Garmin GTM 25 Traffic Receiver (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

HELLO AGAIN AMAZON FANS EVERYWHERE!!!!So, a few weeks ago, my wife gets into her car, looks around for the GPS'S mount and cord only to find that they are not there; long sory short - some low life got into her car, took the bean bag mount, the power cord, and a cassette adapter for her mp3 player.Replacing the mount and adapter is not too hard on the wallet; and we were able to quickly pick up a 12 volt power cord with a mini USB end from R+dio Sh+ck to hold us over for the GPS (hated it btw, the GPS detects it as being hooked to a pc and only after a minute or two finally displays the maps).We got an idea what the cost of the cord alone was going to be a year or so ago when researching the GPS (model 265Wt) and were not looking forward to shelling out well over $100 for a new one. So it was a pleasant surprise to find the cord here at a decent discount.Mind you, there was never a thought in our minds to just skip the more expensive power cord for a cheaper non traffic version; we like this cord a whole lot.We ordered the cord from AMAZON, it came very quickly, was gratefully received, and already has been put to use.Doing research, before we bought our GPS with the free traffic option, I read numerous reviews, here and elsewhere, complaining primarily about two things: - The traffic service is Ad supported - The coverage is not in every area.On the first point (to the spoiled little anarchists out there) I would like to mention a couple of things some folks may have encountered: Broadcast TV & Broadcast Radio. The last time I checked these 'Free' entities used commercials to pay for themselves. Not only that they do it in a VERY ANNOYING AND OFTEN LOUD BLARING WAY.Not so with the ads I have seen on the GPS; in fact it has never been more than a little banner that pops up for a very short while then goes away again. Unlike a radio ad that you are basically forced to sit through before you can resume listing to the broadcast, or a TV ad that takes up the whole screen and again forces you to sit through it, the traffic banner does not take up more than maybe 1/4 inch of the screen, the maps are still there for you to see, the routing is not interrupted & no one is yelling at you to buy their junk. If that is too intrusive for you then either pay extra for a ad free traffic service or use your cell phone.Which brings me to the second gripe people have: coverage area.Do you condemn a cell phone manufacturer because their phones dont work in areas where there is no service??I am old enough to remember TV before cable or satellite where you sometimes only had a few stations available to watch as well as taking long drives and having to scan the dial on the radio to find something to listen to after driving out of a stations broadcast range. Look at us now; there are so many options available to us with satellite radio, mp3 players, etc; you do not have to spend a moment of your life in silence again.Like TV and Radio, the money goes where the people and demand are. This service is still fairly new and over time, as more and more people use it, the service will expand as well.Pros and Cons......Other than the cost of the cord I can not think of any real negatives; and even that is understandable.As for pros, I really like how it gives you a heads up in advance of possible traffic jams ahead. Our GPS, along with the traffic icon turning from Green to Yellow to Red, even will say "Traffic Ahead".The GPS then automatically directs us off the route we are on and takes us around the congestion and then back on our original route.No matter how you slice it, dice it, or mix it - other than the cost of the device itself - the service is free. Although we always have the GPS on when we travel, if I had to pay a subscription fee, I would not use the service; I just do not travel enough in congestion prone areas to warrant the additional cost.Although coverage is not 100% nation wide, where it works it works well; it has pulled us out of more than one traffic mess.Extremely easy to use: plug it in and go.If this cord gets stolen as well we will be back for another.Have a Magical Day!

