My Favorite Christmas Gift of 2008 : Garmin Nuvi 200

My favorite Christmas gift of 2008 that I received is the Garmin Nuvi 200. Being a directionally challenged person who has lived in the Omaha area for six months this gift was greatly needed and wanted.
I don't know how many gallons of gas I have burned up trying to find my way around so I was so excited to plug the Garmin in and get going. I am not all that tech savvy so I was intimidated at first when I opened the box. The system comes with the unit preloaded with maps of the contiguous 48 states, set up guide,
Dashboard mounting disc and suction cup and a power cable for car.
I love my Garmin and already rely on it but there were a couple detractors that I would be remiss if I did not mention. The instruction manual or as they refer to it the ''Get Up and Go Guide'' I found to be quite lacking. The unit has a memory card slot but the guide does not refer to it or if a card is to be included with this system. After going online to the Garmin website I found that my unit does not need a memory card to function. That information would have been helpful to find in the guide. The guide does not detail charging, memory life etc. Again, according to the website the battery life is expected to last up to five hours. For longer car trips you can charge your unit with the included vehicle connection cable. I was happy I did not have to purchase that as a separate accessory but was surprised that a regular charging cord for indoor use was not included and would have to be purchased separately. To set up my Garmin unit I had to sit out in my car. I was not thrilled with that considering it is Nebraska and it is winter. Brrrrr. I didn't have to sit in the cold too long though. Despite the paltry givings in the instruction manual the unit was incredibly easy to set up. The satellite took less than a minute to acquire a signal and it was wonderfully simple to input addresses and maneuver around in the system. The system has a few fun things that are entertaining although I doubt I will put them to actual use. There is a world clock, currency converter, calculator and a JPEG picture viewer. I am not sure why one would need pictures on their unit but I guess it is nice to know it is there. The unit is very easy to read and the maps are clear. The directions were easy to follow and the best feature of this unit is how compact it is. My Garmin Nuvi 200 is small and lightweight. I can take it with me in another vehicle or even on vacation in a rental vehicle and not have to pay extra for that rental feature. This is a handy little device and now that I have it I can't imagine trying to navigate in unfamiliar territory without it.