Ok I give in….I'll buy a Sat Nav. Which one?

Having borrowed a mates Garmin something or other last year for our hols I can see their merits, mind you I’ll still take the atlas too… 🙂
Looked at some on Halfords site the other night when that Ebay farce was going on but ended up missing out on the 20% thing at saw it had been cancelled for the 2nd time.
Will probably stay with a Garmin one but wondered if the traffic alert ones are worth the £40 or so extra?
It wont get used a great deal just trips away so thought I’d get the cheaper one without the traffic updates but then would I regret it later on…?

Tom Tom XL routes

Just make sure you get one with free map updates. Traffic stuff is rubbish…

It wont get used a great deal just trips away so thought I’d get the cheaper one without the traffic updates but then would I regret it later on…?

Use your smart phone.

Tom Tom Xl with free map updates.

Does using your smart phone use a lot of data? I dont have a lot of data allowance per month and pay a lot for roaming so will need a sat nav for europe.
Both the Garmin ones have free updates.
How much are those Tom Toms?
Why is the traffic alert rubbish?

If just for occasional use (like in a city), then Skobbler Sat Nav app for your phone is really good.
http://www.skobbler.com/apps

And stick with the map for 99% of the time!

Does using your smart phone use a lot of data? I dont have a lot of data allowance per month.

Nope – maps can be downloaded to phone and navigation is by GPS not mobile data.

Do you have a smartphone? £20 buys you copilot which is all the nav you’d ever need. Had it on mine for 6 years now.

You can just transfer it when you change phones. Yiu can have it on multiple devices at the same time too.

Does using your smart phone use a lot of data? I dont have a lot of data allowance per month.

No idea, move to an unlimited/large type contract – my sim-only is less than a tenner a month.

b r – Member
It wont get used a great deal just trips away so thought I’d get the cheaper one without the traffic updates but then would I regret it later on…?

Use your smart phone.
This. If you’ve got a half-decent smartphone, download Here, which is Nokia’s free satnav, now cross-platform.
Maps can be installed on the device meaning you don’t need a network connection, and the routes it gives are pretty good, it re-directs efficiently and the screen display is clear and easy to follow, voice commands are also clear, especially if you download the HD voice as an update.
I also have CoPilot/navmii, Apple Maps and Google Maps, and Here gives me a better choice of alternative routes than any of the others.

Does using your smart phone use a lot of data? I dont have a lot of data allowance per month and pay a lot for roaming so will need a sat nav for europe.

As above, you can download all of the map data onto the phone through the app, so data allowance is irrelevant, and roaming not an issue, and you can install the whole of Europe as well as the UK, but it will use a fair amount of space: 673Mb for the UK, 10Gb for the whole of Europe. You can download on a country by country basis, as needed.
It’s available for Android/iOS now, was previously only Windows Phone.

Buying a standalone satnav when smart phones are so cheap is just mental. Waze is great.

On the smart phone front. Have a look at Navmii, free and works offline.

Thanks for advice all.
I’m now totally confused being a techno numpty. 🙂
I’ll have to look into the smart phone downloads as well as sat nav options, I’m thinking of changing my phone soon anyway so maybe I should do that first.

Anymore feedback on the traffic status on sat navs is worth the extra?

Keep your old phone AS your satnav?

Get a Tom Tom sat nav as unless you already have a smartphone.

I have a Start 25 with lifetime map of UK & EU. Very good.

Yes, you might save a bit if you use your smartphone but it like putting everyone in one basket.

I don’t have a smartphone so having Tom Tom works for me.

10% off online at Halfords today + extra 10% british cycling.
Just picked up a cheap pressure washer.

the voice is excellent as well

I have TomTom on my iPhone. It covers all of Europe including the Eastern countries. It works offline.
It’s great until someone calls or messages you in a city. Ive missed so many junctions because of this as the voice gets muted and the screen changes from the app to the normal phone screen.
I will be getting a standalone soon with exactly the same system but no annoying notifications.
I don’t know if other phone apps are the same.

I have navmii on my phone and copilot on a table but if at all possible I try and use my old tomtom standalone – its just – well – better.

The phone / tablet work ok once the maps are downloaded in advance. But the signal isnt as strong / reliable and if theres a call or an email then it all gets more unreliable.

And the navmii maps arent as accurate as the tomtom ones (like where exactly junctions are in relation to each other / where bends-junctions are…).

But navmii is free. And I already have the tomtom. So in your boat – … well thats up to you.

Yes I also missed the Halfords Flash Sale today!

