This is my 3rd (and least expensive) automobile GPS. It is by far the best. On a recent trip a reunion group was given written directions to a classmate's home in a gated, remote location. Many lost their way. I entered the address, ignored the written instructions, and was led flawlessly through complex turns to the location. The touch-screen operation (no push buttons!) is a real plus and the programmable SD card data storage promises a long up-to-date life. The screen size is a bit small, but bright and easily readable, even for a senior citizen.

We enjoyed the convenience of traveling with our Roadmate 500. When you arrive in a new city somewhere, you are tired and unfamiliar and no matter how much you love each other, getting lost on the way to the hotel is good for some cranky exchange.

The 500 is obsolete as far as European maps are concerned so with an upcoming 3 weeks in Italy, it was time to see how far the new portables have come. My Lexus GX is disappointing and ridiculously expensive for what you get. It is non-intuitive (IMHO) and you cannot change anything underway requiring pulling over in spots equally as dangerous as Toyota/Lexus feels changing while moving is.

It came down to Garmin's sexy and capable NUVI 360 and the fishfinder Lowrance company's iWay 250C. I tried both side-by-side to see how they performed. You cannot go wrong with either one and I found the differences negligible for my needs. Navteq maps are superior to anything else in the USA and Tele Atlas are the benchmark for Europe. Lowrance did that right among other things. NUVI uses Navteq which is apparently very good in Europe as well but Tele Atlas is reprted to be better there.

Both are intuitive out of the box. The NUVI is sleek and slightly smaller and both are about the same weight. The NUVI resolution is superior and the voice street names are great. Lowrance will name some streets and the others are clearly annouced as "Left turn in 400 feet" or whatever. The NUVI sports Bluetooth capability with your compatible phone but the volume is not suffient to make it useable even in a nice quiet Lexus or equivelant so that is wasted on me. The MP3 capability is of little interest to us but we may learn more and find it uselful. NUVI will play your MP3's while navigating which the 250C will not, I don't care.

As far as POI's, the 250C found more for me but it was a relatively small sample so don't make a decision because of this. I found the real resosn for owning either one is the navigation. It is hard to justify paying twice the price for same maps and a slightly inferior voice capability. The auto version of the mapping on the Lowrance is so cool as it knows to give you the grander picture when you have some distance before the next turn and kindly switches to an expanded view when necessary.

The mount on the NUVI is excellant and so is the Lowrance. Both have enroute travel power cords and both have supplementry maps on cards wherever you want to go. I will keep the Lowrance and return the NUVI, the price is just not worth the difference, at least to me, although your mileage may vary...

I live in a Small town in Texas. I was amazed how accurate and updated the maps are. This Navigation System is easy to use and easy to setup. I love the touchscreen. The voice is loud and very clear. I have been using it for a few weeks now, and I havn't come accross ANY negative things to say about it.

I first bought a Garmin (not from this seller), and I returned it because too many items were missing with the shippment. Now that I look back, it was a blessing. The screen was too small, and it wasn't a touchscreen. So when you had to type anything, you had to use a Scroll wheel, that took forever to use. Also, it required batteries, not even rechargable.

I read reviews that satalite acquasition was long. Sometimes it was less then a minute for me, but I would start driving anyways, and it would still lock on. So no time sitting idle was lost.

When you stop the car, all the points of interest automaticaly pop up. When your driving a long ways before the next waypoint, all the little streets, exits and entrances are filtered out so it doesn't clutter the screen. They will turn back on, when it is necessary for them to be shown. I was amazed how smart this unit is.

The iWay 250 is a GOOD buy. It exceeded my expectations.

I picked up this GPS because I had trips coming up to Atlanta and Chicago. I had always heard that Atlanta is difficult to navigate because there are a million streets named "Peachtree" so I wanted something to help me get around, especially since I had never been there. Thanks to the iWay, I got around just fine. Chicago will be another test at the end of this month.

I would suggest that anyone purchasing this GPS practice with it around their home town just to get a feel for how it works or how you need to work with it.

One quirk I found was that while the GPS would alert me to a turn well ahead of time, the countdown to the turn is a bit off. I would be at the crossroads in the turn lane and the system would show that I had 20 feet remaining until I needed to turn. It may be that it meant that I had 20 feet to complete the turn. Anyway, I just needed to make the mental adjustment.

Another thing I noticed is that the maps on the SD chip are a couple of years old, so things might be a little off if an area has gone through a lot of recent construction. They have re-done the roads near my parents house and it wasn't accurate on the system, however the system did figure out a way for me to get there. Also, since restaurants come and go that search may not be completely accurate either. For other, more established sites like hotels, museums, hospitals, stadiums/arenas, malls, etc., you should be fine. I did check the Lowrance web site to see if they had any updated maps, but it doesn't look like it.

My only real complaint is that it takes a while to "boot", so you may want to turn on the GPS in your car 10 - 15 minutes before you go anywhere just so it is ready when you are. Also, it appears to lose signal when in a long tunnel.

