Which Sat Nav?

Briony

Briony

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Can anyone out there give me some advice on buying a Sat Nav please.

It is a bit mind boggling and would like to know who has got one and the pros and cons.

I am looking at the Tom Tom XL IQ thingy and also a Garmin 1340 or 1300T
Please can anyone help:thinking:

Thank you
 
Briony said:
Can anyone out there give me some advice on buying a Sat Nav please.

It is a bit mind boggling and would like to know who has got one and the pros and cons.

I am looking at the Tom Tom XL IQ thingy and also a Garmin 1340 or 1300T
Please can anyone help:thinking:

Thank you
Click to expand...

I have a iphone with TomTom installed I would say reception is 95% same as an GPS only unit. also bought Windscreen Holder in amazon :thumbs: can't ask for more
 
I use a tom tom every day for work, covering Bournemouth to landsend it is a must, work supplied a garmin which I used for a week but could not get on with. The tom tom I find gives better commands and has takes me to the door of where I need to be each time, the garmins voice commands always seemed to be a little late, it would give roundabout exits while on the roundabout and not before whilst the tom tom gave what exit to take well before the roundabout. Hope that helps.
 
Does the Tom Tom tell you which road you are supposed to be turning into like the garmin or not?
 
Whichever Sat Nav you buy as far as I am aware they will direct you via the nearest main road to your destination. Also they cannot tell if the road is leading to a dead end, this is one major problem where I live, the first 200 yards to my place is tarmac then goes into a footpath, yet the Sat Navs show as a through road which it isn't. Another problem is in built up areas, Sat Navs don't react fast enough where road junctions are close together. Having said all that one the plus side they will get you to your destination but possibly not by the quickest route which is programmable on the kit. Another plus is you don't have to keep stopping to map read so I would recommend getting one. As for make that is really personal choice as each make has slightly different features so check them all out first.

Realspeed
 
realspeed said:
Whichever Sat Nav you buy as far as I am aware they will direct you via the nearest main road to your destination. Also they cannot tell if the road is leading to a dead end, this is one major problem where I live, the first 200 yards to my place is tarmac then goes into a footpath, yet the Sat Navs show as a through road which it isn't. Another problem is in built up areas, Sat Navs don't react fast enough where road junctions are close together. Having said all that one the plus side they will get you to your destination but possibly not by the quickest route which is programmable on the kit. Another plus is you don't have to keep stopping to map read so I would recommend getting one. As for make that is really personal choice as each make has slightly different features so check them all out first.

Realspeed
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well, i work for Garmin and i'll contest this.

1: if a road is SURVEYED as a road, it'll show up as a road. irrespective of what it's made of
2: i've never experienced any issues as you describe with GPS units in large built up cities and i've been using automotive GPS units since early 2001 (even pre-production units).
 
I have used Sat Nav's for a number of years - initially using a Garmin unit that just had an arrow pointing in the general direction of where you wanted to go - that was fun to use....... I stayed with Garmin as at the time they were the only company at the time that had brackets to fit the Sat Nav on a Motor Bike plus it tied in with our use of other GPS equipment that we used for hiking etc.

The old Sat Navs were quite bulky in comparison to todays model's and when I was looking to upgrade I chose a Navman as this was smaller / neater unit and that appealed more to my wife for intuitive ease of use.

I was recently looking again to buy a Sat Nav for my elderly father and I looked at Garmin, Tom Tom and Navman and chose a Navman as it was the easiest to program as it had less options and was more suitable for my father for his occasional use.

My Brother in law had a Tom Tom, but he did not like it as it often would loose the customised settings he had placed in the unit, and sometimes missed a turn as the directions were given too late plus he wanted a unit that had Bluetooth integrated which I think is missing from the IQ you were looking at. But another colleague who is a building surveyor in a different part of the country swears by his Tom Tom - it could be that the Map Data is more up to date in his area?

On our Navman I download our own "points of Interest" which is handy and relatively easy to do.

Each Sat Nav manufacturer will have features on their units that will appeal to your own requirements and this will guide your choice, whether its ease of use, more bells and whistles, integration of Bluetooth, regular updates to Map Data etc, but if you are looking for a modestly priced, easy to use unit I would also look at the Navman range.
 
Briony said:
Does the Tom Tom tell you which road you are supposed to be turning into like the garmin or not?
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I hav the 720 which does name the roads. I am not sure about the Xl iq. Just check with halfords and have a play with them.
 
I used to use a Garmin then switched to TomTom. I currently have two, one in each car.

