Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
by Garmin
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List Price: Our Price: $80.00 You Save: $819.99 (91%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: GPS or Navigation System See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
Customer Review: "Jill" takes us everywhere - North America and Europe
Summary: 5 Stars
We don't go on any long trips without "Jill" any more. She's great - quite helpful in North America, and totally invaluable in Europe, where the signage in some countries is difficult to interpret at times.
You already know how great the Garmin products are in North America - so I won't waste your time on that.
Where Jill has really helped us out it on trips to Europe. I have had her guide me through Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Czech Republic thus far, without any difficulties. Quite impressed at her database - I often go orienteering, which takes me well off the beaten path and onto back roads that other GPS systems didn't have in their databases. For example, in Czech this year, some friends rented a car in Prague with on-board GPS, while I rented one without and brought along Jill instead (a good savings there already, by the way). We were quite surprised to find that their GPS (rented in Czech) only had major roadways and larger cities on it, while Jill was able to navigate us successfully through the back roads and forests of the country.
If you need to travel a lot, and especially if you need to drive alone in a new country, then you ought to have a GPS with you. And this Garmin series is quite impressive, both in terms of features and database. They are also quite readable on the move, and very portable (and durable). I travel often with this GPS unit, and definitely don't baby it. It's tough, and has withstood a fair bit of abuse at our hands. When the time comes to replace this unit, another Garmin will definitely be coming our way.
Customer Review: Warning: Only 1 map is allowed to be updated for free/inaccurate points of interest
Summary: 2 Stars
I recently purchased the Nuvi 370, with both the Europe and the US maps, fully expecting that the maps would be accurate and up-to-date. I was very annoyed to find out that not only were both maps "last year's versions" but the company only allows you to update the accuracy of EITHER map, not both. I chose to update the US map (which took over 4 hours of internet download time), since I was going to use it first. However to make the Europe map accurate, it will cost me another $169 to go on the Garmin website and download the map!! This is a hidden cost and a very steep one at that. It doesn't even seem legal, considering that the expectation of purchasing a new unit is that the information on the unit should reasonably be up-to-date. I will consider returning the unit since it is not as expected and don't like to be extorted for $170 in order to make the unit accurate. Who wants to buy a GPS with outdated maps containing directions to take roads that are possibly closed, under construction, detoured...especially in Europe? ALSO...beware of using the points of interest contained on Garmin units in general. The information is out of date...business have moved or closed and have not been corrected. There are restaurants in my unit for my town that have been closed for over 2 years. I tried to find a post office in a neighboring city and the unit sent me to an old location that had been closed for over a year! You can't trust the internal information and risk traveling on a wild goose chase trying to find that which no longer exists. Obviously, Garmin is not too keen on customer service.Customer Review: Nice, but beware of limitations
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought the 370 because of its support for both North American and European streets in a single box, and it has that. We quickly nicknamed it "Karen", after her Australian voice (the unit has American, English, and Australian male and female voices, as well as other languages - and we liked the Australian female best). The instructions are reasonably easy to follow. However, when we used "her" in Ireland, we ran into a number of "gotchas": (1) She doesn't know about a lot of one-way streets, no turn allowed streets, streets that split at a "Y", etc., especially in the cities. (2) She doesn't seem to have adequate differentiation between types of roads, frequently sending us on very twisty extremely narrow roads, when a somewhat longer route might have been faster. (3) She doesn't know about a lot of tourist sites (including some well known ones), smaller towns, etc. (4) She's doesn't know about any ATMs in Ireland (but does in Northern Ireland). (5) A reasonable help system to supplement the users manual would be quite nice - we had to figure out a lot of things by trial and error. Having said all that, she worked well, and we never got badly lost (which is quite an accomplishment in Ireland).
As part of the family, my 8 year old even composed a theme song about her! Coming soon to Youtube.... If you can't wait, here's the lyrics: "Please drive to highlighted route (x3) / If you go to the route I tell you to go, then you will go the place you want to go / If you don't oh well / Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum recalculating...."
Customer Review: Quality Product!
Summary: 4 Stars
I LOVE this GPS! It is extremely user friendly easy to figure out. I have been living in Germany for a little over three years now and this is the first GPS I have owned. It is constantly showing me shorter routes to take that I would have never figured out myself. It comes preloaded with all Europe and American maps and instantly works right out of the box. I picked it up at the post office and was using it on the way home. A few days later I used it to drive to a hotel in France and it literally took me to the doorstep. The accuracy of this GPS continues to astound me. The touch screen is a great feature and responds very well. The menu is very easy to use and all of the options are simple to find. The screen is bright and easy to see is all types of light.
I recently used a co-workers GPS (*Different name brand*) and found his cumbersome and hard to find the options I needed. This experience just proved to me that I purchased a quality product.
The only fault that I have come across so far is the way in which the GPS pronounces street names. Granted, it would be very difficult for Garmin to program all of the foreign accents and articulations that come with all of the different counties in Europe, but for people that know how it should sound, the mispronunciations can be annoying. An easy example is the Germany word for street "Strasse" (Shtrahs'-e). The GPS says something like "Stras". Not a big deal, but a little annoying.
Overall, I would rate it 9 out of 10.
Customer Review: the Lady knows
Summary: 5 Stars
We bought this unit for two reasons. It was only double what a unit would have been from our car rental company during a vacation, and our son will be travelling in the US and Europe for the next 5 months or so and we thought he would find it useful. This Nuvi 370 is a nice upgrade over the dealer installed GPS unit in my BMW, which I believe is made by Magellan - not a surprise since it's 7 years newer, but GPS is now a tenth the cost it was then, and is much more useful. The Nuvi recalculates very quickly after a missed turn. It's very easy to program the addresses, and the "favorites" feature was very useful. It seemed that the unit stayed charged for quite a while and it recharged quickly, but we didn't time it for this review. Being able to switch modes, say from auto to bicycle to pedestrian, is also really helpful. The screen was easy to read both at night and during bright sunlight. We found no errors in the maps. Travelling through the midwest, we were able to locate restaurants and gas stations very quickly. We didn't lose connectivity anywhere. During one segment of our trip, the Nuvi calculated a route that was quite different than the one we usually take that we're familiar with. There was some discussion whether we should follow our familiar route or "listen to the lady in the box". The Nuvi route was faster and smoother - the lady knows. Every once in while though, the lady's accent was a little clipped on pronunciation, so that "nineteen" sounded like "ninety". No buyer's remorse here.