Sat Nav

herbiecat_2

We are thinking of getting as sat nav for here in the UK but for our european holidays as well. The thing is that we do not know anything about sat navs and the requirements. Can you use them without a mobile phone? I would really appreciate some suggestions on good basic ones that do not cost the earth and if you could advise me on what kind of technology I should have with them.
I thank you in advance for your help and adivice on this.

mum2one

I have Garmin sat nav - wide screen which is a god send it really makes the difference, not very technicial, so bear with me, I paid £115.00 for mine from Halfords.

I've just brought dad one for christmas, from Currys, its a Garmin, was £299 reduced to £149, reduced to £129. It has eurpoean mapping as well as Uk, is an absolute doodle to use, for UK, I just press the menu button, enter the postcode and house number if I have it, but it doesn't need it.

The basics are-
Full mapping in 2d or 3d
Automatically goes to night light
Picks up speed cameras even if the zone has an mobile camera
You can upload from the garmin site and it updates the mapping.
Ful UK, ireland and European mapping.

They come with what you need, a cradle unit for the windscreen, incar charger.

I brought dad a cheap one £50.00 from ebuyer, but it wants the ins and outs of it, if you were going somewhere, you have to manualy put in, house number, road, town, postcode, and it is done with a stylus, thats a normal size, but he can't work it, its basic, but ok.

Yet give him mine he can work it and he is the least technical person there is, he even has to ask my daughter how to turn on the dvd player.

I will hunt the model out - got to find the box...... x

angeltreats

We have a Tom Tom One V5 IQ Routes. It has maps for Europe as well as the UK. You don't need a mobile phone (I don't think you need one for any sat nav though?) and it comes with a charger but you'll really need to buy a cigarette lighter charger if you're going on any long trips. It's absolutely idiot proof, and picks up a signal really quickly and as far as I know it picks up on which roads have heavy traffic and works out the fastest route accordingly. I would highly recommend it. It wasn't the cheapest, I think ours was something like £120.

Hintza

Don't ever totaly rely on them especially in europe. Keep a map handy.

In Italy the Sat Nav can be a bit hit or miss, closed roads, mountain tracks etc and if you have blythly followed a Sat nav you haven'tr a clue where you are.

mum2one

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/528811/GARMIN-010-11226-00

entry level garmin - £50.00

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/526568/GARMIN-NUVI-215
£99.99

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/551180/GARMIN-NUVI-255W-BK
£110 on line I paid £129 in store
full uk, Ireland + europe mapping

nexuss

TOMTOM europe by far the best and i used to drive to around 12 european countries with work.The speed camera alerts will help you greatly especially in france but do not use a snooper to detect cameras as you can be locked up in france along with a fine for several thousand pounds.

DaveMacD

Hintza wrote: »

Don't ever totaly rely on them especially in europe. Keep a map handy.

Good advice. The number of times my SatNav has tried to direct me down a footpath, or over a bridge..... Lucky I can drive into river fords and still be relatively safe...

molerat

mum2one wrote: »

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/528811/GARMIN-010-11226-00 entry level garmin - £50.00

.... is actually a map update card, no sat nav included

KeithP

molerat wrote: »

mum2one wrote: »

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/528811/GARMIN-010-11226-00

entry level garmin - £50.00

.... is actually a map update card, no sat nav included

But with a car charger included.
Very puzzling.

terryya

Depending on how confident your are on a pc the cheap ones on ebuyer are great if you add tomtom software - the ebuyer review section tells you all you need to know. To be honest you don't need to be good on a pc, just be able to follow instructions.

mchale

Have a look at the "navigon 1310"