Garmin 275 questions...

When we picked up our car, we plugged it in and started driving, thinking it would pick up a signal soon enough. It didn't. We ended up finding our way to the apt. by cell phone because it wasn't far. Then, when we shut our car off, it wasn't charged and the cig lighter didn't have power with the car turned off and what we didn't know is that it needs to be on for a good period of time for the first time in Europe to get the signal and download the Europe map. The next day, we left the car run for 1/2 hour or so (can't remember how long for sure) but, once it got the EU maps, we were good for the next 5 days. This was confirmed from someone elses post after we returned to the states. I'd call Garmin and try to confirm this before you go.

Don't pay attention to the traffic disruption warnings. I have a Garmin and a seperate GPS in my car and both have given me warnings for nothing.

Tom, had you used the unit in the US before using it in Europe? Or was that the first time you turned it on?

I haven't used mine in Italy, yet, but did use it in France last year. It takes some time to get the satellite when you first turn it on. This happened again the first time I used it at home after using it in France, so I think it just needs time to orient to the right satellite when you change continents. You can charge it in advance. I bought an accessory package for it which included a leather case and a wall charger (which I didn't take on my trip). I found the case helpful. I charged the unit in advance at home and then plugged it in to the car while in France (I was there a month). I also bought those sticky screen protectors to put on the face of the screen to keep it from scratching. I had one free "" for the Garmin and chose the Europe . Garmin seemed to have very current road info for France and I'm hoping it will be the same for Italy this month. The "find parking" feature worked incredibly well - really helped us when we were in towns and needed to park the car. I recommend removing the unit from the car every time you stop and also putting the charger cord into the glove compartment when you stop.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 265. I've got a SD card downloaded from L*@#$%&e (wink, wink). Works great once it finds the satellites. In the city centers it has a hard time, but when I get out away from the buildings it finds the satellites and works great. Once it finds the satellites it never shuts them off or loses them. God luck.

A quick note on how GPS units work. The GPS orients itself using a constellation of satellites. Once it is oriented, it knows what satellites to look for at what times and can fairly quickly re-orient itself. So, if you use the unit at home, turn it off, and turn it on again at home, it knows approximately where it is and what satellites to use, and firgures things out and works pretty quickly. When you turn off the unit, fly it to Italy, then turn it on....now that is a whole different story. It's looking for satellites and it takes toto awhille to figure out it is not in Kansas anymore! Once it figures that out, it has to re-acquire satellites and decide where it is on the planet, then get the appropriate satellite constelation schedule, etc. etc. Put simply, when you first turn on your new GPS it takes it awhile to get oriented. After that initial orientation, it will wake up pretty quickly. However, if you turn it off and transport it a significant distance, then it has to go through the same slow process it took the first time you turned it on. When you get to Europe and plan to use the GPS, get it turned on asap. If you're getting a rental car, turn on the GPS as soon as you get to the car and give it time to get set up. Finally, GPS units need a view of the sky. They are going to work better on top of a building or out in a field. If you are on a narrow street surrounded by tall buildings, you might experience poor performance. The above mentioned "wake up" process is more critical of having a clear view. The unit needs to acquire 4 sat. to wake up, but once it knows where it is the GPS can work with fewer.

@ Shirley: I hope the "find parking" function works in Italy! My progress so far: I've taken my new unit out of the box and turned it on. It had 782 MB of free memory at turn on. I updated the European map database, which I can update one time in the first 60 days ( or multiple times in 60 days? Not sure....) ...anyway, after updating the European data base I've got 306 MB of memory left. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update the North American database with that much memory, so I bought a 2 GB micro sd card on ebay for $5. I have a question in to Garmin support about the update/memory/sd card issue. I'm not sure if they Garmin will use the sd card for map storage, like RAM, or what. In any event, once I found the sd card for $5, it was pretty easy to decide to buy it. Any tips on memory cards, performance, update space would be great. Grazie!

I have a Garmin 260W and I bought the European sd card for travels abroad. It works fine, but it does become confused. This is especially true when you consider that the Italian street plan resembles a dish of linguine. it has taken us through driveways, chicken coops, back roads, and vineyards, but it has always gotten us to our destination. It is a good idea to bring along a good map. We stay at my neighbor's house in Nusco outside of Avellino and getting off of that mountain is an adventure in motoring. Evil electronic spirits must live there because the Garmin takes us on some interesting field trips just to get to the main road. Once we learn the roads we do not really need the device, we take it anyway. When we return in July it will be with us again...it is indispensable. Buon viaggio,

I'll be using mine in Italy on Saturday (only 2 sleeps before going to Italy!). I will try to post the results.