I gave it a 4 out of 5 because I do think you get a lot for the price. If price doesn't matter to you, I'm sure there are better systems.

I purchased the Lowrance 250C about a month again and I couldn't be happier. I was very pleased with the spread that I received the GPS and it was packed great.
I've been waiting awhile to give a review because I wanted to put it through it paces. I think I've done that now since I've used it on my trip from Tennesse to California. Not only did it handle the interstate driving and navigating well, but it has been simply FANTASTIC in LOS ANGELES! ...and that's one hard town to navigate in. The Lowrance is fast to generate a new route; however, it is a bit slow to acquire an initial signal. If you're running in and out of the car I'd suggest leaving it on battery while your out of the car.

As an example of the accuracy, we went to the Queen Mary while in Long Beach. I was in the parking lot getting ready to leave and needed to find the best way to the interstate. I noticed as I was leaving the 'parking lot' that it showed me exactly where I was at ...and where not talking 'roads'. These were parking lot 'lanes'.

I'll put my money down anytime on any Lowrance that holds to the quality of this unit. If all the Lowrance units are this good, I wouldn't even waste my time looking at Garmin or others. This has done it all and with almost no failures of any time. ....and $190 !!!! YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED AND I'D BUY IT WITHOUT HESITATION.

I can't say enough good things about it. Right on Lowrance!!!
================
An addition to my previous review. Hope this helps.

I have not owned the Lowrance iWay 250C, Magellan Maestro 4000, and Garmin nüvi 200W. I began with the Lowrance 250 but unfortunately it was stolen and I was forced to replace the unit. I bought the Magellan 4000 but returned it in a short period to purchase the Garmin 200W. In an attempt to summarize my thought on these units, I'll summarize my observations in a 'pro / con' format.

As a summary of the following, I was extremely impressed with the Lowrance iWay 250C's dependability and price. The Garmin Nuvi 200W has good navigation tools and a clear, large display. Finally, the Magellan 4000 was built in a quality manner but lacked basic navigational functionality.

Lowrance iWay 250C -
Pros:
1) Fantastic routing sequences. This unit has great navigational features and never misguided me at any time.
2) Can add personalized POIs with symbols using street address.
3) GREAT price for a solid unit.
4) Voice and sound quality excellent.
5) Overall very dependable unit with intelligent navigation and outstanding value.

Cons:
1) Slow to locate signal.
2) Small 3.5 inch screen.

Magellan Maestro 4000
Pros:
1) Audible chime to signify upcoming turns.
2) Large 4.3 inch screen.
3) Extremely solid construction with MANY accessories included (AC charger, etc).
4) Large touchscreen buttons which allow for easy control.
5) Voice and sound quality excellent.
6) Clear display of menu funtions and user friendly.

Cons:
1) Hard to read maps and poor general map display. Most roads are displayed very small and the map background colors are poorly selected.
2) Poor selection of routing preferences.
3) Adding personal POIs requires separate interface using latitude/longitude only. It is impossible to add personal POIs with the simple use of street address.
4) Several times this unit provided routes which were incorrect. Most errors occurred due to its inability to know that road medians have turning lanes.

Garmin nüvi 200W
Pros:
1) Can add personal POIs with symbols using street addresses.
2) Clear and large display.
3) Large touchscreen buttons which allow for easy control.
4) Clear menus displayed with intuitive and user friendly functions.
5) Overall good unit with clean navigational tools and ease of use.

Cons:
1) Power connection in rear of unit can be frustrating to plug/unplug.
2) No AC charger included.
3) It is not possible to display the remaining trip mileage as the route is being displayed. The estimated time of arrival is shown but switching this to the remaining mileage is not possible.
4) Some routing has been incorrect. These errors seem to occur due to its inability to know that road medians have turning lanes.
5) Very short device for windshield mounting.

Here is my experience with the IWay 250c.Let me start by saying that this is my first GPS reciever.I purchased the unit approx. 4 weeks ago planning to use it on a 5 day golf vacation in and around Nashville so this gave me some "play time" before our trip.We planned to stay in Nashville,shop,play 5 golf courses and eat at some of the more popular restaurants.I loaded all the golf courses we wanted to play in advance along with the hotel where we staying.Sitting in our driveway with the car loaded(and no maps)I selected the first golf course on the IWay 250c and told it to "GO TO" this course nearly 300 miles away.3.9 hrs later we were checking in at the club house.After we finished that round of golf we got back into our car pulled out the IWay and told it to "GO TO" our hotel,20 mins. later we were pulling into the hotel parking lot.For the next 5 mornings it navigated us to 5 different golf courses and we had no clue where we were going.After one round we located a famous seafood place on 2nd street down town Nashville.(in the IWay's restaurant menu)and it took us there and then back to our hotel flawlessly.We played our last round somewhere northeast of Nashville and it took us from there back to our home driveway 4hrs later(we live in Missouri).Here are the things I learned about this unit.I learned to always read what my next turn and what the name of the street is going to be.The IWay 250c will always tell verbally or it will display the name of the street (or hwy)that you will turning onto.I learned to always follow the high lighted road on the display because some street names were changed.The only problem we had and it was not fault of the IWay was due to an exit that was moved some 800 feet from it's original spot because of some really major road construction.We did pass this exit because the exit was 800 feet behind us before we understood what was going on.But IWat 250c took about 5 secs. figure a new route and got us back on course.I have had no lost signals except once in a tunnel and it locked almost immediately once out the other side.I've read some reviews about trouble reading the display in bright sunlight,I had the same problem until I discovered that the factory default setting for the display is set to go to "dim" after a very short time to save on the battery life.You can set the unit to full time bright,med. bright or dim -- or set it to dim automatically.I had no problems with long route generations or re-routing.The unit was very accurate,I would guess somwhere around 30 feet,a lot of times dead on.This my first GPS reciever so I have nothing to compare it to,but I have read reviews on more costly units and none of these things are 100% perfect.Based on that you get a lot of bang for your buck and it also impressed my wife and she is not easly impressed.We will never go on any road trip with out it!!.

