Garmin nuvi 360 GPS Review

[admin]

I am a directionally challenged man. But true to my gender, I still hate to ask for help. But I have had a GPS in my car for the last twenty years or so. Her name is Christine and she’s my wife. The girl has always had a great sense of direction, which has allowed me to drive and daydream, and only make a turn when she breaks my reverie with a slightly annoyed “get in the left lane“ kind of reminder. Well, Chris can’t come along on every errand, so when I had an opportunity to test the new Garmin nuvi 360, I was thrilled.

Discuss "Garmin nuvi 360 GPS Review" here. Read the article.

 

[sholling]

A very nice review. I own the very similar Nuvi 350. It's my second GPS purchase and I can't say enough good things about it. It has excellent reception, good maps, a nice clear screen and an outstanding interface. While I personally have no desire to use a GPS as a speaker phone (I prefer to use a bluetooth headset instead) the 360's speaker phone function is a nice feature for those that have a use for it. I just prefer to read the destination's phone number off the GPS and voice dial from my phone. A nice feature if you want to make a reservation I might add.

Also note that both the 350 and 360 are pocket sized with a real world 3-hour battery life. This is a nice feature when forced to park some distance from your destination.

An optional traffic receiver is available for both models. This gives you traffic alerts for a small monthly fee. But only if you live or work in one of the limited number of communities supported by the service.

One very important thing to note with Garmin's more popular models are the deep discounts that come up now and again. Lately the 350 has been selling for between $350 and $400. The larger Nuvi 660 with both bluetooth and a built in traffic traffic receiver can be had at Costco for around $500.

I do have one quibble. I like to have power cords for portable devices like radar detectors and GPS devices wired in with only a couple of inches of cord dangling and the car's power port left free. The Garmin's 5v USB interface makes this a bit more challenging. I'd love to hear how others have solved this but I don't want to hijack this thread.

 

[birdonthebeach]

Thanks for the input, Sholling. Hopefully you will get some feedback on your question.

By the way, Scott is a new writer for us, and he did well with this review.

 

[Matt34]

I do have one quibble. I like to have power cords for portable devices like radar detectors and GPS devices wired in with only a couple of inches of cord dangling and the car's power port left free. The Garmin's 5v USB interface makes this a bit more challenging. I'd love to hear how others have solved this but I don't want to hijack this thread.

Sholling,

There is no OEM hardwire kit for the Garmins as far as I know but you can pick up modified power port cables off ebay for about $35 that you can hardwire into your fusebox or rear view mirror.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Direct-Hardwire-Power-Cable-Nuvi-Garmin-GPS-300-310-350_W0QQitemZ110139847084QQihZ001QQcategoryZ58045QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


I have a similar setup that hardwires my radar detector to my rear view mirror, looks very clean with no wires dangling.

 

[emorphien]

Some day I think I'll get a GPS.

By the way, is it actually a brushed metal appearance or is it an anodized appearance? It doesn't look brushed at all in the pictures.

 

[sholling]

Sholling,

There is no OEM hardwire kit for the Garmins as far as I know but you can pick up modified power port cables off ebay for about $35 that you can hardwire into your fusebox or rear view mirror.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Direct-Hardwire-Power-Cable-Nuvi-Garmin-GPS-300-310-350_W0QQitemZ110139847084QQihZ001QQcategoryZ58045QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem


I have a similar setup that hardwires my radar detector to my rear view mirror, looks very clean with no wires dangling.

Thank you. I ordered one and we'll see how it looks when it gets here.

 

[icysnowman]

Thank you. I ordered one and we'll see how it looks when it gets here.

Sholling, I’m a newbie here and I'm sorry to resurrect old threads, but I am curious to know if you ever succeeded in hardwiring your Garmin to the fuse panel on your car. I was thinking of ordering the hardwire cord from the ebay seller and I'm wondering if that cord worked for you?

Thanks,

Todd

 

[Matt34]

Sholling, I’m a newbie here and I'm sorry to resurrect old threads, but I am curious to know if you ever succeeded in hardwiring your Garmin to the fuse panel on your car. I was thinking of ordering the hardwire cord from the ebay seller and I'm wondering if that cord worked for you?

