Tom Tom vs Magellan 700

[Boghound]

Thinking of purchasing a stand-alone GPS in car unit. Any views between Tom Tom Go or Magellan 700 or Navman 650 due out in November?

[Baz]

Boghound,

I cannot answer your question, but like yourself I have been looking at the various GPS available. From my discussions with UK suppliers, it is well known that GPS prices are already dropping and are expected to continue this way for some time. With Christmas coming  there is a strong feeling that GPS are going to be the Big Boy Toys of 2004 and some makes are selling out as soon as they become available. The conclusion is that if you do not want to pay over the odds, wait as they will become far more affordable.

Baz

[Kent]

We've got the current navman and considering I am a complete non-techie have found it easy to use. French maps have been good when we have used them.

 

Kate

[Jon 1]

I used to have the Garmin e-map but did not like it.  I have been reading up on the TomTom Go and various reviews say that it is excellent.  You can also add POI's for UK Gatsos.  Be aware, however, that you will have to purchase the European Map set at about £129 to get street level detail for France.  You will also need a 512 Mb memory card for about £49.  You have to factor in these additional costs.  From my research I have found that Amazon and DABS are the cheapest at £412.98 for the basic package.  DABS have a buy now pay later option.  At the moment it would be my choice if I was buying.

[Jonzjob]

Not sure about in car sets, but I got my hand held Garmin Etrex Vista from www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk and they were the best price bar none. They also give lots of advice and sell all the software. Even if you don't buy from them the site is well worth a look. Even though it's a hand held and doesn't shout at you when you go wrong it's been worth it's weight since we've been over here.

Still get lost, but at least I know where I'm lost?

John  (Aude and loving it)

[Quillan]

This came up before and I did a lot of research after having a fixed unit in my old car.

 

Nav systems come as a software package which includes the interface (the bit you see on the screen and decodes the map, and does all the bits you see) then you have the actual map it’s self.

 

There are only two types of electronic ‘map’ produced, the most common used in fixed systems is Navteq and some of the Pocket PC systems use it. The reason it is more popular is that the compression rate of the data is much higher than the competition which needs to record the information on DVD because it’s so big. This means that Navteq has all of Europe on one CD so upgrading requires only a ‘key’ and not a new CD, this obviously works out cheaper. The other system requires a new CD because only the DVD can carry all of Europe. The POI’s (Point of Interests) are the same on both systems as they are produced by another company.

 

You now have to decide which type of interface you want to use, Tom Tom etc.

 

I went with CoPilot Live 5 which uses Navteq maps and has a very fast calculating system for working routes out and dealing with route changes, typically 2 to 3 seconds once the GPS has locked on. Nearly the whole of Europe can be put on to a 512mb card and you can create routes on a desktop PC and download them in to your Pocket PC if you wish. Street level mapping for other countries only costs £100 or less depending on where you go, however you can unlock all of Europe for around £110. This product is the only one certified by HP for their Pocket PC’s and is also sold by them.

 

This software is available to install on to existing Pocket PC’s or as ‘bundles’ just like Tom Tom. It has just won ‘best of breed’ which I must confess was after I bought it.

 

I personally use a top of the range HP Pocket PC because a) It was free to me and b) I use it for a lot more than just driving like Internet access and walking. I use Carto Explorer 3 for off roading and walking which whilst in French works very well and uses the IGN 1:25000 maps and costs €39 per map including the base program, for those that do a lot of outside activities it’s very good.

 

Have a look at http://www.alk.eu.com if you have Bluetooth you can have live traffic info linked to this system with auto reroute.

 

Hope this helps.

[Peter72]

I have an Ipaq 2210 with a SysOnChip CF plus GPS receiver and use it for various tasks. The basic set up is very sensitive and will quickly get a fix almost anywhere. However the Ipaq runs Pocket PC 2003 and I am afraid that this has turned out to be a bit of a handful. Some of the less savoury things it does is lock up and needs a cold reboot to reset. This then swaps about the CF card Com port to either Com 1 or Com 7 but you soon get used to these little things when using MS software.

I have four different lots of software, Fugawi UK with the OS maps for Southern Britain, good for the UK and walking but will not work with non OS maps.  Fugawi 3 with the European raster map CD which I have given up trying to use, but this package does allow you to scan in maps and calibrate them, subject to copyright etc. and works well with certain popular maps of France. MemoryMap European with the Philips European map 1:3000000 scale which is about as much use as the free maps off the ferry companies. I also have the Michelin Software for France. Being a tightwad I did not purchase the voice command pack but the cheap (59€) version. The Michelin software is the best of the bunch I have tried and has successfully navigated me around Paris. It also gives an accurate position fix with street and house numbers for most towns. You will need a PC to run the software on and then transfer the various areas onto an SD card before starting off. I have the country chopped up into Departments that I normally use. You can download a free trial version at http://www.shop.viamichelin.com/. They also have ready made packages and deliver from Paris to the UK in 48 hours. Lots of gear and a forum at http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk/

I shall watch this topic closely, I certainly will not buy any more software until I get a few solid recommendations.

I do like this forum, it calls me "Junior" member, don't let on George!

Regards

Peter

[I1]

I have no experience of the different systems so cannot comment on which is best.

However, I know some people who work for the company responsible for Tom-Tom and they are pretty "switched-on" people.

My local Boulanger store is selling Tom-Tom equipment cheap at the moment (I have no idea who widespread Boulanger is in France nor if their discounting is common across different stores)

[Quillan]

Hi Boghound,

I still stick by my claim about the CoPilot software, I use it quite a lot, even found my Neurologist in Carcassonne with it, took me to the door.

Another reason for me to use a PDA system is other uses for the PDA. I have just bought the Collins English/French/English dictionary for under 40$ via the web for it and it's very good, even has the verb tables with past, present and future which I find a great help. I also bought a French speaking software help with my pronunciation. I guess that really you need to go somewhere and actually try things out. If your down my way you can always have a go with my CoPilot to see if you like it.