I picked up a Nuvi 650 on an unbelievable one day sale in May and registered it the day I received it. The 680 is what I really wanted but I just could not pass up this price. Later I picked up a GTM 20 for $55 on ebay. Now, with a 2MB card, I am still out less than $500.00 for the whole package and I could not be happier. Today, I called Garmin about the update and they promptly sent me the upgrade at no charge. Their customer service is great. A refreshing difference in today's world. Tip, call at 8:00AM (Central) sharp and there is no wait time.
I took the Nuvi on a 4000+ mile trip through the west and it sure makes driving more fun. It had many of the 4 wheel trails loaded in it as well.

If you call Garmin customer support they will give you the free upgrade, as long as you bought your Garmin recently. At another forum, people who have bought their Garmin as far back as May have received the free upgrade.

Just bought Nuvi 250 which came with V8 maps. Called Garmin and got free order for 2008 maps with out any issue.

Again in this review you mention arriving with your destination on the right as being desirable. Please explain your thinking on this point. I can certainly understand not wanting your destination on the left under some circumstances but to me it's not that big a deal.

how can you tell if a garmin 660, in a store or online, has v8 or v9 maps? thx

Just got off the phone with Garmin tech support, and the company says if you bought your GPS anytime AFTER May 1st, 2007, you'll get the map update for FREE.

Bad news is the map update DVD's are back-ordered until August...
--FLETCH

Is the City Navigate 2008 map the same one that Magellan Maestro series are using now?

Sweet! I've been hearing different stories as far as Garmin giving away upgrades to those that just recently bought a GPS. It makes sense for those who bought a GPS a year or two ago to have to pay for a new map but for someone who just bought a brand new Garmin GPS to then buy the latest maps is rediculous. I ordered a refurbished GPS off amazon. The refurbs come straight from Garmin so I plan on calling Garmin about sending me 2008 if the 2008 is not on the GPS.

Fletch,

Thanks for posting this update and the bit about getting the map update for free. Could you provide more information about how we would go about getting this upgrade?

I just called Garmin tech support to confirm this claim (didn't want to buy and get screwed), and the fellow I talked to said that this is untrue! But he could just be uninformed.

I asked to speak with a supervisor to find out for sure, but none was available. He said he'd have one call me, but they so often don't call.

Unfortunately, he also said there's no way to tell which Nuvi's have the new maps and which have the old maps: no product number suffix, no difference in packaging, no "Now with 2008 maps!" - nothing. So we have to buy completely blind and then possibly not get the maps for free. If you could provide more information on how to obtain the free upgrade, I'm sure all your readers would really appreciate it.

Thank you!

I have ordered my Free update too as I have purchased my C330 at the end of may. I am waiting for it. But someone mentioned that such upgrade wouldn`t fit the C330, and that some compromised will be required to select some regions and not other.

Have you heard about such thing? Would be good to mention it for C330 users. I am not sure I would have paid $70 knowing that it wouldn`t fit my GPS.

If you have more details, please let us know.

I purchased a Garmin 2820 from GPSCity 7/20/2007. I called Garmin tech support on 7/24 regarding an upgrade to CN NT 2008. They asked me to fax them a copy of my sales reciept, and the serial # of the unit. They promtly sent me an email stating I will have the update in 5-7 business days. This service along with Garmin being a great product is why I been a loyal customer since 1998.

There was a post on another site by a person who had C530 with that problem. They had to leave out part of maps. Here's the post.

I have a C530. I purchased the City Navigator North America NT Map Update 2008 DVD today. It's clearly labelled for the C530, among others. While going through the install it indicated that there was not enough internal memory to load the complete map data. I was given a choice of loading either Alaska, Canada and the Northern states OR the contiguous 48 states. I'm in Canada and am travelling to the US shortly, so this is no good for me. I called Garmin software support and even after deleting "unnecessary files" (e.g. non-English voices, all other vehicle icons, etc.) it was not enough free space to do a complete install. I have an empty 2GB SD card in it, but that's no use of course because the update has to be intalled to the internal memory. Since the C530 comes with all of North America pre-loaded, this was unexpected and disappointing. The rep suggested that I keep v8 installed for my trip and follow up for a return/exchange later when perhaps a SD card update will be available.

Man, I just got the new map software and didn't know my c530 didn't have enough memory until I started to do the upgrade. So I did the 48 states only. I can't return the software back to the vendor since it's opened. I just finished writing to Garmin to see what they can do for me. If they had stated on their site that my c530 can't do the full map upgrade I wouldn't have bought it!

Has anybody experienced problems with the c550 and having insufficient memory on the hard drive?

Okay folks there seems to be a lack of something or whatever at Garmin these days.

I'm in Canada (Toronto) and have since learned from Clearchannel - the folks that provide the Traffic service that our GTM20 traffic receivers translate from - that TMC traffic has been available in the major Canadian cities since the end of June.

The problem with Garmin is their Tech Support's lack of support for those north of the border or those who intend to visit Canada.

Our Garmin GPS devices that support traffic services are useless here because Garmin has failed to provide the software update/driver for the GTM20 traffic receiver so those real nice people at Clearchannel traffic who send traffic information via FM signals are yet to be able to translat traffic details onto our Streetpilots.

There's still no word from Garmin as to when the updated driver will be produced and delivered. How long does it take to do a simple driver update on a product that they've had for over a year?!

Another comment. . . when unlocking V8 and previous versions, you were allowed the usage on two different units. e.g. I use a StreetPilot III ColorMap in the car as well as a 60Csx on the trail.. I received 2 separate unlocking codes. With the new V9, Garmin will only give you one unlocking code, meaning you now have to purchase two V9 packages. This info is per their technical support.

