Sat Nav

[Arthur Brown]

I've just bought my first sat nav though I'm usually good with maps. Its a cheap Binatone from Maplin (second price up!) There are enough features for me and it was £50 _100 cheaper than Halford's cheapest.

[Martyn Hicks]

Not strictly boating equipment but linked. My Mum and I are thinking of getting a sat nav for our shared car. I have accepted getting lost as a normal part of driving for long enough, and have already seen (and appreciated) a great number of scenic routes. I am not only driving to the next boaty banter, but picking someone up on route so am quite excited at the idea of having something taking responsibility for the map reading. Mum is often responsible for picking up and dropping off crew to wherever I am on the boat, a sat nav would make this easier. I no absolutely no idea how to choose, as there seems to be an awful lot of them out there.

 

Jan

 

I do about 30,000 miles a year...wouldn't do without the TOM TOM, just the UK edition but I have the GO live which keeps me up to date with any traffic problems en route...

Edited July 18, 2012 by Martyn Hicks

[system 4-50]

The TomTom Start (clues in the name) 60 is basically a 'starter' sat nav and hence will have limited features to keep the cost down and to justify the cost of higher priced models with better features.

 

The features these devices offer are readily available on their web site or that of their retailers...... it just needs a bit of research.

 

Hardly justification for condemning TomTom devices per sae..

Reading the description I decided that I didn't want LIVE features and I didn't want to talk to it so I assumed that is what I was losing by buying the START model.

I could have taken the name more seriously like my previous model called a GO 500 ???

With a day or two and a list of the product features I could produce a web page that enabled direct comparisons of all the tomtom products, past and present, so why can't they?

I am a customer, why do I have to work so hard to give people money?

I am told that none of their models have the itinerary feature though I haven't checked myself.

I stick by my assertion that

1) It was extremely daft to drop this feature

2) It is too difficult for customers these days to be sure of what they are buying. Buying software is even worse.

[mrsmelly]

Not strictly boating equipment but linked. My Mum and I are thinking of getting a sat nav for our shared car. I have accepted getting lost as a normal part of driving for long enough, and have already seen (and appreciated) a great number of scenic routes. I am not only driving to the next boaty banter, but picking someone up on route so am quite excited at the idea of having something taking responsibility for the map reading. Mum is often responsible for picking up and dropping off crew to wherever I am on the boat, a sat nav would make this easier. I no absolutely no idea how to choose, as there seems to be an awful lot of them out there.

 

Jan

 

Garmin.

 

Tim

[sueb]

Friend bought a Tom Tom from Halfords. It didn't work so back she goes. It has to be updated on your computer she is told. As she doesn't like computers she had a panic. She fixed tom to the computer and did as requested. Next time she went out it failed and last I heard she was going back to Halfords. Surely it should work before you leave the shop!

[Roger Gunkel]

Used Tom Tom for about 3 years and found it very reliable. Now having a smartphone with GPS, I tried the free. Navfree app which I think is superior to any satnav I have used. Since getting an Ipad with gps, the same app also works on that, and I have a dash adapter to mount it like a conventional but large satnav. The Navfree programme has frree map downloads for most European countries, plus full postcoade search and various add ons for very low cost. You can also use Google search for unusual addresses or destinations that you have no road name for. You can do the google search while you are on line, and just enter the search result by tapping the map where shown. You can then use it off line for the actual navigation.

 

Even with a smaller screen on a smart phone, the voice instructions are very good meaning you don't neccessarily need to look at the screen when driving. If you've already got a gps enabled phone, then for free its a no brainer

 

Roger

[the grinch]

i've got google navigation on my phone £2.50 a month UK & european and live update + reroute/avoid tolls &/or mainroads options POI can be selected for display or hide

 

all included on vodaphone for £25 a month unlimited text, 300 minutes to 01, 02, 07 & 08 numbers

[Guest]

Reading the description I decided that I didn't want LIVE features and I didn't want to talk to it so I assumed that is what I was losing by buying the START model.

I could have taken the name more seriously like my previous model called a GO 500 ???

With a day or two and a list of the product features I could produce a web page that enabled direct comparisons of all the tomtom products, past and present, so why can't they?

I am a customer, why do I have to work so hard to give people money?

