Zumo 660 Traffic Receiver

The new Zumo 660 is traffic compatible, but it doesn't come with the traffic receiver.

I was really confused over which traffic receiver works with this unit as there is no info on this on the Garmin website. Also there isn't any information on how the lifetime subscription actually works.

I would like traffic info as I use the GPS in camper as well as motorbike.

After a painful call with Garmin support, I established that:

- Both the Garmin GTM21 and GTM20 receivers are compatible with the Zumo 660.
- The GTM21 will work, but has an external antenna. This model will be retired soon. This is as used with the Zumo 550.
- The GTM20 is not released yet and will replace the GTM21. The crucial difference is that this has an internal antenna. A neater solution. This is the one pictured on P23 of the Zumo 660 manual.
- You buy a traffic receiver and it comes with a lifetimetraffic subscription. Costs about £30. You can add additional countries to it, again all around the same price for a lifetime subscription.
- The traffic subscription lives in the traffic receiver cable, not the GPS unit.
- You plug the receiver into your GPS and enter an unlock code which unlocks traffic info in the receiver.

Has anyone got their hands on a Zumo 660 yet? Keen to hear feedback. Have yet to order mine.

I've never used a traffic receiver - does it work using 'real time data' or are the warnings a few hours old?
I listen to local radio when I'm driving but invariable the warning of traffic delays is 'old news' and either I get stuck in a hold up because something has only just happened or I take a detour because of a radio warning but then find that the cause of the traffic problem was solved and the detour is actually slower than my original route.

Or is it only me

Its real time, from the Trafficmaster network. See all those sensors dangling off motorway bridges and those blue posts that look like speed cameras? Well they are monitoring traffic flow etc., processed centrally and broadcast over FM radio for the GPS traffic receiver to process etc.

Have one for my SP 2720 when used in the cage, TBH I never bother to connect it any more. The few times an alert has come up on a route the blockage has gone by the time I get there. Different for roadworks I suppose but if you listen to the radio...

Maybe different if you spend most of your life on the M-way and major A roads though. I work from home and when I do venture out in the car I tend to cut across country. For use on the bike, where you can filter through stationary traffic I wouldn't both IMHO. Mine will be finding itself on eBay as soon as I have the time to remove it from the car (it's a GTM10, ISTR, that connects to the aerial lead at the back of the radio).