Hopefully you read my pre-review of the Garmin nuvi 255W GPS. Well, I put it through its paces on a 1,200 round-trip jaunt, and am much more familiar with it now.

In a word: I love this GPS. It got my family and I to Indiana from Maryland without a hitch. The display is very easy to read, with a big purple line showing you which direction to go in. The voice directions were top-notch, with almost all the road names pronounced correctly. It normally warns you of a road change, like a highway exit, in plenty of time (normally when you’re just less than a mile away) to prepare.

One of my favorite features is the detour function, and it worked perfectly. In Ohio, for example, we were about to take an exit ramp from one highway to another. But when we got to the ramp, we found that it was blocked because of an overturned tractor-trailer.

Uh-oh. We were in completely unfamiliar territory. What to do? Easy; just hit the “Detour” button on the Menu page. It immediately recalculated a detour route, and took us around the accident instantly, putting us back on the new highway just a few miles later than we would have been. I estimate that we lost about five minutes total. No stopping and looking at maps, no guessing and hoping we were going the right way. Folks, that’s awesome.

We also used it to find restaurants on the way. No having to wonder how long it would be until we could eat again; we knew exactly how far away they were, and which ones they were.

One final thing, that I didn’t expect: on each route, it lists the speed limit. I found that functionality to be highly accurate. There were a few times it was off, but not often. Very nice, indeed.

I have complete confidence in the Garmin after this trip. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.