Help! DH wants new Garmin w/ traffic for 12/25...

[Adopt-a-grey]

We've had at least 3 Garmin units and our handheld and Street Pilot still work perfectly but DH wants a new unit that handles traffic as we were caught in 2 Sig alerts during our summer travels. 

From what I can tell, there are 2 traffic providers that work with various Garmin units, Clear Channel and NAVTEQ.  Anybody out there have any experience with either of these?

Ideally I'd like a reasonably good unit that has lifetime traffic, but I'm not looking to buy the latest and greatest unit for a top dollar price.

There are at least 14 Garmin units that currently offer traffic! 

Any help narrowing the field will be greatly appreciated...

[Chuck S]

Pretty sure traffic is a subscription service. 

GPS technology changes every six months.  What he gets this Christmas will be last year's model by summer.  Poor gift idea in my opinion as with so many models he'd probably want one of the other ones by summer anyway.  An expensive model will be half that price in February as new models replace it.

Husband-Wife Christmas gifts are just tanking money out of one pocket and putting it in the other anyway.

My iPhone has real time traffic if I need it.

-- Chuck

[Chuck S]

Oh, yeah, the holiday is Christmas, not 12/25.   

-- Chuck

[knobbyhead]

I own a Garmin 265WT.   This is my first GPS, so I have noting to compare it too.  It was about 150$ this summer.  

It has the ad supported traffic alerts, not sure of the traffic provider.  When you are in an area that is being covered by traffic alerts a little icon is shown in the top corner of the unit.  When I went down to Va, the traffic only showed up in high density areas.  Once traffic is detected on the route, the icon turns a different color.  You touch the icon, and then you can select the option of seeing the traffic on a map, or you can tell the GPS to avoid the traffic.   When I first got it this summer for our trip to Smith Mountain Lake,  I used the traffic reroute feature and it was real nice.   My parents got stuck in the traffic jam since they did not have traffic on their GPS.   To be honest, I do not even notice the ads, which are scrolled on the bottom of the gps once the traffic icon is selected.

Other things I like about it:  (bear in mind this is my first GPS)

It syncs with Google maps so a location can be put into Google maps the uploaded to the GPS        
It has blue tooth and can sync with your cell phone (haven't used this yet)
I like the wide screen
When you miss a turn, it does not "yell at you about turning around".  It just says "recalculating"  which is better than some GPS's I have seen.      

I selected this unit because of the traffic, wide screen and the ease of navigation of the unit.   I suspect that I will not use the traffic function much, but I will be real glad when I do need it.  

Other units have more options, but do I really need it to play mp3's?

[Recumbentman]

Costco has the Garmin nuvi 755T on sale until the end of the month for $199.00. That's $100 off the normal price. Has all the bell and whistles including lane assist & lifetime traffic alerts (for free).
check out there item #457153. The ad for this item is in there November catalog
Good luck

[Geodude]

I've just been doing some reading on the Garmins and found that the best value right now is the 265wt.  In fact, in most respects it comes out ahead of the 760 I bought a couple of years ago, with the lifetime traffic, faster signal aquisition at startup, and some other benefits.

The ad-supported free lifetime traffic is a nice thing, especially since the ads are very unobtrusive.

[dlarson36]

I've had the Garmin Street Pilot 2610 for a number of years and it's been a great unit.  I did get the Garmin 265WT a few months ago as an upgrade and have been very happy with it.

It acquires signal very quickly and is extremely accurate. The traffic is lifetime free and you have to take it with a grain of salt, but that's not Garmin's fault. It's the Navtec traffic and coverage differs depending on what part of the country you're in.  It's free because it's ad supported. Some people complained about the ads but I hardly ever even see them come up. They're a very small window that opens at the top of the screen for a minute or two, but again, I hardly ever see them.  That could be different in other parts of the country.

Here in Indy I use it going/coming to work and it has saved me on a couple of occasions but has also given me some false readings.  As long as you realize that what it reports is not a "sure" thing.

On a long (1500 mi) round trip late this summer it was very up to date and ran flawlessly in getting me there and back.  Had some traffic reports that showed me some congestion which I did run into but they were short delays and amounted to nothing more than a slow down for a couple of miles.

Would highly recommend the 265WT from my experience with it. I use it almost daily.

 

[mmmbeanie]

Here is one I saw on QVC today would be a today only price...11/8....http://www.qvc.com/qic/qvcapp.aspx/view.2/app.detail/params.CM_SCID.coll.item.E165390.desc.Ship-1125-Garmin-nuvi-1350T-GPS-w43-Screen-Traffic

Does anyone have any thoughts on this one, as I am looking for one as well! 

Good luck on finding the right one for your husband!