Sat Nav recommendations please?

pinkie_pie

I would like to get OH a sat nav for christmas, but unsure which and was hoping I could get some recommendations please. We are on a reasonably tight budget so top of the range definitely out of the question, and he doesn't want one where you have a pay a subscription annually. Any ideas please? Thanks

Indout96

I have both Tom Tom and Garmin Nuvi and of the 2 prefer the Tom Tom, I find it easier to program and follow, the Garmin seems to give less notice of turns coming up.

However my Garmin was bought in the US and has the UK maps on Micro SD card so not sure if that may be causing the late notification.

If you are looking at the more basic models then you will not need to pay any monthly fees however depending how you drive it may well be worth getting the speed camera warnings. Pocket GPS do a good one that is both cheap and up to date.

wannabehermit

I've had both TomTOm and Garmin. Totally agree with what Indout96 says about the Garmin. We tried Garmin after getting fed up with TomTom, but went straight back to TomTom. We have the last Go500 series, but they don't make them anymore. If you want a basic one then the start is fine, it has everything you need on it, the advanced lane guidance is excellent. The ones with Live traffic are well worth it imo. They come with (or certainly did when we got our one) a years free subscription, but then it's up to you whether you carry it on or not, it's only £40something which if your OH needs it is well worth it, but if you don't have it will not affect any other function on the sat nav at all.

SHIPSHAPE

I've used TomTom, Garmin & Navman in the past and all have been fine.

I gather TomTom have the best maps for navigation but I was none too impressed with the model I had as everything appeared jumbled up on the screen.

I managed to buy a Navman for £60 in a sale from Morrisons which has bluetooth & a widescreen and it does the job fine, I wouldn't swap it for an equal spec TomTom which I think would be around £200+.

I don't pay for traffic updates, I find setting the radio for traffic updates works just fine.

gilbert_and_sullivan

Garmin models with a 't' after the model come with lifetime traffic, the other makers charge last time i looked.

Some of the very small models are not easy to read and tiny fingers needed, probably aimed at kids, so factor in how good at reading and nimble fingered the recipient is, might be worth finding a larger screen and forgoing traffic.

Trebor16

It would help if you gave us an idea of your budget so you can be pointed in the right direction, and also whether you want mapping for just the UK and Ireland or if you also want Western Europe mapping as well.

IrishGypsy

I could do with similar advice. Ideally around £100 max, my wife has a Tom Tom Go from ages ago, but the maps are way out of date now. So a decent Tom-Tom for a ton or less would be ideal (as I'm used to the user interface for that), but also open to other suggestions.

katy2

I bought a garmin off amazon last month, think it was £89, this is my first sat nav. Very satisfied with it, has quite a large screen, got us from North Scotland to destination in Birmingham without hassle. We would have been lost, arguing and stressed out of our minds without it, found the lane guides very useful. I cant comment with regards to other models, but not disappointed with my garmin purchase. Easy to use, even for a techno phobe like me, just turned it on and was able to use instantly.

Trebor16

IrishGypsy wrote: »

I could do with similar advice. Ideally around £100 max, my wife has a Tom Tom Go from ages ago, but the maps are way out of date now. So a decent Tom-Tom for a ton or less would be ideal (as I'm used to the user interface for that), but also open to other suggestions.

http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/tomtom-outlet-store/

Could be a good starting point.

A._Badger

I'd second the comment about Garmins and late notification/poor mapping. It's a shame because Garmin's customer service in the UK is fantastic but the mapping on mine is poor.

SHIPSHAPE

Don't waste money on expensive satnavs, just drive to destinations you are already familiar with.