Sat Nav

I have a Navman F20 and I think it's great, Dr When used to have a TomTom but he didn't like it because when they built the M6 toll, it kept telling him he was driving down a river. When he asked when they were going to update the maps, they weren't helpful.

Mind you, I know other people who love their TomTom's

 

There are loads of options these days WOO, so you really need to do a bit of research on the www and read a few reviews. I've got a Navman which is quite good, though the stupid American lady inside it kept sending me the wrong way when I tried to drive through Bristol in the autumn. Before the Navman I had a Garmin and only got rid of it because I wanted one that 'talked' as I didn't like taking my eyes off the road to look at the screen.
One BIG advantage that the Garmin had over the Navman was that I could set up routes on my PC and upload onto the GPS device.I found doing it that way was much easier and more accurate than programming directly into the GPS as I have to do with the Navman.

 

Hya wiseoldowl in town today and Halfords have a great sale on sat navs big discounts on last week

 

http://www.reviewcentre.com/products2384.html

This link will help you to get totally confused!
sorry
robert

 

I've got a Pogo Drive. It has the 8 years of speed camera info in it from the origin speed camera detectors and shows where people have logged the portable cameras and lazer gun sites. It also does the specs cameras which are the average speed ones. The sat nav is cool too and so far hasn't taken us the wrong way.

 

Woo, I recomend a tom tom one, ive had mine 3 years or so and use it for work and normal driving, I find it invaluble and very simple to use. In honhesty i cant fault it in anyway. Around £80 and every penny worthwhile.

 

I have a Tom Tom and I give it the :gnthb:.

Its not infallible, so use your common sense too. You can drive the route you want to and Tom Tom will adjust to match (after probably telling you to U-turn for some distance).

I find it hugely helpful when driving on my own (it beats trying to balance a map on my lap / steering wheel s00k)

Couple of thoughts:

If updated (i.e. plug into your PC and connect to internet) once a week or so if finds the current location [when turned on] much more quickly [it downloads a 7-day list of the satellites orbits I think]

You can buy speed camera data from Tom Tom, or there are other sources you can download etc.

Consider if you want detailed maps for Continent etc., or just UK.

I always drive with the Sat Nav on, and for anything other than well-known, short-haul, routes, with the destination set [i.e. even for routes that I know], then if there is a Jam etc. a single "find alternative" click starts giving new directions immediately - otherwise you have to program in the destination, wake it up, etc. etc. before you get the advice.

There are shed-loads of settings, worth examining them for things that suit you. For example, after calculating the route it displays a "Summary" screen. There is an option to automatically "OK" that after 20 seconds or so - which if you are driving is one less distraction ...

Bits I find helpful include:

Follow someone to a location (pub / whatever) and be able to just press "Home" on the Tom Tom to find your way out of there ...

Know the ETA, so if you are delayed you can phone and let the person know.

Finding locations [of course!!] but for things like eBay pickups I find it very helpful. If the location needs to be precise find out the Lat/Long (on Google Maps or whatever) and use that instead of an address / postcode.

Blinking expensive compared to a Map from the local petrol station though :(

 

Woo, mine is fairly old but is equivalent to the tom tom one v4 uk.

 

"It sounds terribly complicated"

Sorry about that, but I don't think you'll find it complicated; but there are shed-loads of preference settings and so on ...

... but you can dispense with that:

Turn on

Touch the screen - menu appears. "Navigate to ..." is the first button. Click that and choose (from memory) Home, Favourite, City centre, Address, Postcode

(You obviously have to brave the Settings stuff to set up the location for "Home"!!)

Favourites brings up a list of locations you've added to your Favourites (and you can do that by navigating there, and when you get there pressing "Add this to favourites" - so you get the exact spot, not an approximation from the postcode or whatever).

If your destination is not either of those the easiest method is "postcode". Type in the postcode (the touch-screen displays a pseudo-keyboard), and then type in a house number if it wants one AND you know it. Then it calculated the route ...

For an address you type in the town, then choose a road and enter a house number if required.

Its easier to do than to read what I have typed!! so I'm sure you will be fine.

It IS worth reviewing the route (in case you made a typing mistake, or there is another town/village with the same name but many miles away ...)

and as I described earlier if you have "local knowledge" just drive where you want and the Sat Nav will recalculate its route (which of course also works well when you fail to take a turning you should have done!! which I find helpful in unfamiliar city centres when I get stuck in the wrong lane or somesuch)

 

I don't have one, nor need one but I understand these 'updates' can be quite expensive. On my b-in-l's it's 80 Euros (so basically 80 Euros per year ... he has a Navigon. I believe each of these companies charge different amounts so I guess it's something that has to be costed in when purchasing.

Must say it was quite fun someone speaking to you and telling you what was coming up, even here in the back of beyond .... :gnthb: