Sat nav.

[beko1987]

I inherited an old Tom Tom from a friend. New ebay battery and some pirated maps mean it's up to date now, and even recieves new updates via the Tom Tom app as the coughlegalcough software it runs is new enough to be eligible for free updates for a few years! Lane assist in a smaller screen is a bit funny though

 

I only use it if I have a long journey though, for short stuff I use Google maps which is just ace, and sips data

[bigfella2]

Just gone to put the navigon app on my phone, it's 45 quid!! Unless am looking at wrong app.

[saucedoctor]

Cough

 

http://www.appcake.net/

 

right hand side. coughcough

[UltraWomble]

Road signs.

 

I know roughly where places are (ie, London is South of Wigan, Scotland is North of Blackpool, Yorkshire is to the East of Burnley and should be avoided at all costs), drive and follow the road signs.

Then, either - follow the local road signs or follow a car that looks like it knows where its going.

 

I usually end up where I need to be.

[Wilko220]

Although I often don't use the sat nav for navigation, I actually quite like having it on even with no route planned, particularly when using unfamiliar B-roads or lanes. The ability to see at a glance the shape of the road ahead, upcoming sharp bends, etc, is quite a useful safety aid .

[leakingstrut]

Google Maps all the way, with sound turned off as it annoys me. I've tried waze but found it ugly (but worked fine).

 

Of course if you aren't in phone signal it won't work (does offline mode work on iPhone? I haven't tried), but anywhere without phone signal likely has few enough roads to need nav.

 

I often use it even when I know where I'm going for ETA and traffic avoidance. It's particularly handy if you have a ferry to catch knowing you have plenty of time time to stop for a leak or whatever. For instance I know the route up to Uig on Skye like the back of my hand but it can be such a variable drive time it's nice having live ETA.

 

ETA is always spot on - drive with traffic and it will be bang on, make progress and you can consistently beat it, worsening traffic permitting.

 

Thy just added a via function which lets you find petrol stations and such, giving you the additional time for the detour.

[wuvvum]

I have Navigon and Google Maps on my phone, but neither is a lot of good when there's no signal.  I downloaded a free app from the Google Play shop which comes with offline maps - it works reasonably well but has an excessive level of detail so my ageing phone struggles to cope.

 

I still prefer a separate sat nav.  I have a cheapo Binatone job from Argos - graphics are less appealing than some more expensive brands but it does the job - my only bugbear is that it won't show your speed on the map screen, you have to go into a sub-menu.  I also found my ancient Navman sat nav the other day in the back of a cupboard (whilst looking for something completely different) - it still works fine and does show speed on the main screen, but it takes anything up to 20 minutes to pick up a GPS signal, which is a bit shite.

[UltraWomble]

Spend £500 on an N16 Nissan Almera and get a free Shat Nav with half the streets in England missing

[Dead_E23]

I've got a ancient Garmin Nuvi. Can't find updates for it though, so it often thinks I'm driving through fields at high speed. 

 

As long you're happy to fiddle about a bit, you can download free, open source Garmin maps from here.   I put some on my Nuvi and they work every bit as well as the official (expensive) ones.  

 

I also changed the crappy aerial on the traffic receiver for a long bit of wire.  Works better, but still rubbish.

 

I'm a complete convert to Waze, though.   The recent revamp has made it nicer to use.

[For Fiats Sake]

I like tom tom, have a standalone unit, the special one for plugging into fiats(though new panda is run off a cable now as port not fitted) and app on the android phone.

 

I would go for tom tom on the phone every time, gives better detail than standalones, lane assist, traffic and free updates.  It's relatively easy to use.  I've tried google maps and it hasn't been a good fit, seems to close itself randomly and is very shouty, only use when on foot now.

 

Hmmm, perhaps you should drop a few hints with it been fathers day and all?

[HH-R]

I've got HERE Drive/Maps on my WinPho, though it has been SCRAPPED for that platform.

 

Works well, unless you're in a city centre which they all seem to be terrible at.

 

I still have terrible memories of being hopelessly lost in Norwich with a TomTom being as much use as a chocolate fireguard. Here Maps struggles in Newcastle City Centre, I know the place well but struggle when the council have made yet another road into a bus lane and have to find an alternative route - the sat nav has no idea either.

[SiC]

I have Navigon and Google Maps on my phone, but neither is a lot of good when there's no signal. I downloaded a free app from the Google Play shop which comes with offline maps - it works reasonably well but has an excessive level of detail so my ageing phone struggles to cope.

 

I still prefer a separate sat nav. I have a cheapo Binatone job from Argos - graphics are less appealing than some more expensive brands but it does the job - my only bugbear is that it won't show your speed on the map screen, you have to go into a sub-menu. I also found my ancient Navman sat nav the other day in the back of a cupboard (whilst looking for something completely different) - it still works fine and does show speed on the main screen, but it takes anything up to 20 minutes to pick up a GPS signal, which is a bit shite.

Google Maps on Android (maybe iPhone? Not sure as don't have one), allows you to download maps offline. So if you go out of reception it still will work.

[Mr A Lawrence]

I use navmii free satnav on the android phone, never let me down yet.

[RoadworkUK]

We have an elderly Garmin NuVi bought specifically for a European road trip in 2008.

 

I get cross with it for a number of reasons. Primarily because you have to know the precise address of where you're going, and you also have to understand how foreign address formats, postcodes etc work.

 

We just wanted to get to the centre of Marseille. It wasn't interested until we gave it at least a road name, which we didn't have. There was no option to choose Town Centre. We ended up using POI to select Marina. It ended up trying to take us down streets you couldn't get a bike down, and didn't understand one-way systems.

 

Also, for "European mapping" what's the point of having to enter a country name every time? With my big AA book of Europe I can just look the town name up and they're all listed alphabetically, with Framlingham and Frankfurt a few lines away from each other. With the Garmin even if I just want to go to Edinburgh from Colchester I have to select "Scotland" first.

 

Bloody stupid.

[dollywobbler]

We have an elderly Garmin NuVi bought specifically for a European road trip in 2008.

 

I get cross with it for a number of reasons. Primarily because you have to know the precise address of where you're going, and you also have to understand how foreign address formats, postcodes etc work.

 

We just wanted to get to the centre of Marseille. It wasn't interested until we gave it at least a road name, which we didn't have. There was no option to choose Town Centre. We ended up using POI to select Marina. It ended up trying to take us down streets you couldn't get a bike down, and didn't understand one-way systems.

 

Also, for "European mapping" what's the point of having to enter a country name every time? With my big AA book of Europe I can just look the town name up and they're all listed alphabetically, with Framlingham and Frankfurt a few lines away from each other. With the Garmin even if I just want to go to Edinburgh from Colchester I have to select "Scotland" first.

 

Bloody stupid.

Ah yes. I have to keep changing mine between England and Wales. That is crap.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Ah yes. I have to keep changing mine between England and Wales. That is crap.

 

quite right too