Garmin nüvi 370 3.5-Inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator with Text-To-Speech, North American and European Maps

I have owned this product for several months. Initially, I was very attracted to a GPS system that promised to navigate through the most difficult combination of unmarked roads, street closures, and confusing road signs. Navigating uncommon routes here can be a difficult task, even for natives, as I discovered one time while trying to get a date back home. (Probably more than anything, driving around the countryside all night on unlit roads with my companion trying to find our way back to her house motivated me to buy this product.)

The 370 has a number of problems. Initial acquisition of satellite signals takes several minutes and must be done in an area clear of tall, dense buildings (kind of difficult in an old European city). This usually means pulling off the road as soon as the trip begins. In my experience, acquisition while moving is virtually impossible.

Once the signal locks on, the unit often has glaring glitches, like the time it told me the nearest TESCO was 254 miles away in Germany, when there is one half a mile down the street! Also irritating, the unit often mistakes winding, serpentine roads as a series of left and right turns, and will instruct you to make these phantom turns. If you continue without "turning," the unit will often "recalculate" the route for you; or, if you take the instructions literally, you may end up accidentally turning into someone's driveway! Then the unit will recalculate the route.

The unit's pronunciation of non-English street names and landmarks is so garbled as to be unintelligible. This is a serious flaw and one the manufacturer needs to address. The guide does not pronounce any diacritical marks, for instance, rendering Slavic languages virtually unrecognizable. This makes following the route simply by listening to the instructions (a safety feature touted by the company) very difficult. On many occasions I found myself staring at the screen or trying to find a street sign instead of watching the road.

The reason I did not give this product a one-star review is that there are some plusses, like the display quality and a feature that lets you "Go Home" by navigating you back to a preset location from anywhere in the covered area. However, this is subject to the limitations mentioned above. Also, the unit, when it works properly, can be useful, for instance getting you out of a city center and back on a major highway. After that, it is probably best to put it in the glove box and follow the highway signs.

What this all means is that you spend far too much time being distracted by this gadget, which has safety implications as well as being an issue of dollars and cents. If you must have one of these gadgets, cheaper is probably better. Overall, I think you would do better if you just used common sense, paid attention to your surroundings, and spent a little more time with a map.



I have had this unit for about a week and will be happy to amend this review if my opinion changes but in the meantime....

I LOVE THIS DEVICE. I have had no problems locking into a satellite. It takes marginally longer to "boot up" then it does to pick up a satellite.

The bluetooth functionality is great. The sound quality is great on both ends. Granted I have not tried to use this with the windows down cruising down the Autostrade at 100 clicks but in regular traffic with windows down it works great. As an added bonus being able to search your phonebook and call by touching someones name on the device is pretty awesome.

I used it today to go to a park (Parco Virgilliano) in Napoli, Italy which I've been to a dozen or so times and it lead me a completely new way which saved me probably half an hour. I also found it to be incredibly accurate. A friend who has a TomTom says that his device will very often confuse a parallel surface street with the highway and tell him to turn when flying down the highway. In my experience with surface streets on both sides of the highway the Nuvi accurately pinpointed my location even in "urban canyons."

The screen quality is fantastic, even in bright sunlight but looks that much better in the shade or even in night mode.

I have not used the MP3 player and really could care less about it. The only thing that would be cool is if it had iPod integration so you could "touch" your music as Steve Jobs would say.

My only gripe is that I should be able to lock into TMC FM traffic, which would be a GODSEND in Napoli, but for some reason I am not able to search for additional TMC providers in Italy. I believe this is because I have a north american unit. I have an email into Garmin about this issue and I am awaiting their response.

I look forward to using this device locally and abroad. I am headed to Scotland at the end of this month and plan on using it when walking around Glasgow.

Personally I couldn't be happier with this device and feel satisfied with this being my first GPS purchase.

Had a TomTom before and really loved it, but went with the Garmin after reading some stellar reviews for it (although there were some scary reviews, too). Should have paid attention to the scary. The Garmin couldn't locate our house from the airport, and we're only 15 minutes away. The Garmin never really could lock onto our house in the New Orleans, LA area. Our Tom Tom never had a problem. I got a Tom Tom after Katrina (my sister and I ordered specifically for me to get around and do rescue/relief work in the months following Katrina) and it worked like a charm. No streets signs--no problem. Routing around water or debris--not a problem.

