Anyone have car Sat-nav system experience?

[Steve Last]

I'm thinking of getting a stand-alone GPS for use in several different cars in the UK and France, and wonder if anyone has experience and/or recommendations as to brands buy or avoid in respect of the various data-bases, e.g. accuracy and up-to-date-ness, cost of updates, whether they include the radar speed camera info etc.... ?

Steve     

[JohnM]

I can only comment as a jealous observer. The Garmin PDA that I have seen (and want) seems very good. The only trouble seems to be heat reflecting windscreens not allowing the signal through, but I guess that will apply to all manufacturers.

However, the friend who has this has an additional "snooper" for the speed camera info. I'm not sure if this is because he can't get that info on the Garmin maps or because he want's the radar detection.

[Ecossais]

Hi Steve,

 

I have been using TomTom Navigator (V3) connected to a Toshiba PDA for the last year.  Although not an ‘all-in-one’ type, the operation / user interface seems to be essentially the same as the TomTom ‘Go’ range, their ‘all-in-one’ equivalents.

 

I’ve found TomTom very easy to use – first you start to type in destination town / city using the letters on the touch screen and the unit starts to display possible towns according to how many letters you have keyed in.  Select the one you want and then you do the same with the street name and the house number or where the street you want crosses another.

 

Then off you go following the voice instructions (choice of male or female and languages) and 3D screen display.  The lead time to changes in direction varies according to your speed and is repeated when you get to the junction / roundabout etc.  If you take a wrong turning or intentionally want to go a different way, TomTom will re-calculate the route, although initially it will try to get you back onto its chosen route by telling you to make a U-turn etc.

 

I bought my TomTom last summer just prior to driving to France on holiday and only really used it locally before going on holiday to get an understanding of how it worked.  I built up total trust in it over my 2500 mile trip and was particularly impressed with Jane’s (my chosen voice) navigation abilities on the Peripherique in Paris!

 

A couple of thoughts / experiences after a year’s use:

 

·         Some towns don’t seem to be listed (on my version anyway).  I recently drove to Sunderland, but it did not have Sunderland in its database – I had to key in Rokker (an area of Sunderland).

 

·         Places like shopping centres / retail parks aren’t listed – you have to enter the address of the retail park.

 

·         My system does not allow me specify the fastest or shortest route, although I can choose to ‘avoid’ certain roads (OK if you’re familiar with the area) – I believe ‘TomTom Go’ allows you to choose fastest / shortest route.

 

·         With Navigator 3 I cannot choose ‘via’ locations therefore my TomTom may suggest a different route to what I would choose – I think rectified with ‘TomTom Go’.

 

·         You may have problems using a portable system in cars with a heat reflective windscreen as this interferes with the signal from the satellites reaching the GPS pickup.  When I used my system in a hired Citroën Picasso the signal fluctuated a lot and the screen froze quite often.  External GPS aerials are available if this is likely to be a problem.

 

·         Remember that any SatNav system is only a navigational aid and will at times get it wrong or get confused.  Occasionally my system has not suggested the most sensible route.  From where I park at work, my system suggests I go home via a motorway (about 21 miles).  Someone local would take the ‘A’ roads (ab

[Miki]

Sorry to butt in here but could someone please tell me where, or how I can obtain the coordinates for our place. We are getting more and more ask us for them.

[JohnM]

Have you got anyone staying at the moment that has got one? The machine will tell you where you are!

 

[RayB]

[quote]I'm thinking of getting a stand-alone GPS for use in several different cars in the UK and France, and wonder if anyone has experience and/or recommendations as to brands buy or avoid in respect of the...[/quote]

We recently bought a Tom Tom GO300 (France only) and it is fantastic! Everything you mentioned is true. Don't know how we lived without it! Bought it at Darty for 449€.

Being Americans we use the Female American voice and have named her 'Amy' as in 'Aim Me'!

