First Sat Nav

sarah3585

Hello,

I'm looking for my first sat nav. I've got my eye on two at around the £100 mark. I'm looking for one that's easy to follow on glance (so I can concentrate on the road.) Clear speed limit display is desired with an indication if I do sneak over it. I will mostly be using it around town in the South/South West of England. I won't be doing a lot of motorway driving initially. Any help with lanes would be great too which I think the following two have but are just for motorways.

TomTom Start 20 UK & Ireland @ Amazon for 107.00
Garmin Nuvi 1340 Traffic Satellite Navigation with UK & Western Europe @ Amazon £102.99


Would also like to know peoples experience with updating them. From what I can see on the TomTom site there's a sub for £4.95 a quater.
Garmin have a lifetime update for £74.99 or one off for £49.99 (seems pretty expensive.)

I'm a mac user (Snow Lepoard) so needs good support.

Thank you!

fwor

You'll probably be very happy with either. I prefer Garmin to TomTom, but have owned both and no really bad points about either.

Updates: I don't bother, on the assumption that the internal (not user replaceable) battery will last maybe 4 years, and I'll then replace it with a new one*. Roads don't seem to change that much, and where they have changed it's usually just a short bit of confusion before it finds its way again.

BTW - check if your car has either a metalised reflective finish glass (Renaults and Peugots often do) or heated front windscreen. If so, try to get a test of the one you're getting in place in the car, as this can make reception very poor.

* yes, I know, I'm an eco-terrorist. If the makers were forced to make all battery-powered devices have replaceable batteries I wouldn't have to be.

santer_2

I like the advanced lane guidance on Tom Tom, as having it call out which lane you need often from a couple of miles away means you do not need to look away from the road at all.

Tom Tom services is available for £47:50 a year at the moment, those are useful, though agree about not bothering with map updates as the postcode is usually sufficient.

A dashboard bean bag mount will avoid the tell tale marks on the windscreen

sarah3585

santer wrote: »

I like the advanced lane guidance on Tom Tom, as having it call out which lane you need often from a couple of miles away means you do not need to look away from the road at all.

Is that just for motorways?

DCodd

fwor wrote: »

You'll probably be very happy with either. I prefer Garmin to TomTom, but have owned both and no really bad points about either.

Updates: I don't bother, on the assumption that the internal (not user replaceable) battery will last maybe 4 years, and I'll then replace it with a new one*. Roads don't seem to change that much, and where they have changed it's usually just a short bit of confusion before it finds its way again.

BTW - check if your car has either a metalised reflective finish glass (Renaults and Peugots often do) or heated front windscreen. If so, try to get a test of the one you're getting in place in the car, as this can make reception very poor.

* yes, I know, I'm an eco-terrorist. If the makers were forced to make all battery-powered devices have replaceable batteries I wouldn't have to be.

You may have just saved me £74.99 fwor:T

I have a Garmin Nuvi and was thinking about buying the lifetime map updates as I get beeped for non-existant speed cameras (and no I am not speeding, it just beeps when it thinks one is in the area:D). I had not thought about battery life before though.

Are they really just 4 years?

Chartered_Eng

sarah3585 wrote: »

Is that just for motorways?

Not always, but it's not consistent anywhere. I have had my Tom Tom 950 give me lane advice in some areas (motorway to not) and not at other times. There is no rhyme or reason to it so it may be just down to the programming of the maps.

Chartered_Eng

DCodd wrote: »

I had not thought about battery life before though. Are they really just 4 years?

It depends upon how many times you cycle them. My Tom Tom 950 is still holding it's charge and that's over five years old. Batteries can last long time or fail in a couple of years. Quality and use (cycling) are factors. One thing you can be sure of, they will fail to retain their charge at some time.

santer_2

sarah3585 wrote: »

Is that just for motorways?

Mostly

If you need to take a turn at a roundabout etc, it would say take the third exit then stay in the left or right lane if necessary.

fwor

Chartered_Eng wrote: »

Batteries can last long time or fail in a couple of years. Quality and use (cycling) are factors.

True, it can be a bit of a lottery.

With the current generation of LiIon and LiPol batteries, the best you can do is to try to avoid fully discharging them, and avoid getting them too hot. These two are linked, because fully recharging a battery will usually get it hotter than partially recharging it.

sarah3585

Anyone know what the Garmin Lane Guides are like?

ktk

I bought my first sat nav this summer to drive around France. I went with the TomTom Start25, which has a bigger screen than the 20. It was easy to set up and use. Lane guidance on motorway, and live update with an added cable.