being directionally challenged I seem to get lost often. I have always considered buying a navigation device, but never figured it was important enough to spend the money. I purposely missed directions many times in the last few days and the machine always get me on track logically. Also, I have been going a certain way to get to a work every day and the machine gave me a quicker way that I didn't even know about. The only con as I said before is that I am not sure if it is worth the extra money over the 260 wide nuvi. If you don't need bluetooth or an fm transmitter then do the research and don't overpay because I think the navigation is pretty much the same on the two devices. Peace

Got this device for a few weeks, works good so far. The free service lasts for 90days, than you have to pay a lifetime fee (I think its around $50-60). The nice thing is, if you are planning a trip it can tell you if there is a traffic problem anywhere along your route. It knows where its at and can suggest routes way before you get to the problem.

So far, I am very happy with this GPS, I got it for $214.00 during a one day sale event at bestbuy.com. Its my first personal one and its real simple to use and the interface is highly intuitive. The display is visible in bright sunlight, a real nice feature. The voice prompts and volume on the unit are acceptable, unless you're blaring your radio/stereo. This unit even shows you the speed you are traveling at, its got lots of bells and whistles and they too seem to be intuitive. Synching my cellphone to the unit via blue tooth was real simple. One thing I highly recommend is getting a case for the unit so you can carry it to/from your car. I'm doing that next.

The 780 has so much potential but it never seems to fully live up to it. For basic GPS functionallity it's excellent: crisp screen, quick recalculations, easy to use menus. I wouldn't quite call it "basic" but there is a feature where you can save "you are here" to your favorites which is great for places such as dog parks, garages, new stores, etc. It's the extra features that has so much potential but it never fully lives up to it. As mentioned before, the bluetooth is so bad I'm at the point of taking it off my phone, When it is synched up it has lots of great features but if the other person can't hear you what good is it? MSN Direct is another potential home run that doesn't live up. The traffic updates are very incosistent: sometimes they're accurate and sometimes they're way out of date so it makes the feature unreliable at times. Sending addresses from Live.com is an excellent (and consistent) feature that I use a lot for sending addresses to my Favorites area so when I go to my car it will be there waiting for me. For the money this is a good device, but be aware of its quirks.

I needed a GPS for work, since it will be my first GPS. I want to make sure that I get the one that I really liked and the one that work good. I read a lot of information, I cut down my choices to the garmin nuvi 760 and 780. The 8 series just came out, but I was not to giddy about the voice control. In the end I took the 780. I updated all the maps and added different cars into the memory, put a screen protector and a sd card for the media. Everything worked great. The MSN direct has a free 3 mos trial. It worked great in the city, because the signal was good. However its a different story in the suburbs, But thats not garmin but MSN direct.

This is the second Garmin nuvi we have owned. It is an excellent unit and gives us the information we need to travel. Have used for all trips and find that it is able to get us to our destination easily. Daughter has now requested one for her car to get around her living area in the Twin Cities, Minnesota. I would recommend a Garmin to anyone wanting to purchase a GPS. Make sure to purchase a service plan also. The service plan helped us to get a second unit at no cost (including an upgrade) when the car plug in broke.

this gps is a handy model both in ther car and out..the msn features are good and the blue tooth works fine along with FM transmission....I haven't had any problems and found the quality acceptable for all it's features I used a magellon 4250 and a Mio Kitt night rider and Garmin gives more bang for the buck best Buy has this priced at $269..good price when you check around

This is an outstanding GPS with clear and concise maps. It is easy to understand and follow with clear spoken directions and has excellent features. Recalculates directions quickly and logically when you stray from the original directions. The bluetooth feature is good and works well. The regular purchase price was $699.99 when I made this purchase from Best Buy in the spring. The regular price at Best Buy is now $599.99 and is much more reasonable.

This is a cool navigation, but MSN direct has also movie times and weather which is a little extra

With the new price decrease why would you buy anything else!? The features and functions on this unit far surpass other models and the price blows away everyone. The Garmin Nuvi 780 was priced less than a week ago at $499 and at $269, I feel like I am stealing. I plan on buying another unit for my wife. The MSN Direct is great. It has already saved me 25min on one trip by moving me around a bad accident. This feature is great for anyone who lives in a large city with congested highways. If I could I would buy one for everyone I know.

The product is fantastic. Easy to set up and use. I live in a small eastern NC town and the MSN coverage does not reach me. But when I travel it will definitely be a benefit. I would buy this 780 again.

I recently purchased the Nuvi 780 and am sorely disappointed in it. Yes, while the navigation features are Garmin quality, it lacks the ability to store your favorites in an orderly fashion. Everything goes into the same file folder. A second, and more important serious problem is the FM transmitter. It is substantially under-powered. I position the unit less than 3" from the car radio and still find myself having to seek a clear signal every 5 minutes or less while traveling. This makes the feature virtually worthless, particularly if you are trying to navigate a busy freeway. Without the transmitter, the bluetooth feature is also worthless. As the unit is so small, if you try to use the bluetooth without the FM transmitter, the internal speaker is so small, your caller's voice sounds so tinny it is almost impossible to understand. Garmin MUST boost the FM transmitter power to make any related features beneficial.

After having my Garmin GPS for only a year and a half, it suddenly stopped receiving satellite signals. I initially thought I just needed to update my unit's software via the Garmin website. But after installing all possible updates, the problem still persisted. After looking at numerous online forums (try searching Google for "Garmin satellite reception problems"), I realized that this is a widespread problem with Garmin units. I contacted Garmin about the problem, but they refused to acknowledge that this is a widespread problem (despite the hundreds, if not thousands, of online forum posts indicating similar experiences among other Garmin owners). Since my unit was 7 months past the 1-year warranty, Garmin customer service informed me that I would have to pay $100 to have the problem repaired -- they originally indicated it would cost $175 but then lowered the cost to $100 (they obviously knew what the problem was but wouldn't provide any details). There's no way I would reward Garmin for failing to stand behind their defective product by giving them $100 to repair it. Instead, I will put that $100 towards a new unit (definitely not a Garmin). I've done quite a bit of research, and I will be buying a Magellan Maestro this time around. While some people aren't completely happy with Magellan's bluetooth performance, that's not important to me. I'm most interested in the unit doing what it's supposed to do -- provide accurate, timely directions. And from what I've read, the Magellan Maestro does a fantastic job at this and has the best screen resolution in the market. I recently purchased a Garmin GPS for a relative as a Christmas gift (before I had the satellite reception problems). I'm going to have the recipient return the unit ASAP and exchange it for a Magellan so they don't get stuck with the same problem with their Garmin once the warranty runs out. Until Garmin acknowledges their satellite reception problem and decides to stand behind their products, I'd definitely beware of Garmin units.