I have a Garmin with lifetime maps, traffic and full EU mapping. Cost £99 in a flash amazon sale at Xmas. I prefer to use it for navigating to my iPhone. The digital traffic and lifetime maps are worth paying for in my view. The EU mapping means I can use in on EU business trips without using expensive roaming on the phone.

Smart phone and Waze, anything else is a waste of money.

I have a new Garmin with traffic updates and am very happy with it. I previously had a tom tom XL but the Garmin is slightly better. The traffic updates work seamlessly. If I only needed one occasionally I would use my phone but I use one all day at work. A couple of times a year we drive across France. I need my phone too much to dedicate it as a Sat nav. I have also had issues with my phone not having enough reception to use Google maps.

I love the google maps, but it drives me nuts trying to get reception on my works phone to use it, I have also had the missed junctions due to phone calls.

Having an old Tom Tom on the dash keeps everything rolling nicely.

Remembered a road trip a couple of years ago, we got lost in Roeun when the bridge was down.
Mate said no problem as he had roaming data with his phone, 15-20 mins of google maps later we were on the way south.
Pulled over for a coffee and he got a txt saying that cost £27, how we laughed.

No idea about using abroad, but I use google maps all the time. The latest update sees it give my chosen route an all clear or alternative if there’s a problem. Traffic updates are real time and alternative routes are offered during the journey if a faster route is available.

Smart phone with Nokia here. Iirc google maps can be used offline now too.

I use Waze in the UK as its traffic data is brilliant.

Outside of the UK I use Here (Nokia maps as mentioned above) and it’s spot on. Maps can be downloaded offline, and it does work happily abroad.

I do have an old Tom Tom with European mapping which is handy for one thing only – I loaded a big set of POIs onto it so it has pretty much every campsite in France on it. Which is handy if you like to do unplanned journeys and decide to pitch up at the nearest campsite.

O2 Roaming is only £1.99 per day and that gives plenty of data for using Google Maps abroad.

£1.99 for 50mb data. How long will that last on data roaming downloading maps and routes?
Seriously, just get a standalone.

Bought a

Bought a Garmin from Currys PCWorld for 79.99 reduced from 199.99? It has free map up grades and covers Western Europe. Works well.

TomTom Go 5000.

Free lifetime maps
Free lifetime traffic

I don’t like using my phone for satnav.

Has a built in Simcard which works across Europe at zero cost and the traffic works well.

Recently got us through Paris on a Friday morning with almost zero hold ups. Lots of jumping around between roads but it worked. Real time updates.

It wasn’t cheap but worth it.
Cheaper standalone units require a smartphone to get traffic updates which is then reliant on your roaming charges as well as a decent signal on your phone..

Tom Tom go 6000 here……

I really like it …. Not cheap but makes driving around Europe pain free…

I’ve used phone apps and as said just a pain when your mate rings whilst your driving thru a city….

lifetime of maps and the inbuilt sim so no data costs makes it great…….

Phone apps are great locally but when playing up 3oclock at some mountain pass in fog not so great 🙁

we had a garmin a few years ago, it was stolen so we replaced with a tomtom but in hindsight Mrs Ed prefers the garmin ones

What about GPS pick up in heavy woodland ,tend to find when using map my ride app ,get gaps in pick up and end up with straight lines on overview.

Local woodland that is not mapped.
location eire.

If your satnav takes you to a woodland that’s not mapped it’s a shit satnav.

Thanks for all the advice. Having read through this again I think I will go with a sat nav.
I’m not keen to use my only phone for navigation also for the points mentioned above and when I get my new phone the other half is having mine.

So if anyone hears about any deals on some Garmins let me know please!

Ended up getting This Garmin, bought a broken sat nav on Ebay for £5 to get the 20% off trade in, also Topcashback couple of quid off.
Happy enough with that.

Not sure why using the phone as a satnav is such an issue, I honestly don’t. I mean, you always have the phone with you, you always take the phone with you leave the car, so no risk of the satnav being nicked, (and I see reports of that happening so many times it’s just depressing). You also have the option to use several different apps: I’ve found that different apps give different options when showing routes, quite often I know part of a route, but some apps just won’t/can’t give a route that includes the bit I know; CoPilot does this, so I’ve got CoPilot, Navmii and Here, all of which have the maps stored on the phone, so no issues with data, roaming costs, network coverage, etc, like you’d get with G-Maps and Apple Maps.
I’ve also got Viewranger on the same phone, with 1:50k OS maps for the whole UK, and selected 1:25k tiles, so I can, and have, used an OS map in the car.
One phone to rule them all…
😉