I've been tasked to find a SatNav for the FiL's birthday in Feb. None of his offspring feel up to the job, i.e. it will be my fault when he doesn't like what I recommend but they pay for ;-)
He only needs UK mapping, the budget is up to £100. He'll be 74 when he gets it, is quite techno-savvy but does need glasses, and any noises it makes need to be loud ones :-)
So - less than £100, easily readable screen and a user friendly interface - what's the best deal at the moment.
Also, I guess being the sort of bloke he is, he knows far better than any satnav which way he wants to go - it will be via Piddle Trenthide then over Cat and Fiddle while using the motorway for this bit but not that, so anything that is good at handling 'via's and 'avoid's is good, which I suppose is why I'm asking - this sort of stuff never gets covered in the retailers' blurb
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I have a tomtom which has a good user interface, have a look at the "Start" models.
www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/car-navigation/start-regional-black/
Last edited by: Old Navy on Wed 29 Dec 10 at 14:26
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Id also say look at a TomTom - the interface is one of the best. And is simplified on the Start models (fewer options in the menus).
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If you decide on a TomTom, you'll probably find the best price here:
www.find-tomtom-deals.co.uk/
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I won't recommend a model but another thumbs up for Tom Tom. Their customer service sucks but the machines themselves are very good and very easy to use.
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As I like my toys, I treated myself to a TT XL 'Live' this October and thought it was the proverbial Bee's knees. However I have found some of it routeing (ones that I know) quite absurd and would hate to think what a pickle, strangers to my area, would get themselves into being led around housing estates and some very narrow country lanes, which I would not dream of driving along.
I suppose they're OK for motorway driving or finding your destination in large connurbations if you are desperately lost but otherwise I'd treat their routing with great care and suspicion.
A good road atlas and some local maps together with a satnav would be my answer.
With hindsight, although having enjoyed playing around with my TT, I personally would not have bothered but I suppose it depends how much driving you do in complete unknown territory and are prepared to keep on finding yourself up a creek without a paddle.
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Presumably you have it set for 'shortest route'.
Pat
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"Fastest route" is usually the best setting.
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Oldgit almost certainly has it set to shortest route. A road near me (Rattle will know it) has the main A road and a cut through for those who live in the houses. Set TT to shortest route and it will tell you to take the shorter distance between those two points. But you wouldn't.
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I have always found TT's Customer Service well up to speed; they respond quickly to e mail queries and keep going until an issue is resolved and their centre in Holland can be accessed thru a UK 01 number. Further to that their extras seem to be cheap to me, I get speed cameras locations for a year for about 18 European countries for £20, Garmin want £20 per country. I get 4 updated maps of Western Europe, per year, for £36; Garmin want $85 for one update.
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PP, the quality of speed camera data from TT is nowhere near as good as found on PocketGPSWorld.com. And if you submit a new camera on that site and are first to do so you get lifetime membership for free. Been there and done that.
To get updates for the reduced price with TT you need to have the previous most up to date map. But an okay deal - but how many roads actually change every 3 months?
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 29 Dec 10 at 18:08
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Garmin nuvi 205w nice good size screen easy to use.
This was £120.00 5 months back so should be much cheaper now.
tinyurl.com/2dt2yp7 link considerably shrunk to restore correct page width
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 30 Dec 10 at 02:04
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I have had a TomTom a few years but the map was also rather old and the screen fixing not as good as the latest models. I decided it was not worth paying out for a new map and, instead, bought a refurbished one from TT for £69.99 --- the last one listed here:
www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/tomtom-outlet-store/index.jsp
ONE Regional v4 Refurbished
* Map Share™ Technology
* TomTom Speed Cameras
* Plug & Go
It arrived in mint condition. Not a mark on it. And I am very pleased with it. I think it would suit you fine. I have just used it to take me from the Gatwick area to a private house in Weymouth and back and there were no route errors at all. All roundabout exits were exactly correct with no missed exits in the counting. It quickly acquires the satellites and a route.
The sound output is good. It comes from a largish aperture on the back and sort of bounces off the screen.
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I've been using TomTom since around 1994 and well happy with it. It was on a PDA originally. Then the same PDA with TomTom3, then 5 and now my TomTom 720 from 3 years ago.
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In the whole of Europe covered by the TT map, quite a lot of road change!. 4 maps @ 7.50 each seems a better deal than 1 @ $85. I agree with you about GPS world but isn't the conversion to get them to work in a TT fiendishly complicated?
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>> agree with you about GPS world but isn't the conversion to get them to work
>> in a TT fiendishly complicated?
No.