We were going to Europe for 3 months. Garmin had the system that seemed to have the best built in Europe program, and with a 3-month stay we thought our best bet would be the Garmin. After 3 weeks of problems stateside, we just couldn't chance it and returned the Garmin to get 2 Tom Tom Europe loaded versions and we couldn't be happier. Worked right out of the box, in US and in Germany.

Had been waiting for a device with both North America and Europe preloaded. Was partial to the Garmin interface as I had become used to it through a number of Avis rentals. When Garmin released the -x70 models, I moved out quickly. The 370 had all the features I was looking for - and is very portable. That last feature was very important since twice over the past few years, I parked our rental on some back street in Europe and then spent hours trying to find it.
Am I happy with the 370? Absolutely! Mounting is straightforward and strong. Audio and video are both great. Alerts are timely and succinct. Very accurate. Was visiting a firm in Florida a few weeks back. Followed one of their reps to the plant, but since I had to return there the next day, I saved the plant's location - just used the 'save current location' feature. The next day the 370 got me back to the same parking space! The user interface is intuitive - and eventhough the manual is rather thick, I have yet to open it. The traffic monitor has already gotten me around a number of major snarls.
Will be vacationing in Germany and Austria in the fall. Programmed our hotels, etc into the 370 - no problems whatever. Now the wife can enjoy the scenery while we blast along the Autobahn rather than constantly having to stay glued to the roadmap. And, yes, I've used it on long walks. Works great there, too. Very light and long battery life.
As I said, I don't know how I lived without it.

I have the Garmin C530 that I bought earlier this year for about $450. Then, I paid another $300 for European Maps. That's a total of $750. Here's this one that has US and European maps and also has "verbal recognition of streets" and it only costs $588 I think. So, it's a very good deal.

PLUS, I want you to know that I used my Garmin C530 with the same Sirf receiver and same maps as this one in April 2007 ON MANHATTAN ISLAND, NYC! I was expecting the worst due to the "concrete canyons" of Manhattan. BUT THE GARMIN WITH THE SIRF RECEIVER WORKED ALMOST PERFECTLY EVERY TIME. (I mean, NOTHING man made is "perfect", is it?) I was really impressed. But, the buyer should know that, no "it's not perfect". As long as you don't expect perfection from it and keep this motto in your mind, "the glass is half full....not half empty" you'll be very happy with this product. This is a very great invention for those of us who like to drive places.

The only "trouble" I had with the Garmin in NYC was when I came to one of those THREE OR FOUR WAY FORKS in NYC and Jersey----the unit does get confused with those 4 way forks--but who or what wouldn't---that's why they have these 4 way forks---to confuse the tourists, right!

If you have any questions or comments, write boland7214@aol.

I LOVE this GPS! It is extremely user friendly easy to figure out. I have been living in Germany for a little over three years now and this is the first GPS I have owned. It is constantly showing me shorter routes to take that I would have never figured out myself. It comes preloaded with all Europe and American maps and instantly works right out of the box. I picked it up at the post office and was using it on the way home. A few days later I used it to drive to a hotel in France and it literally took me to the doorstep. The accuracy of this GPS continues to astound me. The touch screen is a great feature and responds very well. The menu is very easy to use and all of the options are simple to find. The screen is bright and easy to see is all types of light.

I recently used a co-workers GPS (*Different name brand*) and found his cumbersome and hard to find the options I needed. This experience just proved to me that I purchased a quality product.

The only fault that I have come across so far is the way in which the GPS pronounces street names. Granted, it would be very difficult for Garmin to program all of the foreign accents and articulations that come with all of the different counties in Europe, but for people that know how it should sound, the mispronunciations can be annoying. An easy example is the Germany word for street "Strasse" (Shtrahs'-e). The GPS says something like "Stras". Not a big deal, but a little annoying.

Overall, I would rate it 9 out of 10.


Bought this just before at trip to England and worked perfectly over there and really saved me time and frustration. Used it extensively in the US and works great but did have one problem and a long trip. After about 5 hrs / 300 miles it lost its satellite signal. Not sure why as there were no significant hills / mountains / trees around. It refused to find a signal for at least 10 minutes whereupon I had to stop for gas and took the opportunity to reset it. Then it worked fine and no problem on the return journey going the same route in reverse.