I purchased the iway 250 about a week before i was taking a road trip to myrtle beach SC. I live in Massachusetts. I played with the iway for a few days before the trip. I am back home in Mass and survived to tell the tale. This is my review.
br /
br /This is my first GPS. The iway is a fun toy. The car kit worked well. Stuck to the winshield and held and was easily transfered between cars. It also has great battery life. The iway isn't overly large. At times during the trip i would bring it with me into the hotel, etc. to do forward planning.
br /
br /Lets start with the display/sounds/navigation. Changing views on the touch screen is easy. There is a 3d mode and two overview map modes. I liked the overview map the best as i could easily see the upcoming turns. A tap is all it takes to change the view. The Iway is loud enough to hear with the windows down or if you have tunes playing. Again this is also easily enough adjusted. This can be tricky to do with your finger. The volume adjust is on the touch screen and with average fingers it can be tricky to touch and slide the small on screen control. It is easily done with the sylus. The stylus is located on the left side of the unit which happened to come in contact with my dash and was difficult to remove during navigation. The menu is easily navigated even when in route with the touch of your finger. You can switch from the menus quickly and easily. One of my favorite menu options is a gauge page which estimates your time of arrival. On a long trip this was nice to have.
br /
br /The bad. The Iways pre loaded addresses and points of interest are incredibly outdated. Driving through New Jersey at 2 am the gas light came on with no gas stations in site. I used the iway. I went to POI's and then gas stations. Great, the closest one is .14 miles away. The iway proceeds to take me miles away to the next exit and then loops me back around. The iway did not take into account at the next exit there would be closer gas stations. After finally finding this gas station it had clearly been out of business for years with weeds growing out of the spots where the gas pumps had been. I used the iway to look up other gas stations. I called the numbers on about 5-6 of them. No answering machines or answer. So i located the closest big name gas station. In route to it i spoted a gas station that was open that wasn't on the iways POI list. Thanks for the help.
br /
br /Another instance i was going to Medievil Times restaurant in SC. It is located i presume on a company made road called fantasy way. I did a search... the iway couldn't find the road. I wasn't surprised as i figured it was probably the name of the road in some development. After finding my own way the road was labeled on the gps. I don't know why it couldn't find it by the search function.
br /
br /In transit. The iway takes you in a straight shot route. If the highway you are on takes a relative turn it may have you take an exit to find a straigter route. On one occasion when the Iway told me to get off the highway i rebelled. The choice probably saved me a half an hour.
br /
br /This GPS also does not account for traffic reports which i heard some can via advanced connections. I spend two hours in traffic at new yorks george washington bridge that could have been avoided if the iway had this feature.
br /
br /Another example of the poi's being out of date. I did a search for dunkin donuts. It stated the closest was about 85 miles away. In reality there were 3-5 within 10 miles.
br /
br /The iway will get you where you have to go. For me a the phone book from my hotel was important as i needed it for addresses as the places where i wanted to go weren't in the POI's. Apparently there is an option to update the maps but it costs 75 dollars. And if you are wondering if i updated the software via Iways website... it was the first thing i did when i took it out of the box so i cannot make comparisons.
br /
br /The iway also occasionally takes long durations to find your location. This can be aggravating when you think it has found you and you start on your route only to realise it isn't directing you. If you are in a parking lot when it finds you and you go out the opposite side of the parking lot onto a different street which will connect you to the same road as the iway has you going, it will calculate your route over again to account for the road you are on. This can take minutes if you have a long trip planned.
br /
br /I enjoyed having the iway but it has its flaws. I would buy it again, but there may be better options out there.

