Garmin Nuvi 350

Oh, man. Has my world changed. No more forgetting to bring my mapquest directions, no more ratty car atlas that never had enough local detail, no more spinning off on a highway in the wrong direction with no exit for 5 miles. We now have the beautiful, compact, social being named the Garmin Nuvi in our car. And I am in love. I’m in love with the American male voice, the English woman’s voice, the Australian guy’s accent. They are my new family. Turn it on, tell it where you’re going, and turn by turn it’ll read you directions as you drive, walk or ride your bike. Here are some features that I especially love:

1) It’s super duper small. It’s small because they want you to take it when you travel. Put it on the rental car, walk with it to visit new towns. It’s a tad bigger than a cigarette pack, and probably slimmer. Has a battery pack if you’re not in the car.

2) It literally took 3 seconds to set up in my car. Suction cup on window, plug into the lighter, done.

3) Touch screen only. Only the buttons you need are on the screen. “View Map” and “Back” is pretty simple, right?

4) Fun personalization, like picking an Australian accent to read the directions to you, changing the start up screen to a family picture, plugging in your address as “home” so you’re only 2 steps from asking how you can get home. (Then when you get there she says “Turn left for home.” How comforting is that?)

5) Lots and lots of pre-seeded locations in the database. When you’re traveling with kids, just type in McDonald’s to find the nearest Happy Meal stop.

6) The voice reads not just “turn left” but also the NAME of the street. You can make fun of it when it pronounces words like Jericho Ave as “jeri-cho”.

7) If you think you know a shortcut, or otherwise deviate from your path, it automatically recalculates from your new position and maps out a new path to your destination.

On the fly, you can add a second or third location, and it will plot it as an additional itinerary stop on your trip. That way, you can add unplanned stops without having to reprogram the whole itinerary.

One time, I had my 2 year old daughter in a rental car that had a navigational unit. Since I had the car for the whole day, I just looked up “nearby attractions” and found a local aquarium where we spent the rest of the day together. It’s a great memory that would never have happened if I didn’t have ‘someone’ along with me who knew where to go. Garmin Nuvi, my new local friend.
- Daphne

Add comment January 10th, 2007