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>> Oldgit almost certainly has it set to shortest route. A road near me (Rattle will
>> know it) has the main A road and a cut through for those who live
>> in the houses. Set TT to shortest route and it will tell you to take
>> the shorter distance between those two points. But you wouldn't.
>>
He most certainly hasn't. I have my TT set up so that I'm presented with the menu to chose from and 99% ot the time chose to top of the menu which I think (without going into the other room, to get it) is called 'Fastest/Quickest Route' or something like that.
Believe me, in the short time I have had it, I'm quite familiar with its operation and best parameters to use!
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Then you must live near some odd roads for a satnav to choose them. Or there is something wrong with your unit.
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From advice on here and other research I'd decided on a Garmin Nuvi 1310 when Mrs F wanted one the other month. In the end she decided not to buy but if I was chosing today it would still be the same one... Which best buy too.
tinyurl.com/yazd9vo shrunk this one too
Last edited by: VxFan on Thu 30 Dec 10 at 02:05
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Halfords do a buy online and collect in store offer.
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>> Halfords do a buy online and collect in store offer.
>>
Just as a quick aside. Do you have any idea why they do this at reduced prices. People will no doubt say that it is internet shopping with invariable savings but doing a transaction online and they saying you'll collect it in your preferred store at a reduced price seems odd to me.
However, I want a Karcher extension hose and it is ca £10 cheaper this way but why can't you walk into the store and get this saving without all the faffing around?
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>> why can't you walk into the store and get this saving without all the faffing around?
Because you can't. Similar to how you can do it with PC World too.
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I shall be staying with said FIL for the next few days, so will try and find out more about what he wants. The other thing he wants was a speed camera detector, but the offspring are not up for that - they want him to go slower, not faster.
Thanks for all input, any warning of idiosyncracies of any particular makewould be useful - for instance, my (rather old, works off Telstar and Sputnik I think) Navman doesnt even do full postcodes and allows you to locate junctions, but it doesn't recognise junctions between motorways and other roads, only motorways and other motorways, which is incredibly annoying and makes things far more difficult than they should be
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Not sure if its still relevant in the modern market, I have a TT with an SD card, couple of years ago we got my dad a TT XL something or other which had integrated memory and not an SD card.
This has caused him all sorts of issues when maps are updated as the file size has grown dramatically and he now needs to take all sorts of actions to try and get a new map onto his device. I had to purchase a bigger sized SD card to update mine.
As I said, not sure if its still relevant nowadays.
And as far as upto date maps are concerned, there are road changes near where I live that are now almost 3 years old and still not included in the most up to date maps. Even though I have corrected these through mapshare. When I queried this with TT I basically got the impression that mapshare was a consumer spin and they really didn't pay much attention to it at all!
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I have had mine for 4 years or more.
Its never had a map update and its never caused an issue. Sure we come across the odd road that moved, a new bypass the odd roundabout etc.. It doesn't cause you to suddenly come to a grinding halt, stricken with fear, paralysed to the spot never to return.
You can see on the screen where you have deviated from the digital map, and any single cell amoeba could easily decide what to do and where to go. Usually driving forwards to the next junction is a good choice.
As for new places being added that it cant find, then you know that before you set out dont you because the sat nav never found your destination.
The point is, with a sat nav map of any age, you are never lost, you know where you are even if it does indicate its the middle of a field.
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>> I have had mine for 4 years or more.
>>
>> Its never had a map update and its never caused an issue. Sure we come
>> across the odd road that moved, a new bypass the odd roundabout etc.. It doesn't
>> cause you to suddenly come to a grinding halt, stricken with fear, paralysed to the
>> spot never to return.
Updates - they are fiction - son's 2010 model X6 was 4 yrs out of date when he bought the car in 2010 - he bought his house in 2006 and it is just a field on his screen.
Updates are what they are - the are updated but NOT UP-to-DATE. A waste of money in my opinion - you would not buy a 2008 calendar - why should we have 2008 maps!
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My TT XL Live updates came with a free map update provided you did the update within 30days of purchase. However, I did not have a Broadband connection then but was told anyway, that updating can cause corruption and you should backup your TT before any such action.
Others on the TT forum told me that if I had a good BB connection the updates could take a considerable time. It is a shame that, in retrospect, my TT did not have removable SD card which might have made updates or additions much easier and less prone to corrupted devices.
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I use a number of satnavs, but am currently using one an iPhone. We've hashed over phone v dedicated units before, so no point in doing that again here, but I would just say that the app I'm using is free, and perhaps of more relevance to this thread, allows users to create their own maps.
If I find a new road, junction, roundabout, whatever, I can do what's needed (very simple) and it will be in the map for everyone to use within a week at most, all for nothing other than a bit of my time.
