Garmin Nuvi 200 user reviews

2.5 stars

"Ok, worked good for 1 year warranty prd over Dead unit." on September 11, 2008 by JamesAnExNavyFCTech

Pros: Price, value, Just GPS and Photo viewer.

Cons: After the 1 year warranty stopped working, thought it might be battery. Opened unit found missing capacitor and GPS chip getting hot. OK if you want cheap GPS, not as good as the nuvi 350.

4.0 stars

"I love it, Best Bang for the BUCK" on August 26, 2008 by sands28_2001

Pros: EASY, QUICK, USER FRIENDLY, Best for first GPS, Sleek design

Cons: none as of now

Summary: I have been using this GPS for about a month, and I simply love it. This is my first GPS. I am a student and did not want anything too expensive, but at the same time I wanted to get something that was GOOD. This fits both criteria of being cheap and GOOD.

I totally love and would recommend this to all, specially if this is your first GPS.

1.0 stars

"I am VERY dissapointed- wanted to run over the GPS with my car" on August 19, 2008 by juliagoulia66

Pros: good POI's, expensive

Cons: see opinion- too many to fit into this space

Summary: Never knew where I was, constantly "recalculating" no matter where I was. Everytime I stopped at a red light it thought I was on a parallel steet and it would recalculate and I wouldn't know where I was going! It showed my car icon spin in a circle-obviously something is wrong.
It led me to a dead end residential road that said it was a 'jewlery store' and wasted my gas on more than 10 occasions when it would tell me one way and then change the route and I would have to scramble in the car to find where I was! I would get off on wrong highways, only to turn me around again! So frustrating. If I only had all that gas money back.
You can't avoid a certain route or street, either, and it won't re-route you when you run into traffic like magellan will. Also, magellan will let you avoid a certain road.
I tried updating it twice online, even called in and they told me it was the best download...well it didn't help a bit.
Also, on the display screen magellan will show you the street you are on and the street you will turn on. Garmin only shows you the street you need to turn on next. How are you supposed to know where you are when you're in a new spot?

AND the kicker is when it doesn't have satellite reception, which is all the time, you don't know what your next turn will be-you have to try to rememeber what it was. When magellan knows you're lost it will keep on the screen the steps you need to take until it finds you again.
I had this for about 6 months and time and time again after wanting to chuck it out the window and run over it (I just used it on mute bc I was sick of it saying "recalculating") I got rid of it and am buying a magellan....it's cheaper anyways with a better satellite network.

0.5 stars

"Not worth the money" on August 12, 2008 by fullboogie

Pros: Inexpensive, good customer service

Cons: Cannot lock onto satellites, very slow searches

Summary: My first unit was incapable of locking onto a satellite signal. I brought it back and got a second one. Nearly the same problem, but not quite as bad. It routinely takes several minutes to get a signal, which is useless when I want to get in the car and drive. Performing searches results in a spinning hourglass for long periods of time.

Garmin worked with me on the phone and we did a firmware patch. I hit the reset button, per Garmin's instructions, which did nothing. In my opinion this unit is not capable of performing its intended function. Sorely disappointed in this unit - what a waste of money.