Something like this: TomTom Go 720 Sat-Nav
Or any other suggestions?

do u want European coverage or just the UK?

Europe in full.

Don’t waste your money on more electronic tat. Buy an atlas, buy a map, you’ll have them forever. Get directions from the web. Research your journey.

Unless you’re a taxi driver or a courier what is the point of these things?

Well, sometimes you might want to drive to Warwick to collect a frame or to Szklarska Poreba in Poland without driving through Czech Republic. Actually, you might not, I often do 🙂

I think I’ll get tomtom one v3, I was offered free maps yesterday.

they are also MUCH safer for driving on your own in a car rather than looking at a map every few yards, especially in town/city centres….

Why does someone always come out with “Use a map”?

Does your map read out the directions so you don’t have to look away?
Does your map automatically update itself with new roads?
Does it warn you about speed cameras?
Does it give you live traffic updates and offer alternative routes?
Does it give you an accurate ETA based on speed?

🙄

I prefer a map, but when driving in Bavarian Alps I want to admire the views not the map. Besides, it’ll talk to me when the others sleep.

i was gonna recommend one halfords are selling for £115 but unfortunately its only uk maps… does come with a years free breakdown cover.

TT one v3 starts at £70, the maps can be had via torrent.

Hairychested – can’t remember 100% but doesn’t the V3 only come with internal memory? – ie no option to use a SD card
That could limit your ability to load various maps

you could always buy mine i’m selling, doesnt come with eu maps but does come with an available sd card to add eu maps to it. Its a better model (one xl) than you would get if you got the most basic model with eu maps. The maps can be bought on ebay very easily too. 🙂

Don’t waste your money on more electronic tat. Buy an atlas, buy a map, you’ll have them forever. Get directions from the web. Research your journey.

Try navigating whilst following a bus in the middle of a city you don’t know on a wet,dark Friday evening – I don’t want to go back to doing that thanks.
I’ve got a enormous box of atlases & A2Zs in my garage, you can have them if you want them

I’ve used a Tomtom all over Europe, USA, Aus/NZ etc. all from one small SD card

I like the smell of a new box 😉
Thanks, GC, got the wife’s blessing so new TomTom coming my way.

Golfchick, i may be interested if Hairychest doesnt want it. Just swapped to a car with no built-in satnav and really missing it!

hehe i dont blame ya, gotta love the smell of new stuff..especially new catalogues mmmmmm.

i sell these bad boys and you dont want a tomtom, go for a garmin! very similar but far more reliable and better value for money. depending what your after look at the 255 or 265w.

Buy an atlas, buy a map, you’ll have them forever.

Yeah.. a dog-eared atlas of Northern Belgium, 10 years out-of-date, forever cluttering up your glove box. Handy!

My TomTom has so far outlasted any road atlas I’ve owned.

I need a new satnav but am waiting a couple of months until the TomTom app hits the iPhone. Think seperate devices about to become museum pieces…..

go for a garmin! very similar but far more reliable

Sorry but tom tom’s are the dogs, never had any problems with mine, Got me around most of western europe no problem, similar story with everybody else i know who has one. Funny thing is people I know with Garmin or other makes wish they’d gone for a tom tom.

epo-aholic – I can have European maps for a TT FOC. The unit is some £70 brand new. Garmin is dearer, nobody I know uses it apart from an employee who needs a SatNav to go from Ashford to Feltham Hill.

i agree with you mcboo, thats why im selling mine now before the rush of iphone users do it.

oops, sorry not trying to spoil your market GC!

Garmin will announce some tie-up deal with Nokia or Sony or some other smartphone maker before very long. If not I’d start selling their shares……these guys are going the way of betamax.

no no you’re not, im agreeing thats what im doing but not everybody is into the while iphone phenomenon. Few companies have already released satnav on iphone but im holding out for tomtom

Separate satnavs will not disappear for a long time. Even smartphones represent a small percentage of the mobile device market, and iPhone has about a 10% share of that. Satnav screens plus their holders work better for car satnav, and satnav running on a phone kills the battery.

Satnav on a phone is great for occasional use, but for regular use, two separate devices is much more flexible and reliable

the new tomtom for iphone is going to be sold along with a mount which will mount the iphone in the car, it also comes with included power adapter therefore meaning your phone will not go completely flat. Imo for those people with iphones I think its gonna be a tough choice between using it onboard the iphone or having a separate system. I know id rather have the two combined so when i leave the car I know my phone can come with me instead ofleaving an expensive satnav in the car to get nicked. Theres no chance its going to completely remove the market for separate satnavs but for people with iphone id be very surprised if the majority dont opt for an all in one solution.

