SatNav The full cost?

vinylmusic

I'm keen on buying a satnav but one thing causes me to hesitate.
Finding the best deal pricewise is one thing but a question few seem to ask is what is the overall cost per year to keep the maps and speed camera info up to date..
Some offer traffic warnings but no information on costs involved to subscribe.
Why is this information so hard to come by?
Its all very well being able to get low priced satnavs. I want to know what each company is going to sting me for afterwards
I'm sure that some companies are making a packet out of consumer ignorance

hewhoisnotintheknow

ive never updated one in 5 years

all that happens is roundabouts change into junctions etc

If you have any common sense you can manage without the updates

Volcano

It can be mildly irritating on occasions following an out of date map but it's not that big a deal. Roads change and divert but they still have signs to follow. The critical things like towns and postcodes don't move and given the satnavs ability to plot a new route within seconds of you deviating from the planned route, it's never a problem for me.

Stageshoot

If you get one that uses TMC traffic (Sent over the FM radio to a built in adaptor in the sat nav), it is free to use for the life of your unit.

The only ones you pay for are the new tomtom live service (satnav has a built in mobile phone modem), and downloads traffic weather fuel prices and more over the mobile network at a cost of £7.99 a month.. Good service but pricey

If you get a standard TMC one which is almost all other units except for the new TomTom x40 live series you will not pay for the traffic.

If you are on the road every day for 4 to 6 hours then the live is a great service, otherwise just go for the free TMC traffic.

Agree with others on the map issue, Even the latest maps are 18 months out of date by the time they reach the end user, its all mainly hype, any map 3 to 4 years old will provide a functional service and hardly notice any changes to the latest one

EG the latest TomTom map that came out 2 weeks ago does not have M1 Jnc 29a on it even though it opened 8 months ago! Yes it has a new link road in Ilkeston Derbyshire on it which does not open till March next year and the satnav send you to a building site.

vinylmusic

Thanks to all for the advice
I'll probably get one from either Aldi or Liddle. They arent pricey and come with 3 year warranty.
I see Halfords doing half price offers which come to as little as £50.00
I dont know if it sounds sensible but I'm more attracted to the lidl one at £88
Does anyone know what SiRFatlasIII™ 372MHz processor is?

MX5huggy

If speedcameras are your worry I would try http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/ but I have not used it £16.99 pa. As people have said I would not worry about map updates.

MX5huggy

Does anyone know what SiRFatlasIII™ 372MHz processor is?

It's the brains of the sat nav like your computer (and a sat nav is basically a computer) processor my be an Intel Pentium 4 3GHz. Come to think of it my first computer ran at 66Mhz amazing whats happend in 12 years!

bryanb

hewhoisnotintheknow wrote: »

ive never updated one in 5 years

all that happens is roundabouts change into junctions etc

If you have any common sense you can manage without the updates

If you have common sense you can manage without the satnav IMHO.

Samanthas_2

Have a look at this with some creativity could this be done in Recession hit UK or elsewhere in Europe
.
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/FindDealsOnline/ChinasNewShoppingCrazeTeamBuying.aspx

Samantha

boatman

bryanb wrote: »

If you have common sense you can manage without the satnav IMHO.

My dad was of that very opinion!! Now he never leaves home without it!!! They are really handy.
If you put the speed cameras on it from the pocketworld website, £16.99 for a year of updates its a lot cheaper than a £60 fine. Having used the database for a few years i think it has made me reduce my speed because you rapidly realise how many speed camera locations there are!!
The one from Aldi's is a Medion unit which as you say comes with 3 year warranty, unfortunately to add speed cameras you are limited to using POIwarner which cost 30euro, it is easier to add speed cameras to a tomtom as you don't need an additional program which you have to pay for to do it, just the camera subscription. I would stick with a Tomtom ONE or Garmin NUVI 215. Best of all go for the Tomtom 720 for £115 from TotalPDA, to get free P&P use 'find-satnav-deals' in the voucher code box. The unit is a refurbished one but will look as new and come with a full warranty.
Word of caution, it may be worth a phone call to Totalpda (0800 0928928) to check you still get the Tomtom 'Latest map garantee'. According to people on pocketgpsworld you do get the free upgrade, this will give you a unit which is then exactly the same as the Tomtom 730 which currently sells for £200+, really is a good unit.

hewhoisnotintheknow

bryanb wrote: »

If you have common sense you can manage without the satnav IMHO.

i used to have that opinion, but they are really handy when you are stuck in a traffic jam in a unkown city, you can just drive down some back road and it starts re routing you without yoyu having to grab a map and stark plotting routes etc

also really handy when you dont know where you are and you fancy finding a pub, cash machine petrol station tourist attraction etc