please help, sat nav traffic or normal?

mrsv05

hello

ive never had a sat nav before and have just bought a garmin 255 for £100. ive now seen i can get the traffic version for £120. is the traffic alert accurate and does it give you an alternate route in good time? how quickly does it tell you of a jam? with our money being tight (we said not over £100) is it worth the other £20? any help is appreciated before i start it up so can return if necessary.

4743hudsonj

mrsv05 wrote: »

hello

ive never had a sat nav before and have just bought a garmin 255 for £100. ive now seen i can get the traffic version for £120. is the traffic alert accurate and does it give you an alternate route in good time? how quickly does it tell you of a jam? with our money being tight (we said not over £100) is it worth the other £20? any help is appreciated before i start it up so can return if necessary.

imho its not worth it, by the time the satnav knows about it the radio does too

its up to you, how often do you get caught in jams?

DCFC79

Or you listen to local radio who would say if theres any traffic problems on the roads

mrsv05

thanks, this is what i was thinking but then with the credit crunch we are going to holiday over here so i wouldnt know the roads on local radio in a strange county. its not like im even going to use the st nav for every day use as i know where i am going. i dont even know how the traffic function works, it says something about coming through via the radio ??! you help is very much appreciated £20 is still alot of money, especially with a 2 year old.

superscaper

mrsv05 wrote: »

i dont even know how the traffic function works, it says something about coming through via the radio ??!

That's why it may not be much better than listening to radio travel news. All external info for satnav only either comes through radio (or sometimes mobile/cell towers). The only info it can work out from the GPS satellites is just simply the coordinates of where you are.

DCFC79

mrsv05 wrote: »

thanks, this is what i was thinking but then with the credit crunch we are going to holiday over here so i wouldnt know the roads on local radio in a strange county. its not like im even going to use the st nav for every day use as i know where i am going. i dont even know how the traffic function works, it says something about coming through via the radio ??! you help is very much appreciated £20 is still alot of money, especially with a 2 year old.

what you could do is find out the local stations that cover the area your going to and make a note of the frequencies

mrsv05

think i will stick with what ive got, thank you so much for your help. can i ask a quick one, do all chargers work for other sat navs? i have been given by a neighbour his old binatone car and home charger (bless him !) it looks like the same doobie at the end and the home charger does not say binatone, appears to be a generic one. will these be ok? his is only a year old but he's bought the whole lot again in a package.

superscaper

mrsv05 wrote: »

think i will stick with what ive got, thank you so much for your help. can i ask a quick one, do all chargers work for other sat navs? i have been given by a neighbour his old binatone car and home charger (bless him !) it looks like the same doobie at the end and the home charger does not say binatone, appears to be a generic one. will these be ok? his is only a year old but he's bought the whole lot again in a package.

I think many are the mini USB connectors and so if it fits then yes they seem to mostly adhere to the same standard.

M4RKM

I've got a TomTom 520 with the Traffic

As I drive a lot for my job, I personally find it invaluable. It displays a delay in minutes on my route, any point along the whole route, and updates itself as I drive.

the Majority of units, use the RDS-TMC channel which is broadcast alongside Classic FM, however, it does need a strong signal to work, but most times it picks things up, and I can re-route around them easily.

I once saved myself 2 hours stuck on the M25, because of it, and recently, the Roadworks around Nottingham were clogged up, giving a 45 minute delay, and so I rerouted around that too.

However, I do drive quite a lot for my job, and this is why I would personally recommend anyone to have the TMC version, if they do a considerable amount of mileage.

However, as you're driving abroad, you'll have to work out how to set it to the country you are driving in, and it may not work, if they don't support the RDS-TMC updates..

M

AirCooledHeaven

mrsv05 wrote: »

hello

ive never had a sat nav before and have just bought a garmin 255 for £100. ive now seen i can get the traffic version for £120. is the traffic alert accurate and does it give you an alternate route in good time? how quickly does it tell you of a jam? with our money being tight (we said not over £100) is it worth the other £20? any help is appreciated before i start it up so can return if necessary.

Sorry but I can't agree with some of the other posts. I have a Navman satnav with TMC (traffic message channel) and it updates very quickly. Many times I've already been re-routed around a jam or accident long before it comes up on local or national radio. It has saved me hours of wasted journey time and I'm very pleased with it. The only downside is that TMC is broadcast with Classic FM, so if you aren't in (or travelling in) a good classic fm reception area it doesn't work.

fergies_army

If driving through rush hour .... 99% of Britains roads are gridlocked anyway so my sat nav with traffic goes in a big circle as it tries to re-route to a road traffic free and cant really find one.