Definitely a fine piece of equipment and provides that added confidence when travelling in unfamiliar territory.

I have a Magellan RoadMate 360 but purchased this one because it has the European Maps. We looked into renting a GPS for a one month trip to Europe but the fee was going to be over $400.00 so I purchased this one for just a little more than the rental fee. Love that this system is small and portable and has pedestrian settings. The following 4 things are the only negatives I have found and inspite of these and having owned the Magellan GPS I still give this one four stars. 1.Screen is a little hard to see in direct sunlight. 2.Sometimes falls off windshield mount when adjusting angle but mount has never detached from windshield. 3.Sometimes does not give the name of the street on which you are currently driving. 4.Does not show many of the hotels, restaurants, point of interest etc. on the map view but many are listed when you do a search. I enjoy the current traffic information and all of the other special features. In spite of the other reviews I have found the volume of the speaker to always be loud enough in all driving situations and enjoy listening to audio books while on the road. How do they get so many features in such a small package?

I have just returned from a trip to Europe (London, Paris, Rome, and Florence) where I used the Nuvi 370 extensively and it worked great. First of all, I put a lot of the places I would be going to in the "Favorites" list before I left. The great thing about Nuvi is that it sorts this list based on distance from wherever you happen to be. So I didn't have to scroll through points for Paris or Rome when I was in England and vice versa. Very useful. I also found that the points of interest had all the sightseeing landmarks that I was going to visit and nearly every restaurant that I had earmarked for meals. I also got the translation guide which came in very useful (especially to explain "tap water" at European restaurants, they really want to sell you bottled water and pretend to not understand what tap water means, but showing them in their own language on Nuvi always got the point across). Now here is a report of actual real world use as a pedestrian in Europe.

Pros - It had every street that I walked on without exception. It knew that I could walk the wrong way on one-way streets as a pedestrian (in pedestrian mode). Usually very fast lock on of satellites. Currency converter very useful. Language guide easy to use and very helpful with menus. Learned a few phrases by imitating the voice on the language guide which led to a lot of goodwill in France and Italy. Used it to show addresses to cab drivers which was always helpful. Tracked the taxi rides and could tell when cabbies were way off route and a little protesting got them back on track. Used it to make easy decisions between walking, metro, or cab by routing a destination and seeing how far the walk would be. Nuvi lets you scroll through the route and is pretty accurate as to how long it will take to walk.

Cons - 1. In pedestrian mode, I almost always started walking the wrong way because Nuvi isn't sure which way it is pointed when you are standing still. This is fixed by walking a few feet until you see if you are going the right way, rarely more than 10 feet. 2. It doesn't automatically reroute in pedestrian mode if you get off the selected route, you need to hit "detour" which sometimes leads to a much longer path. 3. Sometimes satellite signal would get lost in the narrow older streets, especially in Italy. Sometimes the display would suddenly indicate that I was walking the exact opposite way that I had been going due to lost or confused signal. But these are all nits and were easily handled.

Overall - The Nuvi 370 worked exactly the way I was hoping it would. If you live in America and plan travel in Europe, I highly recommend the Nuvi 370 and Language Guide.


Bought the 370 in April prior to a trip south to visit friends.We went for the 370 for use on our frequent trips to Uk and Europe. We have not used it there yet but if the USA performance is typical it will be fine.It is a great system; easy to use [manual not great] and never failed to get me where we wanted to go.Eliminated the MRS. getting abuse when she didn't read the map quickly enough.We challenged it by visiting friends in some very rural areas but it never failed. Display bright,and large enough. Sound is a little distorted.Being able to find local restaurants and gas stations also was an unexpected pleasure.Would strongly recommend it.
Have not used the blue tooth option. Tried the traffic alert AND NEVER GOT A MESSAGE.On return trip Washington D.C I 95 backed up for hours but no traffic alert which was disappointing. Will not renew that option when 6 Months trial runs out.
I had not used another system but used my fathers when with him in Fla.It was a Sears unit and poor in comparison in numerous areas.Also much simpler then my sons BMW built in in the Uk and a friends built in Mercedes system.
JIM

I love my Garmin. I fought the purchase tooth and nail. I didn't think I needed this if i already own a map. Now? I love my Garmin. It is much smarter than the combination of me and the map. It isn't the best at getting me to the street number of homes, but it does get me to the street so I can take over and get to the number myself. This gadget does not fail to amaze me every day I use it. The features are amazing, I can't get over how smart it is. I can't wait to take it to Europe!!! 5 stars for this product.

