My ancient TomTom has lost the plot as it has a habit of telling me about turnings after I have gone past them. Also the mapping is woefully out of date.

Therefore I need a new one with the following properties:

• Updatable maps
• Side mounting (I stick it on the window under the A–pillar as I don’t like loads of trailing wires and I can’t reach the windscreen when I’m wearing a seatbelt)

Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.

What is good and what is bobbins?

My Tom Tom died about 3 months ago. I read all the reviews & ended up going for a Garmin with digital traffic and maps for ‘life’ (The free map updates was the clincher although I believe that Tom Tom now do a similar option although because you need a sim card for the traffic bit you still pay yearly for this).

The Garmin is absolutely bobbins. The route selection is random to the point that I plan my own routes beforehand and use the satnav to get me the last mile or so which is lucky because it changes its mind on routes halfway round roundabouts. It will also randomly tell you to leave dual carrageways/ the motorway then send you round a roundabout to rejoin the same road in the same direction (This is nothing to do with the traffic setting). Finally you need to check that the smaller roads it is trying to send you down are fit for cars one of the local lanes it tries to send me down is a challenge on a cross bike.

The traffic information is based on the same information put out on traffic reports so is usually at least half an hour out of date. I think in 3 months it has once successfully re-routed me round problems.

I guess you get what you pay for but most of the faults are pretty basic. Having seen the Tom Tom traffic system working in hindsight this should have been my choice.

Going to germany and looked to upgrade my old XL tomtom with western Europe and modern uk/eire maps and it would have cost 80 to update, 70 to hire with the car or a new XL with uk/eire/western europe cost 90 in halfords (prices in euros).

I like the size, I like the functionality and it has free maps for life, only downside appears to be the sticky pad thing rotates the opposite to my old one.

we had a garmin, it was stolen and replaced by a tomtom, we thought the Garmin was better. dunno what the current models are like, ours is a few years old now.

question is why don’t you want to use your smartphone? ebay holder, long USB charging cable – the data useage is miniscule, especially if you set it before coming off the drive cos you use the wifi from home to load the journey… I would use my phone and use google maps

In car charger, Android phone running google maps and a data connection.
Scarily good – mine beeps when I leave the office wifi and asks if I want navigating to the last place I searched for on laptop, or my next meeting. It even tells me to leave early if the traffic is bad…
It struggles to put a foot wrong, other than needing to be plugged in.

Another vote for phone here too – I’ve not updated the maps on our Garmin now. Phone does the job just as well and in our BM, it’ll play the directions through the speakers.

It’s one less thing to buy / carry etc.

I’ve found google maps to be really good and the Nokia Windows drive app is pretty good too.

Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.

My phone is less than reliable. But thanks anyway. 😀

Looks like I can get a TomTom XL with free maps for life for £79.

Another vote for just using your phone, something to mount it on and a power cable. navfree downloads everything so doesn’t require a data connection. I’ve used it for a year or so and it’s good enough but not as detailed as the dedicated units. So, unless you’re a rep, lorry driver or similar then it should do.

Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.
Not interested in using my smart phone before somebody says “Use your smart phone”.

Using Google maps you can check routes on the computer beforehand. Get in the car, open Google maps app and choose from what you’ve browsed. Programming a dedicated SatNav when you just want to get in the car an go is a PITA.

[i]MY PHONE ISN’T RELIABLE. IF I WANTED TO USE MY F**KING PHONE I WOULD HAVE SAID “WHAT PHONE APP FOR A SAT NAV?”.[/i][/u]

The clue is on the title of the thread.

Tablet?

argh.

Get a new smartphone 😈

Can’t you get a Moto G for the price of a TomTom?

OP I had a Garmin but I think the new Tom Toms are much better than Garmin equivalent. I can’t comment on side mounting, we put ours in bottom corner of windscreen.

FWIW I thought all the SatNavs had updatable maps, mine Garmin was from 2006 and it had updatable maps (the new maps where actually too detailed for it so I had to lose some of the European countries I didn’t care about). Also when routing we tend to look at Google and Waze and cross reference to the Tom Tom, we find the traffic info can vary by provider. I also find it easier to look at routing options on the phone than the Tom Tom and the phone is more responsive to touch. Once underway we use the proper Sat Nav.

There’s a case to be made for getting a replacement smartphone that is reliable, and installing NavFree on it. That has proved to be the most reliable nav app, giving me routes that fitted in with roads that I already knew for part of the journey, it’s certainly much better than CoPilot, Google and Apple Maps for routes that go other than major ‘A’-roads and motorways.
And you get OTA updates for free as well.