# Which Satnav?



## Deleted member 919 (Dec 4, 2009)

Which Satnav do you recommend (and dont need comments such as i dont need one) as last week i got relieved of my old Navman by the local scroats. Looking at the Tom tom start which seems to be on offer,or maybe the Navigon anyone have one of these?as halfords have offer on these.
Rob


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## biggirafe (Dec 4, 2009)

rebbyvid said:


> Which Satnav do you recommend (and dont need comments such as i dont need one) as last week i got relieved of my old Navman by the local scroats. Looking at the Tom tom start which seems to be on offer,or maybe the Navigon anyone have one of these?as halfords have offer on these.
> Rob



TomTom the 'Home' software is great and automatically updates fixes that have been reported by everyone else using TomToms. There are also load and loads of POI's for free on the net.


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## Apache Two (Dec 4, 2009)

*tom tom*

HI 
TOM TOM is my personnal choice and would not be without.It is a great aid to traveling to new place's to wild camping


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## watchthis (Dec 4, 2009)

Hi
You may also might want to look at this site Reevoo via google...All they do is allow people to write there own reviews so you get some feedback from the user's--just a thought...I have a Tom Tom 920 and have found it pretty good
Bye for now
Freddie


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## biggirafe (Dec 4, 2009)

Mine is TomTom Go. I like the small size,my last one was one ofthe big ones and I found it too distracting in the screen. IMHO you only need a small screen it gives you enough info.

If you have a decent phone you can now get tomtom software for a phone, worth looking at maybe


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## Kontiki (Dec 4, 2009)

I need to get a new satnav, I have been using version 5 of TomTom on my Dell Axim PDA for the past few years. I wish that TomTom would let you put in vehicle size & have more choice of route planning rather than fastest, shortest or avoid motorways. Most of the truck type satnav seem to be very expensive compared to the likes of TomTom.


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## Deleted member 9215 (Dec 4, 2009)

i have a tomtom 920  and have used it in the USA & UK with no probs

dunk


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## tan-all-over (Dec 4, 2009)

We have a Garmin but will see whats going when we update.......really get fed up with remarks at work....." I DON'T NEED A SAT NAV.....they are always wrong....you end up in fords, dead ends, etc etc" We would not be with out our  "bitch"


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## derekfaeberwick (Dec 4, 2009)

dunk said:


> i have a tomtom 920  and have used it in the USA & UK with no probs
> 
> dunk




 Me to, never been to the US of A with it but I do like them. Sorry, I've only ever had Tom Tom's (sounds bad I know, but I have had the odd Sheila as well) some very odd ones come to think of it,but I do think they are 'the bizz'.

 I really should get out more often. Ms. Garmin here I come Hope she pardons the expression.


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## maingate (Dec 4, 2009)

There was an advert on TV for Halfords? ( not 100% certain)

50% off Tom Tom satnavs.


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## bmb1uk (Dec 4, 2009)

I do very well with a road angel


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## maingate (Dec 4, 2009)

BTW for anyone whose satnav battery is fading, do not send it back to the maker as Navman wanted me to do . It was going to cost £50.

I googled battery suppliers and got one for £7, free delivery.


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## robert b (Dec 4, 2009)

ive got an old  tomtom go 500 i swear bye it.also got tomtom at home for it get my updates on line so easy to use.


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## fred ee (Dec 4, 2009)

I have both TomTom 920 and Garmin 6** and find the Garmin is more intuitive and user friendly. In addition, the display is brighter and, therefore, easier to see in bright conditions.