Right out of the box this product began working for me - in my own hometown. Couldn't remember the name of a store and where it was. I put in part of the name and the Nuvi found it right away.

Can't wait to use it on my trip to Great Britain.



We call her EMily (the British female voice option) and she was worth every penny on our recent 2 weeks in England. When missing a turn in a roundabout, she calmly redirects you to your final destination. We used her to find some geocaches as well. The pedestrian mode is weird, as it doens't update your location on the map but continues to demonstrate your starting point. Battery life is somewhat limited, but I didn't find it dying while on any 2-3 hour hikes when I put the screen timeout on 15 seconds. The traffic info hasn't been useful. When driving on I-95 in Florida, I got info on roads far away and not on my route. THough it comes with a free UK subscription, it didn't seem to work there (needs to be activated?) Love the portability, MP3 player, but the photo display isn't used much. Don't have cell phone so bluetooth useless.

I love the nuvi 370 so far. It's got a clear display and I can hear the directions just fine, as long as I'm not blasting my radio. May try plugging the nuvi into the radio via cassette adapter to see whether playing it through the speakers is a viable option for listening to audiobooks and MP3s.

The one "flaw" I've found thus far is in the traffic adapter. This isn't really a flaw, but something to watch for. While routing me around traffic the other day, it took me off of an expressway a couple of times to avoid jams by busy on/off ramps and then routed me back to the expressway. This worked very well and as designed. The problem is that the nuvi does not know a safe neighborhood from a dangerous neighborhood. While I followed the nuvi's directions in my hometown of Chicago, I was laughing to myself and saying "Nuvi, you're going to get me killed." For someone not familiar with the different areas of a major city and the various neighborhoods, you might consider NOT using the traffic adapter and just wait patiently on the highway when it backs up. It may be safer for you.

I recently purchased the Garmin Nuvi 370 because I work as a Heavy Truck Driver in Baghdad Iraq. It actually does very well because I can program in the places that we go to. The only problem I have with it is that it does not have the Military Grid Reference System like the Rino 120 does and you have to use Latitude and Longitude. It does have a cigerette plug adapter that was included that is 12/24v. (Our trucks are 24v). I will definately continue to purchase Garmin products because they are rugged and have continued to prove their value to me.

We call her EMily (the British female voice option) and she was worth every penny on our recent 2 weeks in England. When missing a turn in a roundabout, she calmly redirects you to your final destination. We used her to find some geocaches as well. The pedestrian mode is weird, as it doens't update your location on the map but continues to demonstrate your starting point. Battery life is somewhat limited, but I didn't find it dying while on any 2-3 hour hikes when I put the screen timeout on 15 seconds. The traffic info hasn't been useful. When driving on I-95 in Florida, I got info on roads far away and not on my route. THough it comes with a free UK subscription, it didn't seem to work there (needs to be activated?) Love the portability, MP3 player, but the photo display isn't used much. Don't have cell phone so bluetooth useless.

I love the nuvi 370 so far. It's got a clear display and I can hear the directions just fine, as long as I'm not blasting my radio. May try plugging the nuvi into the radio via cassette adapter to see whether playing it through the speakers is a viable option for listening to audiobooks and MP3s.

The one "flaw" I've found thus far is in the traffic adapter. This isn't really a flaw, but something to watch for. While routing me around traffic the other day, it took me off of an expressway a couple of times to avoid jams by busy on/off ramps and then routed me back to the expressway. This worked very well and as designed. The problem is that the nuvi does not know a safe neighborhood from a dangerous neighborhood. While I followed the nuvi's directions in my hometown of Chicago, I was laughing to myself and saying "Nuvi, you're going to get me killed." For someone not familiar with the different areas of a major city and the various neighborhoods, you might consider NOT using the traffic adapter and just wait patiently on the highway when it backs up. It may be safer for you.

