Mark W Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Holla. I wanna buy a satnav for my car having used various friends/family's satnavs before. Everyone I know uses TomToms, so I don't really know if there are better/cheaper alternatives around. Seem to be some deals around the place on Garmins/Navmans and stuff, so does anyone have any recommendations? It'll only be the basic model 'cos I don't really give much of a shit about having thousands of features or anything, my Mum's got the basic TomTom model and I've been borrowing that here and there and it serves my needs pretty well! Ali got the TomTom XL and that was pretty cool, but again there's a lot of stuff on there I don't think I really need, so I'd rather spend less and get something sufficient rather than excessive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinJI Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 I've got the most basic wide screen garmin, seems to work really well. Only thing I've found that's not ideal on it is that the countdowns to junctions and similar aren't as clear as on tomtom's, but mine spends 98% of it's life muted anyway, so all's good. I borrowed one from work a while ago that was the same but not widescreen though, and I'd say it's worth the small amount of extra cash for a widescreen one, they're just much nicer to use, clearer to read and easier to navigate. Overall I prefer the garmins, they seem slightly more reliable, easier to navigate, and pretty spot on with their directions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Cool, thanks! Saw this on Amazon for £notmuch, although it looks a little too rudimentary. I quite like how easy to use TomToms are, just in terms of finding stuff, so as long as Garmins have the same style of menus and navigation then that's a tempter. Not really fussed about the fancy pictures and graphics you get on the more modern TomToms, so if they're more basic in that sense then that's not a problem. EDIT: My Mum's got an older non-widescreen Tomtom and I'm used to the ratio/width of that so I don't know if I'd really need widescreen that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jolfa Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 I've tried Tomtom, Garmin, and now have a Medion. The Garmin was ok-ish until I got to France when it was pretty much useless, it knew where we were going but had no idea how to get there.. The Medion can't even do this country it's completely hopeless, if you go wrong/can't go down the road it wants you to, it won't calculate a new route it just tells you to U-turn for the next 100 or so miles until it loses signal and you switch it off and on again (and again and again until it finds some signal). Get a Tomtom, they're the only ones that actually work like you want them to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Cool, maybe I'll stick with a TomTom then. Probably gonna go for this one: Link! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-Stop Junkie Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Never used a standalone unit, but Tom-Tom is definately easy to use, and quite happy to take your money for extras like speed cameras which are useful if you update on a semi-regular basis. I use the TomTom smartphone version which can pull live traffic info off the data network for nowt and is very handy! Posher standalone units can get traffic info off the RDS network and costs nothing extra. Traffic updates are genuinely useful for avoiding and routing round the worst accidents. It's also easy to update for Europe/US/whatever map you need additionally. Garmin are more popular in the US. Stick to one of those two brands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quick_spider Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 If you're feeling skint after xmas, total pda are worth a look as they do refurbished ones: http://www.totalpda.co.uk/refurbished-tomtom Jon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark W Posted January 2, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Cool, cheers dude! I'll have a squint around now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simpson Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 Brought my ex a standard tomtom one for her birthday, was great picked up signal a lot quicker than my dads more expensive (but older) unit, also depends on your dash, the tomtom one fitted neatly inside my rev counter and sat there nicely no matter how many G's you tryed to pull arround a corner. My Dad also got some industrial velcro he "borrowed" from work, which ment that whenever we got a new car it could easily be mounted anywhere on the dash. (I'm not a fan of the windscreen sticky thing because I just found it gave me a too big blind spot no matter where I put it!) So yea nother thumbs up for the tomtom one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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