Sat Nav Advice re map updates

Bigmoney2

I'm looking to get a sat nav. I've found a great deal but unfortunatly it is out of stock every where, so need to look again.

I can't decide how important free lifetime maps will be to me.
The good deal had this but reviews said it was hard to register and timely to update so not sure if I would really use it.

Similar priced models to the 'good deal' don't come with the free mapping, will this really be a problem or should I just bite the bullet and fork out more for the map updates.

Ta in advance

forgotmyname

Its important until they upgrade the units and the maps you have are no longer updated.

Someone posted on here about that. The unit they had was obsolete and the new maps were not compatible.

Paid for lifetime subscription which lasted less than 5 years.

Buy cheaper one and upgrade in 5 years instead. Sell the old one and you wont lose much.

bluesnake

Yes, just what forgotmyname said

First TomTom was on a hp pda - they stopped new maps
Tomtom on windows 6 phone - no map updates

My friends tomtom 500m- bought Czech maps but storage not large enough, so had to wipe existing English maps, she had no laptop then, also think it was a live update, so could not be done on the journey,

Heard the ones built in can cost loads for an update.

Now I feel I have given the companies enough money and use the free ones like waze and google maps on my phone

NeverInDebt

I just upgraded my 4 year old Gramin Navi and another Garmin i5 used same map thats around 7 years old now works fine. TBH mobiles and even tablets are just as good if not better now and you can get garmin/Tom tom programs on android plus it has multi uses. You can also get free satnav programs for phone/tablets which work fine and dont always use 3g

chrisw

I watched a demo of this one on tv which looked really good, lifetime maps and traffic receiver:-


http://www.idealworld.tv/TomTom_Start_25_UK_with_Free_Traffic_Receiver_and_Lifetime_Maps_266767.aspx?fh_location=//idealworld/en_GB/categories@lt;{idealworld_1004}/brand_iw@gt;{tomtom}

Not sure how reliable Ideal World are for customer service though.

pc1271

Roads hardly change really - if you read the road, slightly out of date maps will rarely cause any problem. You'll probably want to replace the hardware before you notice the maps being out of date.

Quinny_2

And if you know where to look, you can get as many updates as you want for free, and for life........

forgotmyname

I bought a cheapo Navigo satnav from ebuyer. It was an identical case to the garmin units.

I installed TomTom, Turbodog, Igo, Route 66 and several other maps all on the card and made a menu to choose the one i wanted.

Worked well. If program had an issue i just switched to another one.

But since i had my N97 mini phone i have used phones for GPS.

Galaxy S2 with the Google maps or Co-Pilot or Igo and several others.

Who needs a separate GPS?

NeverInDebt

Indeed you can

Quinny wrote: »

And if you know where to look, you can get as many updates as you want for free, and for life........

Bigmoney2

chrisw wrote: »

I watched a demo of this one on tv which looked really good, lifetime maps and traffic receiver:-


http://www.idealworld.tv/TomTom_Start_25_UK_with_Free_Traffic_Receiver_and_Lifetime_Maps_266767.aspx?fh_location=//idealworld/en_GB/categories@lt;{idealworld_1004}/brand_iw@gt;{tomtom}

Not sure how reliable Ideal World are for customer service though.

The one I was looking at was a TomTom start 25 but with western europe maps and lifetime updates for £99.97,
but unfortunatley its out of stock (guess it was a good buy).

Bigmoney2

pc1271 wrote: »

Roads hardly change really - if you read the road, slightly out of date maps will rarely cause any problem. You'll probably want to replace the hardware before you notice the maps being out of date.

This is what I was thinking, the life time maps seems OK if free but how much do the roads change, other than say new housing estates, which I wont need.