Garmin StreetPilot c340 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

Having never used a GPS - I didn't know the questions to ask about the product. I was pleasantly surprised the Street Pilot c340 was almost everything I wanted. It is very user friendly. It has many features I didn't know I wanted like finding the hardware store in other towns because produce wasn't available locally. I have found it quite helpful even in locations I am familiar with. The only draw back I found - you can't request to stay off interstate or toll roads. This model only offers the quickest or shortest routes. I still feel I got my monies worth in this product.

I got this GPS on Saturday afternoon and right out of the box i could go straight to the car and hook it up ready to go. The menu is so straight forward and simple. I punched in the address of the place I was supposed to go and the first time it took about 15 mins to acquire satellite signal(now it takes less than 1 min to get it).

I have hooked it up using the suction mount on the left of the rear view mirror so its in my peripheral vision. Since it has the "Text to Speech" feature, u really dont have to look at the GPS, it tells u at least 3 times b4 the turn is coming along with the Street Name so u have enuf time to get into the correct lane to make the turn. If by chance u get distracted and dont take the turn, it recalculates the route and within 15 seconds tells u the next turn to take.

I got lucky and got one with the latest software version(Ver8) :)

the POI db it has is awesome !!!!! its got every type of restaurant in it, coffee places, fast foods. u name it and u can find it !!!!

I had read some reviews complaning abt the brightness, if u mount it high up near the rear view mirror, u wont have this issue. If u mount it on dash then u might have this issue. Also, some ppl had issues with the volume, I had none.

I am happy with the suction mount and dont plan on spending the extra $30 on the dash mount.

Also, if ur not using the GPS while driving, u can turn the power off and it gets charged :) so dont spend money getting an AC charger. I called Garmin adn they confirmed that u can charge the unit with the USB cable too, just hook it up to the USB outlet in ur PC and charge it :)

Drop me an email it you have any questions :)

I am ***very happy*** with the Garmin StreetPilot c340 GPS :)

PS: b4 this i had ordered the ViaMichelin X930, that was worthless. Garmin C340 is AMAZING !!!!

I love this GPS. Prior to this, I had a Lowrance I-Way 500C that was a nightmare of problems, and a thief took it off my hands. So I was so pleased to get this lower-feature unit that actually works. I've never had problem finding location with this unit (as I did with the Lowrance). I think some of the routes it gives are kind of strange - not the fastest or shortest. But all in all, it's a great product.

I bought this unit just before a trip from Phoenix to San Diego and it performed very well. The only drawback with it is that the map database is probably several years out of date, at least for the area where I live, in a fast growing area east of Phoenix proper. The unit knows nothing of a new surface arterial near my house that has been open for at least 3 1/2 years, since I moved here, and a new freeway that has now been open for one year. The result is that if I want the unit to guide me from home to my destination using those routes, it will be busy announcing constant recalculations of route until it gets back into the known world. I suspect this will be an issue with all Garming GPS units as they share the same map database. Other than that localized glitch, I'd highly recommend this unit.

I borrowed a high-end Garmin Street Pilot for two weeks...it had features I'd never use (Bluetooth, MP3 player) and it was heavy, so I bought the Nuvi c340 and just took it out for a spin across the state to visit colleges (my first weekend car trip without another adult). It was as easy to use as the big one and an absolute joy to have as a co-pilot. No more distracted driving looking down at printouts from Mapquest while going 55 MPH, and no more reluctance to drive around a strange city looking at cool stuff for fear I won't be able to find the hotel again. Another major plus for people who need immediate bathroom access (like people with bladder or prostate disease and parents with toilet-training toddlers) is that it will find you the nearest gas station or convenience store. THAT ALONE MAKES THIS THING WORTH THE MONEY!!!

This is a great affordable model, lightweight, and an indispensable addition to any car. I am glad I got the c340 over the c330, because the spoken street name prompts are VERY useful.

Two minor issues: I found the screen washed out a bit when mounted on the windshield on a bright day, so I will try and amend that by mounting on the dash and using a screen protector. Also, when comparing the Mapquest directions to the GPS directions back to the turnpike from a very rural detour, the GPS took me on an indirect and circuitous route. If my co-pilot hadn't been asleep in the back, he could have helped me out. It took a little longer than it should have but still, it got me there.

I am extremely pleased with my garmin c340. It's exactly as advertised and meets my needs. I have programmed my vacation route and can't wait to see how it does! Around town it's incredibly accurate so far.

The StreetPilot c340 is absolutely essential for traveling into areas you are not familiar with.
I wish, however, that they would make a cable to attach the StreetPilot to the cigarette lighter in a car without having to use the arm to attach it to the windshield.

this garmin is worth the money but you would be better off with the nuvi 350. The c340 is bigger and it doesn't really fit in the glove compartment or armrest when you're not using it. the nuvi 350 has the same size screen but is smaller and fits in your pocket and comes with an AC adapter. They both give the same directions. The nuvi 350 actually takes a long time to acquire satellites when you first turn it on. The c340 fell off the windshield twice already while driving. I think the suction cup could be better.

I have no sense of direction and this for the most part is fabulous.
It pronounces street names, which is key (versus take the third exit in the traffic circle). You can bring it anywhere in the country and has free software updates online. The screen is amply large. My only two complaints are that it isn't great on detours, like if a road is closed it keeps trying you to get back on the road when you detour off (so you need some basic knowledge if you're driving in an area with lots of closures) and that my gps came out of the suction cup when I was rear-ended. I called Garmin and they sent a new suction cup, but I don't plan on testing that out.

What did I do before this Street Pilot. I travel New England for Hallmark
cards. All I need is an address and the Garmin brings me to the door. Any questions?

Ok, so I keep putting off spending the $ on this product. You may ask what business I have writing any sort of a review on this product. I work in outside sales, drive about 4K miles per month, and have been half heartedly (re)searching vehicles to replace my 300M which has 166K miles. Yet, I love my car/office. The biggest consideration has been GPS. I now believe that ANYONE considering the purchase of a new vehicle with factory installed GPS should read the reviews on this Garmin. I'll be sharing this info with all the other account executives in the company. I've decided that the best decision (financially) is to save my money, buy this Garmin c340, and commit to keeping my existing vehicle. Thank you, reviewers.

I am sure this is the best GPS available and it is very user-friendly but I would recommend against it if you live in the Bay Area - including San Francisco. I lose my signal many times each day - always in random areas and even with the extra antenna (that I had to purchase at an additional cost) I have just as many lost sattelite connections.

a easy to use gps unit but i could have bought a cheaper one for my needs. PROS: 1. easy to use(no maps to download)
2. finds sat. quick
3. reroutes u quick if u go off course.
4. custom poi's are cool once u figuer out how to download them from google earth.
5. the car mount that comes with it works good. easy to take out.
6. batery life seems good.
CONS: 1. could have bought a cheaper one and been happy with it.
2. it always does not take u the best route(it wants to take u on the highways.
3. maps need to be updated(some of the restruants have been closed for awhile.
4. when u get poi's from google earth, the phone numbers for the poi's dont transfer over.
5. hard to figuer out how to use the tour quide feature.
6. no bars in it or go go bars(i guess garmins does not want u to go bar hoppin....u can load 100s of them from google earth.

if i was to do it over i would have bought the one from hp for about 100.00 more. that one has soooooo man more feature, like wi fi and an mp3 player. its a gps unit first then it a palm piolt operating on windows.

I love this product. Super easy to use. Drive anywhere and never get lost. I am buying one for my wife.

This little jewel will spoil you. I do a lot of appointments in customers homes and I have to arrive on time so getting lost isn't an option. This little Garmin is great. I have made over two dozen appointments over the past month and only once has the unit been unable to find the address (new subdivision) but even then it got me close enough to find it on my own. I couldn't get along without it!

We are having fun with it, and have entered our friends' addresses it it.
So far, pretty easy to use.

Its works just okay/ I took it to Hawaii on a trip and it lost signal about 75% of the time. And worse than that when it was working it took us to the wrong place. I took it again on a trip to Flordia and it couldn't even find Disney world Or it would take me about two blocks from where I was supposed to be and lose signal. At home in Arizona after the trip the clock never worked corectly again. It does do better here in az, but again sometimes it will take you to the wrong place. If I had to do it again I would buy a better quality one and spend more money.

I did a fair amount of research for a GPS system, both on the internet and in stores. This one was the best for the money for what I wanted. I can move it from car to car and I don't need a technical degree to work it!

C340 works reasonably well and allows faster input than the Neverlost (Hertz). Unfortunately it suffers from a few problems. It runs a poor 3rd compared to Neverlost and Lexus (Best).

1. It takes a long time to acquire satellites. Several minutes or more. You'll be a few miles down the road before it connects. Longer than Neverlost or Lexus.
2. Frequently loses signal. And this is in LA, low buildings, populated area.
3. Timing is off for signaling. Frequently declare a turn just as you're crossing the intersection or exit, even at street speeds. Be prepared to take the next street and losing time trying to get back to where it should have guided you.
4. Sometimes rounds the street address to a different number.
5. Painful to change settings and no way to see what they are. If you want to set it not to use the freeway because of rush hour you have to go through a few sub-menus and change it. Unfortuantely there's no additional display indicating this (or even North) oops, forgot to switch it back on. Now dig down again.
6. Power requires it to be mounted in the bracket since they weren't smart enough to have the same connector.
7. The dashboard mount (extra since Calif doesn't legally allow the suction cup that comes with) doesn't work. Be prepared for it to fly off the dash and hit you or drop to the floor as you make a turn. You'll need to set it in the seat or mount it illegally with the suction cup.

Right out of the box, I began looking for the instruction booklet. It only comes with a small leaflet, which I soon figured out was all you really needed. I'm sure as I go along I will find out more features, but I just took it on my first business trip from TN to WV and it worked great. The only small problem I've had is if the address is in a shopping center, it can't find it. A restaurant was listed as 1000 University Center and it wouldn't pick it up. I found that to be true a couple of times. I just called the restaurant and asked them the closest road to them and I got there fine. Other than that, it will get you there, sometimes on a back road, but you will find it to be quicker than the main road would have been. This is great for someone like me with NO sense of direction. I love the text to speech feature. And she will repeat what she says 2x, just in case you miss it the first time. Well worth the money!! I bought a camcorder bag a Walmart for $12.95 and everything fits perfectly. Wouldn't spent the $ on their bag.

