what satnav to buy?

[StuartFZR400 0]

workmate told me Navman 520 was £135 on TV at Halford; but t'internet says over £160

 

Sounds pretty good. And yu free camera spots. But NO LASER right?

[TIMMYVR 0]

I ve sold some of the snooper indago sat nav units in the shop the last month or so. Not had any complaints and some of the buyers have reported back with good results. £399 retail which is in the middle so to speak.

[STORM 2 0]

make sure you get a hold of one in the shop to assess the size, bulkiness with gps antenna up --all ad photos show antennas folded away and the shot is always from the front - conveniently missing out the bulk behind the screen

[StuartFZR400 0]

Again, this site lists thier TOP 15 at the moment. Im looking at the Navman and Garmin's.

 

hmm, updating my list of reuqirements, I guess they list as:

1) is it easy to see (important)

1b) LOUD enough to hear

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) ability & cost to update

7) add ons: traffic warning etc

 

1. Some colours seem wishy washy to me. Some also seem to get overcomplex. Some have very accurate drawings of what the junction looks like.

1b. I 'hear' that some of these things are too quiet in a loud car like the C. What have YOU found?

 

6. Many seem to be able to update different things; traffic warning (7) or camera locations or even new maps for free. Im finding it hard to see who does what.

 

LOVE TO HEAR SOME MORE FEEDBACK STORIES.

[Neil VR6 0]

My old man got an Indago which is awesome. Great touch sensitive colour screen and does speed cameras too. Quite pricey at £600 though.

 

http://www.indagosatnav.co.uk/

[TIMMYVR 0]

The uk maping version which weve been selling have been super. With the navteq mapping the system uses, its door to door and very accurate, and because of its size and design can even be used handheld. The screen resolution etc is superb and easy to use. With the added benifit of speed camera detection which can be regularly updated its a superb bit of kit at £399. With the european mapping included we can supply at a good price for forum members.

[P2daz 0]

just buy a smartphone like this

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SPV-C500-UNLOCKED-WITH-EXTRAS-BOXED-EX-CONDITION_W0QQitemZ150034686224QQihZ005QQcategoryZ3312QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

Get tomtom mobile 5 software from someone not a million miles away :wink:

and a gps receiver for 30 quid and for just over £100 you have a tomtom enabled phone!

I have had smartphones for the last couple of years and have used tomtom on them for the last 18 months and can't fault it, yeah the screen is small but big enough to see it , but the biggest advantage is the fact that you will always take your phone with you when you leave the car and not leave it for some scrote to rob.

 

edit - i just noticed that the listing above includes the tomtom software

[reaper1_3 0]

well i bought one of the garmin ones .... have used it all last week i do about approx 1000miles a week and it hasnt sent me wrong yet... greta buy for 129 quid i would def recomend it!

[rmn 0]

anyone used the sony one?

[StuartFZR400 0]

well i bought one of the garmin ones .... greta buy for 129 quid i would def recomend it!

 

WHICH ONE? ----- and for £129, sounds allright.

 

Im testing a Navman 520 this weekend, so will give a little reiview later. I have narrowed it down to a handfull:

 

1. Navman 530 (£200 roughly)

2. Navman 520 (£160)

3. Garmin nuvi 300 (£220)

4. Road Angels latest one for £249

 

Both Navman and Garmins latest ones look great. The advantage of the Nav-530 over the 520 - for me - is simply better signal strength and quicker route finding. It also comes with Europe Map on a CD amongst a few other things that don't concern me. The 530 (not 520) also comes with a Traffic alert system as an addition (£50).*

 

* the confusing this is, some site also suggest the the Garmin also has a Traffic Alert system too (as standard?)

 

Not sure I like the plain white Garmin screen. Comes with Most camera locations. Does not come with Euro map (thats the 350) and also doesnt come with text-turn voice: ie "Turn left onto M40", rather than the old Turn left in 500yds (again only the nuvi 350).

 

Road Angel just throws a spanner in the works, as this also includes all known camera locations, including typical Van spots.

[StuartFZR400 0]

Ok, I test ran the Navman 520 and found a few faults that I might not live with. In summary, that half-postcode meant it couldn't pinpoint a certain street I asked for; it often lost signal - worse in Birmingham builtup areas. Personally I found the colours annoying and the 2D map orientation a bummer too. The Points Of Interest (POI) were odd and petrol stations seemed to need a road name. Other than that it lasted well on batteries, clear and loud voice.

 

There are a few deals out there. Seems the Garmin 310D (Delux) at Halfords, £299, is your best deal; see image below for table of my findings.

 

 

The Garmin 310D includes Traffic TMC warning system with lifetime subscription included. It also has Europe on DVD incl. The direct compariso is the Navman 530 - which has the added bonus of text-to-speach instructions.

 

decisions, decisions. As price is so close, its come down to ease of use - which the Garmin does best for me - and also comes down to screen colours for me; Garmin is lacking in screen colour options.

