Garmin n¿vi 260W Mexico 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin n¿vi 260W Mexico 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator
Garmin nuvi 260W comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps for all of North America, including a hefty points of interest (POIs) database with hotels, restaurants, fuel, ATMs and more. It even announces the name of exits and streets so you never have to take your eyes off the road. Simply touch the color screen to enter a destination, and nuvi takes you there with 2D or 3D maps and turn-by-turn voice directions. In addition, nuvi 260W accepts custom points of interest (POIs), such as school zones and safety cameras and lets you set proximity alerts to warn you of upcoming POIs. Includes Vehicle Suction Cup Mount, Power Cable, Dashboard Disc & Quick Start Manual
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great GPS for price
Great GPS for the price. If i had to do over - I would purchase the 255 with lifetime traffic. Other than that, this is a fantastic GPS. It has never made an error, gives very clear directions, and the maps are easy to follow. I have used Tom Tom and Magellan’s in the past. This GPS is much better, a great product. I gave it 4 stars because of the lack of traffic information.
2 Stars Garmin 260 not up to the task
I’ve been using a Garmin Nuvi 260W for over a year and I do a lot of traveling. It works OK about 75% of the time, but the 25% takes me off route and to the wrong locations. And the dealbreaker for me is the long long long waits for customer service. I don’t have time to wait 30 minutes to talk with someone. I’m now in the market for another brand.
4 Stars Almost perfect
I recently purchased the Garmin nuvi 260W for a trip to Newark, New Jersey and then on to Massachusetts. Since I was deviating from my normal route and had to go into the city rather than around it, I figured it was a good excuse to buy a GPS.
Overall I was pleased with the product. The turn-by-turn directions were perfect and the countdown by tenths of a mile to feet was helpful. However, my husband found “Samantha’s” voice totally annoying.
The one downfall I had with the product (and this could be chalked up to user error) was that our trip from NJ to MA was via the George Washington Bridge (thru Manhattan)!! What a harrowing ordeal - I was ready to toss the GPS over the bridge by the time we got through there!
The reason I suggest it might be user error is that I would like this product to be more interactive. I have not been able to figure out how to put in just a city or a specific point without having to have an actual address. An ideal addition - and this may be available on other Garmin GPS units - would be to click and point where you want to go without having to use VIA points. (Sort of like the revised Mapquest allows). That way I could have gone on the Garden State Parkway over the Tappan Zee Bridge, even if it may have taken longer.
The only other issues I had with it was that it seemed to lose the satellite signal rather frequently and a few times it suddendly showed we were on a secondary road even though we had been on the same interstate highway for miles and miles and should continue to do so.
I’ll continue to use it, but will keep my Rand McNally road atlas nearby 
4 Stars Pretty happy with our 260w
I received the 260w as a birthday present a year or so ago. Its helped us to locate houses in town, has taken us to Gettysburg, PA, and all the way down the eastern seaboard on a trip to Disney. By in large we’ve had pretty good results. It didn’t know where our rural home was, but we were able to set that and now have no issue.
I will have to agree with those who say it takes a while for the GPS to lock in on the satellites. If we’re leaving from home, or know the general direction to start off, that’s no big deal. Otherwise, I guess you sit in the parking lot and wait for the Nuvi to come online.
Once its up and running, the 260w works great. Nice clear screen with decent - if not great - volume levels. By tapping at the top of the screen you can see the next several turns. Other screens available will show your total miles logged, speed, and compass direction. The database is pretty decent providing you with nearby points of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, or even movie theaters. It doesn’t cover everything, as our local megaplex doesn’t seem to be there. Maybe in the next version.
As far as bells and whistles, you can dress this GPS up a bit. There are various voice styles to choose from, many which feature TTS(reads the street name to you). You can choose male and female versions in most areas. There are also different vehicles yo represent your position on the map. Choose from a car, monster truck, or spaceship if you like.
In the end, its a reliable road warrior for the most part. Its given us the rare wrong turn, but a bit of common sense has always put us back on track. Four stars for above average performance. I’m sure other brands are fine. That said, I would not hesitate to recommend a Nuvi to someone looking for a traveling companion who seems to know the way.
4 Stars Love my new GPS
Having played around with lots of gpses in stores and using some of my friend’s I knew I wanted the features that Garmin offered. I love the extra features like text-to-speech, but I wish the voices were more real and less computery. The spell search feature in the points of interest is really slow compared to TomTom. The points of interest are outdated — It lists restaurants that have been closed for more than 2 years in my area (and I live in metro Atlanta, not some rural area.) It doesn’t always take you the most direct way, but it reroutes quickly if you know a faster way, and it remembers that you took a different route. Plus the detour option was great when I got stuck in Atlanta traffic on 85. I also love that I can choose to be a Chipotle burrito or Marley (from the movie Marley and Me) when I drive, however this does not come with a computer cord, I used the one from my Cannon camera, but any mini usb cord will work. The extra voices you can download online do not work with the text to speech, they only say “turn left in 200 ft,” which was very disappointing. But don’t get me wrong, I love my gps. I’m about to take it to Maine so that I’ll be able to know my way around there, and the pedestrian feature will come in very handy in Portland.
Filed under: Portable GPS Reviews