This is a great product. I have used both the c330 and c340. Both do a superb job. I like the c340 better because when prompting you to turn right or left you are also told the name of the street onto which you are turning. Both units show the name of the street on the screen. Both of these units are very user friendly and contain all types of useful info, such as, restaurants, hotels, entertainment venues, airports, gas stations, etc. My only complaint is the mount which comes with the unit. It is a suction cup base and if you are using this unit in several different vehicles it becomes a problem. Also, because of the risk of theft you must move the unit out of sight when leaving the vehicle which means more messing with the suction cup. For approx. $35 you can purchase a dashboard mount which works great and can be moved from vehicle to vehicle very easily. The c340 also can be used to check traffic. I have no need for this feature and have no info on how it works. I have used this unit in 3 different states and it works well everywhere. All in all - a great product!

This is a solid travel tool, with whch I am very pleased. My wife said if I have to read the manuel I don't want it. She took it on a trip out of town to a relative, entered the adress and returned home a believer in the c340.

I was so impressed from the very first use. Then it just kept getting better. This GPS system is by far the easiest to use, and has the most astonishing features, of any I have previewed. It is truely amazing, and fun to use. I have demonstrated and recommended it to several friends and family members. Some of whom have already purchased it.

I've had mine for about a month, and I think it's great. I just moved to a new region, and it's so nice to be able to just go and not worry about having the right directions. My only complaint is that sometimes it sends me down routes that aren't the fastest or easiest (but it always gets me there).

The Garmin StreetPilot c340 is a great product. I bought it for my husband because he travels often with business through-out PA, MA, NJ, and VA. He absolutely loves it. There has been a few roads or buildings we could not find due to being new but otherwise the system has worked wonderfully. The screen is easy to read and placement to windshield is simple. We recommend it highly. We used it right out of the box and it was easy to program addresses. The default voice is a bit annoying but it can be changed. We like Karen who has an Australian accent. Amazon had the best price and shipped the product quickly and efficiently.

I recently moved to MA from CT and took a job that takes me to people's homes in MA, RI, and NH. Knowing that I would need assistance in reaching the correct address at the appointed time I chose the Garmin StreetPilot c340 as my guide. I'm happy to say that it has never let me down as yet in the one month I've owned it. I'm particularly fond of the text to voice feature.

Right from the box I entered an address and was off. Very easy to use and very good directions. The text to speech funtion is very helpful. I would definitely recommend this unit.

Great product. Lists some dead end streets and some that don't exist. I use it every day in my job. Would recommend it. Missing some addresses in my local area.Waiting for the next update.


Need I say more, not one fault about it. Easy to read, Easy to program. Was a gift for my husband and I am getting one for myself

Saved me lots of time. Formerly a MapQuest user. Like identifying streets by name.

The Street Pilot is an excellent guide that takes you where you want to go. I have tried this on both known and unknown locations and in every instance arrived as directed. If I drive a different or shorter route it automatically recalcualates and shows new course accurately. Input is simple and the display is clear.

it is the most easiest gps to use the one feature i like the most is that it tells you what street your next turn is going to be by street name but also the distance to it the points of interest are amazing. the most important feature is the spell feature. just spell what you want & most of the time it will give it to you. thank you garmin. i think though when you purchase a gps from whatever company the updates should be free. i mean come on your paying a good piece of money as it is.

This item performed well. I would recommend having a back up from map quest or yahoo maps since the unit will sometimes lose the signal.

I did not understand that a purchase needed to be made in order to get traffic alerts. Too bad that is not included.

Have already recommended this product to friends.

The basics are all there. But, for instance, I would prefer it showed me where the gas stations along the route are rather than just telling me how far away they are and then having me go to a map to get there. Sometimes they take me off my course and add a few miles or time to my trip.
The other problem is that the directions, if there are more than two that happen almost consecutively, are not given quickly enough. In other words, the third turn in a quick sequence is not directed until after the turn has passed.
But, in general, it has been amazingly helpful and has not erred.
It cracks me up that when it needs to recalculate, the voice sounds a bit exasperated.

I have used this navi for 2 weeks.
This navi is excellent finding satelite so quick, navigation is accurate and easy to operate. As for navigation, it earns 5 stars.
What I don't like with this navi is that it does not charge the internal battery as long as I'm using it. In other words, I have to drive with this navi powered-off in order to charge the battery. Otherwise, I have to take it to my home and charge it with AC adapter, but AC adapter is not included. hmmm.


Good product..compact..out of the box ready..good resolution even on bright days. Routes sometimes are not the best, example: when I program a known route, it sometimes responds with strange deviations which takes you off highways and on to congested local roads with lots of traffic lights. Also when the designated road veers right or left, the program responds with "turn left or right" when you're really just following the curvature of the designated road.

I use the Street Pilot to get to customer locations. While at a location a severe storm hit knocking out power lines and knocking over trees. It seemed that every road I turned down was blocked by a fallen tree, or traffic was not moving. I hit detour on the Street Pilot every time my path was blocked and it led me out and home. This one incident made the prcahse well worth it.

The Tiger Mouse is excellent and all you have to do is plug it in to your laptop-That's it! Plug and Play all the way. I love the tiger design too! The "tiger" is also light and very compact for travel.

I live in a very rural area and this GPS gets me where I need to go. It works really well in more populated areas. Of course the maps do not know new subdivisions or new stores that they built on farm land but it will get you close enough in that situation to figure out the rest. When I was traveling to Utica, IL, the talking GPS navigator "Jill" told me to turn in 1 mile but the screen was telling me to turn in 100 ft. I followed the screen and it was right, however again, I was in a desolate area. When you register the prodcut at Garmin's web site you can sign up to be notified for automatic updates to your system free of charge. When you decide to take a detour the GPS recalculates quickly and helps with the rest of the destination. You can also program it to avoid highways, gravel roads, tollways, etc.....

I didn't give this model a 5-star rating because it does make a few mistakes, especially in Kansas City, Kansas. An example would be that we were directed off of I70, made a loop around The Great Wolf Lodge, and back on to I70 heading in the same direction as when we left I70. This didn't make much sense. But.........We got lost in downtown Minneapolis several times and were redirected by the GPS and arrived at the destination we wanted. We love having it when we are traveling in new places. As the previous navigator, I love not being responsible for the map and each turn we need to make. It makes traveling less stressful.

Outstanding GPS device. While it may not always choose the optimal route, it will get you to your destination.
Easy to use, easy to program. Gives you constant feedback en route, very quick to recalculate when your choice of route differs from the machine's chosen route. You'll never be lost in your car again!

I performed extensive online research for portable GPS navigation units. As with most web reviews, the ratings were mixed: there were always the handful of people who went to the extent of ridiculing every option out there. Finally, it was a toss-up between the c330 and the c340. I decided to get the c340 because it calls out the street names instead of simply directing me to turn left or right.

I have used the unit for about four months now in the suburbs outside Boston, and it has been very good so far. The directions are clear and sufficiently in advance of turns. The sound is also clear enough to be heard over the car CD player. The suction mount is better than what I expected. However, it still manages to fall off once in a while when the temperature varies significantly during the day. Re-attach it, and it stays on for several days.

I have encountered exactly one suburban residential address so far that the c340 could not locate. To be fair though, most online mapping tools failed as well. I use the unit routinely for bypassing traffic jams, even though I have not subscribed for the traffic info service. A bit of familiarity with the roads and congestion patterns in general is useful, however, since the unit always tries to get you back to the main route as quickly as possible. This may not be sufficient to bypass the bottlenecks. Again, this is probably a trait of almost every basic GPS brand.

Overall, an excellent and cost-effective unit. Hoping to eventually test it in dense urban areas and a few other cities.

I gave it a 5 star because I dont know if there's a better one. I just went on a two week car trip and it worked great . If I didn't have a exact address I put in what I had and got pretty close to my address. I liked that it gave the street names for turning.

User friendly, reliable, makes my driving in unfamiliar country more enjoyable and safer because I do not have to be looking at printed maps and worrying about missing exits, since the Navigator will recalculate should I miss. Minor inconvenience is that on-screen keyboard is alphabetically arranged, rather than "qwerty"

I purchased the Garmin StreetPilot c340 for my directionally-challenged (I can say this because I inherited the gene) mother for her birthday. She has taken scenic detours on her way to visit me (in a fairly distant city) the last couple of times she has come to visit, so I wanted to take some of the frustration out of the drive. In addition, her work requires her to be on the road quite a bit, so I thought this could assist her there too. Because this was for my mother, ease-of-use was of paramount importance.

Enough about why and on to how it performed. I first checked out the non-talking version (c330?) in a large electronics retail store. The unit was simple and appeared to work well, but I worried that my mother would have trouble watching the road and the GPS at the same time. I purchased the c340 for the audible instructions feature.

It arrived promptly, in brand new condition, and, happily, charged which allowed me to test it immediately. Input is easy and intuitive. While it provides the locations of nearby restaurants, gas stations, etc., there are not many options to play with. For my mother, this was a good thing. In short, the Garmin c340 does its job simply and well.

My mother has since received it for her birthday and used it. She informed me (proving the value of the gift) that when the Garmin tells her to turn right and she turns left (?), it immediately tells her it is recalculating directions and to turn right. She was impressed with the effort the inanimate object goes through to get her back on course. I am happy that she seems pleased and, fingers crossed, will avoid unwanted two hour scenic excursions while coming to visit us in the future.

Of course, the downside is that, when intentionally taking an alternate root on her home turf, the Garmin insistently (incessantly, perhaps?)informs her how to get on its preferred path. Of course, this could be solved by giving in to the imagined whims of the Garmin or, less robotically, by turning it off until you actually need it. I did not, of course, make either of these suggestions to my mother. I do not know if there is any override feature which would accomplish the same result.

