Home > Consumer Reviews > Garmin Nuvi 360T Satellite Navigation System With European Mapping

After the failure of my TomTom on day 1 (still trying to get Pixmania to pick it up and refund my money), I stopped off and bought this en-route for my European continental journey. I just attached the fixing cup to the windscreen, typed in my destination, put the Nuvi on the fixing, plugged it into the lighter socket and we were up and running. It was that simple. It's much neater than the TomTom and has a nice little storage case to carry it in when you leave the car. It's a very neat unit and unlike the TomTom, can be fitted easily in a pocket or handbag if required. The traffic jam and safety camera information worked well and were accurate and when it informed me of a big jam ahead near Brussels it quickly recalculated an interesting little detour around it. Even though it didn't have the street name for my final destination in UK (it was on a new industrial estate), when I put in the postcode it navigated me right to the spot. My only complaint was that the pronounciation of street names in Belgium and France was so excruciatingly bad as to be of little use!
I use Garmin satellite navigation systems in my professional life and it's obvious that they're also at the top of the treee when it comes to road navigation.

Not as memorable a name as a TomTom, but this device just works wonderfully. Ignoring the bells and whistles for bluetoothing a phone and getting traffic jam alerts, Emily's dulcet tones have steered me all over the Midlands without fuss, even round the unfathomable Redditch ring road! The best thing is it's thin enough to put it in your pocket so it doesn't get knicked from your car or to use it when walking about a city you don't know.
All of Europe is included so I might try France with Julie or perhaps Sweden with Ingrid.....

Wonderful navigator with good advance warnings. A couple of minor niggles - the UK postcode database is not complete, and you may still need a bit of information on the destination road plan. I passed several fixed speed cameras on the A505 which did not give any warning. In France near Laval it took us down a disused farm track to get to a "shortcut", only to find that the track was "barree" (shut). The local farmer was not surprised to see us there in his farmyard! Some updating is clearly required, but overall this is an excellent machine and better than others I have had experience of.

Have two cars with integrated satnav then bought a 1990 Bentley without needless to say. Took a look at Amazon reviews and this one stood out. Was fully charged on arrival unlike some phones and other things. Fitted it, bluetooth "paired" two cell phones, programmed "Home" and the rest. All works out the box as they say. Only critisism you have to push the swivel ball into the socket pretty hard for it to click in.

Having spent a good deal of time reading various reviews and speaking to friends, I decided to take the plunge yesterday and order my 360T. What a result! I spent an extra couple of quid to ensure delivery by 1pm the next day, and to my surprise it was delivered at 7am!

I was also going to purchase some accessories but found the following supplied so no need!:

1. Vehicle suction cup mount,
2. AC Charger (with 2 & 3 pin attachments),
3. carry case,
4. FM/TMC traffic receiver,
5. 12 volt cigarette adapter,
6. USB cable and manual.

I spent about half an hour going through the manual, but there was no real need as the unit is so simple to use. Quicky subscribed to the trial speed camera updates (which only lasts for 30 days) and registered the unit online with Garmin - you'll get 10% off any accessories & additional software purchased in the first 30 days.

The 360T was now ready to be put through its paces! The first thing i noticed was that the unit was a bit fiddly when attaching to the windscreen suction mount, but once I figured it was it's pretty easy. After switching on the unit, it took 20 seconds to lock on to the satellites and I was on my way! The volume is good, loud and clear enough to hear even if you have the radio on in the background/windows down.

I copied some MP3's onto an SD card (note, the unit will only play MP3, not MP4's), which seemed to work well enough, be it a little tinny, remember though, this is a sat nav unit and not an ipod/CD player therefore the quality wont be as good. The directions cut in as-and-when required, and returns back to the same point so you won't have missed any seconds off the track.

The 360T also has bluetooth which really impressed me. I only made the the one call but it works great with my Nokia 6300 and I could access my contacts list, last dialled, received and missed calls. It's perfect if you're on the road and need to make/receive calls. You can even send SMS messages and voice dial if you have the voice tags set up, but didnt test this.

In terms of the navigation itself, the route I had selected was local and therefore I knew the quickest way to get there. I wanted the quickest route and I was taken to my destination via roads that would indeed get me there in the quickest time. However as the school's had just finished there was quite a lot of traffic. By selecting the "Shortest" route on my way back home I was taken through some smaller residential roads which did in fact get me back in a decent amount of time - avoiding most of the traffic on the main roads.

I didn't try the unit with the TMC receiver but I'm hoping to try this soon as it will save me a lot of time when I have to travel in the next few weeks.

There are plenty of points of interest on the 360T, but as there are so many restaurants and new supermarkets popping up all over the place I'm certain some of the POI's are a little out dated. I'm assuming they can be updated manually or online, although I haven't looked into this.

All in all this is a great unit, which is extremely easy to use, slim enough to use on foot if necessary(great as it covers most of Europe too), and as you get free lifetime traffic updates makes it a no brainer in my book.