Sat Nav

[Arctic]

Hi
i am thinking of treating myself to a sat nav my first which would you recommend or would you suggest is good to have, price range is £200 or which are the best you have found you have owned and still own cheers Arctic.:bowdown:

[Simondi]

I've moved this into the the navigation forum, I'm sure some of our satnav experts will be along shortly.
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[James.uk]

The garmin nuvi widescreens are very nice and very easy to use. :}
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[Starman]

Hi Steve. SWMBO kindly bought me a TomTom about 4 years ago and that's still going strong. Good infrastructure to back it up. And as James says. Garmin is very good, with their pro stuff used in the aviation word too.
But to be fair now that my phones have google maps and various wayfinders on I tend to use those along with the Rover satnav. Having the TomTom as a back up.

Regards. Steve.

[wutang]

If you are looking for a stand alone sat nav I have been a garmin customer for 9 years for personal and work. somthing like the 1690 which has the Nulink connected services, after the first year this will require a £40 per year subscription that gives you speed cameras, live traffic, google local search (very useful.) and other stuff like weather ect.

Garmin also do a service called Nu maps Life time, officaly this is £75 ish but I got it off amazon for £39.99 and will give you map updates for the life of your device.

I bought a 1690 off the bay of e for £130 in march for work and used it straight away on a drive to Palma, Majorca from london it was well worth the money and when I got to Palma and discovered the address I had been given was wrong I was able to use the google facilaty to locate where i needed to be.

Never been a tom tom fan, the products are good but I have only had to deal with there customer services once and the experience put me off completly.

Richard

[pinebob]

i have had a tomtom510 from new never had any probs at all apart from my own fault.driving up east coast filey to scarborough and it got a bit confused as they had done a new bypass last year and i had not updated my maps dohhhh.apart from that found it spot on can not say about customer relations never had to use them.

[Arctic]

Hi
Thank you for your reply James/Steve/Richard. as i am new to this sat nav game do all need subscription each year :shrug: the reason i was thinking of getting a sat nav is that at the moment halfords have some deals on,such as these
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&cm_cr=No+Campaign-_-Web+Activity-_-C278510-_-PRODHOME_ESPOTCAROUSEL-_-Garmin+Nuvi+1340LMT+Sat+Nav+-+UK%2CROI+%26+Western+Europe&productId=818307&msg=&langId=-1&catalogId=10151


http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_81 1451_categoryId_165685_langId_-1?cm_sp=Intelligent_Offer-_-Product_Details_Zone_1-_-Blank&iozone=PDPz1

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_72 8865_categoryId_165685_langId_-1?cm_sp=Intelligent_Offer-_-Product_Details_Zone_1-_-Blank&iozone=PDPz1

and last but not least this one is this one you have Richard
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_75 0195_categoryId_165685_langId_-1?cm_sp=Intelligent_Offer-_-Product_Details_Zone_1-_-Blank&iozone=PDPz1


there are more 2340/2390/3760 does the higher the nimber the better it is or more programes as i say i am a complete novice in these. Arctcic

[Starman]

Hi Steve. Yes I think they all can do with a subscription to obtain the latest maps. Then it's optional extras like spee camera alerts and traffic data so you can circumvent obsticals etc. TomTon is the same as the Garmin I would think as most likely all makes do similar packages.
So long as you stick with one of the bigger well known brands you won't go wrong. I'd get to Halfords and play with a few as the interface while driving....I know we don't, do we!! :getmecoat: is important.

I don't know about the others but the TomTom let's you change the voices and the colours too. So at night I have a nice black/orange map :D

Regards. Steve.

[pinebob]

THE FIRST ONE YOU HAVE LINKED THE GARMI NUVI SAYS free updates for life of product. sounds a good deal for the price do not know what they are like but i am sure somebody on the forum will.

[Commodore]

The garmin nuvi widescreens are very nice and very easy to use. :}
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I concur - I bought a Garmin Nuvi 1440T from Halfords last month to replace the god awful Navman Mio I bought from Halfords in May (BTW - Do not buy a Navman, they are shockingly awful).

The Garmin 1440T currently retails for £149 (but is cheaper elsewhere, such as Amazon) and is brilliant:



Huge, clear widescreen display
Very easy to use
Very easy to follow
Full UK, Ireland and Western Europe maps
Lots of useful built-in points of interest
Good range of built-in voices
Clear speaker
Spoken road names
Spead camera database pre-loaded
3-Month map update guarantee (for first 3 months after you register, if your pre-loaded maps are updated in any way, you get a free download of the updated version)
No PC software needed for syncing (just mounts as a USB drive & can be detected by Garmin's web-based management console)
Comes with TMC traffic aerial as standard, as well as a lifetime Trafficmaster data subscription, so no on-going costs for traffic info
Very solid windscreen mount (other mounts for dash and vent etc available)

What it doesn't do:


No Bluetooth, so won't do handsfree phone or data sync via your phone
Limited options for downloading extra voices
Additional maps are a little bit more expensive than TomTom

Hope that's useful.

[Arctic]

Hi Steve/Bob/Chris
All good info thanks i will have to get myself down there and see what they are like in real life as this will be my first sat nav i want to make sure i get a good robust and that it will do a good job i note some come with blue tooth and some with Mp3 but am thinking will i ever use them :shrug: :bowdown:

[pinebob]

if you have a mobile phone it is great to have it bluetoothed to sat nav gives you hands free options so safer driving.

[Commodore]

if you have a mobile phone it is great to have it bluetoothed to sat nav gives you hands free options so safer driving.
Personally, I disagree. Having had a Sat nav with handsfree phone capabilities, it was never as good as a dedicated bluetooth handsfree kit wired into the car.

Handy if its there, but wouldn't bother spending money on a particular sat nav just to get that feature.

[pinebob]

hi commodore i have tomtom go 510 and i find it great. couple my phone to sat nav in the house go to car put phone in glove compartment and any calls come up on screen just tap screen to answer and caller comes through car speakers and i talk through mic fixed to mirror no probs.arctic is going to buy a sat nav any way so he would have to buy hands free kit as well how is that saving money.

[Starman]

Personally, I disagree. Having had a Sat nav with handsfree phone capabilities, it was never as good as a dedicated bluetooth handsfree kit wired into the car.

Handy if its there, but wouldn't bother spending money on a particular sat nav just to get that feature.


Hi.
To a degree I agree :o

I never used my TomTom as a dedicated handsfree despite it's comprehensive screen. But... Being able to use the data on the phone, it allowed the TomTom to get traffic info and updated map info on the fly as it needed it.

With a built in hard drive to boot for music.... Never used that either. :shrug:

But that's just me :D

Regards. Steve.