[Miki]

[quote]Have you got anyone staying at the moment that has got one? The machine will tell you where you are![/quote]

No we haven't but we have had a few and I have not thought to ask any of them for the figures.

The wife's brother left yesterday as well and he showed off about his SatNav to me on his arrival!

I just though that there must be a way of finding it all out but have searched on the net but come up with nowt so far !

[The Riff-Raff Element]

They sound like a fantastic idea (I love technology, me, but have all kinds of problems getting much of it to work), but might be better when partenered with a good old fashioned map. We're pretty rural but not exactly on Mars. So far this year, three sets of guests relying on sat nav systems have become hopelessly lost and have required "talking down" at some great expense to them in terms of mobile phone costs. One ended up in the middle of a ploughed field that his sat nav was convinced was a slip road to the A83, one spent 2 HOURS (I am not making this up) on the Caen ring road trying to esacpe from the ferry port and the third overshot by 50 miles and was closing on Bordeaux before realising that there may be something amiss. None of them had a map in the car. Plus, given the amount of time people spend gawping at them rather than looking at the road I suspect that its only a matter of time before some law or other is enacted to prohibit their use unless stopped by the road side. Or is there one already?

[Miki]

Cancel my request !

Voila, our latest guests have just come in with a hand held thingy and has given us the wotsits we require, thanks anyway.

Now all I need to do is upload them on to our website and thats' another thing........

[JohnM]

[quote]No we haven't but we have had a few and I have not thought to ask any of them for the figures.The wife's brother left yesterday as well and he showed off about his SatNav to me on his arrival!I just t...[/quote]

I have a funny feeling that you can convert the "as seen on a map" grid reference quite easily (but, yes, it's only easy if you know how, which I don't). Did, by chance, your B i L store the reference in the machines memory? If you promise to return the socks/watch/wallet that he left behind, he might tell you? 

[Steve Last]

[quote]We recently bought a Tom Tom GO300 (France only) and it is fantastic! Everything you mentioned is true. Don't know how we lived without it! Bought it at Darty for 449€.Being Americans we use the Fe...[/quote]

Having looked at a few this afternoon the TomTom 300 looks very attractive (most user-oriented).  I am intrigued that you say it s only €449 at Darty, typical UK price is £370 / €550 approx. I just looked at Darty's webiste and they are quoting €499 now! If they are that much less in France I will probably delay buying till I get over, especially as I want the France card primarily. One question though, I notice you say an American voice - I presume it is also English language and English menus in that mode?? 

Steve 

[Boiling a frog]

We have a friend with a sat nav system Very proud of it The other week we went to a restaurant near the RN10 near Mansle and he decided to show me how good it was.We set off back to my house and within 1km it told him to turn right at the next junction.Knowing my way home I knew this was not right but was interested to see where the sat nav would take us.Well half an hour later having gone round in an anti clockwise direction we rejoined the original road about 3 km further on from turning off It then took up to about half a k from our house where it got itself lost as the system did not recognise the road we were on and it thought we were in the middle of a field,

Much cheaper buying maps

[Steve Last]

[quote]We have a friend with a sat nav system Very proud of it The other week we went to a restaurant near the RN10 near Mansle and he decided to show me how good it was.We set off back to my house and withi...[/quote]

I'd agree that in most respects paper maps are cheaper, but my main objective is in fact to have access to maps at the level of detail these can provide, without having to lug an entire library about (even if I had them!!) and not the voice instructions, though those are extremely useful if you're on your own in strange territory.

We got thoroughly lost near Beziers a few weeks ago, trying to find some friends' house: they had given us good instructions and we had a paper map but there were a bunch of road closures and the atlas detail simply wasn't adequate to get round them without a lot of difficulty.  As an airline pilot I'm very familiar with the limits of automated systems - I actually worked on developing the specifications for digital mapping and have been reluctant to dive into buying them until now because of the known limitations. Also my wife is an EXCELLENT map reader! However this seems to be good point to start making the switch...........

