best sat nav ?

Advice on good sat nav medium price range for use home and in europe cheers malc125

We have Navman Tourer which includes maps for all Europe. Occasionally it tries to take us down impossibly narrow roads, so we always have a map book handy just in case we don't like the sound of the next turn. It came from Halfords and there have been several software updates, the last of which may have been faulty, as the instructions are now a little odd. Carrying straight on it now describes as "Exit" and sometimes the word continue is added. Turning off a motorway is a U-turn...

Those quirks apart, it's a pretty good tool and takes us right to the spot if we enter the co-ordinates of our next destination. We visited Segovia last week and the camp site web site listed the co-ordinates of the centre of the old city. This has narrow medieval streets, an incomprehensible one-way system, overhanging buildings and a weight limit we broke. A nice traffic warden helped us out in the right direction and didn't book us!

It allows us to avoid toll roads if that is possible (but watch the alternates closely). It allows us to avoid unsurfaced roads (which may be important in Portugal where we head next).

We no longer buy lots of maps, just one book for all of Europe.
It also learns from our driving record how fast we may travel on different types of road - poorly, but at least it tries, no doubt being confused by our own variations (driving and looking vs hell-bent for the next destination).

You can have fun choosing different voices. There are voices for about every Euro language (not much use to us), plus Oz and American. The Oz pronunciation of some English place names is a hoot! We're back to good old fashioned BBC English, it less distracting and it's not too practical to dissolve in laughter at 60mph...

What's really helpful is that it continuously updates DTG (distance to go -useful for "do we need to fill up yet?") and ETA (estimated time of arrival - "can we afford an interesting looking diversion?").

Occasionally it gets lost (presumably looses the GPS signal and puts us in the middle of a field -electronically of course).

Hi there,

Tried Navman about seven years ago then moved on to a Garmin Nuevo.

Happy with both of them but changed as the Navman couldn't be modified when we went to USA on holiday.

Have had the Garmin since September 2009. Came with Europe, inserted USA with a micro-SD card (which was removed when we returned) and updated the Europe section for about £50 last week ready for this summer.

We use the Garmin on the pushbike as well as the MH and the battery lasts for about 2hrs without a re-charge. (Obviously, cycling at 12mph we note the next two or three turns and switch it off so that it lasts the day!) Can recommend.

Best regards,

Started with a Navman - maps and instructions good, unit replaced twice faulty inside 12 months so got binned when it failed again out of warranty
Moved onto a Garmin Nuvi - well made product, good support, downgraded to car when we bought a S2000 Snooper Ventura for the van (ability to put in vehicle size weights etc, included ACSI/Bord Sites very good support from manufacturer who happens to be not too far from us (its not the current CC branded software, we seem to have more info in ours)

Car changed and Nuvi now redundant as car is equipped with its own (Sony?) Ford branded unit which I think is super, quick in operation and to set, agrees with me on the best route so I dont have any arguments with it. Not sure how to update it yet, instructions a little sparce.

Suppose the Nuvi is up for sale.

Hi Malcom125,
I used to have a Tom tom I used on my motorbike for touring but it failed quite a bit and had to jiggle a bit of wire in the reset hole to re-boot it, a bit annoying and a worry it might not work at all. I changed this for a Garmin and have found it very reliable (i obviously use it in the van now)
you can plan a trip on your computer, software is supplied, and then transfer it your sat nav. Also on their web page you can download all sorts of P.O.I,s including camp sites in Britain and Europe. I used it to go to Croatia and it guided me to the gates of all the camp sites, Brilliant.

You don't, say what your requirements are so this might be of interest you

http://www.capitalstores.co.uk/caravanclub

Good luck

"H"

PS

Forgot to mention that on the Nuvi I have also downloaded all the CC sites, including the CL's.

If I touch the screen near where I am heading the screen will give me the four nearest CL's and the telephone numbers to ring. It's been a great help on the move in the UK.

Best regards,

Ian

Just seen an advert for Sainsbury's. Up to half price off sat nav's

"H"

Thanks to all of you for replies on sat nav given me a few
thoughts for later in year at birthday time Keep you posted.

once again thanks to all [ps this reply may appear twice as i don`t seem very good on aspects of site