Home > Consumer Reviews > Garmin Nuvi 300T Satellite Navigation System With UK Mapping

Just bought this and have been truly impressed by its abilities. The navigation works well and all routes so far are exactly as I would have driven them, reroutes are processed quickly. The traffic information is also really useful and works well, though of course you must realise it works on a quiet fm frequency so it may not update immediately until in range. (see Traffic Master coverage. eg no use in Lake District).

I have even tested it flying back from Stockholm at 36000' in my A320, and although it could not follow the roads at 500mph (Europe main roads only) it did keep up with an accurate map, speed and altitude (in metres)!! So impessive my Dad immediately just bought one too.

I bought this unit 5 weeks ago and have just had a full refund on it and ordered a Tom Tom.
The Nuvi is a great compact unit, which guides you well and is fast to find a signal. There are lots of extras like downloadable books, Mp3, photos, language guide, if you want these. 1 Gb memory, half being free. Sd slot if you need more.
Sadly, there are known problems with the TMC receivers, ie they don't work, but garmin won't seem to do anything about it. Mine did not even look for a signal, and you can't manually search (unlike Tom Tom). Forums are full of complaints about this. I drove on stretches of motorway I know other people pick up signals on, and mine wouldn't even search!
Garmins webupdater software is also full of bugs and often doesn't recognise your unit, mine did twice then just stopped and said it wasn't there, even though I could transfer music and photos to it via My computer, and update the speed cameras via Garmin website!
Finally I had to snap with all my might to get the unit out of the windscreen mount, this was a bit scary as I kept thinking it would snap!
Garmin offered to fix the unit only if I paid postage back and they kept it for 4 weeks! Amazon offered to pay postage and give a full refund!
If you want just the Sat Nav, it would probably be a good buy, if you want traffic don't bother! If you want customer service go elsewhere too!

Really good bit of kit. Easy to use, easy to set up. I bought this Garmin on recommendations from two of my friends, I've been using it several weeks now, over several long journeys and I've not had any problems with being taken down small lanes (see above review) - in fact I wouldn't want to be without it any more!

I bought this after my Tomtom One (v1) packed in; big mistake!

Hardware's OK but the software's rubbish. This unit has a very frustrating tendancy to take you down narrow lanes when there is an obvious and quicker main road alternative (despite being on the quickest route setting). Also, it doesn't identify some speed cameras which I know have been in situ for a number of years. All in all a very poor SatNav which cannot be relied upon as a navigational tool; I'm replacing it with a Tomtom One v3.

I've had the Garmin Nuvi 300T for almost 18 months and it has performed excellently. It feels well designed and of good quality and it will fin into your pocket. The screen is clear with good detailed maps in both 2d and 3d format. The speech instruction is also easy to understand. It has other features as well such as te trip computer showing distance travelled and average speed to name but a few. It has so far not let me down after dozens of trips and the online updates for firmware, software and maps have all worked without any problems. It's not a new model now but if you can get it for a good price then I would recommend this to anyone wanting a good affordable sat nav system.