 

Im off to test the Garmin 310D this week. Feedback next week 8)

[StuartFZR400 0]

oh, one more question guys...

 

This TMC Traffic news - HOW GOOD IS IT ?

 

I have no idea what it relies upon. Does it only know about major roads; and if so, will it just re-route you onto a minor road that is just as jammed up; does it calculate average jam speeds, and possibly send you on a 10 mile detour?

[StuartFZR400 0]

Bump

 

- anyone know if these TMC Traffic Warning systems are any good ???

[G60Jet 1]

My dad has just got a tom tom Go 910, what a pile of rubbish, takes you down silly roads and when you set it to motorways takes you to the nearest junction even if its north when you are heading south!! so basically you then double back on yourself! waste of fuel

[Stan 24v 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.

 

If you get a mobile with the Symbian OS on it then you can download Sat Nav software to your phone and connect it to a Bluetooth GPS aerial which sits on your dash 8)

 

The new Sony Ericsson M600i will do it ;)

 

http://www.sonyericsson.com/spg.jsp?cc= ... pm&mcid=48

[Guest]

I thought TomTom's were the only way to go?

 

after using a couple of other ones I am sticking to TomTom when I get round to buying one, as the others get confused, one couldn't even find its way out of the petrol station!

[G60Jet 1]

['H3R4POR]

after using a couple of other ones I am sticking to TomTom when I get round to buying one, as the others get confused, one couldn't even find its way out of the petrol station!

thats due to the petrol station cannopy and the reaquiring of the GPS signal

[coolrado 0]

oh, one more question guys...

 

This TMC Traffic news - HOW GOOD IS IT ?

 

I have no idea what it relies upon. Does it only know about major roads; and if so, will it just re-route you onto a minor road that is just as jammed up; does it calculate average jam speeds, and possibly send you on a 10 mile detour?

A quote from wikipedia: Traffic Message Channel, or TMC, is a technology for delivering traffic and travel information to drivers. It is typically digitally coded using the FM-RDS system on conventional FM radio broadcasts. It can also be transmitted on DAB or satellite radio. It allows silent delivery of high quality accurate, timely and relevant information, in the language chosen by the user and without interrupting normal services. Services, both public and commercial, are now operational in many European countries. When data is integrated directly into a navigation system, this gives the driver the option to take alternative routes to avoid traffic incidents.

 

my pioneer dvd nav has TMC and it does seem to work very well, it is regularly updated and does take into account the length of delay and whether its worth re-routing you or not, you can also select each delay that shows up on the map and view information about it, like if its an accident or roadworks and how long the delay will be, i did use the traffic info on the tom tom for a while but it was a total waste of time, the information was allways out of date and inaccurate and also depended on whether you had gprs reception on your mobile so it was pretty pointless, but its the only thing i could find fault with on the tom tom.

[StuartFZR400 0]

Garmin 310D – my thoughts. Summary – confused!!!! ??? :?:

 

Firstly its obviously a sleek design. The menus are very simple and easy to follow. There aren’t too many sub-menus, however the one level of sub-menu can hold many different options. This Garmin is clearly a derivative of previous models with similar options to that given some six years ago.

 

The display certainly suited me giving your route in pink overlayed on orange roads and a white background; however motorways are in a dull brown. Directions are clearly marked with a large white arrow with black edge. You can choose between 3D and 2D – where 2D you can choose to either always point North or point in the direction you are travelling, unlike the Navman which only point North. The volume is more than enough, however the loudest setting almost distorts the tiny inbuilt speaker.

 

Im VERY impressed at how quick the Garmin is. I was presuming all satnavs of this generation would be. It got a signal in the house !!! - surely thats down to the SiRF Star III? I was also impressed how it gives the POI's in a nice list: ascending with the closest one first, even gave petrol station brand names. Ok, so VW Coventry was missing off the list, but who cares, its easy to look the place up in Yellowpages; most POI lists seem quite poor; atleast Garmin does show it in a sensible manner.

 

Now for the real important bit, the map and directions. The map seems to be out of date; the amount of times it either did or did not give an instruction to turn, where the opposite was needed was incredible. It was missing out turns where a giveway had been in place for nearly 10 years. Let me give an example; firstly it tells you when you need to turn, eg “turn right in 2.5 mile”, that’s great, not that I’ll remember though when it says 2.5 mile. Then it gives an instruction again with a big 0.5 mile to go. Lastly it tells you again with only a matter or yards to go, I mean you’re on top of the junction. In this instance it was an offset crossroads, and the Garmin did as Navman and said “turn right then left” – brilliant. However, once turned right and Im turning the wheel to go left it then says: “turn left, then turn right”. I went into the road and pondered about the “right” bit, and realised it was referring to an old junction that was about 2000 yards to go (so that’s not a flip flop turn is it) and worse still was that this junction was removed many years ago and was now simply a bend. Later on it made many more mistakes like this – the map must be out of date.

