Viewing 17 posts - 1 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • Car Sat Nav help please
  • JohnClimber
    Free Member

    Not all sat navs are equal.

    I’ve used my plug in stick on window Tom Tom for years now and I think it’s brilliant.

    I’m in the process of ordering a new company car with a built in sat nav.

    I’ve moved jobs amd am using the pool car Nissan Qashqui with an in built sat nav and it’s rubbish compared to my Tom Tom. I used the google sat nav on my phone for a couple of days (until I fitted in my Tom Tom) and the google one was as good as my plug and play unit.

    Rather than pay £500 on a sat nav I won’t use what do I need to ask?

    Do different units use different algerythms?
    What do I need to look for in the new cars sat nav to ensure it works as well as what I’m used to and not like the Nissan’s unit?

    Cheers

    somouk
    Free Member

    Most in car units are useless.

    They dont have the functionality that the Tom Tom unit will have because most are lacking things like IQ routes and the information from all the other people travelling and sitting in traffic.

    I would save the £500 and stick to the Tom Tom.

    jota180
    Free Member

    It’s a crap shoot with built in units
    Some cars do have tomtom built in, Renault etc. but hardly a deal breaker for one car over another.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    Yep, built-in units are generally rubbish. Even the OEMd tomtoms that some manufacturers fit are cack (the fiat / alfa / chrysler unit wont accept more than 5 waypoints for example, despite costing the wrong side of £300).

    Dad has a £1500 heap of VW junk in his skoda. Its worth about £90 and impossible to fix when it goes wrong.

    Haggle for some other accessory(s)?

    Cougar
    Full Member

    The one in my Hyundai is powered by “NavTeq” and is mediocre at best compared to a proper TomTom, plus they have the audacity to charge ~£100 for map updates. On the upside, it does have all of Europe on it so was a godsend when I went on holiday with it recently.

    jota180
    Free Member

    I wouldn’t have anything now that I can’t put a custom route into

    thetallpaul
    Free Member

    Depending on what your phone is, TomTom for iPhone is really good. Most expensive piece of software I’ve bought for a phone, but use it all the time. Especially useful when combined with traffic updates (watch out for sale prices to save on these).
    Map updates are free.
    Plus I take it with me when I’ve stopped driving and don’t have to hide the unit.

    z1ppy
    Full Member

    Just as a balancing view, my g/f says the built in Sat Nav on her (new old model) Juke is almost as good as her TomTom, and better in other ways. The only thing she misses from the is the “to the door number” option, as she does home visits. Though as a rule I’d agree in-car stuff isn’t going to be the best and lack of updates is the main worry (no idea if nissan update them as part of the service?)

    JohnClimber
    Free Member

    Thanks for the replies.

    It’s a VW unit in a Skoda Octarvia vRS.

    Looks like the Tom Tom will live another 3 years

    CountZero
    Full Member

    NavFree in an iPhone FTW.

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    jota180 – Member
    I wouldn’t have anything now that I can’t put a custom route into

    What are you using that you can load custom routes to? I’m interested for motorcycle use.

    For the car I use my phone. Copilot on android or iphone but currently Here Maps on windows phone.

    jota180
    Free Member

    Garmin Zumo or Tom Tom Rider, some of the car based Garmins too NUVI 6x – I have a Zumo 350LM ATM

    You could also try a cheap Chinese unit and run IGO8 on it, it’ll even run Memory Map so you could do off-road routes 🙂

    http://www.chinavasion.com/china/wholesale/GPS-Sat_Nav_Devices/Portable_GPS/All_Terrain_4.3_Inch_Motorcycle_GPS_Navigation_System_Rage_-_Waterproof_8GB_Internal_Memory_Bluetooth/

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    Thanks, something cheap could be worth a go. TomTom and Garmin bike units are more than I want to spend.

    Rubber_Buccaneer
    Full Member

    A quick scan of that link and I see the value of paying Garmin or TomTom for something that works straight out of the box. I will have a better look once I’m at home.

    hot_fiat
    Full Member

    @rubber_B: I’ve used a tomtom rider for the last 7 years. I’d be lying if i said it was faultless, particularly their warranty support, but its pretty damned good.

    I build routes for our tours in Microsoft Mappoint (its much less laggy than Google or TYRE & I’m not limited to 26 waypoints), export via itn converter as an ITN file and copy straight into the Rider’s ITN directory. The ITN file structure is very logical & simple – you can crack them open in notepad, give things logical names and move them about. Technically the XML based structure that garmin use might be better, but it’s a bleeding nightmare to meddle with.

    My riding buddy has a wretched Zumo, so route building needs tyre as a further intermediary before syncing via the virus-on-a-stick that is Garmin Basecamp. For some god-forsaken reason the cretins in Garmin require the zumo to be powered on and connected before proper route planning can take place – you can’t just give the zumo a list of waypoints, it seemingly has to do the planning for basecamp while syncing.

    parkesie
    Free Member

    My citroen sat nav is great bar its inability ti just take a post code. The solution i found is to use the gps co ordinates that this site generates from the post code Linky

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