Sat Nav

I borrowed Sat nav on a PDA for the Ireland trip and found it great. It was Tom Tom software. I'm now going to buy a setup but didn't realise that there were so many options. Any advice would be welcome

I've got a Tomtom One unit and definitely recommend it! - I would steer clear of a PDA based one as I used to have one and on a couple of occasions it reset itself and lost all the maps when I was in the middle of nowhere! and also it was rubbish at picking up a signal too unlike the TT One which does it in seconds every time!

Thanks for that Jim. Funny you should say that but thats exactly what happened to us. The tom tom software seemed to be great until it crashed on the PDA. So my preference will be with dedicated sat nav. I was very impressed with TT but have no experience so don't know if it's the best.

Cheers Graeme.

if you have lost your tomtom programs or you need a newer version you should keep an eye on the news groups as they are always on there! i will say no more if you know what i mean :twisted: but have a look
www.newzbin.com/

I researched Sat nav a couple of months ago. The two big manufacturers are TomTom and Garmin. You can learn a lot by reading the customer comments on Amazon.co.uk. It seemed to me that there were more adverse comments about the quality of the map data for TomTom than Garmin - trying to send you down one-way streets the wrong way, etc.

If you want to use it a lot in heavily built up areas, eg central London, then one with a SiRF III receiver will get better reception. You may have to go to the manufacturers web site to check that.

Another thing that may be important is being able to input the destination using a full postcode. Not all units allow this because the manufacturer is too cheapskate to license the full postcode database from the Royal Mail.

In the end, we went for the Garmin Streetpilot i3 - £150 from Halfords. For the price it's just amazing and to do better you have to spend a lot more.

Ron.

Hi Graeme,

I have a Tom Tom One for work and cover about 1000 miles every week... It has never let me down and the boss tells me my fuel expence claims have gone down by £200.00 per month since I started using it (my sense of direction is crap and I'd spend 30 minutes a day lost).

However my territory covers southern ireland and there is no software available for Dublin as yet... I'm sure its just a matter of time.

Paul

Tomtom wanted uz to do a right hand turn across a field in Holland :lol:

I've just bought a SatNAv kit from ebay with an HP IPAC 1750, HAicom GPS cradle and all of Western Europe Maps for £330.

Found the device absolutely brilliant! TomTom 5.1 software (with the updates). Receiver had no problems with the signal.

We have a TomTom One, with all the speed camera locations programmed in (naturally !).

I love being able to phone people up en route and tell them "we'll be there in 36 minutes" !!

TomTom maps are great, although a) I've no experience of other maps to compare, and b) you get to the odd roundabout that isn't shown on the maps, but it's never unclesr where you should be going.

Have used both tom tom and navman based ones. Both types worked ok, as long as the drivers brain was also engaged.
Accuracy of the maps is generally good, although much depends on the frequency of map updates where PDA ones are used. Ultimately town driving is more accurate than in depths of nowhere.
I think I would pay extra for a model with atleast a 2.5" sized screen, one that has 3D viewing option, and if I was really pushing the boat out with wads of cash to spend go for one that doesn't use preprogrammed PDA maps and doesn't need the unit cradle to navigate properly.
Ultimately if you don't subcribe to the updates where PDA's are used the unit will slowly become les and less accurate....plus you don't get the traffic updates if you not subscribed.

Bought the Tomtom one and seems to be great. Thunder and lightening here so I don't think I'll be using it today