What sat nav system to buy?

[wemorgan]

I'd recommend a TomTom with a Traffic (RDS) receiver. From the One T to the 930T depending on budget.

The latest range of TT include LIVE products. The TT LIVE include a Vodaphone SIM so traffic information can be downloaded for a monthly subscription (£10/month I think). This is quite an expensive option and I'd say this is for professional drivers only ie. salesmen and delivery drivers. Alternatively a RDS Traffic receiver aerial can be bought for a one off price of £40. Importantly though this aerial is bundled free with the older ranges of TT!

The higher range of TT, 530T and above come with the latest features of advanved lane guidance and IQ routes, both worth while features.

 

[st13phil]

TomTom and Garmin dominate the market in automotive GPSR's. Both are very good and you'd probably be happy with either but there are differences, predominately with the cartography (mapping), aftersales service and philosophy.

Garmin use Navteq for their cartography and TomTom use TeleAtlas. In my experience there's little to choose between the two in north-west Europe, but Navteq has the edge as you go further east, and even the boonies in Spain are better covered by Navteq.

Garmin offer the best aftersales service in the industry bar none. TomTom's aftersales service is middling at best.

Philosophy is where the two companies differ most. Garmin has designed and manufactured specialist GPSR's for aviation, sea and land use for years. Professionals who absolutely have to know where they are (including the military) use Garmin GPSR's. Garmin also manufacture consumer automotive GPSR's. TomTom manufacture consumer GPSR's.

Most people who use a GPSR in a car just want to route from A to B, possibly via C, in the shortest time. For this task TomTom and Garmin are pretty equal. If you want to store and use particular routes that you create by choosing your own roads to drive (e.g. for a touring trip) then the high-end Garmin devices are massively superior to TomTom (imo, of course).

A final thing: don't buy a device solely based upon the manufacturer's speedcam database. As others have already mentioned, there are independent databases that are vastly superior (i.e. much more complete and more accurate) and cheaper too. I don't know any of these databases that aren't available in both Garmin and TomTom formats.

 

[Frank O' Phile]

For those on a budget (i.e. me) there is the navigo available from ebuyer for around 50 notes.

Comes with turbodog, which is useless, but can you easily install other software onto an SD card (takes up to 4Meg). I currently have TomTom7, Igo and Miomap all running. It also plays music (mp3, wma), ebooks, films (divx and avi), games, etc. I think it's a great little piece of kit and a bargain. On the downside the windscreen mount is a bit puny and mine broke two days ago. Yesterday the replacement arrived from ebuyer under warranty. Great service.

Navigo, recommended.

 

[flango]

tom tom has more functions but i dont know anyone who wants to know their height above sea level or the actual map co ordinates their car is at and the screen gets crowded as a result.

Well you know someone now. A few years ago I witnessed a severe accident on the back roads in Scotland near Lanark, a car had overturned with 4 people in, managed to get 3 of them out but the 4th a lady was in severe pain from a back or leg injury so thought it best to leave her until the experts arrived, called 999 and first question where are you? I had no idea fortunately the TomTom did and I was able to give the exact gps co ordinates to the emergency services who dispatched the air ambulance to the spot, oh and the woman she had multiple fractures of the Femur.

All I am saying is don't discount features that could turn out to be a life saver, you don't have to have them displayed on the screen as I don't like clutter either, simple, clear concise thats TT

 

[fuzzer]

Well you know someone now. A few years ago I witnessed a severe accident on the back roads in Scotland near Lanark, a car had overturned with 4 people in, managed to get 3 of them out but the 4th a lady was in severe pain from a back or leg injury so thought it best to leave her until the experts arrived, called 999 and first question where are you? I had no idea fortunately the TomTom did and I was able to give the exact gps co ordinates to the emergency services who dispatched the air ambulance to the spot, oh and the woman she had multiple fractures of the Femur.

All I am saying is don't discount features that could turn out to be a life saver, you don't have to have them displayed on the screen as I don't like clutter either, simple, clear concise thats TT

I can see the value in that completely. Also breaking down id imagine thats gonna help no end to be able to say im ...

 

[Continental]

Garmin ALL THE WAY...Why? They have more money (for R&D) than TomTom and companies like Sony buy their maps from Garmin because they are simply Better! Garmin also involved in aviation navigation I think.

You have the exact same car as me I think w203 C180 avantgarde SE with staggered Adharaz 17" Rims sitting on Conti Sport contacts with black leather, I think... so we have similar taste...get the Garmin 760T (or better, it has lifetime traffic assist via FM) is brilliant to use and 100% touch screen (except for power button) Garmin are always updating the maps and tht process is also fast and simple with the unit via usb. The cables are easy to route to the lighter and hence the unit looks decent. Garmin Garmin Garmin you can't go wrong!