It takes hell of a time to locate the position initially.It takes about 7-10 mins of time. But once done, GPS works fine. Also the turn by turn navigation is sometimes not that quick.Initially we thought that the GPS Stand cannot bend as there were no instructions in the leaflets / instruction guide on how to bend it.
br /In brief, this is good if you cannot go for any high end GPS like Garmin...as they cost more than $350.
br /We are happy considering the basic functionality and the cost.

this company should stick to fish finding! I live in mountains of pa and it never picked up a sattelite returned it and bought a tom tom go 300 and it picked up 7 sattelites out the box..same price though refurbed

I had seen the Garmin StreetPilot c330 in operation but purchased the Lowrance iWay 250c because the literature indicated it offered the same features at a lower cost. I was wrong and returned the unit. I found the Lowrance to be difficult to use. Putting in a specific address was the area I found most troublesome. Secondly, accuracy in recalculation was way off. I missed the destination on purpose and let the machine guide me back to it. The machine missed the location by two blocks. I paid the extra and bought the Garmin c330.

The product arrive when specified but I was disatisfied with the discription that was given on the product. There was not much information on the way the product worked neither was there more than one picture so that I could see it from diferent angles. The product is mediocre at best since it is very difficult not only to program but to locate the address. Also I am not very satisfied as to how accurate it is at getting you to your location. This GPS is better suited for someone who already knows the area fairly well but would most likely loose or misdirect someone who is not familiar with there surroundings.

The Iway is a good little gps system. The old line of, you get what you pay for applies here. The Iway does a good job of displaying routes, previewing turns and has quite good graphics. It does take a long time to figure out where it is upon initial start-up. It also is just dead wrong on occasion. The most annoying instances are when it tells you to "arrive at destination at .... feet on the right" and the actual destination is on the left or vice versa. This happens whether you are following the generated route or have made an error and the unit has recalculated. By the way, the Iway is very quick to recover when you do miss a turn, however it does not always change the route to the best or most accurate one. In my limited use I think the Iway likes to make right turns, so often your recalculated directions are a large circle. One final annoyance is the owners manual. It is very hard to follow the more intricate directions and does not tell you everything you need to know. All in all for what I paid for the Iway, I am satisfied. However, I still havent taken it on a trip to someplace where I do not know how to get around.

I bought this unit to use on trips where we get a rental car. I discovered that the car rental companies charge up to $11/day to rent them. In the past, this was still considerably cheaper than buying one but with the advent of inexpensive units like the i250C, I decided the tide had turned and it made more sense to buy.
br /
br /Having experience with a much more expensive factory GPS unit in my own car, I was expecting to have to consideraly lower my expectations. In some ways I was right, in others, not so much
br /
br /My first impression was that it was similar to those assemble yourself items where the vendor has succeeded in significantly lowering the price by basically pushing the work to assemble or use it off to the customer. If you're in to doing these things it can be a good deal.
br /
br /Here are the main issues I had:
br /
br /Startup Time
br /
br /It takes a long time (five minutes or more) to lock on to a signal unlike my car system which appears instantaneous (note: this may be partly due to antenna differences). After some frustration, I learned, whenever possible, to wait five minutes after turning on the unit before leaving. Otherwise it might turn out I was going in the completely wrong direction.
br /
br /Accuracy
br /
br /For the most part the unit was pretty accurate. However, there were times, especially in places where the are a lot of streets a short distance apart, where it would take us on quite a detour. Fortunately, given that it is designed to recalculate a course on the fly, even if it makes a miscalculation at one point, it will eventually get you to the destination. Aggravating this is the fact that it was occasionally off the mark on very short distances (e.g. turn right 200 feet ahead might actually be 20 feet). This would lead to missing turns but again, due to its self correcting nature, we would eventually get to our destination.
br /
br /In general I would say this happened probably 5-10% of the time. The rest of the time it was pretty good. I also learned that it helped a lot to look at the units display on a regular basis rather than relying on the voice alone. It was far more accurate than the voice in terms of making sure I turned at the right time. The voice alone can also be confusing at times. For example, it might say "right turn in 86 miles". Not very useful. In fairness, though, even on my car system I find the need from time to check the display and not just rely on the voice.
br /
br /Choosing destinations.
br /
br /The user interface for choosing destinations is actually quite good given the relatively low cost of the unit. The only real complaint I had was that it did not let you choose a city to narrow down the list. Instead I had to position the map at the city of interest and then do the search. Also, the limit on the number of displayed characters of place names could be a problem when there were many names that were the same for the displayed number of characters (for example: a hotel chain will have the first n characters the same for all its hotels). My car system allows you to horizontally scroll to see long names.
br /
br /Distance indication
br /
br /This behavior may be good or bad depending on your outlook. When you enter a destination,once the display screen is updated, it only appears to show destination to the next turn. If you told your wife this was going to be a 20 mile trip and its really 200 miles, this could be a good thing. Otherwise, when you arrive at the 20 mile point and suddenly the display changes and says another 50 miles,etc. it could be frustrating. Since I bought this only for vacations where supposedly one doesn't worry too much about distances, it was not a significant issue for me but could be for some.
br /
br /In summary, I think this is a pretty good unit for the price as long as you adjust your behavior to compensate for the slow signal acquisition time and are not in a great hurry to reach your destination.
br /