There is a downside to TomTom units. Attaching them to your computer to update them (firmware/software/maps/traffic cameras etc) is like playing the lottery. It invariably screws up. So much so that I rarely update them which means both maps and, more importantly, camera info is quickly out of date. Having a product that you are fearful of updating is bad :(

And there's another downside. iPhone bluetooth connectivity is inconsistent with the latest TomTom software. After spending loads of time with TomTom support trying to resolve the problems, we reverted to an earlier (software) version and it now works consistently.

Having said that, I couldn't work without them.
 
I've got a Tom Tom XL and it's nice, the display changes at motorway junctions and it gives all the lane information up to a turn ahead.
 
I use a TomTom and have used Garmin's when working in the US. I prefer the TomTom, it's simple to use, support is good and the 2 I have had (gave one to the wife) were totally reliable. But here's the crucial bit to understand - map accuracy is key here. Garmin use NAVTEQ maps and TomTom use TeleAtlas. NAVTEQ are based in the US and TeleAtlas in Europe. Many online reviews would have you believe that NAVTEQ (hence Garmin) is better but that is down to the fact most are US reviews and NAVTEQ's mapping for the US is better. TeleAtlas however have the stronger mapping in Europe and as such, a TomTom would be more accurate a system from a mapping perspective.

That said - I always have a map with me :)
 
LemmingLover said:
I use a TomTom and have used Garmin's when working in the US. I prefer the TomTom, it's simple to use, support is good and the 2 I have had (gave one to the wife) were totally reliable. But here's the crucial bit to understand - map accuracy is key here. Garmin use NAVTEQ maps and TomTom use TeleAtlas. NAVTEQ are based in the US and TeleAtlas in Europe. Many online reviews would have you believe that NAVTEQ (hence Garmin) is better but that is down to the fact most are US reviews and NAVTEQ's mapping for the US is better. TeleAtlas however have the stronger mapping in Europe and as such, a TomTom would be more accurate a system from a mapping perspective.

That said - I always have a map with me :)
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:thumbs:
 
LemmingLover said:
TeleAtlas however have the stronger mapping in Europe and as such, a TomTom would be more accurate a system from a mapping perspective.
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not entirely true... but meh, whatever.
 
O.K up date I bought a Garmin Nuvi and it has directed me wrong on 4 occassions, yesterday took me up and down the M25 missing the turn, was not funny as I was towing a trailer also, need to take it back as I am sure it is wrong so any more info needed as seriously looking at the new Tom Tom XL . or do I go again with a Garmin and put it down to the fact that I had a bad one?:shrug:

All inputs gratefully received.
 
Briony said:
O.K up date I bought a Garmin Nuvi and it has directed me wrong on 4 occassions, yesterday took me up and down the M25 missing the turn, was not funny as I was towing a trailer also, need to take it back as I am sure it is wrong so any more info needed as seriously looking at the new Tom Tom XL . or do I go again with a Garmin and put it down to the fact that I had a bad one?:shrug:

All inputs gratefully received.
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If you need a sat nav to tell which junction to get off a motorway you should not be driving.

What is wrong with looking at a map before you set off, note the junction number and remember it.
 
I use a TomTom XL every day and a TomTom 730 privately, having used that make for 6 years I am more than happy. I used a Garmin in another car on a couple of ocasions and couldnt get on with it, it seemed so user unfriendly.

EDIT: Regarding your following comment. The Garmin regularly took me off at a junction, only to tell me to take the next motorway entrance to carry on, on the same motorway in the same direction, never did work out why :shrug: Had a good look at a lot of roundabouts though :lol: In the end I quickly chose to ignore the instructions and use the road signs until I got my own TomTom back.
 
Tiler 65 Just the sort of comment I expected :bang: :razz:

what I meant was that it told me to come off at a junction and then took me back on the junction going the other way then told me to go "off road"
 
tiler65 said:
If you need a sat nav to tell which junction to get off a motorway you should not be driving.

What is wrong with looking at a map before you set off, note the junction number and remember it.
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Pah - people don't do that anymore. Jump in the car, program the sat nav on the way, then use the wipers to get the frost/condensation off the windscreen... The amount of times I've gone on journeys with collegues who don't even know which direction to head without the satnav saying.

I really like to know where I'm going and use a sat nav only for assistance in the last mile or so, or to know distance/time to go.
 
realspeed said:
Whichever Sat Nav you buy as far as I am aware they will direct you via the nearest main road to your destination. Also they cannot tell if the road is leading to a dead end, this is one major problem where I live, the first 200 yards to my place is tarmac then goes into a footpath, yet the Sat Navs show as a through road which it isn't. Another problem is in built up areas, Sat Navs don't react fast enough where road junctions are close together. Having said all that one the plus side they will get you to your destination but possibly not by the quickest route which is programmable on the kit. Another plus is you don't have to keep stopping to map read so I would recommend getting one. As for make that is really personal choice as each make has slightly different features so check them all out first.

