Garmin n¿vi 260W Mexico 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator Review

This Garmin GPS was my choice as I live in Mexico and need a GPS for navigating in urban areas. I have had it for nine months.

1. The Mexico maps are about 85% accurate in the major cities. They attempt sometimes to send you the wrong way down one-way streets, and give confusing directions at traffic circles. Some streets do not appear on the maps, and names are sometimes misspelled. In addition, Mexican street names are often combinations of words, but the Garmin cannot determine what street you want, even for major streets. Nevertheless, in confusing Mexican cities with heavy traffic, it is an enormous help, and will deliver you close to where you want to go. In general, in major cities the Garmin GPS can get you within 2 or 3 blocks of any address, and one block of most.

2. Between the cities, the maps are far less accurate and omit some major four-lane routes (e.g., MX145). Detail falls off rapidly outside any major city. Thus, while the GPS can substitute for the Guia Roji street atlas of a major city, it cannot substitute for the Guia Roji road atlas of Mexico.

In sum, the Garmin GPS with Mexico map is worth buying for navigation in major cities, but cannot be trusted for navigation between them.

The Garmin 260W also has difficulty finding the satellites, with no obstacles, and at 20 degrees north latitude where the satellites are almost directly overhead. At times the Garmin takes 3 resets and up to 30 minutes to find the satellites. There is no predictability to this.

Perhaps a better Mexico map will be forthcoming at some point. If combined with a GPS that can find the satellites reliably, it would be a better option.

Buy it here now!