I am told that none of their models have the itinerary feature though I haven't checked myself.

I stick by my assertion that

1) It was extremely daft to drop this feature

2) It is too difficult for customers these days to be sure of what they are buying. Buying software is even worse.

 

and I stick by mine that it is wrong to condemn all their products on the basis of information that is freely available on their web site that you didn't check before you purchased....it's honestly not that difficult.

[Nine of Hearts]

I've got a Garmin, and although this maybe because it's not particularly top-of-the-range, it's pants and I wouldn't get another.

 

It's far happier nagging you about speed cameras than it is about telling you where to go. Going clockwise around the M60 towards the M56, it will obliterate all directions with a "warning fixed safety camera blah blah", so you won't know whether to keep left or right (unless you know where you're going, in which case - why have a Sat Nav?). Also, on dual carriageways that have motorway style exits, ie: ramps to a roundabout but the main road presses straight through, it will advise you to "take 2nd exit at roundabout". So you unless you know the road, you'll toddle up the ramp like a good boy, only to be directed straight back down the opposite ramp and back behind the bloody artic. you just spend 15 miles trying to pass.

 

Bloody squarehead engineering. Never again!

[Guest]

I've got a Garmin, and although this maybe because it's not particularly top-of-the-range, it's pants and I wouldn't get another.

 

It's far happier nagging you about speed cameras than it is about telling you where to go. Going clockwise around the M60 towards the M56, it will obliterate all directions with a "warning fixed safety camera blah blah", so you won't know whether to keep left or right (unless you know where you're going, in which case - why have a Sat Nav?). Also, on dual carriageways that have motorway style exits, ie: ramps to a roundabout but the main road presses straight through, it will advise you to "take 2nd exit at roundabout". So you unless you know the road, you'll toddle up the ramp like a good boy, only to be directed straight back down the opposite ramp and back behind the bloody artic. you just spend 15 miles trying to pass.

 

Bloody squarehead engineering. Never again!

 

I too have a Garmin - see further up and I too would not have another of the particular model I have.

 

You can if you want though switch the speed safety camera warnings off - we do when we go to France as it's now illegal over there to have a device that warns you of their presence - god bless 'em...

[mrsmelly]

I've got a Garmin, and although this maybe because it's not particularly top-of-the-range, it's pants and I wouldn't get another.

 

It's far happier nagging you about speed cameras than it is about telling you where to go. Going clockwise around the M60 towards the M56, it will obliterate all directions with a "warning fixed safety camera blah blah", so you won't know whether to keep left or right (unless you know where you're going, in which case - why have a Sat Nav?). Also, on dual carriageways that have motorway style exits, ie: ramps to a roundabout but the main road presses straight through, it will advise you to "take 2nd exit at roundabout". So you unless you know the road, you'll toddle up the ramp like a good boy, only to be directed straight back down the opposite ramp and back behind the bloody artic. you just spend 15 miles trying to pass.

 

Bloody squarehead engineering. Never again!

 

On " settings " simply switch OFF the camera alert as I have done, after all it simply isnt necesary to competent drivers.

 

Tim

[alan_fincher]

I've got a Garmin, and although this maybe because it's not particularly top-of-the-range, it's pants and I wouldn't get another.

 

It's far happier nagging you about speed cameras than it is about telling you where to go. Going clockwise around the M60 towards the M56, it will obliterate all directions with a "warning fixed safety camera blah blah", so you won't know whether to keep left or right (unless you know where you're going, in which case - why have a Sat Nav?). Also, on dual carriageways that have motorway style exits, ie: ramps to a roundabout but the main road presses straight through, it will advise you to "take 2nd exit at roundabout". So you unless you know the road, you'll toddle up the ramp like a good boy, only to be directed straight back down the opposite ramp and back behind the bloody artic. you just spend 15 miles trying to pass.

 

Bloody squarehead engineering. Never again!

Curious, because I now have a Garmin, and generally finds it does a better job than my Tom Tom ever did.

 

It does know about a certain amount of Traffic information, so one has to get used to not necessarily going the same way if repeating a journey already done, and, of course, if it does take you by a less direct route, (because it thought there were hold ups on the obvious choice), you never get to see if those hold ups were real or imagined!

