Satnav for Mrs O, recommendations please

[outlaw118]

I lent Mrs my Mio satnav today, to get her from Grays, Essex to Plaistow,East London, and she ended up in Shooters Hill, which is Sarf lahdan. Not sure how it happened, but she tells me that Shatnav told her to take a few turns which were blocked off/one way etc.

The problem is that the software in the Mio is about 4 or 5 years old, and not updatable, so she may be correct (although the Blackwall Tunnel should have been a clue that things had gone a bit tits-up?!)

 

So, I need to get her a new one, simple to use, updatable etc etc.

Any recommendations befoore I get my trousers taken down in Hellfrauds?

[ashmicro]

Garmin satnavs are dead easy to use. I have an old one with the new software on it, it's very accurate, even in rural Northern Ireland. Have a look in Argos or Tesco. Don't worry if it doesn't do 3 d buildings or golf club finder or that shite - simpler the better. Needn't be too dear either.

 

This one's pretty good (and straightforward)

 

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/p ... GARMIN.htm

 

Don't get starstruck with features, some of these things are north of£ 500!

[revolting peasant]

[trigger]

100% Tom Tom all the way, i can't use any others, Tom Tom one is the one I'd recommend.

[dollywobbler]

Agreed on the Garmin. I've got a Nuvi something or other that cost me all of about £70 several years ago. Yes, it's a bit out of date now, but I've not had many problems.

[ashmicro]

I can recommend the Mercedes-Benz system. It's a bit salty at £60,000, but you get a free S Class with it.

[outlaw118]

^^^^ I'd go for the Merc system, do you reckon that they'll give me £59,995 for an 08 plate Automatic Fiesta?

[M'coli]

Satnavs turn people from competent, able navigators who trust their own judgement into dullards who will follow whatever the voices will tell them to do. I tend to use our satnav to tell me where I am, not where I want to go.

[outlaw118]

How's about this one? £90 but madam gets 10% off

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-7745.aspx

[retrogeezer]

I still use my 4/5 year old Navman F20 without any issues....dead easy to use too but I only really use it as a rough guide, I kinda know where I am going anyway!

[Luxobarges_Are_Us]

Satnavs turn people from competent, able navigators who trust their own judgement into dullards who will follow whatever the voices will tell them to do. I tend to use our satnav to tell me where I am, not where I want to go.

 

Exactly...In a few Mercs I've rented, I quite liked the "compass" function of it telling you e.g. whether you're going North or West...but full satnav just gets on my nerves!

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Satnavs turn people from competent, able navigators who trust their own judgement into dullards who will follow whatever the voices will tell them to do. I tend to use our satnav to tell me where I am, not where I want to go.

 

Aye. I only use mine when I really need to.

It's a Garmin nuvi from 2008, I get on quite well with it. TomTom users accuse it of taking silly shortcuts but TomToms seem equally capable.

[scaryoldcortina]

I grabbed the nearest GPS equipped device when on my way to London recently, mainly because I remembered the truck broke its speedo cable and it is nice to know how fast you are going.

 

Prob is it was an Acer N35 pda, running winCE and "navigator" software, around 8 years out of date and rather slow. I ignored its repeated pleas to follow the route it had so carefully selected for me, Tbh, by the time I was at marble arch and it STILL wanted me to turn round and use the north circular I had hardened to the soft female pleas to "turn right 200 yards ahead" and "make a legal U turn" and was waiting for it to start crying, sobbing "why won't you listen? You're completely lost now. My mother said you were no good...." but it didn't. What it did do is crash spectacularly and refuse to do anything at all for the journey home because I had the nerve to use the M25 instead of following it back through London again.

 

I can heartily recommend that you find her an ACER N35. They are GR2. Oh, also, the power lead falls out of it all the time cos it's a stupid multiplug/"dock" affair not a proper power jack. Also GR2.

[Cavcraft]

I had an RAC one for a while. It kept telling me to turn left at a roundabout coming home that would have sent me bloody miles out of the way, randomly told me to turn off when there was no turn off and (like some other cheap shit one I have) refused to recognise the new bit of bypass by Worksop.

 

Are the Garmin and all Tom Toms upgradeable without having to pay some extortianate fee every year?

[ashmicro]

How's about this one? £90 but madam gets 10% off

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-7745.aspx

 

 

Yep, essentially the same as the Argos one I posted. Good job.

[TimothyClaypole]

Tomtom gets my vote.

 

I remember not fondly driving around alsorts of places before with scraps of paper, prints from Multimap etc etc. getting stressed trying to find places.

 

I'll stick with the Tomtom and getting where I'm going stress free and when I said I would be there.

