We recently used the Europe NT chip in our Garmin for a driving trip through Italy. No problems with set up or ease of use. We intended to rely heavily on the chip and learned that using the chip plus a really good map plus intuition was critical to get us where we needed to go. Don't know how much of that was Italy or the chip, but sometimes the satellite took a while to locate us. It did always locate us eventually, but at times we drove out of an area to get a stronger signal. Also, the street names the Garmin identified were typically nowhere to be found on signage, so we learned to follow the pink road and observe the directions of the other roads to stay on the right track. Also given the fast driving speeds, a turn in 450 meters came up pretty quickly and we shot past some exits which were once again not clearly marked on signage or marked with a different name. In short, would we use the Europe NT chip in Italy again? Absolutely! Once we got in sync with the visuals and relied less on the street names, it kept us on track and helped us find some pretty remote locations. I can't speak to how the chip would work in other European countries, but if it could guide us through Italy, I'm not worried. Driving in Italy was an adventure and without the Garmin, it could have been terribly frustrating since it was difficult to find highway numbers, etc. on the paper maps from gas stations.
We had had very good experience with our nuvi 3950 in the USA. So, we were totally unprepared for the abysmally poor performance of this additional soft ware since we have been in Europe.
The main problem is that it is unpredictable and quite erratic. About 40% of the time it performs as well as in the USA. That is it finds our desired destination (city, address, place of interest eg., restaurant, museum) very effectively. Sadly, this leaves you completely unprepared for the 60% of the time it either cannot find the destination, or gets repeatedly lost in the middle of a route. So far, on our European trip in two different countries the U.K. and Italy this software has gotten the route right twice and got us to our destination efficiently clearly and on time twice. But four times it has led us badly astray. In Italy, a planned one and a half hour drive turned into a four hour marathon, because using this map software our nuvi 3950 decided to take us only on narrow and round-about minor roads avoiding almost systematically the major roads and expressways that would have gotten us there in time. At one point, we found ourselves confronted by an avalanche completely blocking the road half-way up a mountain we had to back-track 15 miles to find the long-standing detour! In the UK, a one and a quarter hour trip turned into a two and a half hour trek that lost us a pre-confirmed reservation in a restaurant. Again, using this software, our normally reliable nuvi 3950 performed quite erratically. It took us suddenly down a road where there was a major (sign-posted!) obstruction of long standing (hence long traffic backups), avoiding the expressway that would have easily got us to our destination on time! After this nerve-wracking experience, we chose to go back the old-fashioned way reading maps for ourselves. On our own we did the same journey comfortably in half the time. We are now awaiting the missed booking fee from the restaurant!
On the basis of our recent experiences in Europe with this software, we would strongly advise all US travelers to avoid using it altogether. It is quite unreliable and may cost you so much time you miss out on major elements of your planned trip. Quite honestly, if you know how to read a map at all well, do so. It's much more reliable than this software.
An odd aspect is that my brother who lives in the UK and also has a Garmin auto GPS, has different Garmin map software for Europe that seems to perform infinitely better than the very poor quality one currently being sold in the USA. So, an alternative option to consider is not to buy the software before leaving (as we did) but to wait and buy it in Europe. Interestingly the European version actually offers most European languages including Italian, German, Swedish, Dutch and many others ! apparently omitted from the US versions's voice module. Added to which, the American English voice module pronunciations of most place names in non-English languages are so poor that a native of the country in question could never recognize them!
So, our advice is : Do yourself a big favor : Avoid this product at all costs! Instead either read maps or buy the European version that seems to work far better!
One only has to wonder why in these days of globalization, Garmin has seen fit to produce a separate US version of this software for the use of unsuspecting North Americans, rather than simply letting us use the far superior European one?
Buy Garmin City Navigator Europe NT 2013 Map Card MicroSD/SD Now
We used this in Germany and were very happy with it. It was better than the navigation system built into our Mercedes B Class rental car. However, the voice could use more training in pronouncing German. Some street names were hard to understand because of mispronunciation.Read Best Reviews of Garmin City Navigator Europe NT 2013 Map Card MicroSD/SD Here
The package arrived in a timely manner just prior to my departure for Europe. I was surprised when I opened the container and found a SanDisk memory card rather than one marked as Garmin like ones I have purchased in the past. Upon arrival in Europe I inserted the card and found nothing. I checked my GPS "Settings" and noted that it did not show any Europe maps. When I returned to the US I tried the SanDisk card in a friend's GPS and had the same results. In retrospect, I should have returned the SanDisk card immediately but since I was leaving immediately for Europe I failed to do that.Want Garmin City Navigator Europe NT 2013 Map Card MicroSD/SD Discount?
Thought I would program in addresses and locations prior to my trip to Rome, Venice, and Florence...NONE of the streets appear...REALLY, not even Via Veneto in Rome!!! There are no points of interest, no hotels....you get the idea. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!! Hand gestures and broken English are better than this thing!Save 1% off
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