In addition, the unit need not be mounted at all, much less in only one car, in order to function. This is good for people, like my mother, who usually use their own car, but sometimes take another (my sister's) car on long trips.

After testing the unit myself (and hearing my mother's report), I do recommend getting a GPS system that is voice-enabled.

If you want a simple to use GPS system at a comparatively reasonable price that has some great features (locates fast food, restaurants, hotels, gas stations, etc.) but few "settings" to screw up , I highly recommend the Garmin StreetPilot c340.

So far I have done a hard reset and uploaded the updated map set twice. I still get wrong directions as I approach my destination. I should just know if it tells me to turn right that I'll need to go left when I get to the street I'm looking for. Going out of town again this weekend. If it gets me lost one more time I'm returning it when I get back - assuming I don't end up in Deliverence 2007.

Love this product. Works great,well worth the money. You'll never get lost again. Find any place you want to go fast. (Directions,food,gas,hotels,anything)

I brought this navigator for my mom and it work great. My mother now travels more than she use to with out the fear of getting lost, so if your looking for a great navigation system this is it, Oh and Amason is the best place to shop.

It works great. It does everything it is supposed to. My only complaint is the built in speaker could be a little better.

I actually bought this for my father, but I own a C550. Both are great units and work well. I did have an issue with the C550 freezing the 2nd day I had it, but a quick download remedied this forever, according to Garmin. I found Garmin's tech support very helpful and friendly.

The downside of a GPS unit is that there's not a "Take the shortest distance" or "Take the fastest route" choice. In other words, in some cases it will lead you on roads that may be shorter distance-wise, but ultimately longer because of traffic lights, rural traffic/speed limits etc.. Other than that, it's a fun toy to have.

The Street Pilot Has performed everything I have asked it to do so far! Great Value wonderful performance!

I love it! Bought the Garmin Street Pilot for my husband for his birthday, we have both used it and it works great! Two friends were in the car when I used it and now they HAVE to have one too. So happy we made the purchase.

i was alittle skeptical about the use of gps....but i used it on a recent trip and it took all the headaches out of maps and saved me a lot of time......

This is the greatest. Took the Garmin C340 out of the box, downloaded the most recent upgrades/maps and gave it to my wife for Mother's Day. She is not the most adept when it comes to gadgets. Anyway, she used it and was so excited at how easy and accurate it is to operate. Say goodbye to mapquest.

Hope she will let me used it too. ;)

Basically this is going to be a very long and detailed review. I want you to read this review as though you're listening to a friend tell you their personal experience with this GPS.

I'm going to start with the cons on this GPS to get that out of the way.

CONS: It's not intuitive like a human being. You have to get the idea out of your head that it's going to hold your hand through everything. I have noticed that some of the routes it chooses for me have been illogical. BUT HERE'S THE THING: There are options in the Navigation settings to minimize this! For instance, it defaults to having you not make any U-turns but sometimes that's the most logical thing to do. Also, I was in a rural area and was trying to get to an address and it tried to make me go down a dirt road that didn't exist! (Actually, it did exist but it looked more like a pedestrian path and it had a fence blocking it off). So I went into the Navigation properties and had it select "avoid unpaved roads" and it got me to the place a different way. I also wish that it had an anti-theft feature like the c550 with a pin number you had to type so if someone stole it, they couldn't find their way to your house.

Another con is that the voice isn't real loud. You sort of have to shut people up in the car and turn down the music to hear what the voice is saying. Also, the computer voice butchers the pronunciation of most of the street names (unless the street name is obviously rooted in the English language). I've heard people complain about the glare on the screen during the daytime, I haven't actually noticed it being too bad. I can still see it clearly enough. The other thing is most people complain that it tells you to turn when it's almost too late. It DOES, but it also gives you plenty of warning too (it tells you twice, once when you're like a half mile away and once when you're right on it). And the final frustrating thing about this GPS are the maps. Garmin needs to seriously release map updates for it more often - and for FREE. Although I suppose I shouldn't complain because they could charge a monthly fee for their services (like Onstar). The GPS could not find one of the first streets I imputed into it. Fortunately, Mapqwest.com found the street and made me a route. Now, the GPS knew all of the streets EXCEPT the last one on the route (the one I originally put in there). When I got to the house, I discovered that the subdivision the house was built in had only been there like 4 years. But 4 YEARS??? Garmin should have figured out there was a new street there by then right??

NOW THE PROS: I'm telling you, I get lost in my own town! I absolutely avoided driving downtown in the past. I was always running into one way streets and dead ends, etc. But with this GPS, it KNOWS downtown. It takes me quickly and hassle free through the craziest parts of town flawlessly. It knows where those one way streets and dead ends are. One of the greatest features this thing has is the detour option. It gives you TONS of detour options. And the points of interest feature is THE BOMB! It beats the internet sometimes. It's super relevant and accurate displaying hotels, parking garages, gas stations, movie theaters near you and creates routes to get there. You can even spell in the name of the store you're looking for in that town (i.e. find the nearest Walmart near me). I haven't tried the traffic antenna feature but I've read some bad reviews on it so I'm hesitant.

Overall you will not be disappointed. The Garmin c340 is 100 times better than my first GPS (The Magellan Roadmate 2000 - A JOKE of a GPS).


After reading many reviews for this product, I decided to buy not only one, but 3 of them (for 2 of my friends). For the most part, I am quite satisfied with the performance. I do have trouble whenever I try to type in the name of a location (not the address, but the actual name). It seems to freeze without finding it even though I input the city & state it's located in. This could be quite frustrating when you don't know the exact street address.

The map is very clear and easy to read and the voice commands are clear and loud. I would recommend this model over the C330 (the C330 doesn't speak street names) because you don't need to glance at the map as often when you're trying to keep those eyes on the road. Just listen to the voice prompts and you'll be fine. A good buy for the money!

I found this product ready to use right out of the box. Since I travel a great deal, it has become my indispensable companion. I have had only minor problems in directions when it tried to send me on streets that have become one-way.
aasgha.

Purchased a refurbished model for a very good price. Model performs as well as expected. It will get you to your destination dead on. Sometimes not the most direct but always to your desired location. Beware the refurbished models. Mine was difficult to register as the previous owner was the owner of record.
Garmin's customer service is first rate and will guide you through any rough spots on usage and registration.

The c340 is a very good product. I found it very easy to use and simple to get started right out of the box. Everything you need is there and the c340
prompts you through all the steps to get you going down the road. It updates quickly and it cannot get lost, at least I haven't been able to since I started using it. I can't compare it to anything else because it is the first GPS I have purchased but it does everything it says it can do and thats good enough for me. I would recommend it to anyone who is tired of getting lost while trying to read maps.

The Garmon StreetPilot C340 was the best buy for me and provides me with more than what I expected. I am still finding useful ways to use it even after having it for 2 months. You can find local shopping, dining, entertainment, auto repair and pretty much anything else you ever wanted. The directions are accurate and simple to understand. The voice prompting is nice and it even states the names of the roads instead of "turn left in 400 yds".

I previously used Microsoft Streets and trips 2004 and 2006 with GPS. This definetly beats having to have a laptop running for all of your trips and I would definetly buy one of these over the MS program.

No learning curve, figured it out right out of the box. Got me from Newport, RI to San DIego, Ca easily. The only problem I had was with the mount staying in position. It worked fine stuck to the windshield, once I got to CA and had to (illegal to drive with anything suction mounted to windshield) switch to the dash mount, any bump in the road would cause the unit to tilt down so that it was no longer easily readible. Fixed that with a bit of superglue, now it's fine.

I've wanted a navigator for some time and finally decided to purchase one. I wanted one with street level ID (not just "turn in 400 feet") but didn't care about the capacity to play mp3 etc. I did want maps already installed. This one worked perfectly out of the box. It was intuitive and so one does not have to read elaborate directions. It doesn't always choose the best route (by my standards) but always gets you there accurately. This is well worth what I paid for it (about $300). I've had it for a little over a month and still love it! I always turn it on, even when I know where I'm headed. It finds satellites quickly and, as I say, has been accurate and trouble free to date.

The c340 has been excellent since I received it. It picks up the satellite signal within one minute and has been extremely accurate. The voice is clear and loud and the directions have been spot-on. I would heartily recommend the c340 for a new or more experienced GPS user.

Not only will this device guide you in unfamiliar areas, but it will greatly enhance your local driving as well. This GPS unit has already saved me considerable local driving time, as it has enabled me to bypass local freeway driving due to construction. For the price, you can't beat it.

I bought the garmin Streetpilot C340 in Christmas 2006 and it came preloaded with all maps of United States, no Canada,Europe,Mexico.If you need these maps, you have to go the garmin web site and purchase these maps. The only free upgrades you will get is, to chose the diferent types of voices and language. ( Female and Males)Unless you plan to drive in these countries, then is a good investment and risk taken. The Street Pilot C340 is pretty accurate, it may take to recalculate your route just about one to two minutes some times but. It will take you to your final destination some times,it is not the shorter distance but you get there. The voice is Very clear and the screen 3.5 is keep you well informed of up coming streets or roads.Good device you can installed on the windshield or mount it on the dashboard, Make sure you clean the area with alcohol prior to attach it.Try to keep it away from the sun and unplug it when not used, it will work with the two hours charged in your palms but you can also charger in your pc or cigarette lighter.Very handy device, it will pront you to take an alternate route too,I Paid $356.00 Dlrs on Amazon compare to Bestbuy or Circuit City, in mine area (New York) is just about $499.00 on sale.

Great product,great price. Simple to use ,just plug it in and go.

Great GPS at the price. Small, easy to throw in the suitcase use with a rental car and simple to use.

The c340 was ready to use right out of the box. It was easy to install in the car, and has been easy to transfer into other vehicles. It is intuitive to use and has detailed maps of the areas we have driven through. The voice prompts are clear and timely. I've had no problems with it.

This Garmin c340 is absolutely the answer to my prayers. I tend to get lost pretty easily. Not locally, but on trips out of state. This totally takes the worry out of driving. It may not take you the fastest route to somewhere, but it gets you there. The voice is loud and clear; setup to use it each time is very easy with the touch screen. You select map, address, food, gas, etc. and it guides you along the way. You are told what your next turn will be in advance, and then again just before the turn comes up. I didn't buy the accessory which can help you avoid traffic tie ups, but that may be my next purchase. That would be great.