This is my first GPS purchase and after doing a lot of research, I believe I made the right choice in choosing the Lowrance iWay 250C Multimedia GPS Portable Navigation System, although everyone has their own preferences, for me, this unit is the perfect mix of features and price. I do not do a lot of traveling, but have a wife and son that are "Direction Challenged", so navigating outside of the immediate township is a challenge for them.
br /
br /In addition, I prioritized the ability to load electronic navigational charts very high, as I have a small boat. Because Lowrance is a leading manufacturer of Marine products, there are more then an average number of options for charts it can use, so you can shop around for good prices.
br /
br /Like most products, the unit's firmware was one revision behind when received and I found the upgrade process went very smooth and easy.
br /
br /I agree the initial satellite acquisition time after power up is a little slow (typically 3-4 min for me), but once it is up it works great, typically grabbing 8 or 9 of the 12 sat's when mounted inside my car and using the iWAY's internal antenna
br /
br /The unit has limited reading of street names - it will say the street name as long as it is a numbered street or has the word in its vocabulary (Street, Road, Left, etc). We have a Street Rd. (street is the name of the road !) In my case I was surprised to hear it say "turn left on Street Road".
br /
br /While the MP3 player might not be as slick as some dedicated MP3 players, it allows you to load music and play it back, so that works for me !
br /
br /My only gripe I have is not really a Lowrance exclusive issue, and that is outdated Maps. The Navteq maps on my unit are 1Q-06 (first quarter of '06). Navteq updates their maps 4 times a year, but you cannot get the maps from them directly, but need to wait for Lowrance to massage them and put them in a format the device can use. I have sent over 40 updates to Navteq in the last 2 days alone and my reward will be paying a hefty price to get the updated maps !
br /
br /All in all, if you want a great, easy to use GPS, the iWAY 250C is for you. BTW, it was rated as one of the top 10 GPS's in June '07, per one of leading web sites.
br /

My wife and I were interested in purchasing a navigation system, but did not want to spend $500+ for some of the higher end systems that we had seen in the stores. I ordered the Lowrance iWay 250C Multimedia GPS Portable Navigation System after reading several favorable reviews on the internet. After receiving the iWay, we tried to play around with it while we were in the house, but the GPS satellite was unable to locate us. The manual did say that obstructions such as trees, buildings, even the roof of your car, may cause interference. To make a long story short, we tried the iWay on several occasions, short trips to the store, and longer trips around town to see if it would work. In most cases, the satellite either took and extraordinarily long time to find us, or was completely unable to locate us at all. On the one instance when we were actually able to plan a route, the iWay plotted a much longer route than we would normally take. Aside from that, we felt that the iWay was not very intuitive. It seemed difficult and tedious at times to program the system and even our home's location was not recognized on the map. I would not want to rely on this if I were lost or somewhere out of town. I've tried out some of the more expensive units in electronics stores which seemed to be much more intuitive and I will probably save my money and invest in one of those.

I have had this unit for about 9 months.
br /
br /It is relatively easy to see and the interface works well.
br /
br /It generally gives pretty good directions, but (and this is huge) in October of 2007 we needed to get to Indianapolis airport from the Cincinnati area. We were guided through a series of dead end roads. Almost missed our plane. It turned out well for us, but this could be a huge issue for others.
br /
br /The battery life is horrible and takes forever to charge. If you do not have a constant powered outlet in your vehicle this will not stay charged.
br /
br /You cannot use the picture viewer through the SD card and have maps at the same time as they are not stored internally, but on the SD card.
br /
br /The unit takes forever to find satellites. It often takes 10 minutes or more.
br /
br /It causes interference with AM radio and as an avid AM listener this is a big problem.
br /
br /Overall I have not been impressed and am very close to returning to Garmin and considering this a lost cause.

I always marvel at the 'love-hate' variations from user to user on product reviews. In my case, the 250C has performed quite well with functionality and features comparable to the last Garmin I owned (passed down to my daughter). Trying to be realistic and balanced there are things I like more and less about this GPS:
br /Pro:
br /*Excellent 2D display w/ variable map scaling. At freeway speeds, the display extends about 11 miles; as you slow, the scale shrinks down to 200'.
br /*The touchscreen works well (use your finger nail or the included stylis - don't fat-finger it)
br /*No more irritating "Re-calculating" nag that Garmin thinks is cute when you ignore the GPS instructions.
br /*Very fast route recalculation when you deviate
br /*Great NavTeq map software
br /Con:
br /*The initial satellite synchronization is slower than Garmin, but hardly painful (typically I will lock on 6 satellites)
br /*Until you configure the display to meet personal preferences, it is possible to have "too much" information on the screen
br /*The screen by screen navigation for selecting options/destinations could stand some improvement.
br /
br /All in all a fine GPS aid that reflects a heck of a value. I'm clearly cheap, but still 'discerning' in my buying decisions.

