Sat Nav

[Nickel]

Apologies if this has been done before - I am looking to buy GPS for the car about 250 euros. Have read many reviews on Tom Tom Garmin Navman etc - and they all seem pretty much the same - would be grateful for any advise to help me reach a decision.

Thanks

[Dick Smith]

I've got a Garmin Nuvi something or other. It was the Which? best buy, and very good it is too.

[Chezstevens]

We have the following Garmins:

2610 - discontinued but excellent

BMW Nav III - Garmin 2720 for motorbikes.  Excellent.

Our new acquisition is a Nuvi 760.  Delighted with, lots of useful bells and whistles pse see Garmin site, however the only downside is that you used to get the mapsource cd with the unit which then allowed you to update your other units with the new mapping - this is no longer the case.

[Bob T]

I also have 3. A garmin streetpilot3 for the bike (old and slow), a Garmin 296 for the aircraft (fantastic and expensive) and a Mitac Mio in the car. The Mitac is a much better GPS for road use than the Garmins, is easier to use and much quicker. Have a look at www.cdiscount.com and you will find that you only need to spend about half your budget to get a good Europe wide GPS.

[Nell]

I have no complaints with my best friend "Tom"

[Pierre ZFP]

They all do much the same job and all the data is taken from one of only 2 sources anyway.  I have a Navman and why I like it is because of the way it gives directions

e.g 'In 500 metres, turn right'

Some of the others (including I think Tom Tom) say things like

'TURN RIGHT.... in 500 metres'

A small point I know but it suits me.

I wouldn't have a Tom Tom just because of the irritating adverts on TV-

[nectarine]

We have a Garmin Nuvi (Halford's special) and it suits us fine, navigates just right and doens't have too much choice of functions to confuse you.  Just an easy choice of display, choice of miles/kms, and a choice of quickest route or shortest route.  It took us from Calais to Chateauroux via the centre of Paris ... as I was entering Paris I thought, oh heck where on earth is the Garmin taking me? - but it found a direct route through housing estates and minor roads and cut off about half an hour from the usual route.  The only problem is that somewhere in Periguex it always tells me to turn right, quite insistently, into a row of shopfronts!  Other than that, it suits us just fine.

[Keith CHANNING]

They are all fine provided you remember one thing. The SatNav is your servant, NOT your master.

You don't absolutely have to follow the road it says, particularly if the suggested road looks narrow and twisty and you have a large vehicle. They all suggest shortcuts to cut corners, or take you through the middle of a city when the ring road is a more sensible approach.

Even those that allow you to choose between shortest, fastest, cheapest etc don't allow you to choose the most sensible.

Like most things connected with IT, they are brilliant if used with a sprinkling of common sense.

I wouldn't be without mine, but I am still in control.

[Russethouse]

I borrowed my daughters Tom Tom to get to a funeral and found it REALLY wanted me to use the M4, M25, M1 option - in rush hour [:(] I still would want a map with me at all time (how old fashioned is that ? [8-)])

Also although I arrived at my destination, it kept wanting me to go back there, even when it I had pressed the home option, I guess that was user error, my daughter swears by it and didn't like Garmin, which she used in Australia.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Keith CHANNING"]They are all fine provided you remember one thing. The SatNav is your servant, NOT your master[/quote]Wise words indeed.

Remember the story recently of the UK coach driver who got off the ferry and told his Sat Nav to go to Lille. Unfortunately he wanted Lille France but ended up in Lille Belgium. You'd think it would be pretty hard for a professional driver to make such a brainless mistake but many have done similar.

I have a Garmin Nuvi 360 and it's been great but like many other things, if it's your first one, then sometimes there are facilities or functions which you didn't know that you needed until you found you hadn't got them.

For me with the Garmin that missing function is multiple waypoints. The Garmin only allows 1 which means, other than reprogramming en route, you can only journey from A to C via B not A to G via B, C, D, E & F.

Practical example: Cahors to Calais. The Garmin will only allow you to tell it that you want to go via Rouen say in which case it will take you all the way to Paris and then turn you left to Rouen whereas what you wanted to do was come off at Orleans then go Chartres - Dreux - Evreux etc. etc. If you could enter those as way waypoints in the first place it would take you that way without further intervention.

As it is now when planning a journey I have to first find all the places I know I want to go through and put them in as favourites then, when I get to point C tell it to go to point E via point D and so on.

I've learnt to live with it but if I were replacing it with another then multiple waypoints would definately be top on my list of must have facilities. Personally I have no need of Bluetooth or media players etc. they are a pointless distraction from what a Sat Nav is supposed to do but then it's the same for me with mobile phones, all I ask of them is to be able to make or receive phone calls !