Right out of the box this product began working for me - in my own hometown. Couldn't remember the name of a store and where it was. I put in part of the name and the Nuvi found it right away.

Can't wait to use it on my trip to Great Britain.



I love my Garmin. I fought the purchase tooth and nail. I didn't think I needed this if i already own a map. Now? I love my Garmin. It is much smarter than the combination of me and the map. It isn't the best at getting me to the street number of homes, but it does get me to the street so I can take over and get to the number myself. This gadget does not fail to amaze me every day I use it. The features are amazing, I can't get over how smart it is. I can't wait to take it to Europe!!! 5 stars for this product.

Bought the 370 in April prior to a trip south to visit friends.We went for the 370 for use on our frequent trips to Uk and Europe. We have not used it there yet but if the USA performance is typical it will be fine.It is a great system; easy to use [manual not great] and never failed to get me where we wanted to go.Eliminated the MRS. getting abuse when she didn't read the map quickly enough.We challenged it by visiting friends in some very rural areas but it never failed. Display bright,and large enough. Sound is a little distorted.Being able to find local restaurants and gas stations also was an unexpected pleasure.Would strongly recommend it.
Have not used the blue tooth option. Tried the traffic alert AND NEVER GOT A MESSAGE.On return trip Washington D.C I 95 backed up for hours but no traffic alert which was disappointing. Will not renew that option when 6 Months trial runs out.
I had not used another system but used my fathers when with him in Fla.It was a Sears unit and poor in comparison in numerous areas.Also much simpler then my sons BMW built in in the Uk and a friends built in Mercedes system.
JIM

I have a Magellan RoadMate 360 but purchased this one because it has the European Maps. We looked into renting a GPS for a one month trip to Europe but the fee was going to be over $400.00 so I purchased this one for just a little more than the rental fee. Love that this system is small and portable and has pedestrian settings. The following 4 things are the only negatives I have found and inspite of these and having owned the Magellan GPS I still give this one four stars. 1.Screen is a little hard to see in direct sunlight. 2.Sometimes falls off windshield mount when adjusting angle but mount has never detached from windshield. 3.Sometimes does not give the name of the street on which you are currently driving. 4.Does not show many of the hotels, restaurants, point of interest etc. on the map view but many are listed when you do a search. I enjoy the current traffic information and all of the other special features. In spite of the other reviews I have found the volume of the speaker to always be loud enough in all driving situations and enjoy listening to audio books while on the road. How do they get so many features in such a small package?

I have just returned from a trip to Europe (London, Paris, Rome, and Florence) where I used the Nuvi 370 extensively and it worked great. First of all, I put a lot of the places I would be going to in the "Favorites" list before I left. The great thing about Nuvi is that it sorts this list based on distance from wherever you happen to be. So I didn't have to scroll through points for Paris or Rome when I was in England and vice versa. Very useful. I also found that the points of interest had all the sightseeing landmarks that I was going to visit and nearly every restaurant that I had earmarked for meals. I also got the translation guide which came in very useful (especially to explain "tap water" at European restaurants, they really want to sell you bottled water and pretend to not understand what tap water means, but showing them in their own language on Nuvi always got the point across). Now here is a report of actual real world use as a pedestrian in Europe.

Pros - It had every street that I walked on without exception. It knew that I could walk the wrong way on one-way streets as a pedestrian (in pedestrian mode). Usually very fast lock on of satellites. Currency converter very useful. Language guide easy to use and very helpful with menus. Learned a few phrases by imitating the voice on the language guide which led to a lot of goodwill in France and Italy. Used it to show addresses to cab drivers which was always helpful. Tracked the taxi rides and could tell when cabbies were way off route and a little protesting got them back on track. Used it to make easy decisions between walking, metro, or cab by routing a destination and seeing how far the walk would be. Nuvi lets you scroll through the route and is pretty accurate as to how long it will take to walk.

