Customer Reviews for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
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Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Model: NUVI 255WT
SKU: 9252854
UPC: 753759095116
Navigate the United States and Canada with ease with this GPS that features free lifetime traffic updates, up to 1,000 waypoints and customizable points of interest for easy route planning. The "Where Am I?" emergency locator and travel assistant tools provide additional support.
Average Customer Rating:
4.3
out of 5
(733 Reviews) 733
Rating Snapshot 733 reviews
5 stars
440
4 stars
195
3 stars
40
2 stars
26
1 star
32
88% of reviewers would recommend this product to a friend
(
644 out of
733)
Customer Reviews for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Review 1 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Great value for the money.
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
2.0
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What's great about it: Easy to use and affordable
What's not so great: Maps for North Dakota are 2 miles off. Makes me uneasy about depending on it.
One drawback and it it is probably not limited to this model - I bought this unit to navigate roads in North Dakota since I was moving there and had never been there before. The roads in northern ND near the Canadian border were 2 miles off. If I was looking to turn on 129th ST; I would actually be at 131st by the time the Nuvi instructed me to turn. There seems to be no way to correct this (I tried updating the maps online - not fixed). That was the ONLY issue I had with this unit; otherwise it is wonderful.
This product has... Large/easy to see screen, Easy menus, Inaccurate, Free map updates
About me... Frequent traveler, Business Professional
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 2 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
idiot proof directions
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: simple, efficient, accurate, dependable
What's not so great: doesnt reach out and smack you when you dont pay attention
I'm a bit of a technophobe. Karen(we picked the australian accent). Took my family and I on a trip to an unfamiliar city and all its sites and surrounding area flawlessly. The only time we went the wrong way was when I was talking and didnt pay close enough attention to her, but she was very forgiving and quickly rerouted us to correct my mistakes. The search feature for local food, shopping etc was also very rewarding, the only time that didnt work was when she took us to somplace that had gone out of business, but she still got the location right.
Very affordable, easy to use. this was a wonderful purchase for me and my family.
Very affordable, easy to use. this was a wonderful purchase for me and my family.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 3 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
GOOD FEATURES
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: Innocentmaan
from Louisville, Kentucky
on 08/31/2011
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
3.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Gas,Bank,place of interest,shopping,police e.t.c locations
What's not so great: battry strenth,fragile screen
My reservations goes to the last Garmin i used always got disconnected in the middle of a programm journey, leaving you in the middle of no where.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 4 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Good basic navigator
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Easy to use, for most part works very well
What's not so great: Many businesses missing from database
Not perfect -- very occasionally makes little mistakes, and once got confused about location in a very out-of-the-way place. But, good solid performance for the most part in a wide variety of locations and situations.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 5 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
nikhil good
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: nikku
on 08/18/2011
great gps.the product is very useful for everybody. its user interface is amasing
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Review 6 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
excellent cost-benefit relation
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: mawess
from Buenos Aires
on 08/12/2011
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
3.0
It is a great product. Easy to use and with all the basic feature and more!!!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 7 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Good for the price
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: DCR1
on 08/10/2011
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
3.0
What's great about it: Cheap and simple to use
What's not so great: Non-servicable battery. Map updates may not work.
Cheap, easy to use and adequately functional.
Routing is reasonably accurate. Though it does not always choose the shortest or fastest route, it rarely goes far astray. It has directed me to drive over a pedestrian bridge :). But it probably is about a good as any routing software is apt to be.
I have some complaints though. Despite checking for all the possible s/w issues given on the website, I was never able to download a map update on my VISTA machine. (As a systems engineer who has built Windows applications, I am not computer ignorant.) There really is no excuse for the complicated and fragile update application, since a simple file transfer process would do the job in a much more bulletproof fashion. Garmin will send an update on CD (or DVD?) for a shipping and handling fee, but I haven't bothered. I also miss the much more extensive display options that are available on my Etrex handheld GPS. Finally, having a replacable battery would also be a plus. When the battery goes, it's toaste. I suppose this is a common weakness of other vehicle GPSs, but I don't know that.
On the whole I would buy it again.