Unit received in good condition, Works pretty good. Gets confused occasionally, usually around town, I can really confuse "Miss Patience" which is what I call the women in the box because she does not get upset if I ignore her. We have rear garages with alleys if I am in the alley across from my home to make sure I am facing the correct way when I park. She tries to tell me I am in front of my house when i am still in the ally.
br /She seems to learn my preferred route, although I am still testing that mode.
br /Well worth the price for unfamiliar territory, Voice mode is great for warnings of upcoming exits on the highway although new roads are a problem. Not her fault.
br /

I use to panic when traveling long distance,but this GPS helped me relax and enjoy my trip. This summer i took three trips, each one was over five hours. The Lowrance iWay 250C was on point with every single turn. Even if you take a wrong turn it puts you back on the right route. Why buy an expensive GPS, that blacks out while passing through tunnels, or under paths. I am very satisfied and I love my GPS.

The iway 250 is a very helpful tool to have for anyone.
br /It is very simple to use and you cannot get lost when using it. Even if you take a wrong turn it will correct your trip and tell you how to get back on track. It is better than stopping at the local gas station, which I never did anyway. I recommend this to anyone.

Just returned from a 400 miles trip from Toronto to the very small town in NY and back. All places where found despite that the maps are from 2006. The map looks like one you are getting from Google Maps. You can ask unit to use pay routes, avoid through ways, even avoid left turn. I tried to full the unit many times, it was able to recover and provide an alternate path in a seconds. It has very nice features, it also records your path and you can transfer all your routes to Google Earth (you need to convert *.usr data to *.kml. Search the Internet, there is some programs that can do it for free. TrackMaker, for example). I asked a technical support several questions through Lowrance web site and received a response by e-mail in a couple of hours. Very satisfied. My first GPS.

Mine did not work ever. Ten calls to tech support, got through once and he hung up on me when I said that my machine ( a christmas gift) could not find a single satellite and I did not want to move to Tulsa.
br /Waste of money for this one. They want a credit card number to even think about taking a look at it.
br /AVOID THIS CHEAP PRODUCT

I recently purchased the iWay 250C and attempted to plot a trip to my son's home in Jacksonville, NC. Even thought his street and address have been in effect longer than 5 years, the iWay said it did not exist. I had to call him to get his personal latitude and longitude to locate him. The unit did not direct me to his home but got close to the turn to his street.
br /
br /It also got lost and gave us incorrect turn directions to and returning on the trip. My wife became confused due to the vocal direction instructions causing us some delay to reset the unit.
br /
br /It also requires a stylus instead of finger touch-point for accuracy on the screen.
br /
br /When reporting the address discrepancies, I did not receive any response from Lowrance.
br /
br /I was looking forward to my first experience with an auto GPS but was very disappointed with its lack of database and directions. Therefore, the item has been returned. I am awaiting to see how well refunds and gift certificates are handled.

This is my first GPS and I bought it for curiousity since my wife is the best GPS for me. Out of the box, it is perfect look. That evening we went out for dinner and then go to Target using the GPS for nevigation. It is not bad at all, but gave me different route that I used to drive on. The next day, we drove from NJ to Long Island via Lindon Tunnel and Midtown Tunnel. The GPS was generating a route since I left my home. All the way through NJ Turnpike until I got on Queens, NY, the GPS finally got my route and take us to my destination in a local street. For the whole two hours, we turned it back on twice and happened the same. I returned it and I think I will never buy a GPS again.

LEt me tell you, that I had a great experience with this GPS, I traveled 15 days ago from Miami, Fl to Cleveland, OH, all adresses were found without any problem, every time that I created a new route, I didn't have any problem, always arrived on time, and with trully information, just a couple times it took a little time searching position, but when it's ready, it works great, this is my first GPS system, it's affordable, and made a great job, it has been really helpful on my trip. I traveled around NC too, and everything was great. never lost, always find right place and the mp3 works good, and nice presentation. it looks good .

Have had the Iway 250C for almost a year and it does all that I ask. However, upgrade required directly from manufacturer was difficult to perform. Needed help from a computer geek. Compared it to this year's models and found no reason to change.

The Iway250C is a great low end unit that will not get you lost.
br /Unit does have trouble locking on and getting a signal at start-up (2-3 minutes).
br /Decent MP3 player and picture viewer. Both extras are limited to the amount of space on the 2GB memory card.
br /
br /This unit is being discontinued so if you can find it for $100-120 go for it !

This GPS has worked well for me. I like the 3D mapping better than others I have seen. It has all the features that I need. You can find any point of interest you are looking for. The user interface was easy for me to figure out, I didn't have to read any instructions. I would recommend this product to anyone looking to buy a GPS for there vehicle.

This is a good GPS for this price. It may takes a while to sync sometimes and the battery life is short. But it has a lot of options and informations when you compare with more expensive GPS.

I've used the 250c now for 2-1/2 months. It found a remote chuch on a dirt road in Vermont for us; guided us through tricky turns to an IKEA in Toronto; located and guided me to a remote church in New Hampshire for a funeral. Once you understand how to use its via point capabilities, and some of its more complicated functionality, it's a great GPS for the money.

I bought it to help me find my way when I'm lost and so far it has been fine for just that. The maps and colors are vivid and easy to read and it's loaded with plenty of points of interest. I would have given it 5 of 5, but it takes a little long to locate a satellite when you first turn it on.

