Any recommendations for a car sat nav?

I don’t want to spend too much, but something with lifetime map updates would seem to be the way things are going, so I know I may need to get something up from a basic model.

We have an old Garmin and it still works well, but I was planning on using that in my van, so another one for the car that is a bitmore up to date would be a good idea.

If you have a smart phone you already have the sat nav stuff you need…

I have used the phone in the past, I still think the car ones work better.

Phone sat navs are great until you need them while driving in another country.

And phone you end up using lots of data

NavFree uses no data and covers loads of places.

Besides, there are deals on data usage abroad. O2 is £1.99 per day for data abroad. I never switch my data off these days.

Likewise – Copilot doesn’t need a live data feed. I have the map of all Europe loaded – it requires 3gb of storage space.

I’ve got a Garmin Nuvi 2545 that I’ve had for a couple of years. Been faultless and has lifetime map updates

Current range with Lifetime updates here https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/on-the-road/in-car-sat-navs/lifetime-map-updates/cOnTheRoad-cAutomotive-atFILTER_FEATURE_LIFETIMEMAPS_01-p1.html

Usually a bunch of them on offer at Halfords

Google maps uses very little data in the UK and gives really good traffic info. Or theres quite a few that don’t need data for use at home or abroad.

Went through this recently. Had a “top of the range” Garmin from 2007 that was VERY long in the tooth.
Used my iPhone in the UK, but wanted something better for EU driving.
I bought in an Amazon Flash sale a Garmin 2598 LMTD. Full EU maps, lifetime updates AND lifetime digital traffic…£99.
For that price its a much better option than using my phone. Best bit is that since I synched it to the PC is that Garmin Basecamp software seems to have collected all the data from it, so it can use this for planning routes on my Garmin 800!
Loyal Garmin user here, they have a good (but not perfect!) ecosystem of kit.

And phone you end up using lots of data

fwiw windows phones have Nokia maps which you can run offline and download any maps you like. If you have a data connection then you get traffic as well. Seems to be true of even the lower end models but you would have to check. It’s what I use and I love being able to set my destinations in browser rather than on the phone

I use TomTom on my IPhone, data switched off in Europe and works just fine.

I used it for UK to Slovenia one year without any issues at all.

Got a Garmin with lifetime maps from halfords last month for£80. Does the job fine, replaced a 3 yr old similar one which didn’t have map updates

Depends what you use if for really

Map updates are the biggest con with sat-navs.
The paper atlas in my car is dated -something like- 2007 and it’s still perfectly valid 99.9% of the time.

If it’s just one town to another, A-to-B sort of stuff, anything will do that.

If you need to find specific addresses within towns and cities, the latest ones are much easier to use.
I pretty much use them to pin down a certain address and when it’s wet and dark in the rush hour and you’re stuck behind a bus in a city you don’t know, the latest Tomtoms are very good.
I also have a Garmim Zumo on my bike, which I like but it only gets used for pre-planned route following rather than seeking a specific place or address.

I prefer the Tomtom interface though.

The quality of the navigation and the much more detailed traffic info on Google Maps means I will always use my phone in preference to the sat nav.

At work we have tens of thousands of company buildings and external apparatus built into the CoPilot app on our smartphones as POI’s, sometimes I’ll use it for short distances but if its taking me somewhere unfamiliar I’ll use CoPilot to find my destination and then switch to Google maps, thats how much more user freindly Google Maps is.

And its frugal on data, just 27mb last month and I use it every weekday.

Garmin 2597 from Halfords, fifty quid off with Lifetime map updates and full European coverage. Just ordered one myself 😆

Another very happy co-pilot app user here. Even when I know where I’m going, I stick it on to warn me about the speed cameras. You can also set it up to reroute you automatically if it picks up delays ahead which has saved me hours.

And phone you end up using lots of data

Depends entirely what app you’re using. Most actual sat-nav applications hold their maps on local storage so the only data used will be a tiny amount for the initial satellite lock (Assisted GPS) and any live updating you’re using such as traffic alerts, both of which are optional.

I’ve got CoPilot. It’s a full-blown sat-nav rather than just a map with a few extra bits, and for £20 it works as well as the standalone TomTom that I paid ten times as much for back when they were fairly new. Can’t fault it.

I’ve got sat nav built into the car, and it’s pretty good but the co pilot app on my phone has come in handy in some harder to find spots.

It works well, really well and has no data connection needed, but as some have said O2 only charge £1.99 a day in Europe now so I tend to leave it on anyway.

I quite like Co-pilots mapping and interface but the instruction is far too verbose for my liking

Fairly sure you can adjust when it gives you instruction, xx yards before or whatever. And I think if you change the speech to a voice that doesn’t do text-to-speech it’ll give you less information.

Phone sat navs are great until you need them while driving in another country.

Nope.
Use (say) Apple Maps on an iPhone and you use data, yes. But download Tom Tom and you don’t, it stores all the maps on the phone. I used it in the USA with data turned off and it was perfect. Once home I took the app off the phone, but I’ve still purchased it so I can redownload at any time, and the map has free updates so it’s never out of date. Was about £25 if I recall correctly

fwiw windows phones have Nokia maps which you can run offline and download any maps you like

I have a Windows phone, and you can indeed run the Here sat nav application offline, and download whatever country you want before you go. It’s pretty good.

Here has also become available for free for my Android tablet, which is nice. No compromise as far as I can see.

Navfree is OK, but nowhere near as good as Here.

Having said all that, I prefer my Garmin sat nav in the car, mainly because of the easy mounting (have it on a mount fitted on the dash rather than a suction cup).

Garmin Nuvi 55LMT here from Aldi £89. I think It’s now about £50 if you can get one.

Lifetime map updates and traffic too. Use it for accurate speed and alerts against limits all the time.

Use with a rubber mount on dash so I don’t leave a sticky mark on windshield if leaving car alone. £7 from Amazon.

Much better solution than my iPhone; Co-pilot isn’t that good.

Thanks for the replys.

Think it’s time I bought a new satnav – mine decided not to find any satellites this morning. Good job I’d actually looked at the route on a map and could remember it!

Roter Stern – Member
Phone sat navs are great until you need them while driving in another country.

FunkyDunc – Member
And phone you end up using lots of data
As above, if you use NavFree or CoPilot all the maps are native to the phone, and DO NOT need data connections.
You can add maps for other parts of the world as you need them.
I find NavFree gives much better cross-country routes to CoPilot, both of which I’ve used for some considerable time.
Apple or Google Maps are useless if you need to get routes and you’re in a part of the country with no network coverage or data.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Navfree