Buying a Sat Nav for the first time. (1 Viewer)

Lynd57

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Hello, can anyone advise on the best Sat Nav to buy for touring UK & Europe. pls. Never had one before so wouldn't know where to start or what to look for any help would be appreciated. Thanks
 

Badknee

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Well we have had a few and find different people want different things. Do you want to go from A2B or do you want to load it up with a mass of POI's points of interest? We now have a Chinese Truck sat nav we paid £35.00 for on Ebey and it's great for what we want.
 

GeriatricWanderer

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I'm pretty sure you're going to get lots of replies and advice on this one.

I'm not a sat nav expert but have been using one for a goodly few years in various countries and in an assortment of vehicles.

If I had to make just 2 recommendations, based on my experience, they would be:

Choose one that will accept co-ordinates in all 3 formats.
Choose one with lifetime map updates.

The debate re Garmin/TomTom/Snooper etc will continue.

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Lynd57

Lynd57

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I think we'd want to load it up with POI's (wondered what that meant!) thanks
 

Badknee

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I think we'd want to load it up with POI's (wondered what that meant!) thanks
Well before you buy you will have to check you can, there's loads out there from a few pounds to hundreds of pounds. As GW says there will be plenty along shortly that know a lot more about them than I do or actually want too. A2B man here. (y):LOL:
 

Judge Mental

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Plus do you want to be able to plan your routes ( rather then a dumb machine taking you down inappropriate roads) . I like Garmin as they have a free program called Basecamp that you can use for planning on laptop or PC

As said not all models accept 3rd party POI

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glenn2926

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I have been using a Garmin 660 for about 5 years. I bought this initially to use on the motorbike as that is what it is designed for. It came with a powered car cradle, so have not felt the need to buy another. I regularly use Basecamp to plot routes. Basecamp is very user friendly. I also use it in trucks although it does not have the ability to input the size of the vehicle. Just remember it is a tool just like a map. Do not follow it blindly. It cost about £300 but has always performed excellently unlike many of the cheap ones. Like everything else, you get what you pay for.
 

MikeandCarolyn

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We are currently using a Garmin nuvi 1492-bought in Halfords in Dover when our Mio packed up just outside Dover and were going France,Spain and Portugal for 3 mths.
The Garmin was missing one feature that the Mio had,and I'm now looking for a Sat nav with this feature.
* It is the ability to set either a visual or audio or both alarm when approaching selected custom POI's. For example,I would get a visual alarm when within 1K of either an Aire or a fuel station selling LPG.
So,if hunting for an aire for the night I could simply drive till I got an alert,Tap the screen and be taken to that Aire. *
On the Garmin you have to know which Aire you want and select it from a huge list. Not much fun if it's getting late and the Aire you had intended staying on was full.
One thing about buying your first ever Sat Nav-when I bought mine I had no idea what I should expect it to be able to do,that has been learnt quite expensively :D

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Gellyneck

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Plus do you want to be able to plan your routes ( rather then a dumb machine taking you down inappropriate roads) . I like Garmin as they have a free program called Basecamp that you can use for planning on laptop or PC
Don't tell me you've finally migrated from Mapsource?:eek::)(y)
 

Judge Mental

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We are currently using a Garmin nuvi 1492-bought in Halfords in Dover when our Mio packed up just outside Dover and were going France,Spain and Portugal for 3 mths.
The Garmin was missing one feature that the Mio had,and I'm now looking for a Sat nav with this feature.
* It is the ability to set either a visual or audio or both alarm when approaching selected custom POI's. For example,I would get a visual alarm when within 1K of either an Aire or a fuel station selling LPG.
So,if hunting for an aire for the night I could simply drive till I got an alert,Tap the screen and be taken to that Aire. *
On the Garmin you have to know which Aire you want and select it from a huge list. Not much fun if it's getting late and the Aire you had intended staying on was full.
One thing about buying your first ever Sat Nav-when I bought mine I had no idea what I should expect it to be able to do,that has been learnt quite expensively :D

if you select POI Aires on route it will display them from nearest outward....up to you which you choose as nearest may not always be best choice.

