On ScottC's rec (via his DoTD on his blog a couple of weeks ago), I bought a Garmin nüvi 670 and the Garmin Portable Friction Dashboard Mount for just over $400 from Amazon.com. Price seemed fair to me. The 670 has both U.S. Maps (possibly Canada and Mexico too, can't recall) and all of Western Europe.

I've been very happy with the unit over the past few weeks of heavy use both locally (in the Washington, D.C. area) and when traveling (TX, CO, NYC).

Have not expressly tried the trial period free traffic (I wonder if it is routing me around traffic without me knowing) or many of the of add-ons (such as Bluetooth, MP3s, photo viewer, etc). For me, it does what it is supposed to do pretty well.

I too found the suction cup mount a bit hit and miss or hit and drop. Depending on the angle of the windshield, I had to fidget with the mount and the antenna of the unit to get it to sit at the right viewing angle. Once, after a freezing cold night in Colorado, the windshield mounted suction cup popped loose on the first bump in the road. I found the Friction mount more reliable and it did not slide all over the dashboard (admittedly it is more bulky to carry than the windshield mount).

When I registered the unit with Garmin, they offered me a choice of the 2009 U.S. (again, maybe North America) or a Europe update. Since the European maps was basically a whim purchase for me (and most of my travels are in the U.S.) I went with the free 2009 U.S. update. Mac (OSX 10.4 or .5) compatible NOT 10.3.

The various directories found things for me very well. Even a couple of obscure places around D.C. (which I didn't even name properly) were easily found. For those in the Washington, D.C.-area, it did (first time using it, quite frustrating) have totally wrong layout (and hence mis-directed me around) the dreaded "Mixing Bowl" where 95, Beltway, etc. all meet up. I'm hoping the 2009 update fixes that.

Overall, I'm happy with the thing. As I mentioned, it does what it needs to do at a generally fair price for me. I'm happy.