I'm hoping to tap into the UK-DIY SatNav knowledge base!
My MIL has expressed a desire/need for a SatNav for her car. This is good as we had decided to buy one for her this Christmas.
As a Garmin Zumo user I'm not well placed to make an informed choice of MIL-friendly SatNavs and seek the advice/opinions of the subscribers here.
IMO she needs: UK mapping only, full TTS instructions, full UK postcode searching and simplicity of operation. Not much really! I'm open to arguments as to why she may not need TTS etc.
I don't want to rush out and buy a TomTom One without giving the matter careful consideration. Especially as Misco are offering this:
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TIA
Richard
With apologies for the previous miss-post. (I'm very tired)
Err, I'm unclear as to why you say that. What's wrong with the Zumo?
On the basis that as a generalisation you gets whst you pays for, go for as much as you can afford.
FWIW, I have a Zumo 760. I resisted buying one for a very long time on the grounds that I didn't need a bit of modern technology to get me lost - I'd always had an innate sense of direction and a good memory. A few minutes with a map could always get me where I wanted to go. Th' only problem was in strange towns, where I'd have to keep looking at the map.
Having said all of that, I wouldn't be without my satnav now; it's excellent. The only downside, I find now I tend to follow it slavishly when I'm on unfamiliar territory, touring in other parts of the country. Where once upon a time a would have worked out a touring route and had the basic route imprinted so that I had an awareness, a feeling for where I was, I now seem to have lost that coz I'm doing what the satnav is telling me to do.
've just bought a Tom-Tom GO 730. I don't normally need Sat-Nav, as my car has one built-in. However, I will be doing a lot of driving abroad in a hire car soon. The reason I went for the Tom-Tom was simply that the Garmin site made it difficult to compare functions, while the Tom-Tom site has a simple aid to working out which model(s) suit your needs. Go to products -> car navigation, select 'Find your way to your TomTom device' and use the product advisor.
>I've just bought a Tom-Tom GO 730. I don't normally need Sat-Nav, as my car
I bought a TomTom a goodly few months ago but only really because I got some Vouchers that I could use in Halfords . I have used it a couple of times but a few days ago I got an e-mail from them trying to sell me more maps but when I had a cursory look they seemed pretty expensive . I know you can get Torrents for them but I guess they are not necessary unless you are going on a lengthy journey.Even the updates seem to be £7.95 a qtr .I guess sales of maps is where they make their dosh.
>>> I've just bought a Tom-Tom GO 730. I don't normally need Sat-Nav, as
You don't need to upgrade maps that often unless you travel around a lot. I bought a TomTom GO 700 three years ago and have only updated the UK maps once. I doubt that you'd buy a brand-new paper map every year so it's no different really.
years ago I bought a TomTom GO 700 and it's brilliant. Easy to use, full postcode navigation, easy to get POIs for, ie, supermarkets, petrol stations (or in my case, LPG stations) etc., etc. There's a speed camera database available as well (£19/year) from
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so that she doesn't get caught out by one of those pesky devices.
I know that they don't make the 700 anymore but I'm just recommending TomTom in general because they really are excellent devices and easy to use.
Whatever unit you decide to go with, one thing I would really, really advise you get is one of the "bean-bag" type mounts
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They leave no tell-tale sign that there may be a sat-nav in the car - no suction rings on the windscreen, no vent-mounted brackets or whatever. And they really do stay put. Absolutely brilliant.
Yep, that's the one I've got. It really is great and so convenient to use, and it sticks so well to the dashboard that I've never needed to use the little safety hook that comes with it. Highly recommended.
I'm still using 2005 maps for my car's built-in Sat-Nav without any real problems. They come on one CD per country and were £195 per CD when I last looked. I reckon the Tom-Tom map updates are a bargain by comparison.
My very old Aldi unit lost its voice, so I was forced into the market about 9 months ago. A cheap Garmin Nuvo 300T was the first, and seemed OK, but I had a terrible time getting the speech versus bongs sorted to be anywhere near what I'd hoped for. The traffic information gubbins is a complete waste of time where I am. Does it work anywhere? Then for the second vehicle, Tesco had a cheap Magellan unit and, as I've had an old marine Magellan in the boat for years, thought I'd try that. Basically it's awful. Directions are either confusing or (eg in Manchester city centre) issued too late. It also seems to have either a slow processor or slow software and needs time to recalculate after it has led you up the garden path. The Garmin is hopeless on double roundabouts near here. It fails to predict the second roundabout until you have made the wrong guess. The Magellan is better for this. But it has bings and bongs like there is no tomorrow, and I really must read the book again to see if I can find what they mean.
I rely on the audio and only want to take my eyes off the road on very rare occasions to suss out what I'm doing. I don't think either of these units are a patch on the old Aldi Medion PPC250 (I think it was) for the audio directions.
I have contacted support once each . Garmin was a nice lady who was really quick and helpful. Magellan had to be by email, took ages to reply and just told me it was a cheap unit and unable to do what I wanted. I've been unable to find the audio format used in the Magellan to try improving the messages.
I have no experience of TomTom, except the taxi drivers who were fairly negative on a lot of recent local taxi trips. But taxi drivers tend to be depressed anyway.
Both units are really sensitive and work well just thrown somewhere on the centre console, even up behind the transfer box lever in the Disco. Much, much more sensitive than either my old Magellan marine unit or the old Medion.
That's what I have and have no complaints - it's never let me down. Although I do tend only to use it for the far end of the journey - preferring my own routes across London, etc.
Mine has the 2002 CD in it and I've not noticed *that* many problems. There's one spot near Milton Keynes where you can be barrelling down a nice new dual carriageway bypass and the Satnav is saying "Off Road"! There's the occasional roundabout it doesn't know about, but I just go straight on, which seems to work.
Which one is that? Mine's some German thing in a LR Discovery and they want £90 for the new CD, which buys a shed-load of road atlases.
new Tomtom one is good - decent sized screen, good directions etc. and a built in mount. I much prefer Tomtom to any of the other satnavs that I've seen used.
Same here. Mine keeps telling me to do a U turn on the Autoroute as I head for the Millau vidauct. Probably as well it doesn't have an altitude function. I don't know what it would make of being 1000 feet in the air as we cross the valley.
TBH I can buy them cheaper online - about £114 direct from Comand.co.uk, who make the system, but that was what Mercedes Benz were asking. Still expensive though and they seem to have recognised that. The latest versions of the system use a DVD with a lot more maps for less money.
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