Cons - 1. In pedestrian mode, I almost always started walking the wrong way because Nuvi isn't sure which way it is pointed when you are standing still. This is fixed by walking a few feet until you see if you are going the right way, rarely more than 10 feet. 2. It doesn't automatically reroute in pedestrian mode if you get off the selected route, you need to hit "detour" which sometimes leads to a much longer path. 3. Sometimes satellite signal would get lost in the narrow older streets, especially in Italy. Sometimes the display would suddenly indicate that I was walking the exact opposite way that I had been going due to lost or confused signal. But these are all nits and were easily handled.

Overall - The Nuvi 370 worked exactly the way I was hoping it would. If you live in America and plan travel in Europe, I highly recommend the Nuvi 370 and Language Guide.


Bought this just before at trip to England and worked perfectly over there and really saved me time and frustration. Used it extensively in the US and works great but did have one problem and a long trip. After about 5 hrs / 300 miles it lost its satellite signal. Not sure why as there were no significant hills / mountains / trees around. It refused to find a signal for at least 10 minutes whereupon I had to stop for gas and took the opportunity to reset it. Then it worked fine and no problem on the return journey going the same route in reverse.

Definitely a fine piece of equipment and provides that added confidence when travelling in unfamiliar territory.

I LOVE this GPS! It is extremely user friendly easy to figure out. I have been living in Germany for a little over three years now and this is the first GPS I have owned. It is constantly showing me shorter routes to take that I would have never figured out myself. It comes preloaded with all Europe and American maps and instantly works right out of the box. I picked it up at the post office and was using it on the way home. A few days later I used it to drive to a hotel in France and it literally took me to the doorstep. The accuracy of this GPS continues to astound me. The touch screen is a great feature and responds very well. The menu is very easy to use and all of the options are simple to find. The screen is bright and easy to see is all types of light.

I recently used a co-workers GPS (*Different name brand*) and found his cumbersome and hard to find the options I needed. This experience just proved to me that I purchased a quality product.

The only fault that I have come across so far is the way in which the GPS pronounces street names. Granted, it would be very difficult for Garmin to program all of the foreign accents and articulations that come with all of the different counties in Europe, but for people that know how it should sound, the mispronunciations can be annoying. An easy example is the Germany word for street "Strasse" (Shtrahs'-e). The GPS says something like "Stras". Not a big deal, but a little annoying.

Overall, I would rate it 9 out of 10.


This is really an amazing and usful instrument for anyone who likes exploring Europe by car. I have visited 6 countries with this GPS and it took us everywhere to the front doors of almost all the hotels except one. It also takes us to all the sights and the nearest Metro stations in paris, Vienna.

It also takes you turn by turn with street names even thought the pronounciation is not always correct. It definitly cannot speak French, nor Italian!

However, it does not have the latest road informations in Slovenia and Croatia yet good enough to go to the major cities, streets and sights.
The only downside is sometimes it does not always give you the shortest directions all the time, just most of the time.

Directions need to be more explicit. Having to down-load an in struction manual was very timely. I think this should have come w/the Nuvi for a pricey item!

this thing works great! fast satellite pick up, fast calculation/recalculation. bluetooth is nice to have, able to pick up contacts, etc. from my nokia6133. although its a bit buggy with the txt msg download (at least with my phone). the unit automatically picks up & recognize new incoming msg, but when i click 'review', it hangs. other than that, this unit is great. although i haven't used the mp3 player functionality/european maps.

This is the best GPS I know , very easy to use the first time I received it. Very reliable. Price is really good for this amazing toy.

I took the Garmin 370 with me on a recent trip to Germany, Holland and Belgium and the unit worked great, even in small towns and the German country-side no more getting lost. Definitely 5 star..

I have the Garmin C530 that I bought earlier this year for about $450. Then, I paid another $300 for European Maps. That's a total of $750. Here's this one that has US and European maps and also has "verbal recognition of streets" and it only costs $588 I think. So, it's a very good deal.

PLUS, I want you to know that I used my Garmin C530 with the same Sirf receiver and same maps as this one in April 2007 ON MANHATTAN ISLAND, NYC! I was expecting the worst due to the "concrete canyons" of Manhattan. BUT THE GARMIN WITH THE SIRF RECEIVER WORKED ALMOST PERFECTLY EVERY TIME. (I mean, NOTHING man made is "perfect", is it?) I was really impressed. But, the buyer should know that, no "it's not perfect". As long as you don't expect perfection from it and keep this motto in your mind, "the glass is half full....not half empty" you'll be very happy with this product. This is a very great invention for those of us who like to drive places.