Called Garmin about 2 weeks ago. I just recevied my 2008 update at no charge. I had purchased in June.

I also ran the local software update which had a traffic update for the FM receiver in Canada. No sure what it exactly does or if it wil help Mike.

My experience is that you can load the extra maps on the c5xx series via the SD card. I loaded the lower 48 states into my c530, and then ran the MapUpdate program (installed on my PC with v2008). (Note: I also have Mapsource on my PC.) I then chose the Canadian Provinces individually and also Alaska, and selected the SD card to load them on. When I startup my c530, both sets of maps are recognized. I tested with some locations in Canada to be sure.

You can get all of the North America 2008 NT maps on your GPS, even if it doesn't have enough memory. I did on my nuvi 200 even though I was told you can't. I installed the contiguous 48 states on the nuvi's internal memory and used MapSource to install the Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico maps on the SD card as a map supplement. I now have all of North America on my nuvi 200, which only originally came with the 48 states installed.

You guys are dead right...
The easiest way to get your map update for free.. Go to garmin site, click on Map tab and then click on Map Updates. You'll be asked to enter your serial no. Enter your serial no and click on "Find". You'll be prompted that you've got "Map Update 2008 City Navigator® North America NT". There'll be a link that says "Register your device and see if you can get this update for free).
Follow the steps and you can order the update for FREE. I am elated.. I just did that. once I get it, I'll keep you guys posted..

I received the update DVD for Garmin's "Map Update 2008". My install failed three attempts on my Nuvi 250 so far. Each time after about 90% of completing the install it errors out with the message "The map Update on the Garmin GPS has failed".

The unit itself now displays “No detailed maps found that support routing. The Nuvi cannot be used without them.”

I'm calling Garmin in the morning to see if they can help.

I have a C320 and recently upgraded from NT8 to 2008 maps. Since then, my routes are definately wrong. Example- Compare routes using NT8 then 2008.

Start 1 six flags blvd, Jackson, NJ

End - Route 6, Mahopac, NY

2008 starts the route wrong putting the driver on US9 instead of I95. Huge difference. My tech guy at Garmi was great helping me compare the two routes. I put in an error report. I also see similar results with driving into the NYC area of NY. I'm going back to NT8

I just bought a brand-new c530, and within 4 days of buying it tried to get garmin to give me the v9 maps. No free upgrade for me, I'm stuck with old maps on a new unit! This is their reply:

I'm happy to help you with this. Unfortunately that particular unit will
never ship from our facility with the new mapping version on it because
that unit doesn't have enough memory to store the entire update on it.
If you were to get that update you will have to choose between mapping
for either the lower 48 states or Canada and Alaska. It is for this
reason that if you want that update you will have to purchase that
update.

With Best Regards,

Nathan T
Product Support Specialist
Automotive Team
Garmin International
913-397-8200
800-800-1020
913-397-8282 (fax) Att: Nathan T
www.garmin.com

I too have had the map update problems with my Garmin C530. Not enough memory. Thought it was pretty deceiving of Garmin to send me an e-mail advertising this new 2008 update but failing to mention that my unit could not hold the complete map. Thanks to this site I was able to figure out how to load the missing info on the SD card. Why doesn't Garmin tell their customers this option? They know it works!

Talk about getting a SURPRISE....I just bought a C530 and thought I was being super smart buying the Map Update 2008 as well.

Realizing that North America was already installed on my C530 I thought that Update 2008 was simply just an update and adding corrections as necessary.

I opened the program only to find I was told I didn't have sufficient memory even though it was recommended by Garmin.

I thought "Oh heck" I'll simply update the lower 48 states and proceed letting Canada remain as is.

Never in my wildest dreams did I guess that it would completely NUKE the Canada that had came preloaded when I bought it.

Now I can only navigate in the good old U.S. of A.

I'm at a loss as to what to do next. There has been talk of loading Canada on a SD and using the external slot on the unit but I haven't got a clue as to how to do it. Any suggestions?

If the Canadian provinces and Alaska are loaded on an SD card will the unit switch back and forth from internal memory to SD card as necessary as the route progresses.

c5xx units are updated as follows:

Use garmin disk loader to load the lower 49 states (CONUS plus Hawaii). Then put in a 512 mB SD card or larger, create a folder on it called "garmin" (lower case only).

Go to the update disk and look in the img folder. Copy the gmappromU.img file to the "garmin" folder you made. Then rename that file to "gmapsupp".

Now the unit will seamlessly navigate anywhere on the North American continent.

james, can you be a little more detailed on loading the complete 2008 program on the c530. I tried but was un successful, probably since i am not computer savvy. I am using a 2GB sd card.
thanks

I have invested considerable money in Garmin avionics and own four different GPS systems made by Garmin. I have yet to ever have a problem with any of them. Their customer service excels over all the other GPS manufacturers. I have always been treated with people at Garmin eager to help and patient at my questions. You may find cheaper units out there, but Garmin will always beat the competition in performance, reliability, and customer service.

Updated my maps 6 months ago and paid the $70. wasn't worth it, was like using an old map. Will I have to pay to update again, even though it wasn't that long ago that I so calle updated??

As stated in the article Garmin has a less than favorable map upgrade policy. At $69.99 plus $9.95 shipping we opted for a new GPS for the same price. As a bonus it detects satellites much better is quicker to respond, is smaller, does not fall from the windshield and has a new warranty. It's made by Tom Tom and we bought one for our son as well. This is a great example of a company chasing it's customers out the door. Reminds me of Apple charging $29 for it's next operating system and Microsoft charging $169.

Larry

I upgrade to the new maps. Previously, I had Canad, US, Alaska and Puerto Rico. After the "upgrade" I have only Canada and the Northern US. And that was a hellish time to get done. Never again Garmin.