This GPS is extremely user friendly and reliable. You do not need to read the instructions to get started, everything is pretty self explanatory. It is a bit bulkier than some other GPS's, but I love it.



Pros: I have to agree with the previous posts in that out of the box the c340 is easy to use; however, it took me several days of using it to work out some of the finer points. I find myself using the database for hotels, eating places, gas stations, etc. much more that I thought I would. It's amazing all the sites buildt into the database. Even if you don't know the address of a potential location, if you can find the general location on the c340 map, you can get directions to it. We love to experiment with the different voices too.

Cons: I find the voice sometimes difficult to understand. The voice volume control is only audible on the higher settings which limits the voice volume sensitivity. Also, I always look on the map now when I come to a turn, because sometimes an intersection where one is to go straight appears as a turn under the "turn" label. The map, however, is correct. Not quite sure why that is. I've made a few wrong turns because of this. The nice part though, is that as soon as the c340 knows you are off the track, a new route is calculated. Also, any street that has the abbreviation "Dr" for drive, is pronounced "doctor." Actually, that's kind of amuzing.

All in all I'm happy with my c340 and take it with me wherever I go even if I know how to get there without it.

The StreetPilot has never failed us. It is easy to use and knows its way around our tri-state area. It is well worth the investment as it saves time and provides a stress-free ride.

We used our Garmin Street Pilot c340 (a.k.a. Bertha) within 3 days after receiving it to go to Syracuse to a gun/knife show. She performed wonderfully. We even had some roads and streets that were under construciton or shut down and when we turned because of them Bertha got us right back on track.

We recently went to KY for a family visit and Bertha was great. I don't think we can get lost or stranded in a place we can't get out of with this navigator.

We could not be more pleased.



Newbie to the states, and of all in California!! This helped me find my way around and would recommend it!!!

This is an easy to use device, if I can do it anyone can. It has everthing to take me were I want to go. Highways or back roads, now I always know where I am. I am very happy with it. Get one!!!

I purchased the c340 after renting a c330 on a vacation. Works great right out of the box. Easy to use and accurate. I would recommend this unit to anyone.

Very good GPS. It is excellent for guilding to addresses within cities that you may not be familiar with.

Like text to speech. Routes given by the Garmin are at times circuituous, but get you to the destination eventually.

The Garmin StreetPilot c340 is affordable and wonderful! It gives very accurate directions. I like how its voice tells you not only to turn left or right, but which street to do it on. Maps are very clear. You can zoom in and out. You can ask it to find hotels, restaurants, and more. It even gives you phone numbers. It has cut out briefly during thunderstorms, but so does my satellite TV. I am extremely satisfied with this unit, and have not gotten lost since I bought it. I mean, if it can navigate Queens, NY.....

Absolutely love my Garmin c340 GPS. Recently used it on a road trip from North to South Carolina and exceeded my expectations. Took it on a commercial flight and no problem through security.

Many problems. #1. You don't get directions until you start moving your car out of your driveway or parkwing lot. Shall I may a left turn, go straight, right turn, what? You have 2 out of three chances of being wrong BEFORE you even start the trip. #2.Difficult to understand names of streets. #3. Kept using name of street when it turned into highway. Ex. Follow Smith St. 10 miles when Smith street became Highway X 3 miles down the road. #4. Just the opposite. Said Follow Highway X 10 miles and Highway X became Smith St. 3 miles down the road. #5. Difficult to find POI. #6 Final notice to make turn came (for me) seconds too late makeing it difficult to get in proper lane. #7 None of this mattered because the unit turned itself off and stayed off for hours and nothing I could do would turn it back on. (Overheated?) When it did turn back on it never operated "normally" again. Returned it to Amazon. Customer service was very good, which I appreciate. PS. The clearness of the voice and volumn were good.

I had been skeptical about using a gps but since I am relocating to another state I wanted something to help me get around.
This product is amazing! The minute I opened the box and turned it on it was ready to go. Not only does it get you exactly to the place you want to be but will reroute you if you can't get there the way it originally described.
The price was very reasonable and its well worth it.
I suggest this product and I am so happy I purchased it!

The unit worked well out of the box with litle difficulty. The unit is very accurate and can find hotels and other points of interest (POI) not only at your location, but also at your destination. The voice guided directions can be helpful and will actually name the street to make your turn onto while approaching the intersection. You can turn the volume down however if you would like to drive in quiet (a mute button may be nice). I would have been helpful if Garmin would have 'main' menu feature would have been added, since at times you need to back out of a screen by repeatly hitting the back button. Other than that, the unit works well

Very fine product.. I called for help and they bent over backwards to help..

I recently went on a long trip, I was happy to have the Garmin34c with me, it was fine at the begining of the trip, but the Garmin voice wanted me to exit, so I did exit and it took me thru the downtown area, many occurances, it was wrong, made metake a turn in a dead end street.... I am not happy with it at all, I can not trust it on a long trip again

The Garmin c340 does exactly what the description states: Easy to setup ... Out of box activation. I am especially pleased with the corrections in directions when I miss a turn or decide to take a different route from the one the Garmin outlines.
My husband and I plan to purchase units as Christmas gifts for our children!

Ready to use right out of the box.Very useful and easy to use

I really like the c340 navigator. It is very simple to use and seems to be very accurate. It continually amazes me with the amount of info in its program. on occasion it seems to get confused but it recovers quickly. I don't have a basis for comparison but I really like the C340.

Not only does the product help me find my way around, but has shown me new ways and quicker ways for trips I thought I really knew. It's sure easy to use. (Read the manual first....it really makes it a lot easier)
We'll try it on some long trips coming up in the next few months. Now my daughters want to borrow it for their trips.

I have used only one other gps and thats magellan in hertz rental cars
its old, no touch screen, but i find it much better

c340
pros
easy enough to use
recalculate route is fast

cons
1)map is not easy to navigate, e.g. in current map if i just want to see what streets are on my left, i cant just move left in the map, i can click directions, show map, + + + + + move move move move ah....

2)it tells me tooooooooooooooooo late about taking left or right turn
like when 0.2 miles left
if i am in left lane, its impossible to make a right turn

3) the way it sits on the glass by default is ugly.
I had to by the dashboard mount for 30$

4) its not easy to choose route using highways vs using streets
if you want to avoid highways, u need to go to somewhere in system settings and change etc.
you cant just switch easily in the middle of the route

trust me
for 320$ its just ok product, i expected something great

oh
bye the way
5 ***** to amazon
i bought it and then they reduced the price
amazon has this 30 day price gurantee (but you need to remind them about it)

so i just emailed them and they gave me $$$ back!
it costed me 320 instead of 389

if you decide to buy it, shop around for price first

This product worked a lot better than I expected. I just took a trip and I could go straight to any place I wanted to without a problem. I take this evevry where I go, especially if I am not quite sure how to get there. It is wonderful finding gas, food, and lodging. We now own two my wife travels everyday and won't leave home without it.

We Love it. Couldn't be better. Gets us exactly where we want to go.A+++++

Super unit, have had those built in and this one does twice the job. Love the way you can just point and touch for results. Have allowed friends to use mine and they have bought them also. Would not RV without this unit. The speaking turn by turn is wonderful.

I bought the Garmin C340 because a friend of mine had one and I was really impressed at what it would do. It was everything he said it was. I took several 300 mile trips and when I needed gas or a place to eat all I had to do was enter my request and bingo it was either the next exit or one or two thereafter. A really neat product and one in which would help the least gadget minded find their way to any valid address. Thanks for all the fun.

It took a little while to familiarize myself with all the functions of this unit but I can say I never get lost with this Garmin
The voice announces the street name and how far it is to turn that is a big help to keep your eyes on the road and not on the unit.
If a street has changed or not passable the Garmin recalculates a new route. Overall very satisfied


I purchased this for my parents. We previously bought one around Christmas for ourselves. My parents were so impressed after a demonstration that they wanted one too. It is not perfect but is amazingly accurate and very user friendly. We took ours on a plane trip across the country and it worked just fine.

I cannot begin to express how happy I am that I purchased this StreetPilot. The voice is clear, the maps are as detailed as you choose, the directions are precise. If you change your mind and want to go a different route, it will re-calculate within minutes. I don't know how I lived without it. I am totally directionally dysfunctional. It is like a dream come true! Other features such as locating restaurants and lodging where ever you are is totally incredible. There's more - buy one and see for yourself. I am having some difficulty keeping it suctioned to the windshield (I've cleaned the window, but it still won't hold). It has fallen several times and withstands the fall. I am going to order a dashboard mount to alleviate this problem.

I finally decided on the Garmin C340 and really like it quite a bit .....the price was reasonable and I like that it gives voice commands so that there's no interference with driving. Also, it immediately "recalculates" my route if I take a different road. I recommend this model to a novice thinking about getting a GPS system without "breaking the bank"! It was so very easy to learn how to use and for those who cannot apply to their windshield (by law), I just keep it in my cupholder and it works just as well without blocking anything.

Bought this product November 2006. I live in Jacksonville Florida. The GPS unit does not know of streets that are up to two years older than the Sept 2006 release date of the internal loaded MapSource software.

No updates are available from Garmin.

Gets lost and provides bad directions most of the time.

Wish I could return it. Works most of the time, but is wrong enough to be annoying.

I returned my C320 that I bought at frys for 219 + tax. I decided to have the C340 because of Text to Speech (TTS) capability. I really love the unit because it make you smart on the road. It pickup a signal at less than 15 seconds with external antenna. Also, I have a CRV 2006 and its actuall fit on the console. My only problem is the glare but I easily fixed it by buying a Clear Binder Pockets (Avery 75243) cut it into the size of the screen , add .1 w and .3 h. then fit it to the c340 which works great and no glare anymore. Love this unit. No problem in signal here with external antenna. Solid gadget , loud speaker. Great.



