Question about XK (older models) sat nav

[keiron99]

I'm looking into purchasing a pre-06 XK. Many of course have the sat nav but unfortunately to my eyes, they just don't look right on the dash. I much prefer the look of the old school dials in the non-satnav models (by the way, what are those gauges?)

That said I do use my Tomtom a lot and so I might be able to live with the compromise on appearance if the system was any good. So, is it any good? Seems if I'm buying a car that may be 7 or 8 years old then it clearly won't be state of the art. I'd welcome comments from those with experience. Thanks.

[mercGLowner]

No direct experience, but having read a little about the X100 Satnav system it is regarded as prehistoric! It was not updated (or further developed) from about 2002/3 in terms of functionality and it lags behind modern systems by a large margin. I agree that the three dials look good instead of the satnav. Anyway, the screen looks tiny!

[Evoluzione R]

keiron99 said:

I'm looking into purchasing a pre-06 XK. Many of course have the sat nav but unfortunately to my eyes, they just don't look right on the dash. I much prefer the look of the old school dials in the non-satnav models (by the way, what are those gauges?)

That said I do use my Tomtom a lot and so I might be able to live with the compromise on appearance if the system was any good. So, is it any good? Seems if I'm buying a car that may be 7 or 8 years old then it clearly won't be state of the art. I'd welcome comments from those with experience. Thanks.

I agree with You about the ugly looking of the XK sat-nav. When I was looking for XKR I didn't want the sat-nav and now I have a XKR without it and with the three round instruments that are much nicer. I use the TomTom in the long trips.

[cardigankid]

keiron99 said:

I'm looking into purchasing a pre-06 XK. Many of course have the sat nav but unfortunately to my eyes, they just don't look right on the dash. I much prefer the look of the old school dials in the non-satnav models (by the way, what are those gauges?)

+1

And if you can get one without the aluminium trims, just the circular dials in the wooden dash, you have imho won a watch. Don't even go there with the satnav. Old satnav systems are like secondhand toilet roll. Far far better with a tom tom, and you have a pretty dashboard to sit behind.

[NormanD]

cardigankid said:

keiron99 said:

I'm looking into purchasing a pre-06 XK. Many of course have the sat nav but unfortunately to my eyes, they just don't look right on the dash. I much prefer the look of the old school dials in the non-satnav models (by the way, what are those gauges?)

+1

And if you can get one without the aluminium trims, just the circular dials in the wooden dash, you have imho won a watch. Don't even go there with the satnav. Old satnav systems are like secondhand toilet roll. Far far better with a tom tom, and you have a pretty dashboard to sit behind.

I'm in agreemant with that

I use a NavMan fits well on the screen bottom right corner, doen't block vision yet just right for a glance at when driving
I have brought the cable up beside the dash so only a few inches (mm) showing

[keiron99]

Thanks for the comments, confirms my own belief. A sat nav placed down in the dash doesn't seem to be the best place anyway - surely much safer a bit higher up attached to the windscreen as with my own TomTom. (And another advantage of detachable ones is you can take them into the house/office to plan your journey on.)

[adu]

keiron99 said:

(by the way, what are those gauges?)

Oil guage,
Clock,
Battery condition ,

Temp guage,in with the main dials

Basic switch guages from what i gather, bit prehistoric themselves, either the engines overheated or they show midway for normal

>>andy

Edited by adu on Saturday 10th October 19:02

[ParanoidAndroid]

I have the sat nav in mine. It's okay as far as it goes and makes a useful clock ! No postcode facility so that does limit it somewhat. Really annoying 'bong' everytime the young lady speaks as well - wonder if there is a way of disabling that?

Dials do look much nicer. I remember seeing a post where someone had fitted a touchscreen unit connected to a pc in the boot and still kept the 3 dials. That looked great.

Graham

Edited by ParanoidAndroid on Friday 9th October 18:44

[keiron99]

Is it true that all XKR's came with a sat nav fitted as standard?

[mph]

The XK always had the older model of satnav (compared to the S type etc.) and for that reason I didn't spec one when I had a new XK a few years ago. Instead I had an aftermarket unit retro fitted above the windscreen. It looked pretty good but wasn't the easiest thing to see.

Why not have someone make up a proper housing for your tom tom and try to blend it in to the car?

Certainly when I bought my XKR satnav wasn't standard.

Edited by mph on Friday 9th October 21:17

[cardigankid]

I don't think so, because even then they realised that a lot of people preferred the dials

[pr100]

I have a sat-nav in my '07 XKR but choose to use the much more functional TomTom instead. Things I need are speed camera alerts and speed limit alarms, neither of which the built-in sat-nav offers.

[lux_r]

The Sat-Nav on my 2000 XKR is actually an Alpine unit, functional is the best description, it uses individual DVDs for each country/region. I dont think the disks are updated past about 2000 so you often find missing roads etc, I use the navi on my nokia phone !!! to turn off that annoying woman, use the mode button on the radio.
anybody managed to graft in a nice TomTom screen? that would be good