Sat Nav recommendations?

minimeeze

minimeeze

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Now that I've started my new job, it looks like I'm gonna be driving around the deepest, darkest depths of Basingstoke (scary thought!!) and all it's surrounding areas. Given that I have absolutely no sense of direction and will be out working silly hours on-call, I've decided that I'm gonna get myself a satellite navigation system for the car.

Soooo... any recommendations on what systems are ok and what to avoid, bearing in mind that I only have a budget of up to about £250?

Cheers :)
 
I have had 2 Tomtom Go Sat nav's, had the classic one, and sold it to my brother when i upgraded to a Go 700, they are excellent and i couldnt do my job without it, i tend to drive miles as well !

I got mine cheap at Dixons duty free at Luton Airport, so if you are on hols may be worth getting one from there, but otherwise a tomtom go 300 or 500 (depends if you want the bluetooth functions) would easily do for what you need.

Carphone Warehoue selling the 300 for £234.99 http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/co...essoryName=TomTom Go 300 Satellite Navigation
 
Another vote for Tomtom here too. :thumbs:
 
CT said:
Another vote for Tomtom here too. :thumbs:
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Another Tomtom Go 700 user here, The only sat nav worth its weight IMO...

Bought mine from Birmingham airport minus the duty when they first came out and made a saving..:)
 
We have the Tom Tom Go, and also the newer Tom Tom 300.

Absolutely fantastic. They take you straight to the door, sometimes you look around and cant find the place and realize you are right outside it.........brilliant.

And easily moveable between cars. :thumbs:
 
ive got a Mio with TomTom installed, never got lost with Jane yet!
 
I'd wait a little while before buying a TomTom , I think the maps haven't been updated since August last year .
 
Bought a TomTom One (£215) for the wife and seems very good although prone to locking up if the batteries go flat!!

Also look at the Road Angel Navigator 6000 (£249 from Halfords) as it also includes proper speed camera detector if that could be an issue ;)
 
mrgubby said:
I'd wait a little while before buying a TomTom , I think the maps haven't been updated since August last year .
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I have a free update with my TomTom so when they do update the maps i can just download them ! There are a couple of points with really new roads that catch it out, but it isnt usually for long.
 
mfwild13 said:
Bought a TomTom One (£215) for the wife and seems very good although prone to locking up if the batteries go flat!!

Also look at the Road Angel Navigator 6000 (£249 from Halfords) as it also includes proper speed camera detector if that could be an issue ;)
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Does the one not come with a cigarette lighter adaptor ? mines permanently plugged in ?
 
IanC_UK said:
Does the one not come with a cigarette lighter adaptor ? mines permanently plugged in ?
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It does but she only uses it for long journeys!! Too many getting nicked to leave it in the car when she is 'shopping'.
 
same here! i have all speed camera warnings on it too. very handy!
 
I have latest TomTom on my PDA with a BT GPS Dongle. Works well. I've had different versions pretty much since they started. I got the BT so I can walk around with it if I get lost sometime. I have the speed camera POI's installed too but not needed when walking around ;-) See here: http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ for speed camera POI's
 
IanC_UK said:
I have a free update with my TomTom so when they do update the maps i can just download them ! There are a couple of points with really new roads that catch it out, but it isnt usually for long.
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Which one have you got ? . I bought the TomTom One in May , when I emailed them asking when the maps would be updated (and complaining about being sold last years maps) the replied that they "couldn't deal with this by email , I'd have to write directly"

Not impressed by their customer service :bang: but the unit does work :thumbs:
 
Mine is a Go 700, it had a voucher with it for the updates, and a free trial of camera locations and traffic alert thingy, was bought this year though, apparently theres an update due in November'ish not sure how accurate that is though !
 
I've been thinking about the 910 with the hard drive and world maps as it would be useful for holiday motoring too. Depends if I see a deal good enough to tempt me.
 
Robert, the 910 looks awesome but is still ridiculously expensive, which is why i went for the 700, has the hard drive and uk and europe maps built in. I have a stereo with Ipod input so dont need that feature and cant see me watching films on my sat nav unless i get really stuck on the m25 ! ;)
 
I use tomtom navigator 5 with my pda, an all in one is cheaper but not as versatile.

I can watch recorded TV programs while I sit in traffic ;)
 
I saw a bargains site posting a month ago with a way of getting the 910 for £365 but I wasn't thinking about it then and the offer is gone now.

I use a usb gps dongle with my laptop at the moment. Cost £30 a couple of years ago. Does the job but way to clumsy when you go wrong :)

Going to USA (Vegas, Grand Canyon etc.) for a fly/drive holiday in september. Might be cheaper to just buy a Garmin something or other out there.
 
Just bought the new TomTom 510 - have to say very impresed the new widescreen image looks great, this also came with a free Safety Camera (yea right :thinking: ) update.
 
