Thinking about a portable sat nav unit for the car and was wondering if anyone has one and if so what recommendations do you have at the lower end of the price scale?

I also borrowed a friends PDA and Tom Tom software which was excellent direction wise but the whole thing rattled around on the windscreen mount and the GPS receiver kept sliding around on the dashboard which became really annoying.

Short list is Tom Tom Go 300 and Garmin Quest.

Cheers
Aqua

 

The Tom Tom Go is a good piece of kit, have had the original plus just bought a 700. It is easy to use, clear screen and good directions.
Can easily add in the Speed camera database.
Try these forums for some more advice

http://www.expansys.com/forum.asp?code=TOMTOMGO

HTH

Steve W

 

tbh those pda issues are easily solved - I've got a windscreen mount ipaq and it's totally solid and a Tomtom blue tooth receiver which is held in place on a magnetic plate..
If you're gonna use the PDA for other stuff it's still a good option..

 

Thanks guys.

Steve do you find any reflection issues in bright sunlight when using the Go and I presume that you can load street level maps for France (at additional cost)?

Cheers

 

My dad's got Copilot. It comes not only with map's but you can also download Speed camera's. Beware though, it's an absolute tw*t to get the camera's on it. The help pages miss bit's out or their pics arn't the same as your screen, which just get's you lost.
Once it's loaded up though, it's a pretty good system. Personnaly I still rely on Road Angel for camera site's.

 

I use TomTom Mobile on my Orange SPV C500 phone and I love it. The GPS receiver I have is rubber backed and only slides about if you're attempting quarter mile records.

I've used a couple of the other brands of navigation, but TomTom is definetly the one to go for. And the new versions are coming with John Cleese doing the voice over directions!

 

I have tom tom on my nokia 6680 with a bluetooth gps unit, it is awesome, lets you know where cameras are as well as optimax stations!!!

 

TomTom for sure. If you dont own or want a pocket pc then get the TomTom 300.
I have TomTom version 5 on my iPAQ 3970, and it is awesome software.
I used to use NavMan software, but TomTom is better imho.

 

http://www.navman-europe.com is all you need to know!!!!!!!!!

 

Tomtom 700 is excellent and everything installed anyway so no need to even worry about maps for Europe etc. It's all there. Excellent bit of kit...

 

go to maplins.co.uk

sign up for their newsletter on line and you get £50 off a go 700 or £30 of a 500.

 

But be prepared to wait for a very long time! I ordered my Tom Tom Go 500 from Maplins in May, and after weeks of calls, the date kept slipping and they were still saying I couldn't have one until mid-August. So on Friday I bit the bullet, cancelled, and went to...(takes a deep breath)...Dixons.

The high street stores all have them now, so I decided to forget about the money off...

I've been trying it over the weekend in my WRX, generally pretty good. But if you know the area you're in, you can definitely find better alternative routes yourself...

 

Without a doubt TomTom is the way to go, Ive been using it for years and its got me around the whole of europe and the states with no problems at all, each new version gets better and better. I use version 5 on my mda compact and it brilliant, used to use tomtom mobile on my c500 and that was also great. Its by far the best gps system out there and regularly embarrases my dads 4 grand in car system.

 

Looked at Tom Tom etc, but I thought it was alot of money for the use I was going to get out of it.
Ended up with this lot (on the cheap!) - Sony Clie PDA (not the best but perfect for this application)
Bluetooth GPS (off Ebay)
Via Michelin Mapsonic (for both Palm OS and PPC)

Whole lot has cost around £100 for SatNav that works all around Europe

Got some existing large capacity memory sticks for the maps, and when need be, I might look at an IPaq as I've got the software for both OS.

Here's what it looks like -











And you can edit the POI for other things to look out for

Dan

 

Ive also got Tom Tom Hp nav pack with the speed Cameras downloaded onto it, Brilliant if you have to drive anywhere far and you dont know where the speed cameras could be.

Also heard you can download celebrity voices onto it, So you can have people like Ozzy Osbourne telling you turn "F**king left"

 

I have a Mio168. Its a Pda with a built-in GPS aerial, its comes with a 'suction mount' (mines on the windscreen) to hold it in place. You then can have your choice of GPs software - i use tomtom 5 with full postcode search for the UK. Ace piece of kit!!!

alan

 

can any of the tom tom's be used in canada?

 

I'm sure you can get canadian maps for it, not sure if they sell them in the UK though. You certainly get American maps.