Do you use a Garmin, Tom Tom or other?
Poll: Do you use a Garmin, Tom Tom or other?
Total Members Polled: 238
Discussion
for the Garmin Nuvi here.Garmin nuvi 660FM.
Great things: Wide screen. The traffic thing works - mostly. Even in Italy. Built in points of interest are useful, like restaurants with phone numbers, press a button and it dials the number via bluetooth to the phone. On some phones it will read out your SMS messages, if you want it to. Can act as an MP3 player with an SD card, transmitting to an FM car radio. Can act as a handsfree car kit - it works as well as my wired-in bluetooth kit. Speed camera locations are very accurate, although would prefer if it monitored average speed between av speed cams. Newer versions than mine can plot a route with multiple waypoints, and can also record a track of where you've been, I would have loved that driving down to and around Italy, to see where I'd been. Newer ones have some live update feature too, a bit like TomTom's I believe, and finally have a "find my car" function, handy if you've parked at the airport but can't remember where.
Not so good things: sometimes tells me to take the 6th exit of a 4 exit roundabout. Sometimes tells me to exit a motorway and rejoin at the same junction. Sometimes doesn't tell me to turn off a major road onto a minor one, even though on screen it's obvious I need to - happens when the major and minor road both have the same name, as can happens with bypasses. These probs are quite rare though.
Great things: Wide screen. The traffic thing works - mostly. Even in Italy. Built in points of interest are useful, like restaurants with phone numbers, press a button and it dials the number via bluetooth to the phone. On some phones it will read out your SMS messages, if you want it to. Can act as an MP3 player with an SD card, transmitting to an FM car radio. Can act as a handsfree car kit - it works as well as my wired-in bluetooth kit. Speed camera locations are very accurate, although would prefer if it monitored average speed between av speed cams. Newer versions than mine can plot a route with multiple waypoints, and can also record a track of where you've been, I would have loved that driving down to and around Italy, to see where I'd been. Newer ones have some live update feature too, a bit like TomTom's I believe, and finally have a "find my car" function, handy if you've parked at the airport but can't remember where.
Not so good things: sometimes tells me to take the 6th exit of a 4 exit roundabout. Sometimes tells me to exit a motorway and rejoin at the same junction. Sometimes doesn't tell me to turn off a major road onto a minor one, even though on screen it's obvious I need to - happens when the major and minor road both have the same name, as can happens with bypasses. These probs are quite rare though.
Mines a Navman - does the job fine, I do like the fact there are 10 levels of more-less motorway, and 10 levels of quickest-shortest, means you can set it to take a more scenic route, but won't send you down footpaths, whereas my parents Garmin only does either quickest or shortest, so you get either all boring arterial routes, complete with jams in the summer, or single track roads with grass growing up the middle!
Must remember to update the speed camera database.
Must remember to update the speed camera database.
Pumatwin said:
Navman for me.
Navman iCN630 here, which is now several years old, so I fancy something more up to date. Just don't know what to go for. What always bugs me about these situations is not knowing what they're really like to live with until you've bought the thing. Being able to borrow/hire(1) various ones first would be useful.(1) very cheaply!
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Navigon, without a doubt the best routing of any in the UK.
The Navigon will only ever take you on main roads, or across all the B roads if you choose short, when you know your way somewhere and test it, it really does show itself up.
TomTom is a bit better but not much, and the graphics are so clunky and ugly, but the address entry is nice.
The Navigon really does take routes you would choose yourself, I have done around 300,000 miles now with nav units and tried them all, the Garmin is the only one I wouldn't use again, just tried a 765T Nuvi recently for a week and it is still crap at routing.
Seriously, you should try and borrow a system that uses the Navigon base, awesome!!
8410 is out today as well, I have tried the software on my older 2100max unit and it is looking very slick, but i will order the 8410 as my unit isn't powerful enough to run the latest software properly.
The Navigon will only ever take you on main roads, or across all the B roads if you choose short, when you know your way somewhere and test it, it really does show itself up.
TomTom is a bit better but not much, and the graphics are so clunky and ugly, but the address entry is nice.
The Navigon really does take routes you would choose yourself, I have done around 300,000 miles now with nav units and tried them all, the Garmin is the only one I wouldn't use again, just tried a 765T Nuvi recently for a week and it is still crap at routing.