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 8 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
very slow to give directions at critical junctions
Customer Rating
2.0
Value for Price
3.0
Durability
3.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
1.0
What's great about it: cheap and easy to manage
What's not so great: speed and precision
While I like the ease of managing favorites and address searches, I am less than happy with the speed of directions while you drive. Very often you get voice directions once you passed a critical junction. Or it takes forever recalculating when you just missed that critical junction...
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Review 9 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Does what you expect.
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: Everything
Simple to use. Easy to attach to windshield. Took it on trip to Vegas, plugged it into the rental car, and we were never lost. Went to 2 golf courses, about a dozen casinos - worked perfectly.
Great entry level GPS - Period!
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 10 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Easy & Practical
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Ease of use, spot-on directions
What's not so great: Price, short battery life
I've used this GPS in Tulsa, Kansas City, Chicago, and also locally and have never been misled. It's very easy to manage, and would even be easy for someone who does not work well with electronics. My only complaint is that I wish the price was a little lower, but who doesn't?
I would recommend this to a friend!
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Review 11 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Return to store
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
1.0
Durability
1.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: nice display
What's not so great: unreliable, freezes up a lot, shuts off while navigating
Got this GPS when it was on sale for $80. It was a steal at that price and the features are nice, however, this thing is pretty much unusable. It freezes up a lot especially when recalculating. I used it for 3 days since purchase and the problem is consistent. I deliberately make wrong turns for it to recalculate and every time it does it freezes up. I always use it full charge and I updated the map and firmware. I returned the 1st one but same problem on the 2nd, then I made some research and apparently it's a known problem on this model.
It would've been a good GPS with it's feature, and the display is nice and bright but the problem made it unusable. I decided to get the Tomtom XL 350 from Walmart instead.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Review 12 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Wasn't user friendly
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
2.0
Durability
2.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Features
1.0
What's great about it: Not much
What's not so great: Not user friendly
I bought this for my parents who are first time GPS users and the instructions that came with it were very poor. You almost have to know the exact address of where you are going which isn't useful if you have no idea what the address is. I couldn't even figure the thing out to try to explain it to them. The touch buttons on the unit didn't respond well and you had to press REALLY hard sometimes to get it to respond to the command. It went back into the box and was returned to the store!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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Review 13 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
It works for me
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Easy to use, qwerty keyboard (unlike my other Garmin), ability for traffic camera alerts.
What's not so great: The traffic could be better, but it can be useful. You only get one year of map updates for free. You'll pay after that.
This is a decent navigator at a good price. It has yet to fail me like like other reviewers have said (if that changes, I'll let you know). The traffic feature is ok, but I haven't found it exceptionally helpful except being able to see how far the traffic stretches in front of you. Sometimes there is no traffic and other times it points out that there is traffic ahead as you pull to a stop on the interstate (thanks for the update). It does let you know about how long you will be delayed, which has proven to be accurate on most occasions. I was able to upload all speed and stop light cameras in Maryland from a POI website and now I'm alerted each time I approach one with a "bing" sound. I suppose that may have saved me from a few unwelcome tickets, so it's paid off. It's on sale, it's cheap and it works (for me). I recommend it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+11points
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Review 14 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Excellent product
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: Ease of use and easy to read.
This is my first GPS and I am very statified with it's operation. At first, and due to my lack of patience, I found it difficult to operate. But once I took the time to learn all its options, it was very easy to set up (and I am still learning new things it is capable of). It appears to be a very popular unit to many, and that indicates to me that I made a good choice. I would definitely recommend this to others.
I would recommend this to a friend!
-1point
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Review 15 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Easy to use but unreliable
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: Travelingsales
from Rochester, Ny
on 05/19/2011
Durability
1.0
Ease to Use
4.0
Features
2.0
Value for Price
2.0
What's great about it: Ease of use, easy to read
What's not so great: some software glitches and abrupt end of life
I had this for about a year and a half to replace my 7 yr old 2820 clunker. The 2820 is still chugging along in my daughters car and my 255 just died. When it worked it was very user friendly and much easier to read than the the older models. My one complaint was the lack of a directional arrow. In order to find out the direction you were driving you had to jump to the trip calculator menu. My old unit had an arrow always showing North. I did think the ETA was much more accurate on this model as well as the routes overall were better. The traffic was very inaccurate but I learned to ignore it. Had this unit lasted like it should I would have given it 3 - 4 stars based on the value. Now I have to call it a poor investment
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+2points
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Review 16 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
ok at first. then it was a paper weight
Customer Rating
2.0
Posted by: swozadlo
from Louisville, KY
on 04/08/2011
Durability
3.0
Ease to Use
2.0
Features
2.0
Value for Price
1.0
What's great about it: decent at first
What's not so great: didnt last long.
