A good Sat Nav for a new/inexperienced driver?

Cowboy.

Hello!

I've just started driving two years after getting my license and I was looking to buy a good Sat Nav for me to use to navigate around the UK which cost less than £90.

Are there any particular one's out there you recommend?

My general requirements are:

Accurate maps
User friendly interface that shows where I am and where I need to be.
Wide-screen if possible (but not essential)

Any ideas?

Any help would be appreciated!

RichGold

Try the Tom Tom Outlet.
http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/tomtom-outlet-store/
Granted these are refurbs but I've had one for over 2 years now and its fine.

k3lvc

Cowboy. wrote: »

Hello!

I've just started driving two years after getting my license and I was looking to buy a good Sat Nav for me to use to navigate around the UK which cost less than £90.

Are there any particular one's out there you recommend?

My general requirements are:

Accurate maps
User friendly interface that shows where I am and where I need to be.
Wide-screen if possible (but not essential)

Any ideas?

Any help would be appreciated!

Sorry but I'll be controversial here - get used to driving and being comfortable in the car before resorting to distracting devices. Sit and plan your journey before you set off, watch the road signs and if you miss a junction then put it down to experience.

Once you have the driving ability/confidence then visit the TomTom outlet but not until you're sure you can ignore what the device is telling you if the manoeuvre is unsafe.

forgotmyname

Same satnav for an experienced driver, But dont forget road signs and priorities change so the satnav must be ignored
on some occasions.

Rotor

k3lvc wrote: »

Sorry but I'll be controversial here - get used to driving and being comfortable in the car before resorting to distracting devices. Sit and plan your journey before you set off, watch the road signs and if you miss a junction then put it down to experience.

Once you have the driving ability/confidence then visit the TomTom outlet but not until you're sure you can ignore what the device is telling you if the manoeuvre is unsafe.

I used to think that but having got one I recognise that searching for direction signs, road names and jogging your memory from a map/ notes is way more distracting than listening to a nice sensible lady telling you which way to turn and which lane to be in.
(Just keep your wits about you ; she can get it wrong but will never admit it . "recalculating" is all she'll say)

forgotmyname

Tried quite a few different models over the years and they all spout rubbish at various time.

Garmin tells me to turn left off an A road down some lane then turn right which brings me out a few hundred yards
further up the road i was already on but too twice as long.

Navman on the same road said turn left where there were just fields and we needed to be on the main road for about 8 miles
before there were any turnoffs. Which we were going straight on anyway.

Tom Tom, Whils on the M6 (N) it had a habit of thinking we had exited the motorway and were on the island above it. Gave
instructions to take the 2nd or 3rd exit onto the motorway.

Navigo, Similar issue would suddenly decide your not quite where you are and would put you on small access roads that ran
parallel to the one your on, Or oddly in a field sometimes.

They all have issues.

Hintza

OP have you got a map please buy one of these too. If you input the first part of a postcode eg BA instead of KA when would you know you had got it wrong?

grizzly1911

"Learn" to drive first. Be comfortable in the car and on the road.

Map and common sense. Plan in advance give yourself sufficient time.

If you are looking for a specific building Google/Streetview often helps for recognition.

Satnavs have their place especially for delivery drivers etc but for the average Jo/Joe they are a gizzmo.

Lum

k3lvc is correct here. Satnavs are distracting if you don't know how to use them properly and the driving test does not adequately prepare you for driving on your own on the road anyway.

Get some experience under your belt just driving normally before installing a device in your car that could be a distraction. Buy a good road map and if you get lost, find somewhere to pull over to consult your map. If you own a smartphone then you can use this to help determine where you are.

Once you have some experience driving and navigating in this way, you'll be in a better position to manage the distraction of having a satnav on your dash and also in a better position to determine if the instruction it's giving you is correct/legal.

That said, there are plenty of experienced drivers who never manage to learn how to use a satnav properly and trust it's instructions blindly. You occasionally see articles where they get stuck having driven down a footpath or into a river, usually the comments section contains Daily Mail-style outrage calling for these useful devices to be banned due to people blaming their tools like the archetypical poor workman.

liam8282

When I first passed my test that was part of the fun, going out on days out with friends to the coast or wherever, getting a bit lost or finding new places.

I do use a sat nav now to go to places I do not know, but am confident I could find most places without it.

wba31

I do agree that you need to get used to driving first, are you going to do any trips in your first 6 months of driving that you truly dont know how to get to?

I do use a sat nav on longer trips, but only as an assistant. I have always said the Sat Nav is great as a guide, but requires intelligence to use. Often you cant simply just follow the instructions.

If you have an iPhone you could save some money by buying a generic screen mount and the tomtom app.
I have had a tomtom in the past and it was a simple, easy to use and understand sat nav. I have been tempted into buying a garmin due to free travel stuff, but at some point i will simply get the tomtom app for my iphone instead...

(I cannot comment if tomtom have an android/blackberry based app as i do not have access to the stores...)