Garmin's nuvi 660 reviewed

You've been teased enough -- first we showed you a snazzy gallery of the upcoming nüvi 660, only to lead you on a bit more with an official announcement, and now the lucky folks at PC Mag have ran themselves around at the mercy of Garmin's latest GPS unit, only to conclude that it was everything they'd hoped for. Sporting the same Bluetooth functionality that showed up on the nüvi 360, as well as the acutely accurate NAVTEQ maps, the nüvi 660 somehow found a few clever ways to improve on a nearly flawless predecessor. Reviewers praised the 4.3-inch QVGA widescreen display as "impressive," SD slot, the lightweight, pocket-friendly design, and better than expected "3 to 7 hour" battery life. While Garmin stuffed a (very appreciated) plethora of bells and whistles on the 660, this thing isn't worth much if it can't get you around, right? The review crew calms our final worries by citing the unit's impeccable ability to provide quick turn-by-turn directions, while also packing a myriad of POIs to go along with the real-time traffic information. The only notable digs came from the ho hum FM transmitter (has there ever been an impressive one?) and the lack of multipoint routing, but we'd recommend hitting the read link anyway to find out if "the best shirt-pocket GPS" is worth the admittedly steep $1,000 asking price.

[James P @ Sep 26th 2006 11:21AM]

That can't be the name.. nüvi ?

[Maff @ Sep 26th 2006 11:26AM]

it is indeed called the "Nay?" "Quarter VI 660"

[Craig Tucker @ Sep 26th 2006 11:52AM]

Whats with the tiny tiny screens on all these units?

[William Murray @ Sep 26th 2006 12:17PM]

The screen size is actually pretty standard for one of these units, regardless of whether you're looking at Garmin, TomTom, or another manufacturer's products. You're not likely to find something much bigger unless you move up to the built-in solutions (the kind that replace the head unit in your dash).

[KJ @ Sep 26th 2006 12:38PM]

Craig, what kind of screen size do you expect to see in a device that's mounted on a windshield? If go much bigger than the nuvi or Go910, you would need a forward-mounted camera integration to see the road.

At the in-car distances, even the smaller nuvi is very readable.

[Bryan @ Sep 26th 2006 4:56PM]

We just got one of these. It is a great display. Just as nice as the Garmin c550 and hands down better then the TomTom One. It can be had for a little less then $800 online and is WELL worth it. One nice feature of this one is you can plug the power cord/traffic receiver into the docking base for the car. The 550 and the TomTom One you can not.

[wushuhsu @ Sep 29th 2006 4:27PM]

Can I use it in Beijing and Shanghai?

[schiles @ Oct 10th 2006 8:58AM]

$749 at Amazon this morning. Looks to be an incredible unit - I've had several garmin units both auto, outdoor and aviation and they really are the best out there.

[Russ @ Oct 23rd 2006 4:18AM]

I read all the glowing reviews of the Nuvi (310, 360 and now the 660) - However, I would like to bring our feet back on the ground - This machine is NOT perfect...Shock horror!!.. ;-)
Seriously - I bought one last week and returned it today (after using it for a couple of days on a round trip from Hampshire to Cornwall) - Here is how it let me down;
1. Ambiguous and downright wrong directions! Sent me up the wrong way on a one way street in Polperro, Told me to "keep left" when it should have said "TURN left" - Told me to turn left when it was actually just a bend on the same road (multiple times) - Told me to "turn right" when the graphic was showing the correct "Turn left" - Kept warning me of non-existant mobile safety cameras (have you heard of "crying wolf" - I started to ignore the persitent "boings". Phone disconnected 3 times in one day (no apparent reason). The Traffic warning system was rubbish - Told me about a jam that I had already been in for 15 mins (ie too late) then it warmned me (in good time) of another jam on my route home - EXCEPT the tailback was on the OTHER side of the road and did not impact me! (it should know this as it knows where I am going and which direction the jam is in - Dumb or what!). I am now waiting for a device that actually makes my journey LESS frustrating rather then MORE! - Maybe TomTom can help (although judging by the reviews I have read so far, that is unlikely). Anyone care to comment?

[ichor @ Nov 17th 2006 9:11PM]

I too returned it after 2 weeks of use. It is a piece of cra* product for $850. I'd pay $100 for it though. Really bad routing algorithm made me immediately distrust it, on either the 'short' or 'fast' route pref setting. doesn't power down when you turn off the car. you have to manually turn off. no direction arrow to indicate which way the next turn is going, until you're right on top of the turn and it's too late! waypoint setting is unclear and you never see what the destination is. you see only time of arrival but not distance to arrival. so if your garmin clock and your car clock are out of synch, you have to do math to know how many minutes to arrival. idiotic! mp3 sound quality sucks. i can safely say i will not buy a garmin product. my lexus and bmw and acura dealer nav systems are superior to garmin. and that's just plain sad.

[sharp @ Dec 26th 2006 12:45PM]

I purchased a 660 in North America and it only seems to have North American maps on it. The salesman said that when I take it to Europe, it will download the maps there.

Has anyone tried that? Are there additional maps that need to be purchased?

It looks like there are seperate FM reciever units -- the GTM 20 and the GTM 21 that need to be purchased for Europe and North America?