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My Saab has an integrated satnav, but the mapping is on DVD from 2002...a lot can happen in 8 years. I'm used to ploughing across what is marked as a field ;-). TBH I use it mainly for detailed level road information when I don't have very local maps, and it more often than not freezes when I use it to find a route!
The other good use is when you are hopelessly lost in a town. Set it to direct you to somewhere just outside and it gets on with extricating you. Had to do that in Dunkirk once.
In a nutshell, I'd rather spend the £200 it would cost to update the disc on a decent set of maps. But I do understand that there are good reasons why some people use them.
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Well what he ended up with was a Garmin Nuvi 1301, and he seems fairly happy with it.
Next question ;-)
Has anybody any positive/negative experiences of SatNav with built in bluetooth - my visor mounted blue tooth has gone the way of all things, and I will be in the market for a new satnav myself later this year, so I could purchase one device that does both jobs, but I don't want to do that if it turns out the device is crap at one or other function
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I came across this one the other day, but are you brave enough to buy from a site that sounds dangerously close to eejit?
www.ijtsave.co.uk/?sct=myguide4328
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I've used my TT as a hands free - works after a fashion.
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MyGuide have gone bust. No support, No updates. Poor Turbodog software.
That's why it's cheap.
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I was given a MyGuide over a year ago. I think it cost less than fifty quid. I agree it's far from perfect, but it finds me the addresses I want, which is all I need. It cannot be updated.
I thought the company had gone and wonder if this is a phoenix type job. It says it's got a windows operating system.
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My tomtom is crap at blutooth mobile phone. All the ones that dont have the ability to plug in an external mic and put it closer to your head are.
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My Nuvi600 series has a socket for a headset.
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which is really not very useful now is it. If you have to wear a headset then you might as well use your regular blutooth earpiece.,
What I mean was where you can plug in a mic thats fitted to a part of the car nearer to your head, rather than shouting at a sat nav thats three feet away.
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I've always wondered where the mic is in my C5 (integrated satnav/bluetooth). People on the other end have no idea you're on open mic in a car so I always warn folks if there are others with me.
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Oh sorry Zero, it's to run the headset within a crash helmet - the alternative is to link the Headset to the unit via a Bluetooth dongle...
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TT map updates seem to be very slow but they are over 1gb so they are never going to be less than 30 minutes on rural broadband. Mine works very well as a link to my mobile BTW
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Well he found his way to our house today (with or without the aid of Sat Nav, I know not) and i've just had a play with the Nuvi, and I have to say, having had the loan of a TomTom the other weekend, having had a Navman and 2 handhelds myself for several years, that apart from anything other than the simple Go To function, the interface is the worst Ive ever come across, and the manuals are no better !
Any Nuvi owners out there know how to set up a route from A to B when you are not at either of those points ?. The manual implies it can be done, but the functions mentioned in the manual don't actually appear on the hardware, and this is something I worked out how to do in 5 minutes on the Tom Tom, and this was at the first time of handling one !
Last edited by: borasport on Sat 5 Feb 11 at 15:13
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Tom Tom appear to have various brands or sub groups - GO/XL/Live/IQ/Via - what is the meaning of these classifications ?
(or - can you do product comparisons of the Tom-tom web site ?
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Go = Higher spec models.
XL = Lower spec big screen models.
Live = Subscription traffic info.
IQ = Intelligent route planning.
Via = No idea. (Travel via?)
(or - can you do product comparisons of the Tom-tom web site ? = Why not look yourself?
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 15 Feb 11 at 15:56
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>>
>> (or - can you do product comparisons of the Tom-tom web site ? = Why
>> not look yourself?
I have, and I couldn't find a means of comparison, but that doesn't mean it's not there, which is why I came here to ask :-)
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>> I have, and I couldn't find a means of comparison, but that doesn't mean it's
>> not there, which is why I came here to ask :-)
>>
Try here.
www.yourtomtom.com/services/1/compare.html
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"Any Nuvi owners out there know how to set up a route from A to B when you are not at either of those points ?."
The Nuvi will, if you are receiving a satellite signal only allow you create a route from your current location. Therefore if you are say at point A and want a route from B to C set up a route from A to C and and point B as a waypoint.
If you not receiving a satellite signal the nuvi will ask you, after a few minutes seeking a signal, whether you want to use indoors mode. If you answer yes it will allow you set your location wherever you like
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So you cant do pre plan routes, or experiment with routes? That is really easy on the TomTom and makes route planning much easier.
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So you cant do pre plan routes, or experiment with routes?
Not on the base model 200 series. The 700 series gives route planning though.
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SatNav Recommendation - Old Navy