I just finished a 5,000 mile road trip in my RV using the Garmin c340. It is simple to use, accurate, and just the right size. I have talked to some people that were worried that they needed a larger screen, but I found this screen was plenty large and didn't obstruct my view of the road at all. I highly recommend this over more expensive GPS devices.

I was a bit hesitant to spend the money for this but I became a believer instantly! I am a pretty low-tech guy but this Garmin c340 is extremely easy to set-up and operate, even for me. Its seems to be well built and of solid construction and nice looking to boot.
At 59 years old is sometimes is stressful finding a new address and keeping from crashing into something too, but with this unit I can just relax and drive. Way cool!

I love my new C340, I insisted I wanted one. I am glad I did. When I told my husband I would like to get a GPS, he said that we would not need one. He claimed there was nothing that he could not find with the help of mapquest and a good street map (the old soldier he is). But when we got the GPS while we were on a trip in Arizona, it even convinced him. He and I had no idea how great, easy to use, and accurate the C340 is. My husband took it on a trip with a friend last week, and he said that they would have been lost without my GPS. Now my husband's friend wants to buy it too.

I have always been somewhat directionally challenged. Now when I travel I can concentrate on my driving and not on wondering where I am. The Garmin StreetPilot c340 is so simple to use I didn't even have to read the instruction booklet that came with it to put it to use. The program is extremely well done and is absolutely intuitive. I am most happy with it.


Excellent GPS with tons of options and easy user interface. I took it from Vermont to Virginia with no problems. The one thing I wish though is that the voice was louder. It can be easily drowned out by light music or people talking.

I just ordered my Garmin StreetPilot c340 on April 20th and can't give a review of the product. But, I already have a great impression, thanks to Amazon's customer service, namely their rep. Pratyush Shrama. I am moving out of state in 6 days and ordered my StreetPilot(what a great price!!). When I noted the est. del. date I was worried that my order might arrive after I'd moved. I contacted customer service and Pratyush said he would expedite my delivery so that my order would arrive prior to my moving date. On top of that Amazon offered to refund half of the cost to expedite delivery. What a relief! I have enough stress with moving - but Amazon helped to relieve some of that stress!! I will definitely make my purchases from Amazon in the future. What great customer service!

Been running the unit for some 30 days on local trips of less than 100 miles. Absolutely impressed with built in maping info along with preloaded food, billeting and local attraction info. It has alerted me to locations that I have never seen or been concerned about previously. The unit is easy to setup, operate, plus input your own data points and the voice qualities along with the pertinent voice alerts of the "guide person" are outstanding. Only criticism I have is that the windshield mount should have a little more verical adjustment capability to handle the extreme slop of some vehicle glass angles. This unit is an absolute best buy candidate.

My husband and I didn't need to read the instructions to figure this out. It is so simple and a great device to help when travelling into new areas. It is easy to read, clear voice commands. I also got one for my son who travels a lot using rental cars. He loves the feature that helps you find restaurants.

I love everything about it. It does everything that it said and is great. My son-in-law borrowed it for a trip he was going on and now he doesnt think he can continue to work without it. Hes getting one for his B-Day.

This is my first GPS. I checked so many reviews then decided to buy this one. I'm still confused how come the review rate is so high for this GPS. After few months using it, I regret buying it. But it's too late for me to change idea now. Give you some examples how it drives me crazy:

1. Route you to turn right on a bridge. HELLO, is this a suicide GPS? We would jump in the river if we follow the route.

2. Ask you to turn left on a road which you can't turn.

3. On the way we drove to Canada, it routed us to drive off the highway. We thought the GPS was giving us a shortcut, and excited to follow the instruction. Got off the highway, turn left, turn again, then turn on a highway...THE SAME HIGHWAY. Did they put a joke function in the program?

4. Chosed less Toll option, it still routes you to lots of tolls. If we use our usual way, we only need pay $6. Following the GPS instruction, we paid DOUBLE.

5. Too slow, give you instruction right before you need make turn. If you are not a good driver, you might miss your turn easily on highway.

This is enough for now. Right now we rarely use the GPS anymore. If I keep using it, guess the list will be much longer.

Purchasing the 340 was a bad choice. Without a map I would have been lost. When I typed in Broadmoor Ave. it would override this and go to Broad St. The 340 would shut itself off after a few minutes so it was useless. The 340 doesn't give the option of shortest route vs most interstate. At times it would give directions that were 60/70 miles out of the way. It doesn't recognize major highways in some areas and takes a lot of time to recalculate. At one point we were actually parked in the driveway of our destination and because we had taken a shorter route it was still trying to direct us onto a different route. The next morning it did recognize that we had in fact reached our destination. I used a Magellan unit in a rental car, it had many features that the Garmin lacks. Best Buy or Radio Shack have a thirty day no hassle return policy. I hope I can return the 340, it has been a major dissapointment.

I was up and running in literally five minutes. I have never downloaded the optional user guide off the website and was to use just about every function with ease. The interface is very clean, simple to use, and I'm a big fan. I looked at a lot of the cheaper GPS's, but I'm glad I spent the extra money to get the Garmin.


The Garmin StreetPilot c340 is a very useful tool. I don't even have to pull out maps or search on the internet anymore. Just log on to the device and input address and the system will automatically calculate route distance and time to get to destination. I recently used this device to get to Irvine, CA, a place I've never travelled to and it worked well.--It gets the job done. The plus to this product is that it also shows listing of shopping areas, restaraunts, cinemas, gas stops, etc. As for the volume level, it is loud and clear. The voice direction from the system might take a little time to get use to but it's not a problem. Overall, the Garmin StreetPilot c340 is an affordable gps system that works well and will get the job done with some nice features on it.

I purchased the Garmin C340 to assist me in my job. The device is very easy to use. Take it out of the box, secure it to the windshield, and plug it into your outlet. It is simple to remove so that you can put it in your trunk or take it with you when you are not in your vehicle.
Sometimes the GPS directions are inaccurate. If you ignore the speaker's directions, the system recalculates the directions. My husband loves the device. I prefer to use a map and my intuition. Garmin StreetPilot c340 Traffic-Ready Vehicle GPS Navigator

is so great that I gave one to my brother and he can't thank me enough he is very happy with it.

I have this GPS for the last couple of days and i really love it. The overall look-n-feel plus the functionality is amazing. The only drawback i found is that the map needs to be current-it missed some points plus sometimes it takes a little more time to find some location.

It's the best present I've bought for my husband. We used it on a recent vacation to Dallas and it was Great! It sure saves on arguments and frustration driving around unfamiliar territories. I highly recommend purchasing one.

Used the unit extensively on my recent vacation. It is highly accurate and only failed where street names have recently been changed or where street has two names and Garmin only recognized one. It did temporarily get confused in downtown area where tall buildings apparently blocked access to the satellite. Great feature is telling you which lane to be in when highways split. Great value and highly recommended.

The Garmin works great! It has a comprensive map system and the on screen directions are fantastic. Easy to set up and the touch screen information is simple to understand. I would recomend this to anyone who needs to travel in unfamiluar areas.

The good:
Overall easy to use
Good and detailed maps
Voice navigation is quite helpful
Easily finds alternate routes and does great u turns via back streets

The bad:
The suction mechanism to attach the unit to the windscreen doesn't work perfectly. Occasionally it falls off !
Occasionally the unit will not find the shortest route.

I bought this because I'm on the road a lot and was frequently getting lost. It's great. I no longer have to look at a map...with one exception. In the instructions, they don't specify how to look up an address on a highway or route. Sometimes it's spelled hwy or rte, and sometimes it doesn't give you anything at all. And roads that I know by names are listed as county routes (CR) not by street names. That's somewhat annoying. But other than that, it's a great help.

I travel extensively for my work and my Garmin purchase was long overdue! I used to use Mapquest for my trips, only to get lost in the last couple of miles of the journey. Now, if I miss a turn or change my plans, my Garmin 'recalculates' the necessary route! If I want to stop for food or fuel, my Garmin helps me find my favorites and give me directions to them via an easy to use push button screen. I can then continue on my journey without reentering the address!
10/10-best money I have ever spent (great deal on Amazon too!).

I purchased thus unit prior to a road trip from Tennessee to New Mexico. I had a few days before the trip to play with it and it proved extremely easy to master. Many of the places I wanted to visit were already in the data base and the ones that weren't were easy to enter.

The voice guided directions were very helpful and made it simple to negotiate through the several large cities on our route. It was great to be able to see where rest stops, restaurants and gas stations were located while "on the fly".

While a GPS is a great convienience, it is no replacement for a decent map and common sense. A few of the locations were off by just a little and some were off the mark entirely.

I am extremely pleased with this unit and will never travel without it.

To be fair. I loved this device. I say "loved this device" because I have returned it back to amazon (which was very easy and at no cost.) One of the reasons I chose this model C 340 is because it as "Traffic Ready". What this means I am not sure any more. One thing I do know Is that It is not traffic ready UNLESS you purchase SEPERATLY the TRAFFIC RECIEVING ANTENNA. This costs at least $150.00 or more extra. I repeat the traffic feature DOES NOT work without this additional antenna and subscription. I have basically dediced to spend a few more well actually $100.00 more and get the Garmin c550. Not only Is it "Traffic ready" but It comes with a built in traffic antenna, the antenna is in the power cord that plugs into the cigerette lighter. This makes the c 550 truely TRAFFIC READY!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Not only do I NOT have to buy an additional antenna but it comes with many other bells and whistles. If knowing the flow of the traffic is not important to you the C340 was near perfect.

I bought this for recent trips to Omaha, California and Colorado. It has been great. Note that when you turn it on for the VERY FIRST TIME, it takes several minutes to look for the satellites. After that, it goes much faster each time you turn it on. I did have an issue with punching in an address that I knew to be in one city, but it didn't give me that street as an option in the city. To get around it, you can put in the state and the street name (I think there is a 'search all' feature) and it found my address, but put it in neighboring town. That work-around got me there nevertheless. I always get lost, and the Garmin c340 gives me peace of mind, like a safety net. I also tried the POI feature to find a restaurant, and it led me to just what I was looking for - it lists local restaurants as well as chains. Also note that at least two of the car rental companies I have used in the past month offer the c340 as their navigation system to use at about $8/day charge. (Enterprise and Dollar were the companies).