[Red @ Jan 4th 2007 6:44PM]

I just got my new Garmin Nuvii 660 last December and by using this gadget...I have to say "THE BEST" ever man made created. I really really enjoying using it and it saves me tons of time to get to my destination.

My only question is Does it comes with better leather case? I'm afraid accidentally drop especially this is a Savior for people like me who's direction is not my specialty.

[Red @ Jan 4th 2007 6:47PM]

This is for Sharp,

Well, the Garmin Nuvii 660 in North America only includes USA, Canada and Mexico.
You have to buy seperate Chip for Europe Map.

[nickwilcock @ Jan 4th 2007 7:10PM]

I upgraded to the widescreen nüvi 660 after a couple of months with the 360. One glaring and inexplicable omission compared with the 360 is the lack of a 'North' indicator - even though Garmin's own map icon shows one! This makes use of the 'track up' mode less intuitive.

None of the reviews I've seen have mentioned this omission - I will be asking Garmin to provide it in a future software upgrade. Had I known that the unit didn't have a 'North' indicator, I probably wouldn't have bought it!

[Hyun Yoon @ Jan 7th 2007 10:26PM]

Had the Gramin Nuvi 660 unit for 1 hour and returned it as it kept giving me wrong (inefficient) directions from the store where I bought the unit to my home. I was not impressed with the software that calculated the direction from the store to my house. It is a beautiful unit but not functional - I don't want to become dumb and inefficient relying too much on a GPS to get me home.

[Chip @ Feb 18th 2007 7:43PM]

I bought a 660 which gave routes using city streets only. I found out that there is a setting for this. In the toolbox choose avoidances. Uncheck the box next to highways. Due to this check mark it was avoiding Highways.

[ron @ Mar 12th 2007 3:08PM]

just bought the nuvi 660 and took it on a trip from Chicago to Minneapolis. I don't know my way around Minneapolis and the nuvi 660 had me driving around like i lived in Minneapolis my whole life. It was not 100 percent but i would have to say it was 99 percent right. I was very impressed

[JOE @ Apr 26th 2007 10:33AM]

i got a garmin nuvi660 and i forgot the pin for it is there a reset pin or code for it

[Bill @ Apr 30th 2007 1:28PM]

Did you set up the 'secure location'? If so you can just go there with the 660 to unlock it.

[Bill @ Apr 30th 2007 1:30PM]

Most of the critisism I read in this blog stem from people not know how to use the unit. eg. distance to destination along with piles of other data, including direction, are shown in the 'trip' window and my unit detects when vehicle power goes off. For those getting 'inefficient' or 'wrong' directions check the 'route exclusions' settings...you may be telling the unit to avoid using certain kinds of roads.

Obviously the 'traffic' feature is only as good as the fm traffic data...but to have that whole thing integrated right into the power plug is fantastic. I suspect as more subscriptions are sold, the data and the coverage will improve as a way to sell more subscriptions.

Anyway, I'm very satisfied with my unit. It's excellent in the car and just as nice on foot or on my bike. ...now if it could TRANSMIT to my bluetooth headset as well as my FM radio...

[JohnT @ Aug 1st 2007 10:59PM]

I recently bought a nuvi310 and it seems to work fine in metro Sydney & Adelaide. I want to take it to the US but Garmin support has just told me this is a European only device (Australia was not part of Europe last time I looked) and you can't load US maps on it. So much for a personal travel assistant if it can't be used in the most popular destination in the world. Doea anyone know any more about this?

[JohnT @ Aug 1st 2007 11:10PM]

Folks, I've just received another email from Garmin product support and they say now that, as you would expect, the nuvi 310 can actually us US or any other maps from and SD card. So it's just a matter of picking up the the appropriate map when I toch down in LA.

[andrew West @ Aug 31st 2007 4:06AM]

I have a Garmin 660 Nuvi but it doesn't seem to have an FM transmitter? Is there smething I have to turn on somewhere or do some models not have this FM facility. Otherwise the unit works fine.

[DM @ Oct 7th 2007 5:45PM]

I like Garmin. Had 320 unit and replaced it with 660 but I do have one issue with it:
I have an SD card with music loaded so I want to listen to the music through cars speakers (otherwise it sounds like ....), and at the same time I want the navigation to come through the car's speakers but once I set the unit to particular radio station it works well while I'm not moving and as soon as I move the station loses the good connection it had and I have to end up driving up the road and changing the station on the radio and on the unit to match to a station that will work in the area I'm at the moment. Neither is safe nor practical!

I mean, the idea is good but I would assume that when they designed the unit would predict this and would do something else to make it better. Maybe hard wiring to the radio because the current setup definately doesn't work; I don't know what but this is the only issue I have? I did end up going around in a loop, looking for a restaurant and ending up at someone's house in Seattle but I understand that this is still not mature technology and will mature with time but it did get me from point A to point B, eventually. If anyone else had this issue with radio locking to the unit and found a solution I'd appreciate if you shared your knowledge with me.

Regards

[Alex @ Oct 30th 2007 11:16PM]

Is there any way to unlock the pin besides home location? What about removing the battery or uninstallng the firmware? PLease helP!! thanks

[George @ Feb 27th 2008 8:16AM]

Has anyone been able to unlock or bypass the passcode or pin for the nuvi 660? Im just wondering because I forgot my code and am nowhere near the set secure location.