One final thing, and I don't know what the answer is to this one nor is it exclusively a Garmin issue, because of the system of departments in France when you enter a destination you are frequently presented with a choice of identically named communes with a department number, great if you know where you're going, if not it's out with the map [:-))]

[Russethouse]

You can change the route with Tom Tom, so I guess thats a plus, for example to actually go to the funeral I programmed in something like via M40  Banbury,  (or something similar) and recalculated.

[suzy]

We have Navman which my OH uses all the time (much to my irritation, when we know the way !) However he now has it set to French, ready he says, for our move next year !

Sue

[powerdesal]

[quote user="ErnieY"]

mobile phones, all I ask of them is to be able to make or receive phone calls !

[/quote]

How very very true. I was "criticised" (sort of) for not learning all the functions of my Nokia N72, its a phone for heavens sake, not a toy, its a tool. It rings I answer it, I need to call someone I dial. Everything else is gimmickry (I do use the camera function on occasions).

[Nickel]

Many thanks for all the replies - now if I can just find my way to the shop.........................

[Keith CHANNING]

Isn't there a function on your mobile phone to help you with that?

[Baz]

Like  Chezstevens I bought a Garmin Nuvi 760 late last year and it is an superb Satnav with the very latest European mapping. Unlike the earlier models, you can put in up to 10 waypoints for each journey and the most important feature which is included with no ongoing charges in your chosen country is the integrated FM TMC traffic receiver. No Satnav should be without this, if you want to avoid traffic delays or accidents, it even tells you the estimated delay if you do not want to avoid the incident. There are so many excellent features some you may not need but with the price down to £215 in the UK it must be a best buy.

Baz

[AnOther]

[quote user="Keith CHANNING"]Isn't there a function on your mobile phone to help you with that?
[/quote]Use your Sat Nav, oh, hang on a minute.................[:)]

[Richard T]

[quote user="ErnieY"]Personally I have no need of Bluetooth or media players etc. they are a pointless distraction from what a Sat Nav is supposed to do but then it's the same for me with mobile phones, all I ask of them is to be able to make or receive phone calls ![/quote]

Don't be too hasty to dismiss Bluetooth. I use it with my TomTom to download traffic information via my phone which, although not always too accurate, is useful on the M6 on a Friday night as TomTom will look for routes that avoid the traffic jams.

Obvioulsy not quite such a benefit in France except perhaps during the last weekend in July!

Richard T

[AnOther]

"download traffic information via my phone"....gadzooks, what fantastic magic is this [:-))] [:D]

'Personally' I think, was the key word in my comment, and I'm happy for whatever works for you - personally.

You have my deepest sympathies on the M6 at any time, never mind a Friday night !

[Bannon]

We have used the Tom Tom 500 for a while now and found it superb. Only problem is it stille fitted with its original French map 'chip' (that blue plastic bit that slots in the front) and we now need a UK /or all europe one. Does anybody know where to get one or even better, any of you guys out there have one to sell? 

Seems daft to buy a new one even if they have come down in price since we bought it as it works so well.

True story ... a friend ours borrowed it to head north for Boulogne and ended up going west towards Bordeaux. They should have tapped in Boulogne Sur Mer in of course. Thankfully common sense kicked in and they got home OK.

[AnOther]

[quote user="Bannon"]Thankfully common sense kicked in and they got home OK. [/quote]...albeit a day and 1000km later [:D]

Fits in with what I said earlier about communes with the same name but different departments, sometimes it's quite hard to find a place because of both the spelling and the format of a name.

Some places for instance appear on a map or are commonly written as St. but need to typed in as Saint or v-v. Another case is the use, or not, of a hyphen in a place name. The result is that it can often take several attempts to find the place you actually want.

 

[Chancer]

[quote user="Bannon"]

 Only problem is it stille fitted with its original French map 'chip' (that blue plastic bit that slots in the front) and we now need a UK /or all europe one. Does anybody know where to get one 

[/quote]

 

E-bay.fr or E-bay.co.uk

[Keith CHANNING]

or TomTom.com

[Pierre ZFP]

Ha! you beat me to it.  I was going to point out that tomtom.co.uk is a cigar shop.  Bet that upsets tomtom.com!

Maps for Western Europe cost 60 quid.

http://www.tomtom.com/products/maps/select.php?D=1077&Language=1&P=1431

 

[Bannon]

60 quid? "Good Grief" as a certain Chalie Brown would say.

Thanks for the link Pierre, I'll have a look.