Satnav screens plus their holders work better for car satnav, and satnav running on a phone kills the battery.

Ah but the TomTom iphone kit has a holder, GPS booster and battery charger.

http://iphone.tomtom.com/

No reason why it shouldn’t be as good as a dedicated sat nav IMHO.

But what happens if you want to send a text while doing 190mph down ze autobahn?

So long as it works properly, a tomtom will be your best driving buddy. I even call mine “Jane”:

J> “In 200, yards. Take the exit.”
me> “All right Jane”
J> “take the exit”
me> “I know, I’ve taken the exit, shut up!”
J> “at the end of the road turn right”
me> “Jane, you dim bint, that’s a one way street”.
<turns left>
J> “Turn around when possible.”
me> “aargh!”
<fights with road blocked button>

Sadly, when they go wrong, you’ll find that tomtom support are a bunch of stoned reclaimed marsh dwellers with no interest in looking after their customers.

Most happily of all the car makers can forget about built in Satnavs as £1500 options……wont dissapear of course but now its not a compromise for me not having one as part of the car. I always have my phone with me so it can now sit and charge up, play me a tune and ring when somone calls.

None of this is iPhone specific, all smartphones will be proper satnavs this time next year and hurrah for that. Only question was if TomTom and Garmin tried to hold back the tide and refuse to JV with the phonemakers. No longer an issue….

Those of you that are buying Tomtoms, Garmins etc. & drive Peugeots & Renaults [& some Fords] + others be aware that you will need an external antenna
These cars have some sort of heat reflective coating on the windscreen which seriously screws up the signal – you need to attach the external antenna in that bit behind the rear view mirror [or somewhere else]

AFAIK – all Tomtoms have a standard MCX socket on them for an external antenna, I would expect most others do too but worth checking before you fork out.

What? You cannot be serious!

Who? Me? – deadly serious

uplink, yeah I’ve heard that but both our Ford Focuses (Focii?) have the heated front windscreen mesh in them and the TomTom works fine on its internal aerial.

I think it’s a bit hit & miss – I had a pug 307 that suffered badly – I’m not sure that the heated screens cause much of a problem but the heat reflective stuff does
It’s only a few quid for the antenna & easy enough to fit

EDIT: Just checked – if your car has a athermic windscreen – you’ll need a separate antenna

Why does someone always come out with “Use a map”?

Because some people can’t understand why you would put the route of your journey and in some respects your life in the hands of a black box. Fairy nuff, don’t try to read and drive, so pull over, use your memory and prepare for the journey. In the centre of towns there are often things such as street names and sign posts that direct you to where you want to go. I’ve heard stories of people being getting sent up one way systems when the road layout changes and the software doesn’t update, so they’re not foolproof. Paying attention to where you’re going is the important thing.

Its just my point of view, I wouldn’t waste my hard earned on crap like that but many folk obviously do. And I bet the box of old maps you end up with got costs less than the pile of fvkt old electronics you’ll have in a few years! (and you can recycle the maps easily) 😉

Spey …
YAWN! how many people have you heard about being given the correct directions by their satnav? Exactly everyones got an urbanmyth about things they dont like/need/agree with.
As for the comments about the maps, its the same as the ‘what watch for£?’ you get some numpty saying use the position of the sun, your mobile etc. The thing is, the OP asked a sensible and reasonable question, if you cant give the guy a relevant answer, dont post.
(Mild rant over)

I’ve heard stories of people being getting sent up one way systems when the road layout changes and the software doesn’t update, so they’re not foolproof.

Whereas a paper map is always up-to-date with new road layouts and completely foolproof? 🙄
It’s a non-argument.

Yes some idiots do blindly follow sat-navs into rivers and up one-way streets.
But that is a fault of the users not the technology. Would they really be any better with a map?

Coln –

purpose of post was merely to have a mild rant…… as you just have, not offer advice as, quite obviously, I don’t have and will probably never own a sat-nav. So untwist your lycra at the thought of someone having a perfectly valid opinion and voicing it on a web forum. Like thats not happened before either.

Its all very well to rely on technology, I have to do that daily in my job and its getting right on my thrupnies right now cos its so unreliable. Maps have their drawbacks sure, I just think they outweigh the disadvantages of a sat-nav.

Obviously this has been discussed here before so I shall stop now since all the people who have wasted their money on sat-navs are getting excited.

Like Frankie says, Relax!