Brendan Hughes

PDA, TomTom510 (or similar), or built-in to the car?

I may or may not soon buy a new car (BMW).

In the old car, I have my P910 in a charging cradle, with GPS software and a bluetooth mouse.

The good thing about it is I love the s/w on the phone, every now and then when I am somewhere (not in the car, ie most of the time) and want a streetmap, I have one in my pocket . The other good thing is it goes in my pocket easily and doesn't get left in, then nicked from the car.

The bad thing is that 1) it really eats batteries. When we got lost in Spain earlier this year as all the hotels were full, on the way to yet another hotel the battery ran out (despite the charger ). Try that at 11.30pm with a screaming baby, a sobbing wife and being in a strange country with no idea where you're going to sleep for the night - actually, I recommend you don't. 2) I don't find the in-car operation very easy - if I'm in a jam I can't suddenly reach across and hit the "redirect and avoid motorway route" option. And the touchscreen buttons are too small to use safely while on the move. 3) It's a bit of a *** to set up each time, TBH - start program, pull GPS mouse out of glovebox, switch both on, pair them... 4) It limits me to the type of phone I buy, but as I do buy them and don't have a contract to change them every 3 mths like some here, this is a comparatively minor problem.

I see various options:
a) stay with same system - effectively free.
b) similar system but with hardwired GPS mouse in-car: one niggle less
c) TT510 or similar - yet another bloody thing to remove from the car each time I leave it, big sticker on dashboard, cables everywhere (can you see I'm not keen)
d) buy BMW built-in system which works beautifully, has coverage 2 years or more behind the market leaders (and coverage ain't great in Portugal, that's a crucial issue), and costs vaguely 2 grand


Anyone got any views - or other options?

Sbradley

I've got the V4 DVD based satnav in my M5 and it's brilliant. Traffic information, accurate and fast routing, postcode search, the lot. The 2006 disk is excellent in the UK, though I've not tried it in Europe as I had the old version (which was, um, ****e) before.

SB

Kevin Groat

Brendan - I'm looking to fit Tom Tom to my 910i hope you don't mind a couple of Q's

How on earth did it go flat sat in the charging cradle - any thoughts?

What's a Bluetooth mouse? I know I need a bluetooth GPS thingy - any advice? or is this what the bluetooth mouse is?

Won't be using it for anything significant, more of a toy really..

Ta.

Brendan Hughes

1. No idea. The best thought I have is that I've noticed sometimes it can be sat in the cradle but not charging - needs to be wiggled to make the contacts touch. It's a Sony universal cradle, with an adjustable top arm, as at the time the wife and I had different sized phones. Otherwise, I know BT sucks battery, but didn't know it was that bad.

2. BT mouse is a portable GPS sensor, the size of a small matchbox - yes, it's what you're thinking of. If you have one, you can use it when hiking, mountainbiking etc. But you have to take it out of the glovebox and often plug it into the *** lighter if you don't want the battery to die in 30 mins. Ideally I'd keep it in the house for rare occasions, and get one hardwired in under the bonnet or summat.


Simon, does your DVD cover all Europe? I might PM you a couple of streets to find. My mate's 2 yr old Merc disc doesn't have my own street on it, even though it was built 40 yrs ago - yet mine already has some streets only built last year. It would be pointless to buy a system that can't even tell you how to get home! The infuriating thing is, they all come from NAVTEQ, the same mapping company.

cottonfoo

It's so annoying that manufacturers call bluetooth GPS receivers a "mouse", since you can get bluetooth mice (the ones you use to point and click).

mart360

The bmw system is you pay for what you get.....

we use BMW's when we go abroad (perks of the job) but it depends on what option is fitted to the car. basic is just an arrow and bitching betty telling you your directions.. the next option(at cost) is the 3d mapping etc...

if youve got a setup that works why change it!!

on the plus side though, if its built into the dash, screen glare is often reduced



mart

Brendan Hughes

Mart, you're right - I could choose the standard single DIN with the arrow and voice, but I really appreciate the maps, they've saved me at many a complex junction.

It's not that my current setup doesn't work per se, I'm just trying to balance all the different (dis)advantages of each. Dedicated and useable buttons would be really nice, but they aren't useable on mine and I REALLY don't like the idea of a standalone TT. Just wondered if there were any options I hadn't covered - or if someone could assure me that the BMW system is/n't worth 1.5k.