The only "trouble" I had with the Garmin in NYC was when I came to one of those THREE OR FOUR WAY FORKS in NYC and Jersey----the unit does get confused with those 4 way forks--but who or what wouldn't---that's why they have these 4 way forks---to confuse the tourists, right!

If you have any questions or comments, write boland7214@aol.

Had been waiting for a device with both North America and Europe preloaded. Was partial to the Garmin interface as I had become used to it through a number of Avis rentals. When Garmin released the -x70 models, I moved out quickly. The 370 had all the features I was looking for - and is very portable. That last feature was very important since twice over the past few years, I parked our rental on some back street in Europe and then spent hours trying to find it.
Am I happy with the 370? Absolutely! Mounting is straightforward and strong. Audio and video are both great. Alerts are timely and succinct. Very accurate. Was visiting a firm in Florida a few weeks back. Followed one of their reps to the plant, but since I had to return there the next day, I saved the plant's location - just used the 'save current location' feature. The next day the 370 got me back to the same parking space! The user interface is intuitive - and eventhough the manual is rather thick, I have yet to open it. The traffic monitor has already gotten me around a number of major snarls.
Will be vacationing in Germany and Austria in the fall. Programmed our hotels, etc into the 370 - no problems whatever. Now the wife can enjoy the scenery while we blast along the Autobahn rather than constantly having to stay glued to the roadmap. And, yes, I've used it on long walks. Works great there, too. Very light and long battery life.
As I said, I don't know how I lived without it.

Had a TomTom before and really loved it, but went with the Garmin after reading some stellar reviews for it (although there were some scary reviews, too). Should have paid attention to the scary. The Garmin couldn't locate our house from the airport, and we're only 15 minutes away. The Garmin never really could lock onto our house in the New Orleans, LA area. Our Tom Tom never had a problem. I got a Tom Tom after Katrina (my sister and I ordered specifically for me to get around and do rescue/relief work in the months following Katrina) and it worked like a charm. No streets signs--no problem. Routing around water or debris--not a problem.

We were going to Europe for 3 months. Garmin had the system that seemed to have the best built in Europe program, and with a 3-month stay we thought our best bet would be the Garmin. After 3 weeks of problems stateside, we just couldn't chance it and returned the Garmin to get 2 Tom Tom Europe loaded versions and we couldn't be happier. Worked right out of the box, in US and in Germany.

I have had this unit for about a week and will be happy to amend this review if my opinion changes but in the meantime....

I LOVE THIS DEVICE. I have had no problems locking into a satellite. It takes marginally longer to "boot up" then it does to pick up a satellite.

The bluetooth functionality is great. The sound quality is great on both ends. Granted I have not tried to use this with the windows down cruising down the Autostrade at 100 clicks but in regular traffic with windows down it works great. As an added bonus being able to search your phonebook and call by touching someones name on the device is pretty awesome.

I used it today to go to a park (Parco Virgilliano) in Napoli, Italy which I've been to a dozen or so times and it lead me a completely new way which saved me probably half an hour. I also found it to be incredibly accurate. A friend who has a TomTom says that his device will very often confuse a parallel surface street with the highway and tell him to turn when flying down the highway. In my experience with surface streets on both sides of the highway the Nuvi accurately pinpointed my location even in "urban canyons."

The screen quality is fantastic, even in bright sunlight but looks that much better in the shade or even in night mode.

I have not used the MP3 player and really could care less about it. The only thing that would be cool is if it had iPod integration so you could "touch" your music as Steve Jobs would say.

My only gripe is that I should be able to lock into TMC FM traffic, which would be a GODSEND in Napoli, but for some reason I am not able to search for additional TMC providers in Italy. I believe this is because I have a north american unit. I have an email into Garmin about this issue and I am awaiting their response.

I look forward to using this device locally and abroad. I am headed to Scotland at the end of this month and plan on using it when walking around Glasgow.

Personally I couldn't be happier with this device and feel satisfied with this being my first GPS purchase.

