mplaczek

I have a friend that has just asked me about my tomtom.

He lives outside London and was wondering how good the maps were for the really small country roads.
I've always thought the Tomtom was pretty good at that sort of thing , but I was wondering if any of you have any good or bad experiences of using portable GPS systems in really out of town situations!?

Which navigators have the best maps for this sort of driving?

Thanks for any help with this

OllyK

AFAIK they all (or most) buy the maps in from the same source, so it shouldn't make any difference.

boxst

I really like the Garmin maps -- they managed to take some one-track roads in Poland so they certainly know all the strange country lanes in the UK (well, in the South-East anyway).

As above though, they all seem to be similiar.

Steve

mplaczek

Oh.... well that solves that problem then

Thanks!

swampster

iTrader: (1)

I think there are two main sources.. TeleAtlas & Navteq, there's possibly more to be honest..

TomTom predominantly use the TeleAtlas maps, in fact I think TomTom is either in the process of or has already bought TeleAtlas as a company. While Garmin (and I think most others) use Navteq maps.

Some online mapping sites use a combination of map sources.

r32

There's more to it than maps though, the ease of updating is important, dont know what Garmin is like but the Tomtom web site is dire ............ is Garmin any better?

OllyK

If you struggle with updating TomTom, how on Earth do you manage to post on Scoobynet?

Graz

TomTom etc. are great for getting from A to B. If you either live out in the sticks or are going to somewhere in the sticks it will have no problem with the country lanes and so on. Well at least that's my experience.

However for planning B road blasts you can't beat the good old OS map, thanks to Welcome to Memory-Map Navigation Software : Digital Maps for PCs and Pocket PCs you can now use these electronically

That's why I have a PocketPC and a Bluetooth GPS. Use TomTom for A to B stuff, and Memory Map for spirited drives in the countryside as well as hiking and mountain biking.