Realspeed
Click to expand...

Well, one local road by me is shown on all sat navs as passable, where it's really a gated road and closed off to traffic. That's just the data provided to the sat nav companies.

In built up areas I bet your sat nav is running on accelerometers rather than the signal, guessing your direction changes until it can get a signal again. I know I have real issues around London with our TomTom.


recrudesce said:
well, i work for Garmin and i'll contest this.
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Thank you. I have an old Garmin GPS12 which I've had for years for walking/geocaching. Love it.
 
This is the best "sat nav" http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_r=1J2TQTSQ80QXCTHJGBBJ :lol:

I've just come back from Pembrokeshire to Nottingham and we had TomTom sat nav on and me in the back with a map. The sat nav would have sent us way off course. It was a good job I had the map open to do the real navigation. :naughty:

Seriously though I think sat nav is a good aid but I wouldn't trust it 100%. I'd still look at signs etc all the time to back up what it was saying.
 
Briony said:
O.K up date I bought a Garmin Nuvi and it has directed me wrong on 4 occassions, yesterday took me up and down the M25 missing the turn, was not funny as I was towing a trailer also, need to take it back as I am sure it is wrong so any more info needed as seriously looking at the new Tom Tom XL . or do I go again with a Garmin and put it down to the fact that I had a bad one?:shrug:

All inputs gratefully received.
Click to expand...

I have friends who have TomToms and they get taken down dead ends I have a Becker and have never had this happen to me
 
As a pilot I have used Sat Nav as an instrument approach method. It is quickly becoming the best form of approach procedure. However they use highly accurate Sat Navs with ground stations as well as satellites. (By the way, the aircraft instruments are nearly always Garmin) Sat Nav in a car is purely an aid to get you to where you are going and should be used in that manner. To solely rely on it and have it drive you off a cliff or into a river is IMHO deserving of the people that allow that to happen.

However the OP has a point, when you buy a Sat Nav, you do expect it to get you to where you are going without any unnecessary diversions. It should be quite obvious and basic route guidance that you do not come off a motorway junction just to rejoin the same one!
 
Sat Nav is very useful as a guide but don't leave your common sense at home. A lot of these problems with them sending you off course can be nothing to do with the software getting it wrong. The first thing you have to do is set it up properly, tell it what kind of roads you want to use/avoid, make sure you have the latest version of the map. No matter how new your unit roads do change, if it sends you up a dead end it's because it wasn't a dead end when the maps in your machine were coded.

@ tiler65 It's a matter of what you are used to, my own part of the world has thousands of miles of sparsely signposted road and I can get anywhere I need to without referring to a map let alone using a sat nav. The nearest motorway to me is hundreds of miles away, I do 2.5k miles per month but might drive a motorway once in every couple of years and consequently find them confusing and at motorway speeds you just don't have time to dither about wondering what lane you should be in, a sat nav is very useful in that situation.
 
The app for iPhone, that does not use the plans data connection does it, unlike the google sat nav I have on my Xperia? I ask becasue if it doesn't use the data, then it can be used abroad without wracking up a massive internet bill, plus will work weher there s no vodafone signal.

Its always confused me!
 
I have just up graded from a Garmin Nuvi 200 to a Nuvi 1240 as I have never had a mis direction with Garmin..
 
I've used TomTom for the past six years and am currently looking at buying a third unit: a Live750 or 950, I haven't decided which yet.

Problems? Not with the mapping.

My current Go750 has a dodgy screen which is the result of letting it cook for four hours in the parked car when it was about 35C out here in Germany - inside the car it was more like 55C. Now when the unit gets warm after about four hours use, the screen malfunctions occasionally and I get 'pond-ripples' when I try to use the touch-screen.
It says not to leave it installed in tempreatures over 30C, so it's kind of my own fault.
I'm getting it fixed then selling it on through eBay - I'm only buying a new one as I can't be without one here in Germany and the repair may take up to three or four weeks... I would buy another Go750 but they've been discontinued, hence the upgrade.

As long as you subscribe to regular map updates you'll be fine. I have the quarterly updates, 'Safety'- *ahem* Cameras and Traffic Alerts all updating on a weekly basis.

TomTom allows weekly map corrections and for you to upload corrections yourself via TomTom Home on your home computer.
 
I use a Garmin 765T. It has not let me down in the two years I've had it. It allows me to play music through my radio, interrupting the music for driving instructions, to answer the phone through my radio (hands free) and it tells me the name of the road I'll be turning onto. It also tells me if there are any traffic problems ahead.