[Barry Cade]

Nokia phone. £50 quid pay as you go, satnav's brilliant and its a phone/camera/video recorder/tinternet/MP3/games console/calculator/alarm clock too. Free satnav,free updates,free downloadable maps for the entire world and speed limit warnings too. Works in your pocket when on the bike too.

[tonedepear]

ms_tone bought one of these on wednesday and seems suitably enamoured with it.

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.209-7663.aspx

 

I have a boggo 3-year-old equivalent of this:

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.207-8763.aspx

And it's basically ace. While it will happily occasionally send me miles out of my way for no reason if I let it, when it comes to viewing houses/picking up cars/ebay tat from places I've never been before, it's invaluable. And on a long run when I know where I'm going it's nice to have an eta to hand whenever I fancy without having to think.

 

I reckon with cheap garmin or tomtom you can't really go far wrong. Map updates are usually free for the first year and then £££s but readily sortable for free with a bit of intarwebz fruitiness. Allegedly.

[Skinley]

I recently bought one of these http://gbr.garmin.com/Halfords/1410.html, It's dead easy to use and its less than half price. (was £300, now £120).

[dollywobbler]

Oh yeah, mine occasionally takes me on 'scenic routes.' To be honest, I quite like that as it can break up a long journey. I've not ended up in a river yet...

[Shep Shepherd]

I swear by my TomTom One

[VWPowered]

tomtom one, got one for our lass and she loves it.. she it doesnt improve her driving skills too

[barefoot]

Not got one, Not convinced,

but never, ever used one.

Seen a few HGV's struggling to turn around adjacent to

a field where I walk the dog.

 

HAZ big recent Atlas.

 

When big holdups occur,

it's nice to know where I am

as opposed to how long it will be

until I am supposed to turn left.

[eddyramrod]

Can't beat a decent atlas. No satnav comes close.

[gtd2000]

I don't rate Tom Tom at all - prefer the Mio and Navigon offerings.

 

Navigon 20 Easy Europe 23 SatNav with European Maps - £84.59 @ Navigon

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/navigon-20-easy-europe-23-satnav-with-european-maps-84-59-navigon/910146

 

or

 

Navigon 20 Easy UK £69.90 Here:

http://www.thesatnavwarehouse.com/productdb/navigon-20-easy-uk/index?instance_id=3289

 

 

The Navigon 20 Easy UK and Ireland may be an entry level satellite navigation, but it sure packs a punch. Whilst TomTom tends to lead the way in volume sales, we have found that Navigon are proving to be the true innovators of the sat nav world.

[Pillock]

Google Maps/Navigation on my phone. I use it for "where am I?" moments, and it also handily feeds data back about where you are and how fast you're going, and then bases it's traffic information on this. VERY accurate, if I get the little red blob next to the arrival time then I know I'm going to hit traffic - tap the screen and it shows where the traffic is. It can then reroute you, or you can use your noggin to reroute yourself.

 

Edit: I had a Navigon, it was possibly the most difficult gadget to use in the world.

[Timewaster]

I swear by my TomTom One

 

I swear AT mine.

 

Looking for work sites in city centres, it often tries to send you the wrong way down 1 way streets, through "Bus Only" zones with rising bollards and tells you "You have reached your destination" when you blatently haven't!

 

2 laps of a ring road are usually enough to reach for the atlas.

[gtd2000]

Edit: I had a Navigon, it was possibly the most difficult gadget to use in the world.

 

Really? I've only used one once (a German mate of mine had one) but it was essentially running the same software as my hacked Mio C320X which runs all sorts of software, including Igo/Amigo/primoo/Tom Tom.

 

For me Tom Tom was the worst of the lot by a very large margin - had also the annoying habit of wanting to take me down some back road when driving from Cardiff Airport to Newport - god knows why - it was in the opposite direction to travel

 

I know a lot of folk can't see past but I tried it with an open mind expecting to be converted and was not impressed at all.

 

Might be a bit like the Mc vs PC, AMD vs Intel, Xbox vs PS fanboys scenario though

[Pillock]

I don't care much for Tomtom either but I'm at least familiar with it, we repair Tomtoms at work.

I just found the Navigon to be very sluggish, the menus were laid out in a very confusing manner and it just felt unfinished. Also, I found an interesting trend of choosing different routes - go to the same place twice, leave the settings as is, and it'll use a different route. Very odd for a device that doesn't use traffic data!

[ashmicro]

 

 

FTW

 

Garmin Street Pilot c310. Mega easy to use, very accurate. Map updates can be cough cough obtained very cheaply - there's floods, literally torrents of them out there

 

About 30 bills 2nd hand from eBay. It also looks like a mini CRT telly.