Which Satnav?

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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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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.
 
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.
 
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.
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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 :rolleyes:
Chrissy
 
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
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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
 
***** 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:(:D
This may or may not be factual:confused:
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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
 
***** 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:(:D
This may or may not be factual:confused:
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.:)
 
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
car-smiley-005.gif
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.
 
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. :D
 
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.
 
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....
 
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
 
that should read Skye .....( i feel like a right tw*t again :mad:)
 
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
 
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 WILDCamping, 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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