 

[TonyVianoAmbiente]

I have Tom Tom Navigator 5 on my Treo 650 , updated the maps last year and it gets me where I want to go .

You can download various voices , the best undoubtedly is 'Sylvia'.

Not wishing to be distracted from driving by a sexy female voice (apart from my wife's, of course!) I downloaded John Cleese and Sven Goran Eriksson to my TomTom.

It's really John Cleese, and he's quite funny, but the Sven impersonator does a very good job and manages to be both clearly audible *and* hilarious.

When I'm in a serious mood the Irish male voice is a good choice - he is both clearly audible and restful on the ear.

 

[st4]

Garmin street pilot has done me well for 2yrs now. Both BMW and MB recommend Garmin as the aftermarket nav unit of choice. Says it all really. IMHO Garmins routes are a bit duff (but its a entry level one I have) but its traffic rerouting is good and its quick to get a signal. My pals TT has "cooler" features like a selectable voice and colours, and is thinner, but his was a better model.

 

[robert.saunders]

TT with Cleese voice, and POI for speed camera etc from Pocket GPS World

 

[Druk]

Anybody with a TomTom and a 211? Could you try the unit into where the ashtray should be and see if it fits please. I have a notion to permanently fit it there...also would it 'see' the sats OK from that position and if not is there an aerial available which would?

Or Hawk20 could you try your Garmin please? I presume the ashtray on a 2008 is the same as a 2003. Thanks.

 

[ringway]

Anybody with a TomTom and a 211? Could you try the unit into where the ashtray should be and see if it fits please. I have a notion to permanently fit it there...also would it 'see' the sats OK from that position and if not is there an aerial available which would?

Or Hawk 20 could you try your Garmin please?

External aerial is available. Just click the really short link below


http://www.tomtom.com/products/accessories/accessory.php?ID=153&TT=7a1281c3%3Ababa37bd%3A00000000%3A00000000%3A00000000%3A00000000%3Am2agqve9piqo3uvts1hbulknf3

 

[popuptoaster]

Well you know someone now. A few years ago I witnessed a severe accident on the back roads in Scotland near Lanark, a car had overturned with 4 people in, managed to get 3 of them out but the 4th a lady was in severe pain from a back or leg injury so thought it best to leave her until the experts arrived, called 999 and first question where are you? I had no idea fortunately the TomTom did and I was able to give the exact gps co ordinates to the emergency services who dispatched the air ambulance to the spot, oh and the woman she had multiple fractures of the Femur.

All I am saying is don't discount features that could turn out to be a life saver, you don't have to have them displayed on the screen as I don't like clutter either, simple, clear concise thats TT

yeah guess thats a good example of needing an exact position, luckily i can get that info off my phone these days, gonna try out the Nokia maps routing for a while as its came free with my phone for 3 months and see how that goes.

 

[Colin_b]

Being a tight git, I couldn't justify COMAND at £2.5k extra on the SLK for the little I'd actually use it. (I also refused to get the spectacularly useless cup holders!)

Having already got a TomTom Go720 satnav I decided to make it look a little nicer than the stick-it-on-the windscreen option.

The Go720 is excellent, does European postcode level mapping, bluetooth handsfree (speech and, oddly texts), MP3 playing and all sorts of clever stuff I haven't used.

Anyway, 1st pic is the standard SLK.

The next pic is glueing a three sheets of thin play together, with a slot through the middle to take a strip of metal, and screwing it to the base of the cubby, which unscrews with 2 screws.

Then get a strip of metal, bend it a bit, and mount a tomtom bracket (about £4 from ebay or similar). You could also run the power cable through the cubby, but I didn't bother.

Then you end up with a satnav that is sensibly positioned - doesn't get cooked by the heater vents, removes in a second or two and doesn't leave tell-tale signs of its prescence for Mr Breakin. Works for me.

 

[fuzzer]

Anybody with a TomTom and a 211? Could you try the unit into where the ashtray should be and see if it fits please. I have a notion to permanently fit it there...also would it 'see' the sats OK from that position and if not is there an aerial available which would?

Or Hawk20 could you try your Garmin please? I presume the ashtray on a 2008 is the same as a 2003. Thanks.

I doubt very much if its gonna work , the ashtray is tighter than it looks. The arc of the cover is quite protruding into the available space to mount a unit.

 

[Druk]

I doubt very much if its gonna work , the ashtray is tighter than it looks. The arc of the cover is quite protruding into the available space to mount a unit.

Out with the fretsaw then?