Purchase the iWay 250c for my 15 days vacation to Orlando and did not regret it. My options at the time was to rent a vehicle with a navigation system at a cost of $10.00 per day or buy one which I would not be able to use in my country ( I am from Trinidad W.I.). Then I came across iWay 250c with full-featured MP3 player and JPEG picture viewer which I could use after my vacation. The price I paid $189.00 verse the rental of $10.00 per day, I came out on top. Now I have a navigation system to use anytime I visit the U S and a mp3 player and picture viewer to listen to my music and show off my pictures at anytime.
br /The iWay 250c was on spot, except when we coming from Orlando airport to Kissimmee it told us to take Exit 64B, there is no Exit 64B only Exit 64 which we eventually took after it re-routed us back to exit 64. The other issue I had, it took long to find my current position, however I got over that by leaving it in standby mode instead of power off or switch it on long before we leave the hotel. The iWay 250c made life easy, we use the POIs or put in the address and we arrive at our destination, except when we were not listening to the turn-by-turn instructions and had to be re-routed. Great product and the price was right.

I am an truck Driver and Have put over 90,000miles on it, my only major complaint is that if I Key up my cb mic that it loosed its positon, It is accurite most of the time.

Very pleased with it. Was impressed that while travelling through Pa. farmlands, every small road was identified and directed us back to the hotel. Will especially come in handy for out of town travel and the fact it's not built into the car, we can take it anywhere.It will be our constant travelling companion.

This is my first GPS, As everybody said this unit takes time to find the current location and takes about 30 sec. But once it finds the current location then it is good. Also if you miss the exit then recalculation takes another 30 Sec. which is not a big deal because we are not going to do anything in 30 Sec. I used for two trips and it very very helpful and very good. It would be much better if this unit can say the road names but it is ok for me. seems to be always taking easy route in local which is good for me. Instalation in the car with holder vibrates which is little inconvinient but I am able to hear the direction very well also it tells you like 100 ft.... like this is very helpful. I like the unit.
br /
br /Thanks
br /RM (Dallas, TX).

I actually purchased this for my wife, she kept nagging me so i picked this one and WOW was i amazed, this is a MUST have in this day and age, at first when it arrived i didn't think anything of it until she started using it and then she showed me all the features it can do, i still wasn't convinced until i started fooling around with it, i was amazed so much that i told all my friends, now everyone has one, so i guess i do know how to pick em (lol.

I love this unit. I am amazed at it's accuracy which is often within 20 ft. Maps need a little updating but for the most part pretty accurate. If you shut down the unit be prepared to wait a couple of minutes before it picks up the satellites. I wish it had a seperate SD slot for music because there is little room on the card with the maps to add anything else, so you can either have maps or music but not both. For the price it is a bargain as compared to others out there with less features on them. You can pick up a DC to Ac lighter adapter to charge it at a local dollar store for about 5 bucks and charge it at home or use it as an MP3 player without running down the battery.

This one was so great. It's a 3 in one tool GPS, pictures and music. It's easy to use and can be compare with other more expensive GPS.

Extremely easy to use right out of the box. I also discovered that it makes an off-road path to follow back out of woods, camping areas, etc. That was very helpful. Within days of using it I went to Cape Cod (more than 600 miles from my house.) It was perfect.

Purchased this device to take a road trip across the Southern United States June 2007. This device was easy to upgrade on the pc with the USB cable prior to departing for our trip.
br /
br /Unit stopped working on the trip, took it back to Bass Pro, and it was replaced, discovered that we were sold a unit that had been returned. So, no fault of the i250c.
br /
br /We love the product, have used it for many things in the past year, all trips to unknown territory we use this device. We find it very helpful in getting where we are going, the POI's are good, we have only found one address that the GPS couldn't find. But when speaking to the owner of the BB, she said all people that come to her say their GPS can't find her, it stops 2 blocks from the house, which is what this one did.
br /
br /For the money, it is worth every dime, it save a lot of frustration trying to find locations in unfamiliar territory.

The first one we got didn't have all the necessary software installed, so we decided to give it another chance and exchanged it.
br /This is NOT a pull-out-of-the-box-and-use product. It's NOT user friendly at all. And even after reading the entire manual and supposedly setting up the GPS, it STILL didn't work correctly.
br /Do yourself a favor and spend the extra money to get one of the more well-known GPS units like Garmin or TomTom.

How could we live before without a gps device? first time gps user and very pleased with the product.
br /
br /pros: nice screen, maps work flawlessly, lots of settings to customize your device, looks good, locks good to windshield, ready to use, all u need is there.
br /
br /cons: if set in standby mode, battery drains out real fast. if u miss a turn it takes a while to reroute long trips.
br /
br /excellent device, easy to work around the little things its missing. if driving within a city it reroutes quite fast, voice prompts of turns in time, and ETA and time calculation is very accurate.
br /overall, very pleased.

I have used the product several times. Once it gets the current location set up it routes the map nicely. If the location is on the maps - it will take you exactly to the location you are seeking. However I live in a rural county and there are locations that are just not on the card. My own town is not on the product.