 

I have not read the whole thread, but to me the biggest rip-off with both Tom Tom and Garmin is that the vast majority are sold without lifetime map updates, and the charges for downloading newer maps can quickly exceed the current cost of a cheap SatNav.

 

When I bought the Garmin I made absolutely sure I paid a bit extra, and got this included, and would not now dream of buying one where it wasn't.

 

However I notice it is increasingly hard to find ones where unlimited map updates are included in an original price. Presumably they would very much like you to pay an arm and a leg at least once if it is not included.

 

Biggest other difference between (very old) Tom Tom, and (much newer) Garmin is how long in advance of junctions it gives the advice. With the Garmin it is done much earlier on, whereas with Tom Tom is was very last minute. I can live with either, but it comes as quite a shock to switch between two boxes doing the same thing very differently.

 

On balance I'm a Garmin convert.

[Guest]

 

Biggest other difference between (very old) Tom Tom, and (much newer) Garmin is how long in advance of junctions it gives the advice. With the Garmin it is done much earlier on, whereas with Tom Tom is was very last minute. I can live with either, but it comes as quite a shock to switch between two boxes doing the same thing very differently.

 

 

Echo that - when we started using a Garmin (after a NavMan) I found myself looking for junctions/roundabouts that were not actually there as the Garmin often tells you 2-3 miles ahead where our NavMan didn't.

[Nine of Hearts]

On " settings " simply switch OFF the camera alert as I have done, after all it simply isnt necesary to competent drivers.

 

Tim

 

This may not be possible due to low spec of model as mentioned, but even if it is, why did it take a canal forum to find this out? Wouldn't instructions have been nice? Couldn't their "customer service" have pointed out this feature when I mentioned the flaw?

 

Also, they can't ride bikes for sh!t, either...

 

 

20th out of a possible 22! Perhaps if they had a decent map-reading application, they'd be able to find their way around France a bit quicker.

[dor]

Did you download the User Guide from the website? I found it covered pretty well all the functions on the device. Even my wife now knows how to use it. (ducks and runs...)

[Machpoint005]

This may not be possible due to low spec of model as mentioned, but even if it is, why did it take a canal forum to find this out? Wouldn't instructions have been nice? Couldn't their "customer service" have pointed out this feature when I mentioned the flaw? Also, they can't ride bikes for sh!t, either...20th out of a possible 22! Perhaps if they had a decent map-reading application, they'd be able to find their way around France a bit quicker.

Have you tried navigating with a Sky+ box?

[Nine of Hearts]

Have you tried navigating with a Sky+ box?

 

No, but I have driven a Nissan.

[Guest]

This may not be possible due to low spec of model as mentioned, but even if it is, why did it take a canal forum to find this out? Wouldn't instructions have been nice? Couldn't their "customer service" have pointed out this feature when I mentioned the flaw?

 

Which specific model is it??

 

I found the instructions on how to do it here -

 

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={d36b75b0-b2d8-11e0-5f51-000000000000}

Edited July 19, 2012 by The Dog House

[Nine of Hearts]

Which specific model is it??

 

I found the instructions on how to do it here -

 

https://support.garmin.com/support/searchSupport/case.faces?caseId={d36b75b0-b2d8-11e0-5f51-000000000000}

 

It still does beg the question though, "why can't I have camera alerts AND directions?". Like Machpoint005 says, you're better off with a Sky+ box. At least then you can watch telly while the Mrs finds out where you are on the road atlas. You'd probably get a whole film in, too. (grabs coat...)

[carlt]

At least then you can watch telly while the Mrs finds out where you are on the road atlas. You'd probably get a whole film in, too. (grabs coat...)

Driving along, pre-Sat Nav, one day with OH navigating and I ask her "Why are you holding the map upside down?" to which she responded "Because we're driving upside down."

 

I would hasten to add that I get horribly lost far more often without her in the car, than when she is directing me.

[Guest]

It still does beg the question though, "why can't I have camera alerts AND directions?". Like Machpoint005 says, you're better off with a Sky+ box. At least then you can watch telly while the Mrs finds out where you are on the road atlas. You'd probably get a whole film in, too. (grabs coat...)

 

Funnily enough I have a old Sky+ box that's going on Ebay shortly - interested??