Satellite Navigation -recommendations please

normal

I've got a Garmin i3 and would advise against it if you haven't got a working cigarette lighter. I thinks it's great but it will drain your batteries really quicky (even good rechargables) If you're after a bargain, look for the medion pda sat nav's on ebay for about £150-170. they're brilliant value. Then on the grab it now board someone has posted something for a free update via beta testing. You should get the best of all worlds that way!

Bert_Anderson

samsara wrote:

Can anyone recommend a good value sat nav system. I'm spending more and more time getting lost on ring roads lately and I think I'd cover the cost of the sat nav in a few weeks just by saving on the excess petrol I currenlty use. Only problem the cigarette lighter doesn't work in my car so I need a system that doesn't need to plug in.

Thanks

Is there anybody in your family (or a friend that you know) that can do something along the lines of fitting a car stereo?

If so, they could run you a line into the car and install a separate cigarette lighter socket. It's just two wires.

garyboys

The Garmin I3 is 99 pounds from somerfield

skybluesaver

Hi Samsara. I also found the Tom Tom 300 stood out from the rest after initially purchasing a Navman unit & replacing it with the Tom Tom. The only slight problem is theres no ac adaptor supplied with the Tom Tom 300 model, only an incar charger, which would be of little use to you. You can however purchase a AC charger for less than £20, which is what i did.
Hope this helps

italiastar

normal wrote:

I've got a Garmin i3 and would advise against it if you haven't got a working cigarette lighter. I thinks it's great but it will drain your batteries really quicky (even good rechargables) If you're after a bargain, look for the medion pda sat nav's on ebay for about £150-170. they're brilliant value. Then on the grab it now board someone has posted something for a free update via beta testing. You should get the best of all worlds that way!

The Medion still needs a lighter socket - without it lasts about 1 hour against 5 for the Garmin, and you can't pop in another set.

italiastar

samsara wrote:

Only problem the cigarette lighter doesn't work in my car so I need a system that doesn't need to plug in.

Thanks

Have you checked whats wrong with the socket - It's likely to be a blown fuse costing about 20p

MDUK

The tomtom one has superseded the tomtom 300, sells around £250

i have the tomtom one (having previously had tomtom 3 runnign on a PDA)it is excellent. it runs on cigarette lighter but you can get a mains adaptor (PC world are doing a bundle with case and adaptor for £279) don't know how long it will last on a charge, i have managed about 21/2 hours (it may last longer but that was the longest journey i have made without pluggiing it in to the cigarette lighter)

ukbill69

I use my nokia N70, tomtom installed on a 512mb MMC and a GPS module from ebay and a good vent mount, around £80 for the full kit, ex phone. Works a treat!

mummysaver

Just to say thanks to all who've posted about the Garmin i3 - picked one up from Staples in Weston Super Mare yesterday for £119.99 - bargain!

Jummy

We bought the Garmin i3 from Woolies a few months ago and it is fab.
We use it all the time and would highly recommend it.