Sat Nav-mapping for USA

colmil

I intend to buy my daughter a Satnav for her birthday.

She is going to California and British Columbia on holiday and I would like to have the maps installed for her.

Are all satnavs capable of having this done, and would I need to order by state or province, and whatwould be the approx. cost?

Many thanks

bonzer

I wouldn't like to say all are capable but most can have map updates by some method, usually by connection to a computer or via an SD card.

There is no single standard to my knowledge for map formats though. So you will have to check on an individual basis if USA maps are available for the specific sat nav you are considering buying.

You also have to check the size of map and that it will fit on the device you have chosen. This is particularly important if the sat nav doesn't have a memory card slot. If the sat nav does have a memory card slot, you can usually just buy an additional card big enough to hold the maps.

Normally you would expect to buy a complete country map. Some manufacturers bundle USA and Canada together as one. I wouldn't expect you would have to buy individual states.

Map prices vary wildly by device, age, quality and supplier of map. It also depends whether you get the map together with the device or as an add on.

For my TomTom (originally with UK mapping only), the latest USA & Canada map as an add-on is about £65 from the official source.

OK_Sauce

Don't get a motoring fine in California

GPS/Satnav in California

macman

You don't say which model you are considering, but if TomTom you don't need a map of the whole USA, you would need 'Western USA' which covers California and most of the West Coast. That is £39.95.
However the 'USA and Canada' map is better value at £65 if it's going to be used again elsewhere in the USA.
To accomodate W. Europe as well as USA, you may need to install a 2GB SD card and put the USA maps onto that if your internal memory does not have space for it.

Pssst

You can buy the whole of the USA and Guam (???) on an SD card for tom tom for under £40 ISTR

Christa1

We have a Garmin, and as the cost for hiring GPS with the car hire company was quite expensive, were looking to add on the USD maps, we think it's around £50.00 for this. Do all cars have the same connectioin i.e. via the cigarette lighter?

finlee

sorry for digging up a really old thread but i need an answer to the above question that may sound silly! Do USA cars have the same cigarette lighter connection as per the UK cars?

I feel simple lol

*j*

In a word, Yes, same cigarette lighter socket.

*j*

finlee

silly question but one that was bugging me! Thanks *j*