Having just got my 296 and taken it for a 65 knot amble down to Normandy and back, I give it a big thumbs up.
The screen is readable in strong daylight, even looking over the passengers shoulder from the back of a Cub. At full brightness the battery life is about 7 hours.
Unfortunately they made a bad batch of car power leads, and my one fell apart very quickly. But the nice folk at HM assure me that a free replacement will be sent out as soon as the new batch arrive.
The USB interface can fill up a 128MB data card in about 4 minutes, which will give street level mapping for all the UK plus a fair chunk of NW France. The automotive function is pretty good, a 'goto' on a town or address will give turn by turn instructions, and recalculate the 'best' route if you diverge from the initial one. You do need the £30 external speaker if you want the voice instructions though.
BTW 'non-Garmin' compatable data cards are around now at about two thirds the cost of the over-priced Garmin variety.