Have spent loads of money on sat nav's in the past, current Nuvi 2547 cost under £100 and does what I want...

Have had Garmin since 2000...have never packed up:)
 
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Judge Mental

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Don't tell me you've finally migrated from Mapsource?:eek::)(y)


slowly...but i'm computer illiterate:coffee:

finding it hard work after Mapsourse but as its no longer supported no choice:cry:

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GeriatricWanderer

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..........................
The Garmin was missing one feature that the Mio had,and I'm now looking for a Sat nav with this feature...........................

I too miss my Mio. It had a simple one touch (raised button) mute/unmute button that I could use, easily and safely, when on the move. My current Garmin 1490 needs a few, very precise, screen taps to do the same - not easy and not safe when driving.
 

Judge Mental

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Well I spose that's something-but not the feature I had and would like again.


but what you said was inaccurate..you are not overwhelmed with a long list of choices as it spans out from where you are when you choose to select one, in order from nearest first.

personally would find an alarm pinging annoying as I have 300,000 POI:oops:

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I had a Tomtom 1005 for couple of years which I thought was fine, except I didn't like keep paying for updates. I bought a Garmin 3598 and loved it, I find it will do a huge lot more than the Tom-tom. It is particularly good on POI saving and route planning. I did briefly try a Tom-tom 5100 as I thought the new model may be an upgrade, if anything it was a downgrade. in comparison to Garmin, Poor screen, sow interface, POI storage problems when you have a fully detailed map, very poor voice recognition and voice functions. It went back and I will stick with Garmin.

Its a personal choice, you can go a play with the Tom-tom on Halfords and it might be worth your while trying to find a shop where you can play with the Garmin. Whatever you do buy it is worth spending an evening carefully going through the manual, that way you can avoid the many RTFI faults that many people complain about and be confident using it. Incidentally, the newest Garmin has a built in dashcam so that might be attractive to you............Good luck........
 
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Allan & Loren

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Just to throw another one in the mix .... We bought a falcon sat nav from nec show last year. It wasn't cheap but it has all options, co-ordinates, general points of interest and also cc cc and Alan Rogers campsites in UK and Europe listed as points of interest. I think it even has aires but would have to check. Price includes lifetime updates. The main reason we bought it is we can input our height, width, length and weight so it gives us routes avoiding roads, low bridges etc that we couldn't navigate. 2 year guarantee and the company is based in Warrington. We had a problem with the plug and didn't query, just sent us out a new one.
 

MikeandCarolyn

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but what you said was inaccurate..you are not overwhelmed with a long list of choices as it spans out from where you are when you choose to select one, in order from nearest first.

personally would find an alarm pinging annoying as I have 300,000 POI:oops:

As I said you could set either visual,audio or both-I had visual only and only on aires and lpg stations.

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Lenny HB

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I have had a couple of Garmin's, last one only a year or so old, don't rate them in France. Brought a Clarion stereo for the van with IGO Prima software, far better route planning gives you a choice of multiple routes, it you don't like them just click more routes and it will give you a load more, traffic diversions it shows optional routes for you to choose.
It really is worth looking at satnavs that run the IGO software.
 
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I've been using the Halfords | Tom Tom GO Live 825 5" Sat Nav with Full European Maps for two years now and have NEVER had a problem using it or finding the destinations required.
I have used this satnav for work everyday covering 50,000 miles each year. I do pay an annual fee of £47 for updates each year which is worth it for me. From memory i paid over £200 for it and Halfords are now selling it for £99.99 BARGAIN (y)

Happy Satnav shopping:confused:

Rob:)
 
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I've never seen them so cheap, I paid loads more for my Start 60
I would have this one, all you would ever need -----

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Which ever one you choose make sure you download the free Camper Contact POI. In my view absolutely invaluable when you looking for a stop over in Europe. It will give you a selection of 'near you' - 'near destination' and takes away all the searching through the maps and books and delivers you to the door. Fantastic.

http://www.campercontact.com/en/content/app


Other POI's here including every McDonalds in Europe - also priceless !!!!

https://en.discussions.tomtom.com/g...ree-3rd-party-poi-downloads-via-1530tm-295612

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GJH

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