i had this barely over a year. of course out of warranty and the touch screen doesnt recognize it certain areas, so you can no longer type in an address. it is durable because it falls of the windshield all the time. so the suction cup isnt very good either. i will probably never buy a garmin again. honestly the iphone gps is easier to use then this, and would probably last longer.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+1point
10out of 19found this review helpful.
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Review 17 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Great GPS
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Glennsky
from Los Angeles, Ca
on 03/22/2011
Value for Price
5.0
Durability
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
5.0
What's great about it: Easy to use
What's not so great: Locating where to mount it
I've had this since Oct 2010. I've used it in many part of the country with no problem. Always worked with no problems. Directions are very easy to follow. I would still have it if it weren't for my dufus friend who lost it when I asked them to hold on, after getting out of the car.
I am purchasing another one. Thats how much I liked it.
I am purchasing another one. Thats how much I liked it.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+8points
10out of 12found this review helpful.
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Review 18 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Ok...but loses sattelite reception too easily
Customer Rating
3.0
Posted by: lipsofanangel
from Georgia
on 03/09/2011
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
3.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: easty to use, price, accurate directions
What's not so great: loses its reception easily
I bought this before Christmas, as a replacement for my older Navigon GPS that was playing out , this is the 2nd GPS device and first Garmin I have purchased ...and have used it alot since I got it, it is very easy to use and it gets me where I'm going but I have a big problem with how easily it loses it's Sattelite reception. It does it quite often, especially the last time that I used it. I am not too sure that I would go with a Garmin again.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+7points
9out of 11found this review helpful.
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Review 19 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Good for the Money but not durable
Customer Rating
3.0
Posted by: Anonymous
from Loveland, OH
on 02/26/2011
Value for Price
4.0
Durability
1.0
Ease of Use
3.0
Features
4.0
What's great about it: Low Price for many features, Garman reputation
What's not so great: Broke after 7 months of light use, slow to find satellites when you start it up
I received this GPS for Fathers Day 2010, and it has performed adequately up until this week, when it just quit and would not power up, either on battery or plugged into the car charger. Best Buy, as usual, stood behind the product, took it back and replaced it with a new one. When it comes to good service, Best Buy stands out. The unit works well when it worked, and is easy to input addresses. I used the "find a hotel" and "find a restaurant" feature many times and it also worked well. If there is one thing, beside breaking, that I don't like is the time it takes to locate satellites. It can take 5 minutes for the NUVI to locate itself and when you are leaving the airport and have to get to your destination, sitting on the side of the road waiting for the GPS to locate the satellites is very frustrating. I don't know if this is typical of all GPS units, and if you leave it in your car and use it all day long this would not be an issue, but if you travel by air, and use it in rental cars, in different states, the delay in finding the satellites should be a consideration if you want to buy this model.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+8points
9out of 10found this review helpful.
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Review 20 for Garmin - n� vi 255WT GPS
Not for long term use
Customer Rating
2.0
Posted by: FireC
from Bethel, OH
on 02/23/2011
Value for Price
3.0
Durability
1.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Features
1.0
What's great about it: Price
What's not so great: everything else
The unit worked fairly well, but it was very apparent to me that this unit was designed just well enough for it to go out of warranty, and then it completely falls apart.
1. The battary was the first to go.
2. Next the software updates stopped working as they should.
3. Finally the screen stopped working.
2. Next the software updates stopped working as they should.
3. Finally the screen stopped working.
If you want this unit "for years of use" DON"T WASTE YOUR TIME AND MONEY!!!
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+6points
7out of 8found this review helpful.
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