I did a lot of research before buying the Garmin Nuvi 260W, and debated heavily between getting a Garmin, or a TomTom. Finally i settled on a Garmin for the more positive reviews it received, especially in regards to map quality.

I will say that the product DOES do everything it says in the description. The display is easy to see (definitely recommend getting a 4.3 inch if you can afford it), and the text to speech easy to understand. The controls are dead simple, and so far the maps have been pretty accurate, although I have found a few small errors.

I also have to give props to Garmin for designing a really good window mount. I had it stuck on my window for a month, and it didn't come loose once.

My criticisms:

1) The battery is stated to have UP TO a 5 hour charge. In real life it's closer to 3.5 hrs. Also, the low battery pop-up starts showing up when it gets to 50% charge (even though there's a good 1-2 hours left), and this is really annoying.

2) The power button sticks. I don't know if this is common to the Garmin nuvi's, or just my unit, but the power button sticks a bit, and often I have to take it off the month to get a good enough grip to slide it over.

3) Lack of routing functionality. This is a big gripe of mine. If you have a specific route that you want to take for a long trip, for instance, Garmin doesn't let to choose the route beforehand. It will recalculate the route as your driving if you miss a turn, but if you have a 500 mile trip, and you have a certain route you want to take, the only way to do it is put a "via point" in your trip (more on via points below), and hope the unit calculates the way you want to go.

The lack of routing customization may not be a legitimate gripe for some people. The unit description doesn't say it gives you this functionality, and some of the more expensive units do have it as a feature. However, for a $250 navigational tool, I think it should have at least the same functionality as Google Maps.

2) You can only select one "via point" per trip. Again, if you have a long trip, and want to make a few stops along it, you have to enter a "via point", but you can only select one per trip. More expensive units have multi-point routing capabilities, but this brings me back to my complaint of this not having the same functionality as Google Maps.

3) 3D maps resize as you take turns. This is kind of annoying. If you have the 3d map view, and you take a turn, the display tends to resize the view as you make the turn.

4) Routing preferences. The unit does have a "route avoidance" that will let the unit avoid certain things like toll roads, u-turns, highways, etc. However, I think it should include a route preference so if you want to stick to highways, it will do that. It does have the option to select "fastest" or "shortest" route, but I've seen a few instances where it took me off highways onto heavily trafficked roads with lots of stoplights, when a highway route would have been better.

All in all, I think this is a good unit to have if your in an area that you don't know well and just want basic directions for getting around. If your a road warrior, and want something that has lots of navigational choices, a more expensive unit might be a better choice. Again, this unit does everything it says it does, but for $250, I would expect more features.

Beyond the poor voice quality which I expected. The voice prompts are incorrect.

Instead of saying "Turn left on First Street" It says "Turn left of First SAINT".

Instead of saying "Turn right on Second Drive" It says "Turn right on Second DOCTOR".

This product is great.It arrived within 4 days from when I ordered it.It is very accurate,I will never get lost again.

I bought this about 8 months ago; have used it extensively and have no complaints about it. Easy to use, there are fancier versions available, but not needed for general use. Things like traffic updates could be useful, but I use my Iphone to check out road conditions instead of paying an additional fee for traffic assistance on my GPS. Voice directions that speak the street names is very helpful on this model; points of interest are accurate. 5 stars on this product, highly recommend it.

I've always favored Garmin personally; I've used their "mouse type" gps engines in ham radio applications (APRS) and have had accuracy to within 20 feet on them. I've played with this a while now and love it; I like to dive at a spot in Terrell, TX often and use it to go there and it is a little undeveloped in that part of the city where the dive park is and this is spot on- when I approach the front gate I'm told I have arrived at my destination. I keep it set to find fastest way and usually I get there faster than I expect and by a route I did not expect. Only thing I don't like is when you use it in routing your way, it doesn't show the direction you are traveling in but that's ok, the car has a compass. Overall it's a super GPS that I'd buy again in a heartbeat. I bought a vent mount off ebay and like it better than the windshield mount, it's too easy to get distracted when it 's up in the window like that, personal preference for me, you might be different.
be sure you hook it up to your pc monthly and download and software updates that Garmin might've put out.