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## ajs (Dec 4, 2009)

.

i have 2... both garmins... 1 for going and tother fer cummin back..



seriously, I’ve had this debate several times and every time I’ve loaned my 2720 out for comparison 
against a tantrum it has always persuaded towards the garmin.

the other 1 is an old quest 1... with built in rechargeable battery..
ideal for having in yer pocket walking about in strange towns...
and cross country.

btw.. they are both waterproof and have been used on the bike(s), and in the car and van


(both were bought second hand)


e-bay will have no end of then just after xmas as peeps upgrade.. 
suss out the features you want/need an yer budget and 1 will come along sooner rather than later





regards 
aj


_btw.. the dogs danglies in the garmin range is now the zumo_
_http://www.garmin.com/garmin/cms/site/uk/aboutgarmin_


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## derekfaeberwick (Dec 5, 2009)

allan b;77674[FONT="Arial Black" said:
			
		

> ]ive got an old  tomtom go 500 i swear bye it.[/FONT]



 I've got an old TomTom but it swears at me!



 Kinthingllbebinnedifitdoesitagain!Q


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## Deleted member 967 (Dec 5, 2009)

Just been down to Ayesgarth for a couple of days.

My Garmin 5000 was annoying the hell out of us by keep jumping off its flexible mounting cradle. 

Every time I hit a bump the sat nav landed on the dashboard.

When I got home yesterday afternoon I decided to find out why.  The mount is designed to fix to the dash and it had a springy bendable metal plate the bends to a shape and hold the sat nav at the angle you want it for viewing.  Somehow mine had got bent down nearer the dash and the spring action was allowing the release button on the bottom to contact the dash surface and out came the sat nav every bump.  Now fixed by bending it up again.


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## Deleted member 9215 (Dec 5, 2009)

derekfaeberwick said:


> Me to, never been to the US of A with it but I do like them. Sorry, I've only ever had Tom Tom's (sounds bad I know, but I have had the odd Sheila as well) some very odd ones come to think of it,but I do think they are 'the bizz'.
> 
> I really should get out more often. Ms. Garmin here I come Hope she pardons the expression.



hi there i have the american voice on mine (by chioce) because it tells me to turn at the roadring  roundabout 
and she has a nice voice

dunk


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## biggirafe (Dec 5, 2009)

dunk said:


> hi there i have the american voice on mine (by chioce) because it tells me to turn at the roadring  roundabout
> and she has a nice voice
> 
> dunk



My Favorite is Ozzy Osbourne but Nicole won't let me use him when the kids are with us


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## Deleted member 919 (Dec 5, 2009)

Will wait til i see how much insurance will pay out before i decide,have just had ok for lock replacement which was an arm and leg (full set of locks and keys) so there might be little left for satnav and reversing camera
Rob


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## kenjones (Dec 5, 2009)

I've been very pleased with my Garmin. I own a model which is now obsolete but still works well after about 4 years.
Like many other sat nav users I wouldn't like to go far without it.
Navigon also look interesting.
As for security I bought a safe from maplins which holds sat nav, camera etc. and secures by a locking cable to the seat frame. It looks strong but i'm hoping it will never be put to the test!


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## John H (Dec 5, 2009)

We have had a Garmin for two years and are very happy with it. I don't know much about the differences between them but those who do tell me that Garmin and Tom-Tom are the two to go for. My son-in-law has a Tom-Tom which he is also very happy with but I note that the display on the Garmin is clearer to read (which matters at my age!). As long as you ignore the "short-cuts" they find across fields they are a brilliant invention. Happy travels.


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## maingate (Dec 5, 2009)

I have a 5 year old Navman and my wife has a newer but basic Tom Tom.

I prefer mine because if you only have limited info on your destination (like a rural postcode), you can be miles out. The Navman has a facility to "show" the map of your destination and you can move the cursor to get more info and pinpoint your destination. The Tom Tom does not have this.

Which more modern satnavs have this facility, as I will need to change sometime. Any help would be appreciated.


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## Chrissy (Dec 5, 2009)

*Can't always do that*



John H said:


> As long as you ignore the "short-cuts" they find across fields they are a brilliant invention. Happy travels.