I spent hours reading GPS reviews by people who bought them and finally chose this unit. I am not disappointed at all. It will get you to wherever you are going without a problem. It doesn't always choose the fastest route because of redlights and traffic, but if I use the "shortest" route feature, it tends to almost always choose the route's I've used as "shortcuts" to places I already commute.

I've even read some negative comments from people and they are unwarranted, unless you expect this unit to do the driving for you too. One comment I read repeatedly was that it tells you to turn too late. I haven't found that to be true at all. If you are a lead-foot, then it will be late because it's designed to tell you right as you approach the turn. If you drive like a maniac, it can't keep up. Drive the speed limits, and you will be told exactly when to turn. It also warns you on your last turn, how far your next turn will be, so simply pay attention and you can't go wrong.

I'm sure there are some exceptions, depending on where you live, as to how good this unit performs, such as newly developed areas and such, but that will be the same issue no matter which product you purchase.

This unit is everything I expected, wanted, and more... You'll never be lost again!!!

so far the garmin c340 has been great. i just moved to new york city and am on the road constantly, and the fact that it speaks out the actual street names about 200 feet before the actual turn is a huge plus (unless you're really speeding). the only problem i'm having is that satellite reception is difficult to acquire or completely lost when surrounded by tall buildings. i haven't explored all of its features, but it's been a dependable, "some-frills" product. be sure to explore a bit when looking for these; i found a garmin c530 for $50 less at staples here in the city, beating both amazon and j&r soundly.

Overall this is really a great one to have at such a good price, especially in New Jersey. I think it is really worth it, no more print outs, no hassles for directions and fights in the car :-) and so reduced stress

I like these a lot:
1. "Turn in so many feet" indicaton at the lower right corner is great. I use it most of the time to judge the correct turn.
2. Voice indicated directions really helps that we dont have to look at GPS most of the time
3. Touch screen easy-to-use interface,
4. Finding nearest restaurant of your interest.

Issues:
1. Some of the jug handles and one ways are not loaded in the device. This happens inside the town sometimes but not on major roads.
2. When searching for nearest points of interest, some times the device takes more than 15 minutes to return the results.
3. Initially the map can be set to highest zoom in, so we can see end to end map view of start and destination. But during the drive, Map level zooms to lowest level showing the next turn though the map level is set to maximum info on map.
4. It would have been great if the device showed end-to-end directions in text (as in the yahoo or google), so we can view the complete route in advance whenever we want to during the drive.


Short Strokes: This is a terrible unit that has given me nothing but headache...NOT RECOMMENDED!

I've had this unit since Christmas 2006. I have a HORRIBLE sense of direction and this thing would be a Godsend if it would ever work. It NEVER (as in: less than 5% of the time) picks up satellite signal (I live in San Diego...no big hills, always sunny and clear) and leaves me lost and wanting to tear my hair out. If by some chance it does pick up a signal, it promptly loses it within 5 minutes leaving me screwed on unfamiliar roadways.

Thinking I must have a defective unit, I RMA'ed it with Garmin. They forced me to register (luckily I kept the original box with the critical piece of orange paper inside that somehow proves that I own this piece of junk...otherwise I'm told I would have been screwed since they don't think that the serial number proves it's mine. Oh yeah, now that I've registered, I've noticed that my travel and electronics-related junk mail is skyrocketing...thanks Garmin!)

It took them 9 days to get it back to me (plus obviously I had to ship at my own expense) and they replaced it with another unit and a piece of paper that said it had been tested and worked. Ok, great. I unpack it, connect to my PC to update the software, take it out to my car and guess what? No signal! I figure, hey, maybe this thing needs some patience to warm up and detect the satellites (or vice-versa). Since I know generally which direction I'm heading, I start out. 10 miles down the road, all I get (every time) is "trouble tracking satellites, are you indoors now?" I say No. "Are you currently in San Diego, CA?" I say Yes. Is the date [today's date/time]?" I say Yes. "Acquiring satellites". (they never get acquired).

If I could return this thing I would, unfortunately for me it was a Christmas gift. It is completely useless and unreliable.

The c340 was running out of the box. There is no owners manual to read through before you can use it. It is intuitive, portable, and accurate.

I find this item to be very easy to use and the directions are right on every place I have used it. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a GPS sytem.

I bought this C-340 about 1 month back.
It is one of the most wise purchases i made!
AMAZON service is GREAT! It was delivered 1 week before time.
"Jill" text to speech ....Girl she is good!
Pros:
Very accurate
Makes life simple
Good battery life
Touch screen is very simple to use
I have mounted in my BMW dash .....so far it is holding up good!
like the options of restaurant and fuel stations.
Cons:
Glare in daytime
street maps not updated.
But you know what ,.....for this price....c'mon....can't complain.
i would give 4.5 stars.
If you are debating between...330 v/s 340.....GO WITH C-340.
TEXT TO SPEECH OPTION IS WORTH EVERY PENNY PLUS ONE PENNY!
Some reviews say, street names are pronounced funny....I would say...may be one in hundred.....Well,as human we make mistakes in pronounciation too!!! Isn't it!
Y.Dialani

Pros:
1. VERY easy to setup
2. Bright clear display
3. You can leave the Winshield mount (directly attached to power cord) and take the unit with you (to avoid theft).
4. Touchscreen controls so easy a caveman could do it.

Cons:
1. Pretty sure it doesn't always take you the "Quickest" route.

This Garmin C340 works splendidly. On a recent trip, the driving was much more relaxing because the Garmin took all the stress away--plenty of warning when turns come up, perfect route planning, excellent design. After seeing it, a friend ordered one, my brother ordered one, and I bought another for my daughter and son-in-law. Before I bought it, I feared the GPS would be a distraction while driving and diminish safety. My experience is just the opposite--since you are more aware of intersections and course changes, you become,I think, a safer driver.

Never having owned a GPS system, I was suspect of whether or not it would be worth the monetary investment. Well, the Garmin Streepilot c340 has made a believer out of me. I put "Jill" the voice operator that is part of the system to three seperate drive to address tests and she passed all three with flying colors.
The system is easy for a "newbie" to operate, and I know that my wife will want one for her vehicle, now that she has seen the system in action.
Garmin has produced an outstanding product, well worth a five star rating.

This is one of the most convenient and user friendly units available. I also own a Garmin Streetpilot 2730, the c340 is simpler, and its size makes it better to take a long to use in a rental car.

No complaints at all. It is very easy to use and simply a delight to have. I had one question that I didn't find addressed in the manual, and their support center answered it quickly. Highly recommended.

I purchased the Garmin c340 unit about a year ago and have used it on a regular basis since. Overall this is a fantastic unit that I just couldn't do without.. unfortunately it does still have a few drawbacks.

Starting with the good:

Fast startup - approximately 8 seconds from when you hit the power button to when you have access to the main menu.

Nice, large screen which is easy to use even during the daytime (and switches to another color scheme at night to make it easier to use).

Nice battery life - uses internal batteries and charges (or powers off of) a cigarette lighter adapter. This is what I use while in the car and the battery holds a lengthy charge when unplugged from it (between 8 and 10 hours in my experience). There is a slight negative to this which I'll touch on more later on.

Straight-forward and easy to navigate. It includes a listing of several businesses in your current area which are sorted by category (Gas stations, hotels, restaurants, Attractions, shopping, parking, hospitals, etc..) - Good for when you're in a new area or don't have a lot of time to cruise around and see what's around you. A "Browse map" will show a map of your current location and allow you to see (via icons) what's close by.
You can also enter a street address and be taken right there.
Like the battery issue, theres also a slight negative to the included directory.

Text-To-Speech: My reason for buying this unit over the others. Hearing "Turn right in 300 yards" can be confusing if you're in an area with short blocks or multiple streets close to eachother. Text to speech will actually speak the street names to you, telling you to "Turn right at Main Street". Great feature I wouldn't do without!



The cons:
Very bulky unit - While it is only about 3 inches tall by about 4 inches wide, it's about 3 1/2 inches deep. Compared to the higher end Garmins which can fit in your front pocket, this one has trouble fitting in even a wide pants pocket. Since I take mine with me when entering stores (after seeing just how many cars get broken into when theyre sitting in plain sight), it becomes a hassle. I eventually had to purchase a camera-case (Sony LCS-CSD General Carrying Case for Compatible Cybershot Digital Cameras) which holds it perfectly.. but I find that I still have to clip it to my belt loop because of the size of the unit.

Internal battery: VERY nice as you dont need to change it, but you're limited to the power it has. If you're without a car-adapter the battery will be dead about 8-10 hours later.. Additionally, these batteries are known to lose their holding power over time (this was an issue with the iPod) - meaning that 3-4 years from now it might only hold for 3 hours.

Internal Directory: Another nice feature but since it was preloaded when the maps were created, you'll look up a restaurant or store only to find that it no longer exists. Not a big "Con" but you will come across it from time to time.

Poor satellite reception compared to new Garmin's: The c340 loses reception when not in the direct open - if you take it in your house, a store, or get stuck in a tunnel you will likely lose connection until you get to the other side. Newer garmins will work perfectly even in these same conditions. Not a huge problem but if you're in a location covered with trees you may also lose connection.

---

A few other notes:

Touch screen and user interfaces are very easy to use.

The c340 lacks features like the bluetooth phone connection, MP3 player, traffic (an optional antenna and subscription is required on the c340), movie times and gas prices of the newer units. It's nice to press a button and see the current gas prices of every gas station nearby (in realtime) or what time a movie is starting.. Unfortunately those features are not present on this model. If you can deal without these (as I could), the c340 makes a perfect GPS unit. I do wish that I purchased one of the slim-units to make it more portable but at twice the price, I just couldnt justify it.

Pick one up and you'll have a great time with it!

This is a very carefully engineered product that does what it does superbly but only does that.

If you want to get to a place you know the address of or can identify by name, it will almost certainly get you there. If you detour, it detects the detour within a few hundred feet and recalculates a new route in a few seconds. The screen is easy to read even for old foggies like me.

I would not be without it.

