Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 773
 Most what you want in a GPS March 19, 2010
Samuel Louis (Natick, MA USA)
This is my third GPS. My first was the Garmin Streetpilot 330C, arguably the best GPS ever made. I sold it to get a 340C, which is essentially the 330C with street name announcing, which is an essential feature. It also performed excellently, but one day I saw an ad for a refurbished 265WT at a can't refused price, and jumped on it.
So far, the 265 has performed as expected. I like the wider screen and its slightly (but not drastically) faster satellite reception. Unlike the 340C, which began to take longer and longer to pick up satellites and lost reception on a regular basis, the 265 hasn't lost reception once. I like having speed limits and graphics of upcoming turns displayed, although I find it bit confusing to have the name of the next turn, rather than the current street I'm driving on, displayed all the time. If you have 50 miles to go until your next turn, it doesn't do you much good to see that name of that next turn off on there. No big deal, though. The voice quality is roughly the same as the 340 (which was not as clear or loud as the 330, but I suppose the need to do text to speech created this compression). I like having a wider range of accents to choose from. On the 340, I always used the authoritative British female voice (we called the 340 "The Nanny" because she was a bit stern), but now I'm using the female Australian. I also like being able to download extras like vehicles.
In terms of the interface, it's not incredibly different than the 330/340. I do like having the QWERTY keyboard even if the buttons seem a bit smaller than the older Garmins.
It's a nice unit, but not perfect. I've had a couple of routing glitches where, even with "less time" and "shorter distance" chosen it still sent me on a longer route and didn't recognize a shortcut I know about. On another situation, one time I was less than a mile away from my house but the 365 said it would be another hour before I got there. The FM traffic function isn't particularly timely or accurate, indicating traffic jams where none exist. Battery life is anemic compared to the 330/340. And is kind of bothersome that it doesn't come with a separate charging cable. I have two different legacy Garmin charging cables that I've been thinking of trying out (since they all use the same adapters), but I'm afraid of burning it out so I haven't done it yet. Fortunately, I do have my old 340 USB cable so I was able to use that to update the software rather than buy another. I'm not sure why the map update took 6 hours on some others' computers; on mine it got down in less than two.
The only thing this is missing for me is lane assist, but I've heard this works sporadically, and I think I'd rather have my eyes on the road when making a complicated maneuver than counting on the GPS screen, so it's no great loss.
Overall, a very good unit, especially if you can get it on sale. As I said, mine was a refurb unit that looked perfect.
 Really happy with this GPS March 18, 2010
K. Abrams (Denver, Colorado USA)
We are really happy with this device. We travel a lot so it is very convenient to throw in a rental car or just our own car around town.
garmin 265wt March 18, 2010
Peter A. Laizza (Norfolk, MA USA)
good gps for the money. was looking at the 255w but this unit had the wireless bluetooth and thought I would get it for that reason. Have to say I am not impressed with the bluetooth feature as everytime I get in the car the gps says that the signalfrom my cellphone is disconnected and Ihave to manually enter mypassword onthe cellphone a few times.
Here is my opinion on all gps units: If you are not good with directions, the gps will get you there but in a circuitous route most of the time. The reason you think they work is that they will get you to a destination eventually. Test the gps by asking for the route on commonly driven destinations and you will be surprised how many times you will ignore the gps route.
Just what I needed... March 17, 2010
Rich P. (Southport, NC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
As a 63-year-old novice to the world of portable GPS, I spent several weeks surfing the Internet and talking to friends in trying to determine which one of the wide variety of brands, models and features would be best-suited to me. I read product descriptions, technical details, and user ratings/comments relative to numerous portable GPS units. I came to the following conclusions:
(1) based upon its huge market share and industry reputation, Garmin would be a
safe bet, and
(2) minimally, my GPS would have to possess the following characteristics/features:
ease of use, a wider screen(4.3"), Text-to-Speech(TTS)directions and Bluetooth
capability.
After that, it was a relatively simple task to scroll through the Garmin models to find the least expensive one that met the above criteria. The Garmin 265WT turned out to be the one.
I've had the unit about a month. I'm not "technologically savvy" by any stretch of the imagination, but I was able to use the 265WT, without any assistance, right out of the box on the very same day it arrived at my home. It is so easy to use, and does everything I needed. However, by reading the manual, I'm discovering so many other useful/interesting/fun things it can do. What a blast! It's simply fantastic!
How did I live without it! March 16, 2010
moveit
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've never owned a GPS before this one and purchased this particular model after reading the reviews. I wanted one now since I am moving to Florida and find myself having to travel to both the East and Gulf coasts. The only thing I found quirky was that it thought I was still in FL when I got back to NY, but we got it straighten out. It also navigated me through some questionable neighborhoods in my area, but how is it to know? It recalculated quickly after I didn't go the way suggested. We also have been going to new restaurants during Restaurant Week and though I've lived here all my life I don't know my way around. All my driving has always included driving past a turn or the destination itself turning around and going back. No more. It hasn't steered me wrong yet.
I've used the bluetooth with my Samsung SH-A707 with success. I know its an older phone -- but if something works great for me I keep it. I'll be keeping this GPS for awhile too.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 773
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