Unless you know that it is taking you on one their "short cuts", as in you know the area, then off you go on an adventure on what seems to be a normal road and then you end up down muck roads that are dead ends.  That said, if you keep it on fastest (quickest) rather than shortest then there doesn't seem to be much of a problem with any of them.  We have it on fastest but put a miles/hour limiter on it to keep it real.  Some of the older ones are not much cop but as the technology has developed and "fixes" have been put in then they are much of a muchness and probably only asthetics to choose between as you get the spec that you pay for (usually).

There are always bargains to be had though and I bought a factory reconditioned Tom Tom one XL for around £80 with one years guarantee.  When it arrived it was fully boxed and looks like brand new and works perfic.

Previous to that I had a blaupunkt which was pretty good but can't get the free POI's for it.

Happy buying 
Chrissy


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## coolasluck (Dec 5, 2009)

how much is the garmin and tom-tom?


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## biggirafe (Dec 5, 2009)

Halfords on line normally have pretty good prices 50% off at the moment and they are local if you need help
Satellite navigation, bikes, car stereos, child seats, car cleaning, tents, roofboxes, trailers from Halfords


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## runnach (Dec 5, 2009)

Chrissy said:


> There are always bargains to be had though and I bought a factory reconditioned Tom Tom one XL for around £80 with one years guarantee.  When it arrived it was fully boxed and looks like brand new and works perfic.
> 
> Previous to that I had a blaupunkt which was pretty good but can't get the free POI's for it.
> 
> Chrissy


From what I can tell, the last part of your comment seems to be big advantage with TOM TOM's there seems to be loads of free software for them, and a bit like windows on a pc seem to be industry standard.

Not sure about Garmin.

Mine is a Sony and has been ok but like your Blaupunkt,  is limited in  downloads etc...or silly things like punching co ordinates.

Channa


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## biggirafe (Dec 5, 2009)

***** said:


> Somebody once told me that there are only two companies that supply the mapping to all of the sat navs made.
> At that particular time in our local area Tom Tom had the latest maps and Garmin did not.
> Things may have changed as this was a couple of years ago when I was thinking of getting a Garmin,
> I still have not got one and I use a map
> This may or may not be factual



We have to buy sat navs for our mobile computer engineers. I have tried lots over the years but we always come back to TomTom as much as anything the guys like em. They are simple to use, no frills. Other companies reps come to see me and show me there new features but at the end of the day Its a satnav. A nice to have thing to look for is traffic monitoring. With TomTom this is an arial you plug in.It conncts to the RDS network and will take you around major delays. It has helped me on numerous occasions and in France this year saved us about 2 hours in a q south of Brodeaux 


All the maps have a limited life and you will then need to pay for a newer map. There is a large underground community where you can get most maps for satnavs errr Free  TomTom's are very common. We pay to update our maps regularly but unless you expect to be going to new inductrial estates or housing estates then you really don't need to update them that much, it all depends how you are going to use them. Check out how much the updates will cost you as this can be a hidden cost with cheaper satnavs


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## John H (Dec 5, 2009)

***** said:


> Somebody once told me that there are only two companies that supply the mapping to all of the sat navs made.
> At that particular time in our local area Tom Tom had the latest maps and Garmin did not.
> Things may have changed as this was a couple of years ago when I was thinking of getting a Garmin,
> I still have not got one and I use a map
> This may or may not be factual



Can't comment on that but the two reasons we bought a Garmin rather than a Tom-Tom were that the display seemed easier to read and the European coverage was more extensive (especially in Eastern Europe). Don't know if two years down the line this is still true - and it obviously won't matter to you if you don't travel a lot outside western Europe.


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## n8rbos (Dec 5, 2009)

i too have a garmin nuvi with european maps too,its brill,missus has a rac satnav and to be honest would be the last item i would ever purchase.


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## derekfaeberwick (Dec 5, 2009)

I've just been putting POIs into my mates Work TomTom 520.

