Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Over the years I have purchased over a dozen GPS receivers for myself and even more as gifts for family and friends. When I got a chance to use this new Garmin nuvi I jumped at it. Garmin is known for their ease of use and the 285WT is no exception. With the addition of MSN Direct, traffic and BlueTooth this is a real value in an entry to mid-level GPS. Garmin makes a lot of different nuvi models and understanding the difference between them can be quite daunting. Essentially the nuvi 285WT and the 265WT are the same unit. They are both MSN compatible and NAVTEQ FM Traffic compatible. The difference is that the 285WT comes with the MSN receiver (with some free months, then a monthly charge util Jan. 2012 when the service will be discontinued) and the 265WT comes with the NAVTEQ receiver and free lifetime traffic (complete with pop-up ads when you use it). You can buy the NAVTEQ receiver for your 285WT at any time as well as buying the MSN receiver for a 265WT. If you are a professional driver (limo, taxi, truck, delivery or route salesman) you might be better off with a higher end unit such as the Garmin 1690 (it will auto-sort multiple destinations and then provides the most direct route, lane guidance with junction view, the nuLink service and more) or the TomTom version, the 740 Live. If this is your first GPS, a gift for a new user or if you are upgrading from an older model, I think that this is an excellent choice. No GPS is perfect and even the best is dependent on third party maps which are bound to contain some errors. Also, businesses open and close frequently so you need to use your own common sense (and even your sense of humor) at times. Having said this I find that having and using one is much better than not. I seldom get lost don't need to print out directions. The only negatives that I found for the 285 WT is that I wish that the screen was bigger and that the body was thinner. Magellen has these features at this price point (and even lower). Also, I think that Lane Assist should be standard on all newer GPS receivers. All in all though most users would not miss these features and I recommend it for new users and up-graders. I hope that this short video review is helpful to you. Garmin 010-11280-00 Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for nüvi Portable GPS