Marcel said:
I've got an A-Z. I'm hardcore.
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:lol: That's what I have at the minute Marcel, but as the area I'm gonna be covering is so huge, it goes across about 4-5 pages which would be ok if all the pages followed on, but they don't. The first bit of my journey is like on p18, then onto p53, then p26 etc :thinking:
 
IanC_UK said:
ah. i leave the mount in the car and take the satnav in with me !
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Don't leave the mount on view. Cars still get broken into, on the off chance the sat nav has been put in the glovebox. This happened to a mate of mine but he never learnt his lesson as he then left the sat nav in the cradle on another occassion and the car was parked on his inlaws drive when it got broke into.
Ended up costing him £100 for the Excess for the two windows as well as buying a new sat nav as his excess for the theft would have been more.
I to use AtoZ and AA Road map of GB. Or Maporama on the web.
 
nilagin said:
Don't leave the mount on view. Cars still get broken into, on the off chance the sat nav has been put in the glovebox. This happened to a mate of mine but he never learnt his lesson as he then left the sat nav in the cradle on another occassion and the car was parked on his inlaws drive when it got broke into.
Ended up costing him £100 for the Excess for the two windows as well as buying a new sat nav as his excess for the theft would have been more.
I to use AtoZ and AA Road map of GB. Or Maporama on the web.
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I have left the mount on view for nearly 18 months, i never leave the sat nav in there though. Have heard about not leaving it on view though, just cant be bothered to take it off every night, the cars not worth the 50 quid excess for the glass ! lol
 
whih Ipaq? I have the hx4700 - a great bit of kit :thumbs:
 
I have the Ipaq 4700... love it. I run TomTom 5 on it with a GPS receiver which just plugs into the CF card slot so I can use it in the car, walking, cycling. The nice thing about the 4700 is puts out better (louder) built in audio than earlier Ipaqs, in fact so much so, it's prone to blowing the speaker. There's a bit of a software fix you can download to cure the problem.
 
mines an old school 2210

came in handy when I got it because i wanted the 2 card slots.
Volume was never an issue either, even in the old CTR at warp speeds i could hear it ok. Not much of a problem in the 2 either with the roof down.
 
I must admit the 2 slots in the 4700 are handy, I have a 1gb sd card with tomtom on and a 2gb CF card for films etc for when I get bored :)
 
Tis true, thieves look out for the cradle, and break on the offchance it's in the dash.

However, they've wised up to those that hide the cradle in the dashes too, and actively look for the rubber markings ;)
 
Iv'e used tomtom since V3 on a number of PDA's. and have always thought it was one of my better decisions. Used it in France as well as all over the UK with great success. V5 is definitely superior. The one nigglr I had was that the PDA would lock up intermittently, usually when I needed directions most and would need several soft resets to get it back working. This happened on all 3 pda's that I have had - the last one being a Dell Axim X5. I decided to get a dedicated SatNav device as I didn't use the PDA for anything other than satnav plus I have an O2 PDA / Phone from work. I got the Navman 520 for around £150 but the Navman software is nowhere near as good as TomTom imho so I got a CD from ebay that enables you to load tomtom onto the Navman and it works like a dream.

When the Navman starts you get a menu and you can choose to use either the Navman software or tomtom. You need a large memory card if you want the option to use either so you can keep both sets of maps. I bought a 1GB MMC card as the Navman will lose all installed software and revert back to it's default state should the battery ever run down. I now have both Navman and TomTom maps on the card plus the Install cab files (so I can re-install without a computer) and all the voices I use.

The volume on the dedicated devices is usually louder that a PDA but an amplfied speaker is usefull so you can hear the device and still listen to the radio / cd.

I found dedicated devices are based on a PDA, using a cut down version of the PDA windows OS and in my experience are more stable and reliable than running SatNav on a PDA. This is probably because there is less going on in the background.

Are they worth the cost - Definitely. The maps can be a little out of date but this usually affects all of the different brands - most use the same map data supplier. Road atalases tend to be more up to date but they only show major routes and don't go down to street level which is where you need the info most. With road systems changing on a regular basis means that even the most up to date system, whether paper or electronic will be showing roads that no longer exist or be missing new roads within a couple of months at best.
 
Marcel said:
Tis true, thieves look out for the cradle, and break on the offchance it's in the dash.

However, they've wised up to those that hide the cradle in the dashes too, and actively look for the rubber markings ;)
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This is very true. My Navman never stays in the car when it is unattended but I leave the cradle in place unless I'm leaving the car for more than a couple of minutes. Thieves can spot the cradle from a distance whereas they have to walk past the front of the car pretty close to see the telltale marks of the sucker.

They may still break in on the hope the device is in the glove box. I know of a guy who's saab had the door window smashed because they saw his TomTom cradle. His TomTom was with him at the time. This happened on the company carpark and he is a manager. He wasn't too upset as like myself, he drives a company funded vehicle so the cost of repair doesn't come out of his pocket although the inconvenience does annoy.
 
Looks like a TomTom system it is then.... just got to decide which one now :thinking:

Quick Edit - decided to go for the TomTom Go 510... just ordered it now :D Thanks for all your help - I knew you guys would help me out when it comes to parting with money ;)
 
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