  They have got West and Central Europe on a SD card and interestingly they have a very professionally done 'Vehicle' option, i.e. Truck van car etc and you select 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 for example then a facility to enter your Gross and axle weights, length,width and height opens. Once entered the route chosen avoids all pitfalls.

  That's the theory anyway, and so far it works so he tells me.


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## derekfaeberwick (Dec 12, 2009)

Just found this link,
Nav-Now.co.uk - The place for Speed Trap Detectors, Sat Nav and Fish Finders

 Ideal for big vans.


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## ellisboy (Dec 13, 2009)

Hello! I bought a tom tom go 720 second hand on ebay came in the box and was as new condition for half the price!,very pleased with it and easy to use and upgrade maps.


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## Mastodon (Dec 13, 2009)

Been using Garmin for years - French road classification can cause some interesting routes but in general no problems at home or in Europe. The mapping upgrade for life is a particularly good deal and the hardware seems to be pretty rugged.


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## lescombes (Dec 13, 2009)

Im not a fan of Tom Tom, mine has IQ routes and I think the damn thing has an IQ of 1..... it keeps making a mess up on routes, on Saturday (in the UK) we approached a crossroads, TT said turn right....then after we had turned, it told us to turn left and left again back to the road we were sent from then back to the crossroads and turn right.......all we needed to do was to go straight on..... the week before in Belgium....we were going to Liege when we got to Brussels the damn thing sent us right through the centre......I since found out today from a pal who does mini bus tours....his Tom Tom did the same..... for me......   I would say Don't buy one....


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## ALLERDALECHEF (Dec 13, 2009)

I got a garmin 1300t from halfords just over a month ago , i have only used it a couple of times . the first  journey it just went dead  with a black screen and wouldnt  switch on, i took it back and they plugged it in  .....guess what ? .it worked  (  i felt like a right t*at)
 this week i went upto Sky .......same thing again , left it overnight and it came back to life, then on the way home it just froze ( a bit like me  .....sub zero up there ). I took it to halfords and the guy held the 'on' button down ,tapped the bottom right of the screen and it booted up again !
 The unit when it works is brill but the jury is out wether i would rely on it


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## ALLERDALECHEF (Dec 13, 2009)

that should read  Skye .....(  i feel like a right tw*t again )


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## ajs (Dec 14, 2009)

ALLERDALECHEF said:


> that should read Skye .....( i feel like a right tw*t again )


 
 we will forget this.. for a free meal..

 regards
aj


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## frostybow (Dec 14, 2009)

i have a tom tom it has helped us all over europe i also use a lot in my job taxi driver its never let me down yet


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## Journeyman (Dec 15, 2009)

*SATNAV and more*

Consider a bit of hardware that will give you ultimate SatNav plus all your music,
reversing camera, email, internet and loads more. 
If you're serious about *WILD*Camping, you need to run OS maps like those supplied by Memory Map, but you need fast hardware and a large screen.....
Ive just installed one of these, as seen on The Gadget Show:

Car & Vehicle Computer Systems - In-CarPC Ltd

Later...


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## Boxerman (Dec 16, 2009)

I have a Hewllett Packard Travel Companion Rx5720. Its a PDA with built in gps and came with TomTom 6 installed. You can have the screen orientation any way up but I prefer it sideways (landscape). I also have Ordnance Survey maps (Anquet) on the PC and can download areas of these to the Rx5720, the gps "engine" works with these also.
I went with the PDA as I prefer things to do more than one job, so I can run spreadsheets on it, have reminders, etc. It's also handy for walking about 'cos it's small enough to slip into a pocket.
One of the useful POI sets  I have on it is the "bridgex" POI set from: The Truckers' GPS Specialist  which for around £10 for lifetime subs is good value for money as you can download updates as they come out for no extra charge.
I've had it for a couple of years now and have had no problems. (fingers crossed)

Frank


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## Guernsey Donkey (Dec 16, 2009)

derekfaeberwick said:


> I've got an old TomTom but it swears at me!
> 
> 
> 
> Kinthingllbebinnedifitdoesitagain!Q



You only get as good as you give


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## Hallii (Dec 16, 2009)

Tom Tom One XL Western Europe is the one to go for. Small enough to fit in your pocket, battery lasts about 3 hours and it is great for finding your way about cities.

