Garmin Satnav offers (merged)

deanos

blackrat62 wrote:

You'd need to have placed the unit VERY badly to get fined. It is usualy easy to position these devices so that they don't appear above the bonnet line and neither is very big (espcially the Garmin).

Its illegal if its anywhere in the sweep of the wiper apparently.

PompeySteve

Pieman1972 wrote:

Thanks to the original poster......

Just got back from North End Portsmouth Somerfield, got the last PDA on the shelf.....there was two Garmins there at 3pm.......

Right - lets go and do battle!

Cheers!

Hi Pieman,

I picked up a PDA on Saturday from there as well !

I think they always only have one box on the shelf, so wouldn't be surprised if there were more on Monday.

I picked up the Lumicron digital camera too, but it's no better than my Olympus mju300 so I'm ebaying it now.

OldNelly

deanos wrote:

Its illegal if its anywhere in the sweep of the wiper apparently.

Where did this inforamtion come from?

I would like to be sure of the facts if I was ever to get into trouble with Plod.

Funnily enough, this has not been mentioned anywhere else on the net. The instructions with the i3 saythat it is illegal if you live in California but that is all!

If I did get stopped for this I would also argue that the New sticker that gets put on your screen after an MOT is a totally pointless obstruction, is in your field of view and not below the line of the bonet.

Windscreen mounts have been around for ages for all manner of different gadgets and I have not heard of any problems yet...

There will always be alternative positions to mount yoru gadget anyway.

caverncity

deanos wrote:

Just a heads up folks that you can get a instant fine from plod if this is on your windcreeen as its classed as an obstruction i read about i this morning on some website where someone did get fined, the PDA one comes with a gadget so you can put it on your dash instead of screen.

Seens its the same width as your tax disc then that would mean your disc is an obstruction too. why not put the garmin just above the disc.

deanos

OldNelly wrote:

Where did this inforamtion come from?

.

I was browsing some UK PDA sites this morning and it was on one of the forums, someone had got a fine from the police and someone else got warned it would fail an MOT and the tester removed it to allow it to pass.

The Somerfield Pocket PC comes with a round disk that you stick to the dashboard then stick the suction cup to that and that is totaly legal as its mounted on the dash, this is how i have done mine and its alot better in my car as well.

If you arnt sure then why not ask at the police station im only posting here what i read this morning !!!!!

OldNelly

Thanks for pointing this out to us.

I just thought that if you could provide a link to somewhere where this is written down in black and white it could save a some fuss.

Thanks anyway.

For anyone planning to use the mounts that stick to the dash, remember that these are usually adhesive so have to be left on view when you leave the vehicle. This could serve as an invitation for thieves to break in and see if you have left your gadget in the glove box or under the seat...

deanos

All that is left is a small plastic disk you can still remove the mount and the bendy arm

OldNelly

deanos wrote:

All that is left is a small plastic disk you can still remove the mount and the bendy arm

A small plastic disk that you wouldn't have unless you had a gadget to mount on it.

Thieves are stupid but not that stupid!

italiastar

deanos wrote:

The Somerfield Pocket PC comes with a round disk that you stick to the dashboard then stick the suction cup to that and that is totaly legal as its mounted on the dash, this is how i have done mine and its alot better in my car as well.

What's the purpose if the disc on the screen ? I don't really want something on the screen - hasn't it got a suction cup like the Garmin - also I need to use it in 2 different cars.

You may have guessed I exchanged my Garmin for the PDA - not intentionally, but I just couldn't get the Garmin to be recognised by 4 diffrent computers (with 2 different operating systems). When I brought it back, they'd sold out, so the manager suggested the PDA. It's still sealed as I want to find out about how I can get French and Italian maps on it - has anyone who's opened theirs got and advice, please. Also I'm puzzelled - the ones on eBay say they've got Tom Tom pre loaded - I thought these had their own navigation software?

italiastar

OldNelly wrote:

A small plastic disk that you wouldn't have unless you had a gadget to mount on it.

Thieves are stupid but not that stupid!

He's not saying they'll nick the disk - what he's saying is that they'll break in to look for the PDA - how many of you take the panel from the radio when you leave the car? - bet you stick it in the glovebox like everyone else!