However, I often want to get to a place whose address I do not know, but which is near a known intersection. I do not know a rapid way of entering intersections directly.

The mounting is specialized and the 12V power connects to the mounting. In California, where I live, it is illegal to mount it to the windshield as intended, so Garmin has supplied a glue-on mounting patch to provide a mounting surface. I use several vehicles,and do not want to scar up any of them, so I end up laying the unit on the dash with the windshield mounting arm used only to connect power. Awkward and not very secure.

The traffic monitoring adapter requires insertion into the vehicle radio antenna line, so it tends not to be portable at all. I suspect a trip to Radio Shack could result in a workaround, but the result might be unsightly.



Living in Northern Virginia, where urban planning, if there ever was any, was done by a deranged mind, the Garmin C340 saves my life (or at least a lot of my time) on a daily basis. It really helps to get arround in an area where maps are only an option for people with advanced navigation skills and lots of spare time.

Being relatively new to the area I love that my Garmin finds shops, restaurants and all kinds of places for me. Simply tell it that you want to go to the next Trader Joe and it takes you there. I use it as much as yellow pages as I use it as navi system.

As to the text to speech funciton: I would say it's worth the extra buck.

However there are two flaws:
1. There are a lot of surprise exits in the DC metro area that the system doesn't annonce early enough. It happens that I am in the right lane and the Garmin tells me to exit on the left lane in 200m (great thing for Europeans in the US, you can switch to metrics). By the time I get to the left lane I am way past the exit.
2. At more-than-4-way intersections it is sometimes hard to recognize which road the Garmin wants you to take.

But these two flaws definitely do not defeat the purpose, because with the propose alternative routes the Garmin generates I am still saving a lot of time compared to not having it.

great gps at a great price. easily opperated. loud and clear instructions with quik recalculations if taking wrong turn or starting route differently. highly recomended.

This is a very nice unit. It has a few drawbacks. It takes a long time to locate satellites. It does not give you options like fastest route versus shortest or most use of highways or avoid tolls. The unit can be used in multiple vehicles but you need to buy a separate mount for each as the mount is glued on, not suction. Overall I am quite happy with it in spite of its limitations.

The Garmin item worked great right out of the box, battery was almost fully charged. Software updates and download of different voices is simple. After two months, the rubber on the suction cup mount deterioriated, called Garmin, they sent a complete new mount, including the power cable via overnight air - no charge. Yea, Garmin! That's good customer service. Rated at four stars because the voice directions don't use the most commonly used names for some roads. e.g, Calls I-75 "GA 400". This is correct but NOBODY calls it GA 400. That's really on worth 1/2 star.......

I work as a background investigator. i travel all over the place. this garmin is my love...and she (Jill) saves the day. Jill is the narrator in case you were wondering.

ill rather keep checking maps on the road they are more acurate and fun, i dont know if its because the program in my gps is dated 2005 but in the south esat coast of florida with all the new developments the machine keeps givin me crazy routes or is unable to give me a route at all

This is an exceptional product indeed. Having just purchased a new car that had a "built in" GPS navigation system installed, my recent purchase of a c340 Garmin unit was for my older car, and was thus a great comparison for me. The Garmin is extremely functional, and easy to use. The mounting hardware is well crafted and works very well (I use the glass mount system). The Garmin also provides a much better view of what is ahead, than my other car's more expensive system (it was nearly $2000 extra)...and has a number of options with regard to different voices, something I find most amusing (I guess I am still a kid at heart!)....in addition, the Garmin is portable and thus I can switch it to rental cars easily for my out of town travel...all in all, a wonderful product!

I have used the optional nav systems that are a $2,000 option in most cars, and the Garmin c340 is by far the easiest and best performing nav system I have ever used, at a fraction of the price. It is so user friendly that all I had to do is turn it on and go. The amount of data pre-loaded into the unit is staggering. My relative that lives on a private road with only three other homes was in the system. The other systems I have used could only get me to an intersection, about a mile away. My only regret is that I did not spend a little more to purchase one that is bluetooth ready. I am thrilled with my c340 and purchasing it on Amazon.com was easy and fast.

for a direction -challenged, newcomer to Atlanta, Ga - The Garmin c340 gets me where I need to be.

I have an Accura with the navigation system built in. I find the Garvin GPS system much more accurate that the one built in and easier to read and program.

we like our street Pilot. It's accurate and we no longer have worry about looking for street names. Sometimes though, it delays the comand to turn left or right until after you have passed the exit, forcing you to make a U turn. That only happenned once, so i don't suppose it's a problem.

This unit has saved me on several occasions. It works well and is about 98% accurate. It lacks a few features that I saw on a Hertz rental that had a GPS such as how much further you have to go to reach your destination. For the money, it is a good buy.

I love the clarity of the screen. It has easy to follow instructions and so far, I have been very satisfied with the Garmin c340.

I found the instructions easy to understand and it was easy to install. The first time I was really lost and depended on it to get me home, I thought it was worth every penny. Would advise every woman traveling alone to have one.

Very easy to use
Store common travel location in favorites
With 340 it also speaks the street name with turn right/left
Clear visuals
Clear communication

Not sure if it always takes you from the shortest route but yes it will definitely take you to your destination
Overall impressed with the product and never felt better when i am travelling to an unknown location

A most excellent piece of engineering....nice screen....suction cup holding for 4 months so far....good directions....voice is pleasant...accurate 98% of the time...some places in directions are out of business....would I buy the same unit again is the question.....absolutely............

I love it. I recommend it very highly. It's user friendly. I would buy it again. I love the fact that it recalculating in no time.


The extra money over the C330 is worth it since the text-to-speech system can read the street names in your coming turns instead of saying "in 30 meters turn right".

Powerful and intuitive - During my California trip never got lost even once, nearby attractions feature a really nice bonus (e.g. find all attractions or say italian restaurants within 15 miles of current location)

User Friendly - Even my parents figured out how to use it without instructions.

Really happy with this product...

Overall, we are pretty happy with the unit after about a month of using it. However, I'm not sure it is worth paying extra money compared with Garmin i3/i5. Yes, the screen is bigger - but you won't really care after a few weeks. Yes, the touchscreen is so much better than the wheel - but then again, how often do you use it? Yes, it is very convenient when the unit can spell street names instead of just saying 'turn left' - but my unit often goes into denial and forgets to name the streets (a reboot usually helps). I would recommend to start with i3/i5 and upgrade to c340 only if you can't stand the small screen with a little wheel. This said, GPS is a must. Except for those who still don't get cell phones.

This is my first GPS and it has been very good. The screen is clear and bright and is easy to see in bright daylight.
I have no complaints and would buy it again.

I bought the c340 for my wife for Christmas, as she is always getting lost when going places that she is unfamiliar with. I had a factory installed system in my Chrysler Pacifica, and liked it. Well, when we mounted the c340 in her car and turned it on, wow, what a difference. Technology wise, the c340 wins hands down. There is no comparison. The features are outstanding compared to factory installed units. The recalculating time when making a wrong turn is incredible. The c340 does recalculating almost instantly, where my factory installed unit would take maybe 30 seconds or longer. The POI feature is far superior to the factory installed unit. There is only one negative that I can think of. When turning on the unit, sometimes it takes a minute or two to locate the satellite. Once it's on, it's great. If it turned on instantly, I would have given the unit a 5 star instead of 4 stars. Well, I just got a new car, another Pacifica, and this time without a GPS. I'm buying the c340 for my new car. That's how much I like the unit.

This device is fantastic...........very easy to use right out of the box and requires virtually no training since it is so intuitative. Our vacation in San Diego was much easier and more pleasant since we felt comfortable going ANYWHERE in the rental car, even though we had never been in the area before.

The unit was ready to use out of the box. Graphics and voice directions are clear and accurate.It does what it is advertised to do. A great product!

I absolutely LOVE this Gps. It is not obtrusive because it is small enough,yet with my bad eyesight I am still able to read the screen.
I feel lost without it. It is just as important as my cell phone.
I have not had any problems with it what so ever.
Great Product!

This product is so intuitive and user friendly for a newbie I was amazed. I had a Garmin GPS III Plus several years ago and although it was a nice GPS it was not near as traffic ready or as versatile. I really like the voice choices and rapid location acquisition of the c340. It even predicts my arrival time and does so accurately, despite delays and speed changes.

Since I often choose a different route from the one shown, the c340 almost immediately recalibrates to the new route. Despite the fact it does not always give timely verbal instructions for a turn and seems not to know where the usual fast food restaurants are,(neither Arby's nor Wendy's were shown), the c340 easily deserves 5 stars. Incidentally, although verbal turn info is sometimes spoken a bit late for the turn, the c340 does make up for this by also showing oncoming turns at the top of the screen. You just have to glance at it as you travel.

Easy Great Wonderful no problems here. Only negective is updates cost $75.00.

Jill is my new best friend! I can't believe I have lived this long without her. She has saved me so many times already and I've only had her a month. She is so user friendly a 7 year old could work her. She is extremely precise and accurate. Sometimes I question the route she is sending me on, but I have faith and she delivers. Just do what she says and you will be where you need to be when she says you will be there. I have NO negatives to report. She is easy to use, easy to understand, recomputes a perfect new route when you stray from her original suggestion and never misses a beat. I bought a travel case for her and I love that too. DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT HER!! My husband is in outside sales and has to go from one account to another and he just punches in the next address and she gets him right there. No more maps or asking directions. And she is very accurate when it comes to what time you will arrive. We are never late anymore either because of Jill. I am considering buying another since my hubby hogs this one and I feel lost without her.

Since I purchased this item on 1/26/07 I have had to reset the system entirely (with help from tech support). The unit has shut down for no apparent reason, I must calculate the program after every other use. I replaced my Garmin street pilot with this unit and am beginning to regret the move.

I had a garmin i2 before i got this for our second car. I tried out a magellan roadmate 3050T, but had to return it as it couldnt find POIs properly (I asked it for the nearest target and it said it is two states away:)
But no such issues with the c340. quite up-to date maps and the UI is clean and uncluttered.

