what satnav to buy?

[ben16v 0]

any of you guys yse aftermarket satnav??

 

my mum want to buy one for my dad and has asked me to look into it.

 

any ideas on which ones are best it`ll be used in UK only, need to be moved car to car occasionally (ie. dads to mine)

 

just really wondering what makes one sell for £200 and another for £600, a cheaper one will prob. be ok

 

something like:

navman iCN320

garmin i3

tom tom one

 

any ideas, comments, links??

thanks

 

ben

[chrishill 0]

tomtom's seem highly reguarded, got my g/f's mother to doncaster and back wothout a problem so it must be ok...

[Dub_nut_g60 0]

ive got the tomtom Go300 and its brilliant, i do lots of driving to random places so they dont have a postcode, find it on the satnav press yess and it will take me there! halfrauds have an offer on it at the mo too 'down' to £299 i think!

 

with some of the cheaper ones they apparantly arnt as accurate as they dont use the whole postcode.

 

HTH

Andy

[jedi-knight83 0]

tomtom gets my thumbs up. i use an ipaq 2210 and tomtom 5 car kit but its exactly the same as the all in one tomtom go systems.

 

Never had any problems with acuracy and the 5 digit postcode lookup is a great improvement over tomtom 3.

 

tomtom 5 also has a POI warner built in.... then download the GATSO database from pocketgps.co.uk and you also have a very competant speed camera warning system all built in.

[GIXXERUK 0]

need to be moved car to car occasionally (ie. dads to mine)

 

lol :wink: :wink:

[.Rich. 0]

What is required on a PDA to use satnav? GPS? GPRS? 32mb / 64mb / 128mb or more?

 

Why aren't all PDA's mobile phones aswell? Cant find a decent mobile/pda/sat nav all in one.

[coolrado 0]

tom tom 300 also has the poi database and warning system, and the camera locations updates are free from pocketgpsworld.com had mine for a while now and have no complaints. and some of the celebrity voices are quite funny especially the john cleese one.

[jedi-knight83 0]

.Rich., on a pda you need the tomtom 5 software and then the tomtom car kit to match your particular pda.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I use a map and a notepad :-)

 

Make sure you take your SatNavs with you and hide the leads as Sat Nav theft is on the up...... 8 cars have had their SNs nicked from my area in the last week alone.... Mind you, I'll put money on them being dumb arses and leaving them clipped to the dash, or the coilie wire hanging out of the fag lighter which is a big yellow arrow pointing to the glovebox effectively....

[DragonVr6 0]

Tom toms are very good but road angel have just bought one out called 'road angel navigator' and there write ups are very good! think out of the two i would go for the road angel!!! £499 inc delivery

Check out:

http://www.road-angel-blackspot.co.uk

[NickC 0]

Just to throw another name into the ring, "garmin i3" a great little unit comact and just as functional as tom tom go, now in argos for £ 159 !!!!!!!!!!

[G60Jet 1]

non of the above, Get smartnav expensive but brilliant the only gps system to route you around traffic problems and with Trackstar option you can have it as a tracker for your car should the worst happen

 

annual cost 120 for routes or PAYG

tracker 120 per year less what you get as an insurance discount

 

other options Safe Speed and Camera thingie.

 

it also takes incoming calls, so you can divert your mobile to it while driving

 

So sell your blue tooth kit, sell your camera gadgets.

 

other option is load something like tomtom onto your PDA/smart phone if you have one.

[coolrado 0]

all the tom tom go's also have traffic update and re-route, they connect to your mobile via bluetooth and automatically update themselves, the data calls are very cheap as only a small amount of data is transfered, it has saved me from getting stuck in quite a few jams.

 

you can also download extras via your mobile.

[catch_twotwo 0]

I was thinking about the PDA option.... but so many things on ebay not sure which to buy.... Then again the tomtom software is bound to cost a fortune ontop of the hardware anyway.

[ben16v 0]

tomtom one £223.99

 

thats gotta be a good deal???

 

anyone know if the ONE can download speed cam locations??

 

 

ben

[glen 0]

ipaq 2210 and tomtom 5 car kit its what i use also and you cant beat it brought my set up from eBay all in all for approx £155 and you can use it to do over stuff as well like surf the net through your mobile!

 

Admittedly the tomtom 5 was a cracked version but it works a treat for a £5!

[glen 0]

Were can you download those celebrity voices they sound like a laugh!?

[NickC 0]

Ben, hell yes, maplins are doing the garmin i3 with camera sites for £199, however if u shop about u can go as low as £160ish ( camera site are downloadable from there site anyway(garmin that is)

[Dirtysouth 0]

i have the garmin i3 its a good bit of kit with all the camera locations dwn loaded, smallest in the market too!! £159 atm everywere goodluck

[GIXXERUK 0]

http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache ... ARMIN%20I3

[STORM 2 0]

Ive got the ROAD ANGEL NAVIGATOR hard wired into the car using aux GPS antenna and switched power feed (hence no curly faglighter lead)

Only downside is that the European maps cost an extra 200 notes on SDC!!

[Phil K 0]

I've got a Navman and can't fault it... no more maps :D

[GIXXERUK 0]

Phil K, which model phil ? is it a subscription ,if so how much ? can you get camera sites on it ?

 

cheers

 

paul

[StuartFZR400 0]

Hoping to hop onto this topic and get some nice little low-downs / feedback on a few different types/brands. I've seen Tomotom, Navman and roadangel are popular.

 

Ok, many of you guys probably own a Navigation system or a Speed camera detector. Can any of you guys give feedback of ones you’ve used. Having seen a Tom Tom in use, I noted that it lost signal several times, replanning the route took a couple minutes (still 25 mile to destination) and sometimes gave the audible direction rather late (no biggie). The Tomtom is a bit bulky too although again not a huge issue.

 

Maybe some of you own one that combines the best of boths worlds, like the Roadangel Navigation 6000 (£249 seemed competitive); curious to know if thats as easy to use as say a TomTom. And I’ve heard Garmin are good for sat-nav.

 

Alternatively, if you know of any good reviews, that may help. I found this out-dated Auto Express review. This site seemed useful.

 

Foremost, I guess the Navigation system is paramount as I don’t really see the need for a camera detector; can only see a laser detector being informative. So in that case, I suppose my initial navigation thoughts are:

(1) is it easy to see (important)

(2) does it get it right always

(3) does it give clear instruction in time

(4) does it run off batteries or car-lighter

(5) easy to use

(6) … what else is a consideration, other than price?

 

I’ve noted the comments on this page too. I see Henny has a Tomtom Go.

 

Got to agree common sense needed, which is easy on open roads. Even if you’re in town and take a wrong turn, eg too early, I guess it will just recalculate it for you.

[Phil K 0]

My Navman is pretty good although it doesn't do a full postcode search - i.e. GU4 7 and then you have to choose the name of the road from the given list... not too much of a problem nd 9 times in 10 it has the road you're looking for.

 

Sometimes you have to do a manual search on the map screen to find the road or close to the road and a few times I've hd to resort to looking the road up on Autoroute and then entering a road thats close the road I'm looking for.

 

I would recomend one and for the money they are a worth while investment - especaily if you're doing a lot of miles to places you don't know too well!

 

There is no monthly charge to use Navman and you cn download camera locations too for free!

 

Since changing jobs I've got a new company car and the boss has paid for me to have a built in Kenwood nav system (with DVD) which is sooo good and does do a full post code search. Today was the first time it hasn't recognised the postcode and I've had to do a road name search - so basicly if you have £1500 to spend then yeah it's better than a Navman :D