Best buy SatNav for £100

wadewade

I'm no expert on SatNavs having bought my present one years ago.

I would like to spend up to £100 on one which covers UK and Western Europe with free updates for life. Are there any special deals on a reasonable one at the moment, please? Looking to buy in next week or so.

scaredofdebt

If you have a smart phone you can download apps that work well as sat-navs for free, I use Waze and it is very good. Just get a cradle to mount the phone on the dash/windscreen, cost about a tenner.

Rubidium

There are many to choose from e.g.

http://www.halfords.com/technology/sat-nav/car-sat-nav/tomtom-start-20-we-m-4-3-sat-nav-with-lifetime-map-updates

bob_a_builder

Just to point out that with the phone option, there are some apps that can operate without needing data access while on the go, so don't let that be a concern

Waze would need a live data connection, as would Google Maps ( although it can also work offline to some extent now

HERE (maybe others ) will work fine off line, and you can update the maps in similar way to updating any other phone apps

Not used a stand-alone sat-nav for a long time now

motorguy

scaredofdebt wrote: »

If you have a smart phone you can download apps that work well as sat-navs for free, I use Waze and it is very good. Just get a cradle to mount the phone on the dash/windscreen, cost about a tenner.

Will that not require data usage when not in the UK? The O/P specifically asked for Western Europe

motorguy

Halfords have a sale on ex display Garmins.

I've just reserved a Garmin Nuvi 2599 LMT D (lifetime maps & traffic via DAB) full Europe too for £75

http://www.halfords.com/technology/sat-nav/car-sat-nav/ex-display-garmin-nuvi-2599lmt-d-5-sat-nav-with-uk-ireland-full-europe-lifetime-maps-and-traffic-with-hsmc

You WONT get better than that for the money.

On Amazon they're £158.

Johno100

Anyone know why Satnavs have remained relatively expensive while other consumer electronics drops in price over the years e.g. DVD players. Is it down to licencing costs or is there some sort of cartel in operation?

SensibleSarah

Argos currently have 50% off on Sat Navs. I bought a Garmin from them about a year ago which was great - recently passed it to my Mum as my car now has built in nav.

motorguy

SensibleSarah wrote: »

Argos currently have 50% off on Sat Navs. I bought a Garmin from them about a year ago which was great - recently passed it to my Mum as my car now has built in nav.

Seems to be only some?

Most are a percentage off.

That 2599 LMTD is £159.99 in Argos...

http://www.argos.co.uk/v1/static/Product/partNumber/4046912.htm

motorguy

Johno100 wrote: »

Anyone know why Satnavs have remained relatively expensive while other consumer electronics drops in price over the years e.g. DVD players. Is it down to licencing costs or is there some sort of cartel in operation?

You can get very decent sat navs from £50 or less these days.

The leading edge ones tend to be around £150, but you're getting a lot of features now in built - "free" lifetime maps, Europe maps, Traffic updates and even more recently Traffic updates by DAB signal.

daveyjp

Johno100 wrote: »

Anyone know why Satnavs have remained relatively expensive while other consumer electronics drops in price over the years e.g. DVD players. Is it down to licencing costs or is there some sort of cartel in operation?

My first satnav was a Garmin, purchased about 14 years ago. It had a screen half the size of modern ones, no touch screen, no live traffic, no points of interest, no speed cam data and it was the size of half a house brick. Cost £500!

I now get something far far better for less than £100 and I also have two apps, Sygic and Navmii, on my smartphone which were free.

Data link is only required for live traffic updates, otherwise they do an OK job, but not as good as a dedicated unit.