Garmin Nuvi 200: You Give Tech a Bad Name

There was a time when computers weren’t nearly as user friendly as they are today. Some might say they aren’t even all that user friendly today, but compared to the days of old, we’ve traveled a long way in a short amount of time. As an self-appointed ambassador of technology if you will, I am constantly trying to get my friends and relatives use high-tech solutions whenever possible “because they’re so much easier” … however, every now and then something comes along that sets my tech relations back a few steps. Folks, meet the Garmin 200.

The Garmin Nuvi 200 is pretty much the bottom of Garmin’s GPS line. I used to own a nicer model (the 240w), which someone else also thought was nicer and removed it from my truck for me. I’ve become so reliant on my GPS that when the other one disappeared, I went to Best Buy and bought this one (the 200) the same weekend. I paid about $60 for it, on sale.

For the most part, the Nuvi 200 works like it’s big brother. However, the maps are two years out of date now and I’m starting to see a lot of roads in real life that aren’t on the GPS. This is where the fun begins.

The Nuvi 200 has around 950 meg of free space available for maps. Garmin’s latest map update is about 1.4 gig, or 1,400 meg. That means that Garmin’s new maps won’t fit on my Garmin GPS. I tried deleting a bunch of files off the GPS (do I really need it to display Hungarian or talk to me in Mandarin?) but that didn’t help at all. Fortunately there is a solution. The Nuvi 200 has an SD slot on the side. All I needed to do is buy an SD card and install the maps on to it.

I downloaded some maps and tried copying them over to the SD card, but it doesn’t work that way. After giving up on that, I decided to buy the new 2010 maps directly from Garmin. Brace yourself for this one. They’re $70. To download. New maps for my two year old $60 GPS cost $70 to download. Are you kidding me?

Obviously I’ll be buying a new GPS and selling this one on Craigslist. Anyone need a GPS with outdated maps on it?

6 thoughts on “Garmin Nuvi 200: You Give Tech a Bad Name”

  4. how does the saying go…..there’s a hack for that. My brother in law is in the same boat, though. I think he is looking at the Magellan line of GPS’. Some of the models have lifetime updates on their maps. Not sure about their accuracy, reliability or user interface.

  5. I ran into the same situation, I’d like to update my maps but then saw it would cost 100 for them. I paid 150 or so on clearance for my garmin.

    I found maps via torrent though I haven’t had a chance to try them out.

  6. I am in the same boat. Too cheap to pay $70 for new maps when a Tom-Tom is only $85. I am holding out for Garmin to start the “lifetime maps included” deal that I saw on a Tom-Tom at Sam’s club recently. I like the Garmin interface and want to stick with it.

    At some point I may switch to the Garmin phone. Those look cool and run the Android OS

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