I found it very difficult to find information on how this works and what it does, so I took a little gamble based on the only review here at Amazon. After using it for a couple of weeks, I have to wonder if the other review is a shill--it would have been nice to know what to expect, not just "it's great" sort of thing.So I'll try to pass along my view of what this can do and why it is limited (based on my experiences with a Nuvi 205)You simply use this in place of your DC adapter in your automobile, making it essentially invisible to you (nice--no extra wires to run). As you are driving, it is a receiver of publicly broadcast traffic information for the area you are in (thus the service is free) "when available". When your Garmin detects these broadcasts, it somehow compares the information it gets with your location and planned route. Garmin puts a little traffic icon on you display, indicating how traffic will affect your travel.The icon is color coded--Green for no problems, yellow for some delay, and red for major delay. I think Garmin takes into account the delays on your route in calculating the arrival time. It does look for alternate routes, and I believe that if it finds a better one, it will automatically reroute you.If you tap on the traffic icon, it Garmin takes you to another screen with some options: 1. view traffic map 2: see traffic on route and 3: see traffic in area. Since there were no instructions provided with the product I'm not sure exactly how you're supposed to use these, but I'll share how I think they work:1. view traffic map: This simply changes your navigation map slightly so that the bad traffic areas are highlighted (in yellow or red) as you drive. I don't know why this is done as a separate map--why don't they just color code the navigation map?2. Traffic on route gives you a zoomed-out map showing where you are and where the traffic issues are3: Traffic in area shows a list of all the major roads in your area for which there are reports and color codes them. I found this to be the most useful feature.So that's what it does (maybe it does more, but I haven't figured anything else out yet), but how well does it work?The simple answer is that the device does what it is supposed to, but it is limited by the information presented to it. I've used it now a few times in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and on a vacation that had me drive up the PA Turnpike, to upstate New York, to Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Watertown, NY. For the most part, the information presented on Garmin was never any better than that which could have been heard on a local radio station.The coverage did not seem bad--every metro area we were near did have reporting. The only places without reporting were pretty rural.On the vacation, we encountered 4 separate traffic backups (in areas with reporting), only 2 of which Garmin knew about. The two that it knew about, it estimated our delay as about 1 or 2 minutes, but one was really 15 minutes and one was over an hour. The two delays that Garmin did not know about were significant--one was a half hour, and one was a closed highway that cost us over an hour (and made us miss a ferry we were scheduled for). In the worst cases, had Garmin had the information, I'm sure it would have given us a better route. It's not Garmin's fault, but it does show you the limitations.So bottom line is that this device works, but it is limited in the information available to it. Is it worth getting? That is up to you--I like having some insight into what is going on around me, even if it didn't change things for me. It's kind of neat seeing the list of different roads and there problems--perhaps this will help more if you are a commuter in a major metro area. If you do get this though, don't expect miracles--you'll have to experiment a little and use it like I do--as a tool that provides some more information to you (albeit not perfect)--and not a say-all, end-all on what you should do.

IT WORKS WELL.

I purchased this to see if it would be worth saving the expense of purchasing a new unit with built-in traffic coverage. It easily lived up to this expectation. It installs easily (just exchange it with the existing power cord) and behaves as expected. Sometimes it takes more than the advertised five minutes to find the traffic information (but it always finds it within 10 minutes of startup). It adds some nifty features that I can play with (when I'm in the co-pilot's seat).The area coverage provided by the free NAVTEQ-based service is good for the most part. I'm a firm believer in you get what you pay for, so I was pleasantly surprised with the overall coverage on a recent trip to Milwaukee. It displayed accurate traffic delays as far as 200 miles away from metropolitan hubs such as Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.The lone dink I have with this unit is the coverage south of the DC metropolitan area. It works well North of Springfield, VA (the southern point of the infamous Capital Beltway), but 5 miles further south, there is no traffic coverage? I've only been as far South as Fredicksburg, VA (about 60 miles south of DC) so I don't know what the coverage is like south of Fredericksburg. This coverage hole seems odd since the coverage North of DC extends beyond Frederick, MD which is about 30 miles North of the Capital Beltway. Since I live north of the Beltway this isn't a major problem for me, but if I lived south of the Beltway I would be disappointed with the performance of the unit since there doesn't appear to be any coverage.

Needed a new one because my old one stopped charging. It is great for what it is, but price was a bit more than what I expected. I needed it so had to order.

Works ok, shows traffic with expected delays, adding to arrival time. The technology needs a bit more as you cannot always trust it. Sometimes it guides you through a town where there is traffic and delays because of many red lights - I guess you can assume this happens in any town. Other times it shows traffic on motorway and tells you to exit, when the road is actually clear. Anyway better off with than without it - it is there to help but you are the driver and the road decisions are up to you

Not happy. It is not recognised by the sat nav, so TMC is not working. Shame.

Despite the picture indicating this is the cord that has the fuses in it - it arrived and it isn't - and isn't the same as the picture. At least it is doing the job...for now.

Good item. Works good.