Wow! It's beautiful. My new Nuvi 880 has arrived.

[GeneL]

I've been waiting for the right moment to upgrade from the Nuvi 680 that I bought at Costco. When the 680 froze a couple of times, I figured it was a good excuse to take advantage of Costco's liberal return policy.

Sure enough, they gave me cash, so I was all set to order the 880.

I had found a great price on a 660 last year at PC Nation and had bookmarked the vendor. They had the 880 for $678, which seemed like a really good deal. I was a bit nervous about ordering from them because of some negative reports that came up on google, but they did a perfect job for me. I do regret that I didn't search further, since I subsequently found a slightly cheaper price, but I'm not unhappy with the deal that I got.

The 880 arrived today, which was only three business days after I place the order with free shipping.

I've already gone through the setup and the software update. So far, I'm thrilled with the improvements over the 680. The 880 is more compact, has a removable battery and no flip up antenna. One thing I particularly like is that it seems easy to set the various volume levels individually. It will be interesting to see how that works out. Setting the phone (bluetooth volume) separately from the guidance announcements was a pain on the 660/680.

If anyone is interested Ill post my impressions once I start using it in the car. The voice recognition feature is one thing that I can't wait to try out.

This should be a big help on our next trip to Sedona in October. The 660 was a life saver last year, when I ended up in the hospital in the next ton over from Sedona.

Btw, any other fans of Sedona?

[Go To Top]

Love the traffic by McCain's house. Traffic.

Sushi.

Traffic.

[DP]

Whatever happened to printed maps? No batteries, just look and there's where you'll be...
Sedona is gorgeous. Just go north from Phoenix and follow the signs. Hard to miss.

[wurm]

My wife visited Sedona for her job, about five years ago. She still raves about it and until some other untimely bills came up, was all set to arrange our family vacation there this year. Some day...

[RAMd®d]

The vortexes are really nice this time of year.

[riley5108]

We spent some time in Sedona while on vacation several weeks ago and must agree it is a beautiful area. The drive down from Flagstaff on HWY 89A was great. Strange you should mention the Vortexes Ramd@d, my wife kept asking me if I felt anything and I must say Nope. We actually turned our Garmin nuvi 260w off while out there and just used an atlas map. Now for going through large cities it was great. We drove 4200 miles and saw some awesome country.

[datbeme]

Obviously, you have experience with both and seem to value the added features. But with the 660 hovering around $300, is the 880 really worth over twice the price?

[GeneL]

datbeme wrote:
Obviously, you have experience with both and seem to value the added features. But with the 660 hovering around $300, is the 880 really worth over twice the price?

Yes!

The ease of use while driving is the main attraction. With the prior models, entering destinations while on the move, either by address or by POIs, is really difficult unless you stop and hold the unit in your hand. It can be done while in place on its mount, but that's even more difficult.

With the voice recognition, entering destinations, making changes to the route or to your system settings and making calls is a snap. all done by voice input. Your hands don't have to leave the steering wheel except for a second to activate the voice recognition button.

It really works!

Of course, for $300 the 660 is a great GPS to use as well. I did find that the 680 with MSN direct traffic feature was worth the extra cost. The gas price finder helped me out a good number of times when I was in an area that I wasn't familiar with and the rerouting around a traffic jam can be a lifesaver.

There's no doubt in my mind that whichever GPS you get, you'll be glad to have one.

But, as I always say, "that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."

GeneL