Thanks,

Todd

Snowman,

I've actually hardwired both my wife's Garmin Nuvi 200 and my Nuvi 650 using the above kit. I also used a product called "Add a Fuse" so there was no splicing of wires. Very clean and professional looking install and we haven't had a problem with either unit in the 5-6 months we've had them.

 

[icysnowman]

Snowman,

I've actually hardwired both my wife's Garmin Nuvi 200 and my Nuvi 650 using the above kit. I also used a product called "Add a Fuse" so there was no splicing of wires. Very clean and professional looking install and we haven't had a problem with either unit in the 5-6 months we've had them.

Matt, due to my minimal postings, I can't paste a link to an "add a fuse" product.
However I think I found a product that matches your description from partsexpress.com. Did you just connect your positive and negative wire to the crimp on "butt connector"?

 

[icysnowman]

Sorry Matt. I wasn't thinking when I wrote that previous post. Do you just crimp the positive wire to the butt connector and the negative wire to a bolt that is grounded?

 

[furrycute]

Nice review.

One question, when you are driving, do you keep the GPS unit plugged in or do you rely on battery power?

 

[icysnowman]

Nice review.

One question, when you are driving, do you keep the GPS unit plugged in or do you rely on battery power?

Personally, I would just leave the GPS unit plugged in b/c the unit will be charging while you are driving. I currently have a radar detector hardwired into my fuse panel. I have it connected to a fuse that is only hot when the key is inserted and turned to the Accessories position. If you are worried about draining the car battery, don't. That's what the alternator is for...to recharge your car battery.

 

[furrycute]

Thanks for the reply.

But the thing is, rechargeable batteries can only be charged so many times, about 500. When you leave it plugged in all the time, each time the car starts, the car recharges the rechargeable battery. The battery life goes down really fast.

I guess it's a compromise.

 

[icysnowman]

Thanks for the reply.

But the thing is, rechargeable batteries can only be charged so many times, about 500. When you leave it plugged in all the time, each time the car starts, the car recharges the rechargeable battery. The battery life goes down really fast.

I guess it's a compromise.

I see what you're saying Furry. I suppose it is a compromise. The way I look at it, I'm using the gps as an automotive accessory. I probably won't use it for walking or bike riding. I have a handheld gps for those activities and hence no need for a long battery life. If the battery life deteriorates I won't be worried b/c I'll just run it from my car.

 

[furrycute]

I hear what you are saying. If only Garmin will let you take out the battery like you can take out the laptop battery, that would be really sweet


I am thinking about buying a lower end Garmin, the $400 price tag is a wee bit too high for me. What would I lose if I go for a lower end model such as the 250 compared to the 350/360? I don't need any fancy stuff, just the basics.

 

[Matt34]

I hear what you are saying. If only Garmin will let you take out the battery like you can take out the laptop battery, that would be really sweet


I am thinking about buying a lower end Garmin, the $400 price tag is a wee bit too high for me. What would I lose if I go for a lower end model such as the 250 compared to the 350/360? I don't need any fancy stuff, just the basics.

Honestly not much. My 650 will tell you what street to turn on as my wife's 200 will only tell you the distance to the upcoming turn.

650 has a travel kit: currency converter, calculator and a bunch of other doodads I never use.

650 is a "wide screen" compared to the "4:3" screen on the 200.

Compare at will:
https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=134

 

[furrycute]

Thanks for the link. I'll play around with it.

 

[icysnowman]

I hear what you are saying. If only Garmin will let you take out the battery like you can take out the laptop battery, that would be really sweet


I am thinking about buying a lower end Garmin, the $400 price tag is a wee bit too high for me. What would I lose if I go for a lower end model such as the 250 compared to the 350/360? I don't need any fancy stuff, just the basics.

Matt is totally right. I recently purchased a Garmin 200w. It's a widescreen gps and it gives voice directions, but not "text to speech" directions. I didn't want to splurge too much on a gps since they will probably become standard in automobiles like air conditioning in the next few years. But until then, here's another good site to compare gps devices...

http://www.gpsreview.net/