Brilliant piece of kit.
 
Daryl said:
Garmin are the best and used in aircraft which is good enough for me. And a map as well.

All Sat navs take you through crap raods and farms that you never need to see or pass through.
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Unless you use the "Avoid Unpaved Roads" option of course :lol:
 
Daryl said:
Garmin are the best and used in aircraft which is good enough for me.
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A Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet to the public) is made from around 5 million parts - all provided by the cheapest supplier. :thinking:
 
MisterE said:
A Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet to the public) is made from around 5 million parts - all provided by the cheapest supplier. :thinking:
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Actually not quite true, although Boeing do try for best value, part of their success has been the quality of the parts used, which is definitely not the cheapest...

As for GPS yes they have them and they use them for hyper accurate approach procedures using the WAAS system but for navigation they use inertia type systems these are also backed up by GPS, try buying one of those at Halfords!! Coincidently inertia navigation systems are also used by submarines in case you ever wondered how they navigate themselves.

End of school lesson!
 
lawrenceots said:
The app for iPhone, that does not use the plans data connection does it, unlike the google sat nav I have on my Xperia? I ask becasue if it doesn't use the data, then it can be used abroad without wracking up a massive internet bill, plus will work weher there s no vodafone signal.

Its always confused me!
Click to expand...
Nokia's Ovi Maps works with pre-loaded maps and can work entirely off-line. You get them pre-loaded with the phone these days or you can download them via a PC. Navigation and maps are free now with the newer phones.

Don't need a data connection, although you do for A-GPS which helps get a better lock especially in built up areas. Small amount of data used, but it's data nevertheless. Can turn off A-GPS though, and also use an external bluetooth GPS for better reception.

With the newer versions of Ovi Maps, it knows about speed limits and if you have a data connection you get traffic info I think (possibly speed traps too but not tested that).

iPhone I'm not sure stores anything on the phone, and the A-GPS situation would still apply.

The best Sat Nav I've used is the one built into my Civic though :D. Massive display and the antenna is built into the frame of the car and never had a single problem with signal lock even in built up areas. It gets a perfect position every time. Voice controlled and the map data is pretty good at knowing what is a road and what is a dirt track, and about dead ends etc. It even knows what lane I should be in on approach to a junction.

Downside is the data is all on DVD. The only live data is traffic info and that only applies to motorways and major A roads. Updated DVDs cost £200+ ! The DVDs cover all of Europe though.

Like all sat navs, it still gets things wrong sometimes. Mainly where sometimes a junction is just seen as a bend in the road so it doesn't warn you to turn off. Maybe it's out of date data, though it's 2008 data and the few times it's done this has been on roads that haven't changed in the last 5 years.
 
I'm still using my origional TomTom One.

It occasionaly takes me some wierd routes but thats part of the fun of doing 40K miles a year. I couldn't do without it.

As for reading maps I used to carry 75 A-Z maps for every town, city, public bog and drive in Macdonalds. It was a pain in the derrier.

I tried Garmins, but my personal choice wasn't to my liking.

Still like my TT One, and now carry a Road Angel GPS and Laser detector too :D
 
deadkenny said:
Nokia's Ovi Maps works with pre-loaded maps and can work entirely off-line. You get them pre-loaded with the phone these days or you can download them via a PC. Navigation and maps are free now with the newer phones.

Don't need a data connection, although you do for A-GPS which helps get a better lock especially in built up areas. Small amount of data used, but it's data nevertheless. Can turn off A-GPS though, and also use an external bluetooth GPS for better reception.

With the newer versions of Ovi Maps, it knows about speed limits and if you have a data connection you get traffic info I think (possibly speed traps too but not tested that).

iPhone I'm not sure stores anything on the phone, and the A-GPS situation would still apply.

The best Sat Nav I've used is the one built into my Civic though :D. Massive display and the antenna is built into the frame of the car and never had a single problem with signal lock even in built up areas. It gets a perfect position every time. Voice controlled and the map data is pretty good at knowing what is a road and what is a dirt track, and about dead ends etc. It even knows what lane I should be in on approach to a junction.

Downside is the data is all on DVD. The only live data is traffic info and that only applies to motorways and major A roads. Updated DVDs cost £200+ ! The DVDs cover all of Europe though.

Like all sat navs, it still gets things wrong sometimes. Mainly where sometimes a junction is just seen as a bend in the road so it doesn't warn you to turn off. Maybe it's out of date data, though it's 2008 data and the few times it's done this has been on roads that haven't changed in the last 5 years.
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Thanks...I think I get it now!:) Now just need to sort out on for my new iPhone!:D
 
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