 

Further on still I decided to go off route as I knew the one Garmin suggested would be too busy. I had U Turns checked to ensure it didn’t tell me to go back, however it now told me to go back the way I came everytime I came to a roundabout. It was probably the case that the Garmin was right and that was the ‘quickest’ route on a quiet day. The Navman in this situation just recalculated a route dead ahead.

 

Also, when on a Motorway, it gives its last instruction to turn off at teh 2nd countdown marker; so, be sensible and stick to the left lane when it gives you a 2 mile reminder.

 

This leads me onto another downfall, a lack of route options; you either get Fast or Shortest. There is no preference for A or B roads. Better still would be to set your average speed for road types, much like you can in autoroute. An example of where this is handy – it told us to come off the A46 and take country back roads into our town instead of the main drag in. I was happy with it, but my female friend pointed out she would hate coming down these roads at night. This complex type of system must actually be easy to install, as we have had it on autoroute for quite some time. Hence I wouldn’t want a Garmin 310D, nor do I see the point in buying the basic 300, with its competitors being cheaper.

 

Summary of Garmin -v- Navman:

 

- Garmin has 2D map pointing in your direction

- Navman 530 has text-to-speach turn signals?

- Navman has different views; one showing the junction in detail in the corner

- Garmin easy to see map

- Navman has many colour options; maybe one that I like.

- Garmin; is easy to view the overall map and even edit it with Via-points so you can miss known bad roads.

- Navman is currently cheaper (slightly).

 

Notes: both fast, both good signal once moving, both can take a much larger SD card. Both of these PACKAGES come with the Traffic TMC (£300 for 310D, £265 iCN530+TMC). Garmin has bluetooth but I dont care; both have Euro map - again dont care.

Both now use a FULL postcode search.

 

Obviously, like with ALL of these sat-navs, you need to use common sense. And in that case the Garmin gets you from A to B in either the shortest or fastest possible way. Maybe Im asking too much of the little thing.

 

Back to the drawing board.

[Junior Jackson 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.

 

As before - most pda's now have bluetooth, just get a bluetooth gps 'mouse' - with a sirfstar III chipset. About £40. Then it's down to mapping software which is personal choice (tomtom etc).

 

Or get a Fujitsu Siemens Loox T830 in a couple of weeks - mine's on pre-order...

 

http://www.firstloox.com

 

Chris.

[Chris VR6nos 0]

I use the Alpine Sat-Nav system in my VR but it will come to £2700 to buy the kit and install it yourself, it's very good mind and the TMC can be a great advantage in certain conditions if you take notice of it!

 

 

 

Chris

[Critical_Mass 10]

:lol: as Kev said way back, you cant beat a good ol' fashion map...... If you want an adventure.

 

What are the Navmans like? They're cheaper then tomtoms, I begrudge paying 300 bar on a satnav. Yeah ill find one handy, but are there any cheaper ones that are as good?

[Neil English 0]

Ive recently bought a Garmin street pilot i3 from comet for roughly 130 pounds delivered!

 

It is an awesome bit of kit, would highly recommend for the price.

[StuartFZR400 0]

I got ahold of my Navman 530 and barely got chance to use it; but from this one off occasion I've got an initial idea; its kinda ok.

 

As you know I was limited on budget and didn't want to spend more than £200. There are a lot of toys out there upto the £300 mark that all seem to do a similar job. I narrowed it down to the Garmin nuvi series and the Navman 520/530.

 

When choosing a sat-nav, in this price range, the only requirements I can put upon them are:

1. does it get a good signal and never loose it.

2. does it have many route options.

 

Some people might also consider Bluetooth and Traffic warning stuff , Euro maps etc.

 

1. The Garmin 310D got a great signal, even in Brum and even in the house. For some reason the Nav-530 still struggles and took a good 3 mins to get a satelite fix.

 

2. options; that Garmin doesn't have many, but then again, not many of them do and maybe you need to spend £400 to get those. The best of the bumnch seems to be the Navman 530 with the additional options of: preference for motorways, pref' for urban roads and best of all an Avoid This Area.

 

In hind sight I should've bought a Garmin 300 (for the signal strength) and used common sense; ie turn it on once you're close. Use the 'go via this point' feature to avoid nasty roads.

 

Both the Garmin and Navman seem to be quick to calculate a route and both seem to make a reasonable route path. The Garmin 300 and the Navman 530 are both under £200 and worth a gander. Both also allow the Traffic warning system to be connected as an optional extra.

 

HTH 8)

[StuartFZR400 0]

With more use the Navman was dissapointing, so much so that I have returned it.

 

The important Time to First Fix on this system is terrible and left me stranded and lost in some dodgy residential area. I totally missed the M6 which I was after and ended up slotting through residential stuff once the Navman got a signal.

 

 

Im therefore 'lost' as to what to buy. But will most likely buy the Garmin on the basis that it seems to live up to the hype that it has a TFF, from cold, of 38 seconds or less. I borrowed a nuvi again and it got a signal in all 4 places I tried whereas the Navman only managed one fix within a reasonable time; it seemed it needed about 5mins and some manouvering around outside to find teh satelites.