Steve  

[Ecossais]

Steve,

 

If you want a bit more detail on how the TomTom GO’s work – you can view / download the user manuals here:  http://www.tomtom.com/support/support.php?ID=3&Language=1

 

You can compare the 3 current models at:  http://www.tomtom.com/products/section.php?ID=72&Section=90&Language=1

 

 

[Steve Last]

Thanls Ecossais, I managed to find that page a few minutes ago and it answered a lot of my questions - oddly enough the UK site doesn't seem to have any online purchase capability, it refers to a shopping basket but I couldn't find any way to put something in it! Maybe they are only selling through distributors in the UK. There seems to be a remarkable similarity in pricing, every one is £369.99!!

One question I couldn't find an answer to (will probably have to call their customer service number tomorrow) was the price of other country maps - it looks like there is an upgrade with a whole lot of countries on a disk for €79, but it's not clear without having the actual stuff in hand whether it will then onload onto a blank SD card, if so whether any particular type of card is needed, or whether one can do any kind of changes on the PC. It would be good to be able to put in changes (points of interest etc) on a proper screen and keyboard.

Anyway thanks for all the useful comments

Steve  

[M]

I just bought one 2 weeks ago from Aldi. It's a Medion (German make - reputable) Personal Navigation Assistant, all-in-one with integral GPS receiver, and I paid £230 for it - probably cheaper in Aldi France. I have been very pleased with it so far. It has full UK (street level) and major European roads maps. The full French map is £69 on the Medion website - I don't know if it can be got cheaper (it's Navteq mapping) but if you bought it in France I guess it would have the full French map on it. So, have a look at the weekly Aldi ads, as these come around regularly.

happy trails!

Malcolm

[Ecossais]

Steve,

 

Interesting price fixing! – the cheapest I could find GO 300 (from what appeared to be a reputable retailer) was £368.95 from TotalPDA (http://www.totalpda.co.uk/xgps.aspx?section=2 ).  This is a saving of a staggering £1 on the high street price from the likes of Dixons or PC World etc.  Must be a seller’s market!

 

The France map is £70 + VAT (£82.25) from TotalPDA ( http://www.totalpda.co.uk/TomTom-GO-300-500-700-SD-Card-France.aspx ) and comes on a SD card ready to plug into GO.  (For my system – using a PDA – I had to buy the whole of Europe on CDs for around £120 if I remember rightly and then buy a SD card to load France onto it.)

 

If you’re travelling by air, you might be able to obtain GO (or whatever you decide on) at VAT-free price from Dixons at Heathrow / Stansted.  They don’t stock all products there so phone first to check if they sell what you want if it’s an option for you.

 

If you’re thinking about buying a TomTom, Total PDA have details of the pricing of GO 500 - £469 (which includes major European roads) and GO 700 - £550 (which has all of Europe street level on a built-in hard drive).  Depending on how many European country maps you envisage buying, it may be worthwhile holding off till these new models come out.

 

The Medion from Aldi Malcolm mentions looks like a bargain – street level UK + France for under £300 !

[Ejc]

We have a Garmin PDA - which is brilliant - and it gets us from A to B without any hassel - just a couple of things we've noted

When you first arrive in France - it may help to have someone navigating as it's more difficu;t using it and being on the "wrong" side of the road.

If you lose the sat link -  driving a little way up the road and finding a safe place to stop and wait for it to re-aquire the link.

We've found many more places of interest around our home by following the direction back from various outings than we would have otherwise - we tended to stick to one or two routes that we knew well - the sat nav will take you via the back roads, (if that's the way you've programmed it) and it's great.

[RayB]

[quote]Having looked at a few this afternoon the TomTom 300 looks very attractive (most user-oriented). I am intrigued that you say it s only €449 at Darty, typical UK price is £370 / €550 approx. I just lo...[/quote]

** I presume it is also English language and English menus in that mode?? **

That's correct, Steve.

[Steve Last]

[quote]** I presume it is also English language and English menus in that mode?? **That's correct, Steve.[/quote]

Thanks Ray, additional info detail request to you by email.

