Just purchased (well exchanged a new unit for a defective one).

Did some search functions but nothing really coming up, anyone on the site knows of some good threads for operational, known bugs and such.

As for mounting, I've seen one good post, but any others trying different locations?

Thanks in advance.
Paul

Oops...that should read Garmin Nuvi 350

 

I have mine mounted with the suction cup in the lower mid portion of the windshield. Its the only place I could find to put it. Dosen't block the view either.

Brad

 

Try

http://www.nuvipassion.com



_Dave_

PS: Pretty happy with my suction mount on the clear plastic face of the chrono-pack... With care, it can be placed so that it does not block driver visibility of anyt of the idiot lights, and only the upper portion of the fuel gauge ...

 

My wife and I have a Garmin Nuvi 350 for the past 3 months. My wife had it on Mini Takes The States and thought it was great. I have used it for many of my business trips both local and out of state and it's been very very good. The only time it flaked out was in downtown Chicago, but I kept pressing on and the Nuvi finally calmed own and got back to normal. The thing is so small and easy to use and easy to move from car to car...I give it a solid 8 out of 10.

 

Thread title fixed.

 

Thanks for all the help.

Cool little tool too!

 

I'm using the 360, mounted on the lower left corner of the windshield. I am using the bluetooth thru my Aux input and I added the external mic. Nav and BT both work great.

 

TC,

That's where mine now sits. I've been trying different placements to see what's the most comfortable and such. I saw proclipusa has a MINI specific mount but not sure how reception would be sitting down in the vehicle.

Still learning the device but so far, it's great.

 

The speedo is my favorite location... another option is to get the dash mount (uses a sticky pad.. permanent or non-permanent, your choice), which Garmin sells seperately.

 

My writeup on how I modified the OEM cup holder mount
http://www.c3club.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=511

 

Richard,

Great DIY..

Also, never dawned on me to run an AUX cable to the headunit for sound.

Looks like this might be what I'm looking for.

 

Oh its great! The aux completes the Nuvi install. Add an SD card, fill it with Mp3s and you have a full audio system that cuts out as needed when directions are given. No need for iPod or cd player anymore. I love being able to select music by artist or album, all via touch screen.

As for the mount itself, I think I'm going to add some small wheel collars to help tighten up the mount.. When I get back from this tradeshow, I will post details.

Richard

 

Richard,

I think this is what I'm going to do as it's simple, practical and not too expensive.

I'm going to see if I can adapt it for my minivan as well. The wife and kids would love this.

Thanks again!

 

Nice install -- but it seems that the antenna has to be pointed straight up, since there's no room for it to be folded back at 90 degrees? So I'd imagine you're giving up some signal strength & maybe accuracy, as a result?

 

I'm not sure I understand your post. The Nuvi antennae points straight up. It normally folds into the unit when not in use, but in order to put it on the standard mount, you have to fold it away out of the body and up.

So having it pointed straight up is optimal.

I just drove 240+ miles (one way) from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and back and it performed perfectly.

 

Actually, I believe that the nuvi's antenna is a "patch" type version (vs a "helical" type) that is designed to be extended 90 degrees out from the unit (i.e. so that the flat part of the flip out antenna is pointed towards the sky). That should be the optimal position for the antenna, but since it's a high sensitive SiRF Star III based GPS receiver, it's probably sensitive enough to pick up a strong signal even when pointing straight up (just as Richard noted).

 

I have narrowed down my GPS buying decision to the Garmin Nuvi 350 & one other. I was skimming the owners manual & couldn't find an answer to my question so I hope some of you owners can help me.

When doing Mini rides we are never taking the shortest, fastest, or most sensible route. We are looking for the long twisty way . Will this Garmin let me program in waypoints so I can force it to direct me the way I want to go on Mini rides? All I saw in the owners manual was that your could program "points of interest" & there aren't usually any POI's on our backroad Mini rides so that wouldn't help much.

Thanks for your help.

 

I have a Nuvi 360 and the only way that I have been able to "program" nice motoring routes is to do a point to point type program. You can also de-select highways from the units routing choices.

What I have done is to select various points along the route that I want to travel and save them as favorites. As I arrive at one destination I then select the next destination. A bit of a pain. I would much rather be able to select way points, but I just have not been able to find any other way around it.

It will allow you to scroll around the map and then using the touch screen to select points and save them. Sort of like way points, but you have to scroll thru the whole route you have planned. A little time consuming. Thank goodness you have 4 - 5 hours of battery life.

I have found the best spot to mount it, for us, is the face of the speedo, sort of at the 2 o'clock position. That way either of us can access the unit and we can both see it.

 

Yep - Bilbo is right - the Nuvi sacrifices robust waypoint features for ease of use. They make is simple so ANYONE can use it pretty much without RTFM. And I know if my father-in-law stumbled upon waypoints he'd be hopelessly lost forever...

It'll let you insert ONE "via-point" between where you are and your current destination - but that's it. Handy for finding gas and resuming your route when done filling up - but not much else - though sometimes if I'm going somewhere and it plots a route I don't like, I'll plug in a point that I know IS on the way I'd like and it figures it out... but it will NOT find the nicest twisties for you...

First person to make a GPS as good as the Nuvi's that has the auto-twisty-no-gravel route feature will make a mint off MINI owners...

 

They sure would. What I keep hoping is that they will come out w/a GPS that will do 2 things:

1. get you from A to B with the greatest ease
2. let you plot a map on your pc using the roads of your choice & then load it into the GPS

On the Garmin, I keep reading that they do updates. I assume this is via the net & hopefully they will address the lack of waypoint plotting ability in a future update.

 

Yeah - I wish that too. They've gone through quite a few updates so far with some fairly significant enhancements (yes, downloaded/installed from the net) but noting hinting that they may add robust waypointing to these units. It seems that there are a few "forks" to GPS design:
* Units with pre-loaded maps and extreme ease of use, but no waypointing
* Units designed to have maps and routes loaded from a PC, that support waypointing, but don't have the pre-loaded maps and ease of use of the Nuvi
* Handheld units with good waypointing, etc. that work well for geocaching, etc.
* I suspect we could think of some others...

It ALMOST seems like this is a deliberate feature plan on the part of the manufacturers, pushing toward multiple units to meet multiple needs - so conceivably you might buy 2 or 3 units if you really need/want all these features at different times (easy GPS for the non-techie spouse, PC mappable GPS for the techie who likes to pick their own routes, handheld for hiking/geocaching, etc.). Of course, that borders on conspiracy theory... and I'm a free market capitalist so I guess I'll have to wait until one company decides that they can make the "killer" unit that does all this for maybe $20 more in production costs and sets out to kick everyone else in the tush and make lots of coin...

 

I bought the UK/Ireland card for my 360 and used it last week when I was in the UK. It absolutely worked great.

 

Can you tell me of a GPS on the market that is PC Mappable & lets you pick your own routes? This is the most important feature to me but I have never found one for the car that does that (other than Microsoft Streets & Trips for a handhelp pc & that's not what I am looking for)

 

Hmmmm.... Checking..... it APPEARS that almost all of the Garmin units can do this if you purchase the separate MapSource PC mapping software - but I'm searching around to confirm this. For example, to see if you setup multiple waypoints on the PC if this really works properly on the Nuvi even though the Nuvi itself doesn't support multiple waypoints... gpspassion.com seems to suggest that this works in some places and not in others - but there ARE other Garmin units that clearly support multiple waypoints and it certainly works for those.

 

Please keep me posted & let me know what you find out