Halfords have some offers 

TomTom ONE Europe V4 Classic - UK, ROI & Europe from Halfords Was £129.99 Save £20.00 Price £109.99 Up to 50% off All Sat Nav & Half price Sendai Sat Nav accessories when you buy any Sat Nav!

£109 web offer only.

Hallii


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## derekfaeberwick (Dec 16, 2009)

Guernsey Donkey said:


> You only get as good as you give



 I had to pack in Ms Lumley's voice because I enjoyed a good scolding from her soooooh much that I found myself going off route regularly!


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## Deleted member 919 (Dec 20, 2009)

Hallii said:


> Tom Tom One XL Western Europe is the one to go for. Small enough to fit in your pocket, battery lasts about 3 hours and it is great for finding your way about cities.
> 
> Halfords have some offers
> 
> ...


Got the ok from insurance and have gone for this one as its got europe maps 
and the price is right and collect from local halfords( 2 mins away) for same
 price.Thanks for all the info


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## biggirafe (Dec 20, 2009)

rebbyvid said:


> Got the ok from insurance and have gone for this one as its got europe maps
> and the price is right and collect from local halfords( 2 mins away) for same
> price.Thanks for all the info



Good choice, TomTom the original and still the best (imho)


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## n8rbos (Dec 20, 2009)

would just add though,keep an upto date road map on board just in case satnav dies/guz off on one


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## Kontiki (Dec 23, 2009)

Hows the new TomTom then? 

I'm still looking to buy a new one but there are so many now & when you look at the specs they list there doesn't seem to be any difference in some apart from the price Would like the Truck version but I can't find out if this is extra software that you can install on some of the TomToms or it is different hardware. New they are very expensive but saw some used ones on eBay at a reasonable price.
If it is just an add on that will run on some of the existing TTs I might try to get a suitable TT & think about adding the truck part later. 

Tried asking questions in the likes of places such as Halfords & Currys but they are clueless, in one Halfords branch a guy had a Garmin shirt on advertising satnavs & the message 'ask me' he was about the worst one I talked to.

I think satnavs are going the way of mobile phones & its more about what other things they do such as play MP3s, link to your phone, look at photos, etc.... All I want is a satnav for navigation & a phone for phone calls.


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## tony (Dec 23, 2009)

who needs a sat nav ? send the missus off ahead to check out the route.
when you catch up you can decide whether to pick her up or not.
tony


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## n8rbos (Dec 23, 2009)

screwfix are doin' garmin satnavs from £60 i swear by mine.


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## Deleted member 919 (Dec 25, 2009)

Kontiki said:


> Hows the new TomTom then?
> 
> I'm still looking to buy a new one but there are so many now & when you look at the specs they list there doesn't seem to be any difference in some apart from the price Would like the Truck version but I can't find out if this is extra software that you can install on some of the TomToms or it is different hardware. New they are very expensive but saw some used ones on eBay at a reasonable price.
> If it is just an add on that will run on some of the existing TTs I might try to get a suitable TT & think about adding the truck part later.
> ...


Not really had chance to use it yet but it may be worth checking this site out for addons 
HGVSOLUTIONS.COM -Leader in HGV Sat-nav add-ons
Rob


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## biggirafe (Dec 25, 2009)

rebbyvid said:


> Not really had chance to use it yet but it may be worth checking this site out for addons
> HGVSOLUTIONS.COM -Leader in HGV Sat-nav add-ons
> Rob



Thanks Rob
The low bridges pack look worth while, at £25 it would seem to be a steal, something to spend the xmas money on 

Has anyone used it? I'd be interested to know how up to date the pack is.
Mark


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