The negatives:
The Text to speech is not really clear. The names of certain streets come out garbled, so you still need to look at the screen to make sure you have the correct street. (eg. it says "Lawrence expeeway" for "Lawrence expway".
When i try to locate a POI, say the nearest starbucks, it shows a list of starbucks nearby, puts the distance and the direction next to it (like 3.5 mi S, or 2.4mi SW). but when the vehicle moves, the directions(S, SW,NE etc. ) change to small arrows. But this changes back to the S, SW, NE etc when the vehicle stops. I really liked this feature of magellan, and was thrilled to find it on this Garmin, but i dont understand why the arrows can be displayed only when the vehicle is moving. I agree that it has to be so when the vehicle has not started moving, but you should be able to move the vehicle a bit, get to the arrows and the arrows should stay when i stop my vehicle.

er... overall, i think i am just being picky... but if it were not for the above, i would have given it 5 stars.


The Garmin c340 is great! You sent it promptly and easily. Thank you!

This unit is best for rural areas, as it doesn't get very good reception in large cities (Boston downtown for me). Additionally, the maps that ship with the unit are very outdated, resulting in the unit calculating routes that are far longer than they should be when navigating highly urban areas.

Also, you MUST buy the Garmin dash mount kit (sold separately), as the suction cup mount provided with the unit is utterly useless.

This is a great product and so helpful when traveling in unfamiliar areas. The Garmin is easy to use and I would recommend it. Purchasing on Amazon was the best price I could find.

If you're traveling to an area that is not experiencing a lot of road construction or new housing developments, you'll be fine. It will take you right to the doorstep in style. Good clear directions on a large, bright screen make it easy to see. The suction mount is just a notch short of super glue. It won't let go. I live in an area with many new subdivisions springing up. Much of the city's residential areas and accompanying road construction are not yet in the system. I'm new to the area, so it will be great when these areas are added to software. Some of them are 4 - 5 years old and are still not yet in the unit. Other than that, this is a straight forward, easy to operate, effective unit that does what it says it will do.

The Garmin 340c is a must for over the road drivers, Church ministries and delivery systems. The only I would reccommend is that the download be updated to show new and improved road systems. The Garmin does not like military reservations however you can put in critical areas by using (my locations) once you get there.

on the road alot. easy to use ,couldnt get along without it. wish it would show different routes.

Overall I love this unit, but there are a few minor issues. First, it sometimes takes a very long time for it to turn on & recognize where it is. It sometimes takes several minutes for the map to come up & for it to take directions. This doesn't seem like much, but when you get in your car & are waiting for it to boot up, a few minutes is a long time. Also, many times it tells you that your destination is on the left when it is on the right and vice versa. The volume could be louder--I have it set on the second loudest setting, and it is still difficult to hear when the radio is on, and the speaker vibrates.
Now the good stuff--It gives excellent directions most of the time. I have gone places where I have no clue where I am going & it has gotten me there flawlessly. I haven't opened a map in months!It is easy to read when it is on the dash, and this model says the street name which makes it easier to know where to turn.
Overall I am very happy with this unit but can't give it 5 stars due to these shortcomings.

its really good to have an instrument like this and i love it.. otherwise i would be going on finding an address .. the whole day coz am a new driver.. but the only thing.. bad abt this is some times it dont tell the street names when making turns and we end up revolving around the destination address.. but it has lot of great features like you can run on battery.. overall performance is good

I find this unit easy to use,accurate,and time saving. We just love it !!!

DISCLAIMER: My wife and I share this Amazon account, and she got her name on the account. This review was done by L.J. Klein's husband. :-)

I've always thought a GPS would be a nice tool to have. Not a must-have item, but a great little time-saver.

Boy, was I wrong! This little c340 is the greatest invention since the automobile! I have a good sense of direction and have amazed my wife on more than one occasion by driving into a new town and driving around as if I'd grown up there, but it was always a bit stressful when that turn that I thought would take me one place actually took me another.

This unit has completely alleviated that stress, and that's just the tip of this unit's capabilities. The ability to search for restaurants, motels, post offices, etc. is one benefit, especially if you're unfamiliar with an area. The ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is impressively accurate and is constantly updated (a wonderful way to answer the kids' "When are we gonna get there?" question).

The maps are very accurate. They're not PERFECT, and sometimes the unit will tell you to turn where no road exists, but if you miss where it thinks you should turn it will quickly recalculate another route.

I've used and looked at other GPS units, and I highly recommend the Garmin Streetpilot c340. I give it 4 stars only because it's not perfect (and Amazon doesn't let you give 4-1/2 stars).

The Garmin GPS is a great product.My wife and I just got back from a three week RV trip.We traveled over 3000 miles to 8 different camp grounds.It`s so simple to use a Caveman can do it[Ha Ha].Just put in the state and street address hit go and follow the arrow and listen to the prompts We never looked at a map our whole trip.Hotels,Gas, Resturants,Campgrounds are just push botton away.We had more time to enjoy our trip and not look at maps.Voice prompts accure at 3 to 8 tenths of a mile depending on your speed.Good traveling. Clayton

I cannot believe how this thing works, it is amazing and very handy! My husband used to be afraid to go places that he was not familure with now he grabs the Garmin and goes!

The c340 street pilot has a built in street map memory that is awesomely accurate. It also has the text to voice converter which is quite helpful. It is very easy to use and in the map configuration can give you a check on your cars' speedometer. Excellent device.

Having just moved to a new city, I would be at a loss without my Garmin. It is absolutely terrific and only on a few occasions has it given me a command a bit too late. For the most part, it is a lifesaver and for the cost, I would definitely recommend it. Driving is stressful enough without having to be looking at a map too! I never have to worry about getting lost anymore.

Dollar for Dollar this is probably the best/most useful elecronic device I have bought to date. I am already a fan of Garmin as I own a Forerunner 305 sports GPS watch and this product has further strengthened my faith in their product line. I did a lot of research before I purchased and heard a lot of negative commentary about their main competitiors, particularly Magellan.
I have spent a lot of money on OEM systems in my cars over the past few years. This little device has them all beat hands down on functionality and value. It's easy and intuitive to use (unlike my clunky $1600 BMW system) offers touch screen simplicity, (unlike my $1500 Nissan system). Most importantly, it's very portable. My wife and I used it on a trip to Arizona recently. After a trouble plagued flight with extensive delays we were faced with a long late-night rental car trip to our a final destination with our overtired 5-year old daughter in tow. Normally just getting out of the airport is a challenge to our marital bliss but this time it was effortless and tension free. I plan on taking it to Europe ( with map upgrades) this year as the challenge of driving from Rome's Airport to Tuscany will definitely be more manageable with it. I recommended this system to a neighbour who is also very pleased with his purchase. In summary
Great Product - Garmin knows Maps and GPS
Great Value - Can't beat this price
Does the simple things very well
Great features (eg gas station and ATM finder)
Works out of the box (you don't need a degree in electrical engineering to instal)
Beautiful graphics -clear screen with auto-dim for night use

I cannot think of any way I could improve this device. Great job Garmin!



I'm really enjoying this GPS navigation system. I recently moved to a new town and it's keeping me from getting lost. It moves easily between cars. I even take it on trips and pop it into the rental car. It takes a lot of stress out of finding my way in unfamiliar territory. I looked at more ecpensive models but felt I didn't need the additional bells and whistles like MP3 players and photo viewers. The Garmin c340 has all the functionality I need.

i bought this for my husband, as i have a gps built in to my dash, which i love and cherish because i'm a woman. all i have to do is listen to the woman over the radio speakers tell me which street to turn on. a must have for any woman who travels in unknown places. i constant drive my son to different ice rinks to play hockey, and this product was a godsend. i recommend the c340 (this one) not the cheaper c330 as the c340 identifies the street name, and that is well-worth the additional ~$75 or so. easy set up. great product. i recommend to my family.

Looking for a personal navigator on-line will yeild a plethora of navigating electronic boxes. But, who's is who's, what is what, this one or that one and why pay more or why pay less. The simple answer is to ask the people who have already purchased one. They can tell you the good points and of course the bad points. I wanted one for my father in-law who happens to need one that basically does all the work for you. The Garmin C340 fit exactly what he needed, easy to use, no real need to read through pages of instruction, very straight forward, uses real street name and not coordinates, finds gas, food and lodging at the touch of a button. What more could anyone ask for. The C340 is it...wa-la...we're here.


As a Realtor, I'm always going to different places with my clients. The Streetpilot makes this MUCH easier! It announces the names of streets when telling you to turn. It's also helped me make short cuts through neighborhoods that I didn't know about. GPS allows me to spend more time talking to the people in my car versus trying to figure out where to turn. This is especially true at night when it's so difficult to read street signs. The GPS isn't perfect yet, and you'll have to pay attention to turning points...sometimes you'll only have 100 feet before making that turn...so make sure you're in the proper lane. There's a notation on the screen in the lower right-hand corner that tracks when to turn and that helps but requires one to take their eyes off the road. You'll also find that the system may not know about all the new roads being built in your area...and "she" has been quite adamant that I make a U-turn in the middle of the evolving Springfield "Mixing Bowl" here in Northern Virginia.

I've had this unit now for about 2 months and I'm completely satisified with it (well, almost completely...I wish it could store routes, but that's relatively minor). It's remarkably easy to use, ultra-intuititve, and the POI database is huge AND up-to-date. The voice direction capability works great; I can hear the woman giving me directions over road noise with no problem, and usually over the radio as well! The c340 features text-to-speech functionality, whereby it converts street & placenames to speech, and that functionality works quite well too. It also feature a variety of languages and dialects to choose from; I can have english spoken to me by a choice of several American, Britsh and Australian accent women (my fave is the Aussie).

All in all, I can't imagine getting more GPS for the money...it's a winner.

Bought this unit on a trip to Florida and it performed very well. Returned a Tom Tom unit that I purchased (same $$$) first but didn't like due to poor POIs locating ability (couldn't find a Circuit City I was parked in front of!)
It works well and is easy to use... minor annoyances are the fact it doesn't seem to announce the turns quick enough to slow down and turn in time. This is usually the 2nd voice alert and I am now aware how "late" the voice alerts come, so I usually can make the turns fine. The Tom Tom gave me al