Sat Navs for Cars

I'm looking at buying a car Sat Nav but I've never really shown any
interest in them in the past so have little idea about them.

I've used a Garmin Nuvo earlier this year, which seemed to do the job ok.

At least I didn't end up in somebody else's front garden, round the back
of some allotments or going the wrong way up a one way busy road in
Rotterdam - which has been my experience following bike sat navs.

I'm after one that:

covers UK and Europe,
has speed cameras,
can find petrol stations and cash machines,
can do motorway or non-motorway,
can avoid toll roads,
free speed camera updates
has one of those metal dashboard discs to allow the sucker to stick to,
IYSWIM.

around £200

....and doesn't require me to speak in an adenoidal voice to work it

I'd prefer if I could just walk into a shop in Brighton and buy it (esp.
if it's in a sale).

What say the clever people who know about these things?

 

Not well up on latest models, but the TomTom One XL I've used for the
last couple of years is excellent. Never got me lost. Not used it so
much for navigation at home since getting the built-in one on the R36,
which has an even bigger display and is faster, but still use it for
'real' speed readings and Camera warnings.

It's currently got the whole of the USA in its internal memory, as
I've been using it over there a fair bit recently. Much better than
the Hertz Everlost ones we can pay extra for in the rental cars we
use.

 

I have a Garmin Nuvi 660 FM (Full Europe maps) looking for a home.

https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?pID=31946#nuvi660

Missing the suction cup for the window which is available on ebay for a
few quid and the traffic reception seems iffy at times but other than
that works perfectly.

Updated the speed cameras recently (UK).

£95 inc postage.

 

They do seem a bit cheaper than I'd imagined.

I will go and look tomorrow.

Mother randomly flailing her arm in the back seat area whilst she was
driving usually sorted the "He's pinching me, again." type whining.

 

Thanks - I'll have a look locally first.

 

The Garmin Nuvi satnav I use in my van does all that apart from free
updates and cost under £100 in Tesco about 9 months ago. Don't ask me
what model number it is because it doesn't tell you on the case and I
threw the box out the day I got it.

The battery lasts about 4 hours so you can use it for those critical
moments on a bike by popping it in the top of your tank bag and hoping
you don't stay lost for more than 4 hours. If you want to plug it into
an accessory socket on the bike and use it in the tank bag it's a pain
because the plug goes into the back of the unit rather than one of the
sides.

 

Presumably it has headphone sockets. The soundtrack of a favourite
Simpsons episode or Bear Grylls adventure palls after the second
hearing.
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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my take on this. TOMTOM has a *much* better guidance system. I have done
the same journey (leeds to Dundee) with each system on similar
days/conditions.

TOMTOM tgook me on the motorways & good A roads. Fucking Garmin wanted
me tgo go off the fucking A74M at *every* junction after Carlisle to go
overland. TOMTOM took me right there via the M73/ etc

Both setup with the same (as you can) parameters.

I decided to drop off at Edinburgh on the way home & **** me, what a
pile of shite the Garmin routes are compared to TOMTOM.

 

Haven't checked the features list, but Navigons would appear to do all
of the above.

 

I've had Garmin and TomTom and have been looking into all the features this
month. The best route finding, the best congestion updates and the best
interface come from TomTom and the most fully featured is XL Live IQ Europe.

The Live service does carry a small subscription but I think it is worth it.

Discounted in Halfords the Europe is £200. On Amazon £177 delivered.
Halfords will not price match.

 

I've got a TomTom One Europe. Got off the boat in France - 6.5 hours
later 'I'd arrived' outside the front door. About £120 now

 

I use the cheap ebuyer one, around £45, it comes with chinese sw but
can be persuaded to run tomtom.

 

That's what I went for - It was expensive in the Hove Halfords (£179)
and, apparently, it won't work in my car because it's got a dynamo.

....do people see why I think Halfords is the automotive equivalent of
Dixons?

 

The sweary chap has the right of it. TomTom seems to factor in some
sort of realistic speed on a given road, whereas Garmin seem to assume
that you can do 60mph on any single carraige road with NSL no matter how
many passing places, or tight bends there are. When I raised a ticket
on this, they just said that they rely on the mapping data - well, duh.
The data is incomplete. In places that you have no idea about, you
need a map to give you the bigger picture, kind of defeating the point.

 

I think you're being overly kind to Dixons[1].

[1] well, Currys.Digital as it's now branded most places.

 

Exactly, like you're gonna go from Carlisle to Edinburgh on a shitty A
road.

 

Garmin are there for those of us that like a challenge. It's easy to
beat the eta on a Tomtom but you've really got to work for your
victory when you're racing a Garmin.

I know Champ also treats a satnav as an opponent that you *have* to
beat when you're driving but surely we're not the only ones?

 

As are those maximum speeds at bends. I have to aim at double.

 

My only criticism of TomTom is its propensity to take you to the nearest
motorway for any journey of more than a few miles. Over a long distance
it is usually the best strategy, but in a conurbation it often isn't.

--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Yamaha WR250Z/Supermoto "Old Gimmer's Hillclimber" |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

 

So you actually slow down for them? Wuss.