sat nav recommendations?

[kusanku]

Only just caught up with this thread, if you see my previous thread on exactly the same subject you will find my experiences which I summarise below

TomTom units working on SD cards are brilliant. I went back to a TomTom one £50 off ebay from a TomTom Golive 750 £300 which was absolutely useless. Continually kept getting lost or was in the wrong position.

I drive all over the world and the TT One has never let me down from the deepest depths of Africa to the freeways of the USA

Garmin are good but the user interface is not as good as Garmin IMHO but the routing and accuracy is far superior.

So now for UK & EUrope I use Garmin and my trusty TT One accompanies me to Africa, Asia and the States.

Down loading large maps onto the new TT units is frought with issues (see pocket gps world web site)

Tom Tom have definitely lost the way with the new units IMHO

PS Anyone know of a good sat nav application for Blackberry?

This is exactly where I have got to. My new TomTom works fine with the preloaded UK maps, but I cannot get the very large US map to load.

So my situation is that I have a brand new TomTomStart2, and a 2006 Garmin Nuvi (220 I think). I have tried, and so far failed, to load US maps onto the TomTom. Is this likely to be a doomed enterprise?

Should I just pay to download US maps onto my aging Garmin, and run the risk of getting out there, and it not being able to find the satelites etc?

 

[Privatedoc]

No, buy a cheapo tom-tom basic model in the states if it's just for the odd trip etc, you can check out prices online before you go, eg target, best buy or indeed wal-mart. Cheap and easy!


Edit...just checked...tom-tom one us/Canada/Mexico. $74 at walmart! ...sub £50 !!!

 

[flango]

This is exactly where I have got to. My new TomTom works fine with the preloaded UK maps, but I cannot get the very large US map to load.

So my situation is that I have a brand new TomTomStart2, and a 2006 Garmin Nuvi (220 I think). I have tried, and so far failed, to load US maps onto the TomTom. Is this likely to be a doomed enterprise?

Should I just pay to download US maps onto my aging Garmin, and run the risk of getting out there, and it not being able to find the satelites etc?

I never managed to load the US map onto my Tom Tom and it went back. If you have sat lock problems with the GARMIN then I would be hesitant to load anything onto that also.

If I were in this position I would buy a TT ONE off ebay (<£50 now) and download the TT USA map onto an SD card. If you do buy a TT One make sure it works off SD cards not a hard drive or you get the same issues as you are experiencing.

I'm going to the USA tonight do you want me to keep my eyes open for any bargains over there? Walmart used to have some sat navs (own brand for $75 ish will full US & Canada mapping

 

[kusanku]

Thank you all. I think the way forward, unless TomTom customer services fix this over the phone tomorrow (unlikely), is to buy a cheap sat nav from Walmart when I get to Boston. The cost of downloading US maps onto the Garmin is around £50, so it makes more sense to just buy a unit for around the same price with maps already installed.

Not sure whether to send the TomTom back, as it does work better than my Garmin for the UK.

Many thanks.

 

[flango]

Yesterday in Walmart Houston MiTec branded Sat Nav USA & Canadian Mapping $69.95

 

[TheStid]

Yesterday in Walmart Houston MiTec branded Sat Nav USA & Canadian Mapping $69.95

Don't forget to add the State and City taxes onto those prices though could add up to another 15-20% (not sure what they are in Boston)