I have owned this product for several months. Initially, I was very attracted to a GPS system that promised to navigate through the most difficult combination of unmarked roads, street closures, and confusing road signs. Navigating uncommon routes here can be a difficult task, even for natives, as I discovered one time while trying to get a date back home. (Probably more than anything, driving around the countryside all night on unlit roads with my companion trying to find our way back to her house motivated me to buy this product.)

The 370 has a number of problems. Initial acquisition of satellite signals takes several minutes and must be done in an area clear of tall, dense buildings (kind of difficult in an old European city). This usually means pulling off the road as soon as the trip begins. In my experience, acquisition while moving is virtually impossible.

Once the signal locks on, the unit often has glaring glitches, like the time it told me the nearest TESCO was 254 miles away in Germany, when there is one half a mile down the street! Also irritating, the unit often mistakes winding, serpentine roads as a series of left and right turns, and will instruct you to make these phantom turns. If you continue without "turning," the unit will often "recalculate" the route for you; or, if you take the instructions literally, you may end up accidentally turning into someone's driveway! Then the unit will recalculate the route.

The unit's pronunciation of non-English street names and landmarks is so garbled as to be unintelligible. This is a serious flaw and one the manufacturer needs to address. The guide does not pronounce any diacritical marks, for instance, rendering Slavic languages virtually unrecognizable. This makes following the route simply by listening to the instructions (a safety feature touted by the company) very difficult. On many occasions I found myself staring at the screen or trying to find a street sign instead of watching the road.

The reason I did not give this product a one-star review is that there are some plusses, like the display quality and a feature that lets you "Go Home" by navigating you back to a preset location from anywhere in the covered area. However, this is subject to the limitations mentioned above. Also, the unit, when it works properly, can be useful, for instance getting you out of a city center and back on a major highway. After that, it is probably best to put it in the glove box and follow the highway signs.

What this all means is that you spend far too much time being distracted by this gadget, which has safety implications as well as being an issue of dollars and cents. If you must have one of these gadgets, cheaper is probably better. Overall, I think you would do better if you just used common sense, paid attention to your surroundings, and spent a little more time with a map.



This is the 3rd GPS unit I have owned and I am a bit disappointed. First off, the "intergrated traffic monitoring" means that the unit is shipped with Garmins add-on GTM12 device. This device is not integrated and needs to be attached to the 370 for operation. The Bluetooth integration is useful, but the volume and quality of the built-in speaker is not great, making it difficult to hear callers. The units detour feature is also more limited than other units I have owned. For instance it does not allow the user to view the chosen route and exclude a road. You are only able to exclude the road that you are currently driving on.
Other than that, the maps are fairly up to date, POI database has a lot of information and the screen is pretty decent in most light.
Finally, like most other units I have used, it does have a tendancy to pick routes that are not optimal. For example it may route you through the middle of a city because it is the shortest distance (mileage wise)to a destination. This fails to take into account the multiple traffic lights and inherent congestion and can add a huge amount of time to a trip that could have been much quicker if another route had been chosen.
If you must have a Nuvi, save your money and buy a 350...the added features of the 370 are not worth the added cost.

We purchased the Nuvi 370 (our 3rd GPS) for use on an upcoming bicycle tour in Europe. It has full detailed maps of all of North America and Europe pre loaded. It is very intuitive to program and use. The display is bright and very easy to read. Battery life isn't too bad (about 4-5 hours depending upon backlight use. I have built a little battery pack for use during bicycle touring. With a 10 pack of AA batteries,we have 20 hours of operating time. I would give the Nuvi 370 5 stars for navigation and ease of use. It isn't useful for hiking as it doesn't have waypoint or backtrack features. I also (my personal feeling only) awarded 4 stars because it has a lot of features that I don't need ,and would rather not have to pay for. Others may want the Blue Toorh capability, as well as the MP3 and the picture viewing features. We felt these features increased the cost for unwanted features. But, as a navigation device,the 370 is definitely a 5 star. If you wont be going to Europe ,the 350 has most of the same features just not the European detailed maps,and it is less expensive.

Product is compact and convenient to use. Display and voice are clear and precise. Works well placed on shelf in dash providing some level of security without having to mount to windshield.
Very pleased.

My first GPS was the Nuvi 350 and recently had to purchase a new one due to lost GPS. I have not been disappointed. The added features of the Garmin 370 makes it good value and it works great!