So in the spirit of getting STW advice on all my Xmas present purchases, any recommendations for a cheapish satnav (for use in a car)?

how cheap ?

my 69.99 garmin nuvi got me to GAP in france and back no bother.

Got a smartphone? CoPilot is great, and sub-£20.

No smartphones here (though admittedly the idea of buying one just in order to do satnav is tempting), so stand alone required.

£70 sounds like just the sort of price I’m after – hadn’t realised I could get one that cheap – thanks.

You can get a decent TomTom XL for £79.39 at Halfords.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_categoryId_165685_productId_780765_langId_-1?istCompanyId=b8708c57-7a02-4cf6-b2c0-dc36b54a327e&istItemId=iwrtwri&istBid=tzwt&_$$ja=cgid:8475776884%7Ctsid:35522%7Ccid:166296844%7Clid:49285674122%7Cnw:search%7Ccrid:33910835764%7Cdvc:c%7Cadp:1o1%7Cbku:1&gclid=CJiEq-GIq7sCFYbHtAodC3YAtg

just be ware with the tom tom – if you update them there is no space on them for the whole of western europe any more.

and the maps on them are well out of date – i asked this question on here before the road trip and was warned about it – looking on halfords reviews they showed similar issues.

for just the uk itll be fine.

Thanks for the help – looks like it will be a garmin nuvi then.

yeah got a great deal on a garmin at halfords last xmas sales, very happy

imho phones are ok but its just nicer to have a dedicated satnav

Any deals going at Halfords to get an extra discount?

Navfree (the price is in the name) or Google Maps on a smartphone has got to be the best way forward… Then you have all the other advantages of a smartphone as well.

Just out of interest, what’s better about having a dedicated satnav? Surely it’s just another bit of kit to look out for / get nicked etc?

google maps needs data

Do you have any Tesco clubcard vouchers? We doubled ours up to get a sat nav (garmin nuvi something or other) £50 in clubcard vouchers

get a cheap Nokia Lumia windows phone. Nokia’s own sat nav program is good, free and you download the maps to the phone, so no need for data.
A 520 can be got for ~100 sim free, or free on the 8.50 contract at talk mobile.
And if you didn’t know, Nokia provide the map data to most of the sat nav people anyway…

“A 520 can be got for ~100 sim free”

so double what a reasonable sat nav costs and you still have the misfortune of having a piece of shit for a phone.