Purchased this untit after returning another brand. Maping is eeamless in the US and Canada. I found that the voice instructions sometimes get confused at unusual intersections, circles, etc. but the map directions were accurate. I took a trip from NH to Prince Edward Island and it did a great job directing me right to our motel on PEI. Only problem was that many streets and towns on this small island were not in the searchable database, but all roads even the most remote were mapped. never experienced the delays noted elsewhere

br /The product was easy to set up and has been as good as advertised. Am very satisfied with its performance.

Purchased as my first GPS through recommendation from a friend. Perfect operation although the maps/POI's are a few years old. Have contacted Lowrance for details on updating maps/POI's but have not received email response.
br /
br /This is a small compact GPS unit that will get you where you need to go. Screen is programmable so you can customize layout to fit your need. Yes it includes a stylus but it works fine using my finger.
br /
br /I have used a few different brands in rental cars over the years and this one is just as good as those more expensive units.
br /
br /Includes a built-in MP3 player and digital picture viewer but have not used these features as I purchased for use as a GPS.
br /
br /I like the fact that it has built-in batteries. Not sure how long the full-charge will last but it's a nice feature nonetheless.
br /
br /I also like the included suction-cup windshield holder. Holds tight even in the hot sun and allows me to position just where I need it.
br /
br /Bottom line - if you don't want to spend more than $200 for a GPS then this is the unit for you!

This is my first GPS unit and I love it! It arrived right before I was leaving for the beach and I took it with me and was able to learn it while using it. The unit has a clear easy to read screen and learns my preferences pretty quickly! I also recently used it on a trip to the Poconos and it was able to direct me through the mountains, even when I had to take a detour due to road work. I was VERY impressed that it could route me through unnamed roads and get me to where I was going.
br /I highly recommend it, although as mentioned at times it does take a little while to find the position but that seems like a small inconvenience for all you get.

This device is easy to use. It has all the preloaded maps and voice guidance .

This surely is not a recommedable product among GPS devices. When I went to Sandy hook NJ from NYC. It took me around 10 minutes to find directions. Too slow. Don't buy cheap one if you don't want to regret.

Must to wait for a long time for pre-position, very slowly calculation and re-calculation, etc.. I returned this item through couple days and buy new one Garmin Nuvi 350 - this is great item, I really like it, probably best one on the market.

My sense of direction is not so good. So I purchased this system for my passion - Antique and 2nd hand store shopping in Denver. It will enter all the adresses I want to go to, sort them by distance and it will get me there with no problem. For an inexpensive system this works great for me.

I am what's called directionally challenged and I wear this banner proudly.
br /So when I decided to go to my family reunion this year made up my mind to buy a GPS. I was determined not to spend most of my time lost on vacation :-).
br /Well after much research I purchased the Lowrance iWAY 250c.
br /I love this machine.
br /It got me from the airport to my sister's home in less the twenty minutes. Everyone was surprise and the iWay was the hit of my vacation everyone wanted to use it and did.
br /I look forward to using it on my next adventure very soon which will be Long Beach CA
br /The turn by turn navigation is sweet.
br /

I was in a bind I needed to get a replacement for my busuness I had just paid 300.00 for the same thing at a local retail store they were out it was a Xmas item only. went on line found exacxtly what I wanted at about half the price and saced me many hours tring to find one and many more in finding the outes i use for my business.
br /
br /Thanks Amazon
br /
br /Jeff miller

I bought this for my husband for fathersday.
br /He is so pleased with this.
br /What a great purchase.
br /It arrived quickly, as I asked for 2 day shipping.
br /Wonderful product, wonderful service.

i bought this item last month.i was be fooled. yeah its cheap but if you are going to buy this i suggest you to add some money and go for garmin or you will get Mio with same budget.
br /this is a toy not a navigation unit. so dont buy for navigation.
br /in sunlight you can hardly see the screen.very bad.
br /heavy unit compair to another navigation units.
br /Re-routing is slow. Very slow. Weighs one bazillion pounds! Don't be fooled. This is not a touch screen.It also requires a stylus instead of finger touch-point for accuracy on the screen.
br /
br / It's a "mash your finger really hard into the screen" touch screen. It's technically a "pressure sensing screen". UGH!
br / It's NOT user friendly at all. And even after reading the entire manual and supposedly setting up the GPS, it STILL didn't work correctly.
br /
br /It takes very long for the product to connect to the satellites. So, you have to wait sometimes 8 minutes before it starts navigating.
br /This navigational system is useless.
br /Third, it does have a built-in mp3 player but it might as well not have it. The sound is pretty bad. And if, heaven forbid, you try to play music while it's in the process of making ANY calculation whatsoever, the sound gets worse and the calculation gets much slower.
br /
br /DONT LOSE YOUR MONEY GO FOR MIO OR GARMINE.
br /

It takes very long for the product to connect to the satellites. So, you have to wait sometimes 8 minutes before it starts navigating. I returned it in one week of use.