Regards

Steve

[Cacknanty]

I use a Dell PDA with Prymenav software and a compact flash card GPS receiver, mounted on the dashboard.

Having seen tomtom and navman, I decided on Prymenav as it costs about £75 for UK and all Europe (NOT just the main roads). They seem to display very similar, Prymenav doesn't have some of the bells and whistles such as alternative voices.

Downloading the maps onto an SD memory card takes quite a while and to get all UK & most of Europe would take a 1GB SD card. I use 2 x 512MB cards. One has UK and the east side of France, the other has most of France, Switz & N Italy on it.

A problem I have with Prymenav is that it is ok for journeys up to about 300 miles, longer than that it locks the pda up trying to calculate the route. This is on a top of the range all singing all dancing pda. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but for the time being I just split the route up.

Last year I called in to a builders merchant I had not visited before, it was lunchtime and closed. I set the location as a destination on the PDA and went home. That afternoon the wife went out to get the required tackle and was directed straight to the builders merchants. Brilliant. I wonder if builder merchants can be downloaded as a Points of Interest (POI) file ?

Another useful feature is that in fog you at least have an idea of the road layout ahead.

It has saved loads of heated exchanges in the car, and she only gets woken up at the Peage now !

http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk were very helpful and have quite good prices.

[Steve Last]

"http://www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk were very helpful and have quite good prices."

I have actually ordered from them, their price was the same as all the others (£370 - about €555) but they throw in a multi-format card read-write device and a download of the UK safety/speed camera locations, which they say is worth about £30. They also say I can then use the upgrade disk to put the French map on a regular SD card. Will be interesting to see if it works out!  Good service, I ordered on the phone and they subsequently had a very minor problem with my credit card - sent me an email right and away but also called me to sort it out even before I checked my emails. Dispatched it about an hour later!

Steve 

[letrangere]

These things are absolutely amazing.  Drove from Paris to small town in Belgium recently, I'm an ace map reader so had no problems finding town and hotel.  Was due to be joined by a colleague who was taking the same road but a few minutes behind me.  However, his total lack of sense of direction is legendary, this is a man who once had problems finding his way from Place de la Concorde to Etoile, so I didn't expect to see him for hours, if at all that evening.  Imagine my astonishment when I get to the hotel to find him already there in the lobby.  His rented Audi had one of these gadgets apparently.  He talked of nothing else all evening.  M

[Micksyl]

Having used Maps all my life and laughed at those relying on Technology to get from A to B my wife got fed up with me ringing from far corners of Europe at 11 at night asking her to look on the web for local hotels and bought me a Garmin Street Pilot 2620.

First time out was disappointed as the internal antenna was not capable of picking up sufficient satellites through the front window so bought a Small Mag Mount Antenna. Comes complete with all Europe Maps on its Hard Drive ( I updated with a DVD from my Lap Top) and I have used it when driving in Norway and Czech Republic . Has a remote control and can divert around areas whilst you are on route. Biggest benefit to me has been a find function that allows you to chose from a number of different functions including fuel, hotels, transport links, etc. You just select and tell it to take you there.

Not a cheap solution but totaly demountable and I have used it when flying in and taking hire cars.

Interesting observation when driving back into Germany from the Czech Republic was that the American Forces had set up some pretty extensive Ground Stations for GPS and I had full signals from every Satellite.

 

[Steve Last]

Ok, having bought a Tomtom GO 300 which arrived at noon, it all seems to work just fine - very impressive so far. BUT...... I logged on to register on their website and order the upgrade disk with a map of France - only to find that it will not accept my product code as a valid TomTom product ID!

Also there is no apparent way to order a map card either on line or from a supplier - the online purchase doesn't function as it refers you to local retailers, and the retailers all refer you to the web-site!!!  

Needless to say there is no way of actually speaking to anyone on the phone....   does anyone have a spare French map for one of these things!!!  

Steve L