Satellite Navigation systems

[TheInsanity1234]

Well, some of you know that my mum is getting a new Škoda Yeti on Monday, and since the sat-nav in our Clio is a very old one (Older than the car itself, my late grandfather gave it to us when he purchased a new one when he bought the Galaxy, which we have now), and is very bulky and awkward to carry, I've offered to contribute a large share towards a new sat-nav as a gift for buying a car in which I can retain my "street cred" around here
(Think about it, it's not going to look cool when I turn up into the school car park in a Ford B-Max?)

I'd like to hear some suggestions as to some decent sat-navs (Garmin, TomTom, etc) that aren't too expensive.
My dad is a TomTom man, and probably will be forever-more, but if I can back it up with lots of decent reviews, he may surrender and allow us to go for a different brand

I look forwards to the replies!

[onlinegenie]

I've owned Tom-Tom and Garmin and neither of them is as good as the Maps application on my Android phone.

[TheInsanity1234]

I always think my Maps app is the best out of the 2 navigation systems in our house, unfortunately my dad has a company mobile, which is a very cheap and old Nokia, and he can't be bothered to get a second phone.
My mum and sister both have Windows phones, and they have Bing maps, which is never as good as the Google version.
Also, we like to have 2 stand-alone sat-navs, so that there is one for both car, meaning if my parents are out in the Galaxy, with that sat-nav, we've at least got another one for the (soon to come) Yeti.

[true blue]

I've had a TomTom for around three years now, and I've been very happy with it. It makes an amusing (and occasionally non-obvious) mess of French place names, but has never failed to get me there. The predicted times are pretty good too - I'm almost never later than it reckons, and seldom save more than one or two minutes in an hour (unless I'm on twisty Scottish roads, in which case I gain more than a couple of minutes an hour).

[TheInsanity1234]

We've had TomToms ever since we needed a satnav, but the issue is that the latest top-of-the-range one, the Go 6000 is £250 from Halford.

So evidently it does lead us to wonder if we should go for a Garmin, as my sister's boyfriend has got one of those, and it's supposedly really good so...

[martine]

I like the tomtom 'live' satnavs - the live traffic updates and rerouting are pretty good (but not infallible). It does mean you pay a subscription service after the first year. The menus and map layout are excellent.

I don't know if it's changed recently but the more recent tomtom's don't allow routes (itineries) to be uploaded which is a pain for ADUK driving days. My very old tomtom does! There are many, many complaints on the tomtom forum but all they say is 'it's in development' - but has been for at least 2 years.

Personally I think the dedicated satnavs are better than mobile phone apps...not because of the software but more to do with screen size and loudness of the speaker.

[TheInsanity1234]

My phone is the Galaxy Note 3, so I have a 5.7" screen which means it's a similar size to most sat-navs out there.

Apparently with the more expensive ones, you get free life-time traffic, so that's definitely something to look into.

At the moment, the Go 6000 seems like a very likely example.

The only problem is we have no idea where it'll go

[exportmanuk]

I don't know if it's changed recently but the more recent tomtom's don't allow routes (itineries) to be uploaded which is a pain for ADUK driving days. My very old tomtom does! There are many, many complaints on the tomtom forum but all they say is 'it's in development' - but has been for at least 2 years.

Tomtom have an agreement with a the Dutch software house that produces a program called TYRE ( trace your route everywhere) I am sure that this software has an interface that will upload ITNs to the less functional devices
TYRE basic is free

[martine]

I don't know if it's changed recently but the more recent tomtom's don't allow routes (itineries) to be uploaded which is a pain for ADUK driving days. My very old tomtom does! There are many, many complaints on the tomtom forum but all they say is 'it's in development' - but has been for at least 2 years.

Tomtom have an agreement with a the Dutch software house that produces a program called TYRE ( trace your route everywhere) I am sure that this software has an interface that will upload ITNs to the less functional devices
TYRE basic is free

I use TYRE and the version I've got doesn't...it just converts a route into a series of 'Points Of Interest' (POI) that you have to manually select the next one as you get to each.

I've just had a look on the TYRE website and the latest PRO version has something called 'route tracks' - does anyone here use it? It still seems to have some disadvantages like no spoken directions and I'm not sure if it moves onto the next POI automatically.

I wish TomTom would just put the itinerary feature back - weird to have been taken away in the first place.

[gannet]

I don't know if it's changed recently but the more recent tomtom's don't allow routes (itineries) to be uploaded which is a pain for ADUK driving days. My very old tomtom does! There are many, many complaints on the tomtom forum but all they say is 'it's in development' - but has been for at least 2 years.

Tomtom have an agreement with a the Dutch software house that produces a program called TYRE ( trace your route everywhere) I am sure that this software has an interface that will upload ITNs to the less functional devices
TYRE basic is free

I use TYRE and the version I've got doesn't...it just converts a route into a series of 'Points Of Interest' (POI) that you have to manually select the next one as you get to each.

I've just had a look on the TYRE website and the latest PRO version has something called 'route tracks' - does anyone here use it? It still seems to have some disadvantages like no spoken directions and I'm not sure if it moves onto the next POI automatically.

I wish TomTom would just put the itinerary feature back - weird to have been taken away in the first place.

When I quizzed someone from TomTom on another car forum they claimed they removed it because it interfered with their IQ routing algorithms which they push quite hard...

still f'ing annoying for ADUK days etc. Even the Android app doesn't allow it....

[TheInsanity1234]

I like how a lot of you haven't gone the old fashioned route and just drew your driving routes out in pencil and made notes of which turnings to take!

And it's the young generation that don't understand that you can do something without a gadget?!

[martine]

When I quizzed someone from TomTom on another car forum they claimed they removed it because it interfered with their IQ routing algorithms which they push quite hard...

Even if that's true it would be easy to make IQ routing a switchable feature...turn it off if you want your TomTom to follow a set route.

[jont]

When I quizzed someone from TomTom on another car forum they claimed they removed it because it interfered with their IQ routing algorithms which they push quite hard...

I'm quite happy with my IQ routing system. It involves looking at a map and picking the interesting roads. In some areas it uses local knowledge and often results in a much longer route than strictly necessary

[Russ_H]

I don't know if it's changed recently but the more recent tomtom's don't allow routes (itineries) to be uploaded which is a pain for ADUK driving days. My very old tomtom does! There are many, many complaints on the tomtom forum but all they say is 'it's in development' - but has been for at least 2 years.

I've used TYRE for years. The latest TomToms won't work with TYRE, but this one wil:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tomtom-xxl-classic-series-sat-nav-5-screen-with-uk-and-ireland-maps/544-6527.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=544-6527

I've just bought one. Brand new and sealed. A bargain.

[martine]

I've used TYRE for years. The latest TomToms won't work with TYRE, but this one wil:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/tomtom-xxl-classic-series-sat-nav-5-screen-with-uk-and-ireland-maps/544-6527.prd?pageLevel=&skuId=544-6527

I've just bought one. Brand new and sealed. A bargain.

That's a good find but I can't justify replacing my old one just for ADUK days. I have new TomTom live which I use most - it's great unless I need itineraries!

Just read up on the TomTom user forum and it seems the very latest ones now have itineraries back! This makes it even less likely they will bother fixing the earlier ones like mine...annoying since I only bought it 12 months ago.