Seriously, you should try and borrow a system that uses the Navigon base, awesome!!
8410 is out today as well, I have tried the software on my older 2100max unit and it is looking very slick, but i will order the 8410 as my unit isn't powerful enough to run the latest software properly.
I don't understand why my Garmin Nuvi will send me one way on the way to somewhere, and a completely different route home.
And it'll sometimes choose different routes to the same destination. Just when I've got used to going a certain way, it'll decide it doesn't like that any more and send me on a wild goose chase. And when I ignore it and go the way I know and love, you can guarantee it'll chirp up after a few minutes: "A better route is available, would you like to take it?" Well yes, OF COURSE I f
kING WOULD YOU INCOMPETENT PIECE OF HORSE st! And this magical better route it's just discovered? Well, it's the same way it took me last time but had mysteriously forgotten about! Why I haven't thrown the bd thing out of the window yet I don't know, but it's gonna happen. Cock.
That's all.
And it'll sometimes choose different routes to the same destination. Just when I've got used to going a certain way, it'll decide it doesn't like that any more and send me on a wild goose chase. And when I ignore it and go the way I know and love, you can guarantee it'll chirp up after a few minutes: "A better route is available, would you like to take it?" Well yes, OF COURSE I f
kING WOULD YOU INCOMPETENT PIECE OF HORSE st! And this magical better route it's just discovered? Well, it's the same way it took me last time but had mysteriously forgotten about! Why I haven't thrown the bd thing out of the window yet I don't know, but it's gonna happen. Cock.That's all.
Haha, I did throw mine out the window whilst in Scotland, I wanted to get from Kenmore on Loch Tay up to Avimore, it was around 10 miles to the dual carrigeway A9 and then 40 miles to Avimore, however the nav decided to take me 25 miles up single track to bring me 10 miles up the A9.
This turned a trip that should have been an hour at most into a 3 hour hour ball ache!!!
No matter what setting I chose it would insist on taking me a way that was obviously the wrong one.
So in the end I threw it out the window I got so annoyed with it.
This turned a trip that should have been an hour at most into a 3 hour hour ball ache!!!
No matter what setting I chose it would insist on taking me a way that was obviously the wrong one.
So in the end I threw it out the window I got so annoyed with it.
gizlaroc said:
Haha, I did throw mine out the window whilst in Scotland, I wanted to get from Kenmore on Loch Tay up to Avimore, it was around 10 miles to the dual carrigeway A9 and then 40 miles to Avimore, however the nav decided to take me 25 miles up single track to bring me 10 miles up the A9.
This turned a trip that should have been an hour at most into a 3 hour hour ball ache!!!
No matter what setting I chose it would insist on taking me a way that was obviously the wrong one.
So in the end I threw it out the window I got so annoyed with it.
I know that road, the TomTom sent me along that path once ... much to the wife's anoyance, had to take her to the House of Bruar to soothe the waters.This turned a trip that should have been an hour at most into a 3 hour hour ball ache!!!
No matter what setting I chose it would insist on taking me a way that was obviously the wrong one.
So in the end I threw it out the window I got so annoyed with it.
Been using TomTom since Navigator 3 and now use a TomTom Rider on the motorbike and the wife uses a Go910 in her car, and she brings that with her to use in the Range Rover rather than it's own sat nav. My MG has just been updated with a newer widescreen BMW sat nav but it is terrible compared with the TomTom.
Have TomTom on my phone, full Wetern European mapping, and yes do use it in France / Spain. Wouldn't be without it when going somewhere new, especially abroard but then the fully integrated one in the car has to be the biggest pile of st ever, and the manufacturer charged the the previous owner the thick end of 2k. Doesn't even have the capability to enter in a full postcode. Graphices drawn by my 5 year old niece and when going to France have to faff around in the boot changing discs. What a crock of st! £2k? TomTom on the phone was £39.99
t ever, and the manufacturer charged the the previous owner the thick end of 2k. Doesn't even have the capability to enter in a full postcode. Graphices drawn by my 5 year old niece and when going to France have to faff around in the boot changing discs. What a crock of st! £2k? TomTom on the phone was £39.99Gassing Station | In-Car Electronics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff