My new Nuvi 350 defaults to an American lady who sports a bit of a New York accent. That's okay. But when I don't follow her instructions to the letter, her voice inflection changes to something akin to significant irritation as she proclaims, "recalculating". I don't have to put up with that cr@&.

So I tried the various British and Australian voices. They were good. They gave my Nuvi character. But in my neck-of-the-woods, in addition to the Avenues (Ave.), Streets (St.), and boulevards (Blvd.), there are also, Drives (Dr.). Nearby there's Pascal Dr., Morris Dr., and Noreen Dr. So, on listening to directions from these Brits and Aussies I'm told to turn left on Pascal Doctor, right on Noreen Doctor, then continue on to Morris Doctor. Sounds like the directions I receive from my HMO's receptionist. These voices too just wouldn't do.

Finally I found, "Jack" who speaks a pretty good American English. Some of his pronunciations are a little off but, all in all, his voice seems to fit well with the American Southwest. He does though have a little trouble with some of the Spanish sounding street names (the letter a in spanish should always sound like ah - Juan Tabo is not supposed to sound like wan table) - but then again one of the fine ladies from overseas pronounced it jooann table.

That said .. This has been the best travel accessory I've ever come across. It's accurate, it's sensitive (it even picks up the satellites in my home or in my car when its not near the windows), and its instructions for restaurants, gas stations, and just about any other places of interest are helpful beyond belief.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share.

 

I've tried pretty much all of the English speaking voices on my Nuvi 660 and my best solution was..................silence.

Ahhhhh, much better. I can read the map!

I had a TomTom go before, and the British gent on that one was great!

"Take the motorway!" he'd say. I loved it!

Too bad the directions were wrong so often..........I took it back to Circus City.............

On the TomTom, you can buy (for like $3) John Cleese or several other celebs to read your directions. Can't you just hear John say in his best Basil Fawlty voice? "Why did you turn there, you silly twit!"

 

Yeah I'd like to find a different voice for my 680...I've been using the British English one and it says some funny stuff, with some horrible pronunciations. The other day it turned "Leavesley" (leaves-lee) into lev-ah-lee. My husband was like "turn on WHAT?"

 

Juan Tabo? You must live in Albuquerque...

 

I have a 350 and on a recent flight I held it up to the window and was pleasantly surprised when it told me we were at 39,000 feet above sea level, traveling at 500 mph, and it showed on a map our path from Houston, Texas to Columbus, Ohio. Neat.

 

Try using the British voice while driving through Quebec. Good times.