Sat Nav

Like I said, it almost drove me up the wall. The big plus at the time was that it also had bluetooth for hands-free phone conversation.

Added to The when you stop the engine you have to reset it, don't know if it has a battery back up but if it does it ain't working

Buy the cheapest, most compact TomTom with European maps. It's all you'll ever need.

When you have a tricky / unknown journey, sense check things by doing Google maps journey on your computer first and never be without a road atlas. If there's an accident or other blockage, it pays to be able to plan your own detour which isn't always easy with the TomTom "avoid road block" option

Forage Trader said:

Thanks

Clever thong about Tom Tom it does that for itself and it don't need the bloody road in Stratford when your on the way on the motorway and you don't know the bloody road I just want to go through bloody Stratford and when you hit the choice of 20 roads you end up 10 miles from bloody Stratford, one day I will go in and strangle the man from Halfords but please no more recomenaditions for Garmin or I will screen

Look it's like this its ok to admit you bought shite you've big boy now you don't have to stand in the corner and look stupid

Click to expand...

it is crap, i dont like it n wouldnt buy another BUT by using the realavent settings it does help, eg you can opt to avoid motorways, you can have the quickest route, shortest distance etc
the one thing i do like about it is if you take a wrong turn there is no need to turn back as it will re direct you another way

Which reminds me that I had the Garmin set to 'truck' mode and it once took me and a big Ifor Williams flatbed up from Bala to somewhere, in the fog, up a hill road that was barely wide enough for the Land Cruiser without scraping it on both sides. Miles and miles of foggy nothing on a single track proper mountain road when I was meant to be a 'truck'! Luckily I met no other traffic in maybe 10 miles, probably because nobody else had a stupid Garmin.
Absolute rubbish it was.

Hopefully new ones are a bit better.

Have both Tomtom and Garman. We all like the Tomtom best, find the information it give is better and clearer instructions and easy to find addresses on it well that goes for here in France
I find the eta on the garman is never right need to be really pushing on at the speed limits all the time to be near the eta and routing can be bit strange at times. And the night time screen is not as nice to use.
The tomtom is the old 1005 at one time it was said to be the worst satnav that tomtom ever made but have never had any problems with it over the last 4 years. I find the live traffic is great if going any where near any of the big cities or busy traffic routes. I will get you around any real bad delays. Live traffic. The old units had a sim card build into to the satnav so will work in any country. the newer satnavs use your smart phone to get the live traffic info so will not work out side your own country with out data roaming. Only the top models still have a build in sim card

As said by some one else all ways check on google maps if going some where new to get the general idea of the route

We've had satnavs for a while now and wouldn't be without one. I tried a Garmin last time and could not get on with it at all.

My recommendation would be to buy the best TomTom you can afford. I drive in Europe often and the TomTom maps are pretty good, my old Go 930 was good in the USA too.

I'm currently using a Go 5000 which is even better than Mrs Codgers BMW built in satnav, lifetime maps and live traffic included in the price.

Thankyou, I thought I was going nuts

barney rubble said:

Hello
Maplins are doing a tom tom start 25 for £89 with lifetime western Europe maps which seems a good deal so will probably go for that. Do all sat navs remind you to check your speed when you may be exceeding the speed limit? Thanks for all the help and replys.
Barney Rubble

Click to expand...

Some do, some don't. Most come with speed camera alerts, although you usually have to pay a subscription to keep them updated.

All sat navs will have faults but I cant stand Garmin cos they try to send you up a mud track down the side of the wood to get to our house and only the quad can use it! We have a sat nav 300 (I think it is), its one of the original ones and you cold easily use it to break into a car by throwing it through the window its that big!

Does its job but last update I did was in 2005 so it could do with another but its only just cheaper than a brand new one with lifetime updates free so if I feel the need for the new maps I'll get the new TomTom. Having said that I did go to Brittany with it in June and it got me around in France just fine! Dad just got himself one this last month as we went to Ireland and wanted up to date maps for over there so I could always just borrow his when I'm going a long way.