Instruction: Generate an answer to the question by utilizing the information contained in the document.

Input:
Question: How recent are European maps in this unit?
Document: I bought this solely for multiple business trips to Germany and France where I needed to do a lot of driving. It was the lowest priced unit that had both European and North American maps included. It came with one free map upgrade (I didn't try to call and get both), so I upgraded the European maps upon receipt of the unit.
i highly recommend this Sat/Nav for a trip to the UK. The european maps come pre-installed, making it very useful when driving in the UK. Many roads are tiny, congested, and don't have very good signs. England has the tendency to shut down certain parts of a motorway for what ever reason. This unit is very helpful in working your way around back towards your destination.
The download was more than 3 GigaBites. Luckily I have a 6 MB internet connection so it only took me just over an hour, but to all of you out there with slower than 6 MegaBit be ready to wait hours/days.Now on to the actual operation of the GPS unit. This unit is preloaded with US and European maps which is awesome and extremely convienent if your traveling abroad. Which I do ALOT so thats a great feature.
As this unit came preloaded with USA and European maps, I purchased the Garmin Nuvi 275T specifically for a 10 day long trip to Spain, during which I would drive over 1200 miles. Overall this GPS unit made life significantly easier than reading maps. It was rock solid 90% of the time, with on point directions, ETA, and ease of use.
The unit is small and the screen size is perfectly adequate to read and guide you (I don't really see the need for a widescreen one). It fit easily in my fanny pack or shirt pocket for security, so as not to leave it in the car.One major downside that I would grade Garmin one star for is their map update policy. You pay a premium to get a unit like this that has both US and European maps.
I bought the 275t for one reason: the included European maps.I used it on a trip to Venice and environs, pedestrian and highway use, and I carried it everywhere.Venice is the ultimate GPS obstacle course: narrow streets, pedestrian only, and endless alleyways/canals. I lost satellite signal often (signal was not accessible 50% of time) in Venice, but despite this, the GPS unit was still a help.
I chose this unit because in addition to basic navigation I wanted to use the FM traffic feature for driving to work and the European maps for walking and driving around in Europe (I am a flight attendant and spend a lot of time there).1-NAVAGATION- The primary function of a GPS is navagation-period. Whatever else it does is secondary to that and this unit provides very poor navagation. The best route to most places where I live is I95.
I bought this unit in preparation for a trip to the wine country of southern France and northern Italy. As this unit was the only affordable one that had European and North American maps, it seemed like an obvious choice. However, I was troubled by some of the reviews that reported difficulty getting a signal in parts of Europe, especially in Italy. Well, I just got back from my trip and the unit worked perfectly the entire time I was overseas.
I paid about $270 for my 275T, it was the least expensive unit that had European maps pre-installed. Buying the European map separately would cost you approximately $150 and the UK-only map runs about $99.The 275T operation is fairly straight forward. It has all of the normal features that one would expect to find on a modern GPS unit to include a fairly robust POI (Point Of Interest) database loaded with gas stations, restaurants, airports etc...
I bought this unit for a recent trip to Europe hoping the pre-loaded Euro map could help me.It turned out that it was a huge disappointment.The response time was very very very slow in Europe. So it virtually was useless to guide any navigation.The map is very rough , not much details. Most of streets are unnamed.
Answer: I bought my GPA in 2010 but it has been used several times since then and worked fine. I am going to Italy in a few weeks and someone told me they thought I could update the maps before I left.