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14/05/2008, 10:35 Nickel Joined on 02/10/2007 Lot Posts 163 Sat Nav Apologies if this has been done before - I am looking to buy GPS for the car about 250 euros. Have read many reviews on Tom Tom Garmin Navman etc - and they all seem pretty much the same - would be grateful for any advise to help me reach a decision. Thanks It's not dark yet ......but it's getting there.    Report

14/05/2008, 11:48 Dick Smith Joined on 23/08/2004 Surrey and Manche (Pays Mortainais) Posts 8,731 Re: Sat Nav I've got a Garmin Nuvi something or other. It was the Which? best buy, and very good it is too. Regards Dick Smith Nowhere is there warmth to be found Among those afraid of losing their ground    Report

14/05/2008, 11:55 Chezstevens Joined on 26/03/2006 79 Near Chef Boutonne Posts 318 Re: Sat Nav We have the following Garmins: 2610 - discontinued but excellent BMW Nav III - Garmin 2720 for motorbikes.  Excellent. Our new acquisition is a Nuvi 760.  Delighted with, lots of useful bells and whistles pse see Garmin site, however the only downside is that you used to get the mapsource cd with the unit which then allowed you to update your other units with the new mapping - this is no longer the case. After jet noise, a horizontal twin is the sound of freedom    Report

14/05/2008, 12:05 Bob T Joined on 05/10/2006 Dordogne Posts 909 Re: Sat Nav I also have 3. A garmin streetpilot3 for the bike (old and slow), a Garmin 296 for the aircraft (fantastic and expensive) and a Mitac Mio in the car. The Mitac is a much better GPS for road use than the Garmins, is easier to use and much quicker. Have a look at www.cdiscount.com and you will find that you only need to spend about half your budget to get a good Europe wide GPS. Bob T 24 http://bikesindordogne.blogspot.com/    Report

14/05/2008, 12:06 Nell Joined on 14/08/2007 24 Posts 73 Re: Sat Nav I have no complaints with my best friend "Tom"    Report

14/05/2008, 12:17 Pierre ZFP Joined on 12/11/2004 PdC(62)/Luxembourg Posts 1,649 Re: Sat Nav They all do much the same job and all the data is taken from one of only 2 sources anyway.  I have a Navman and why I like it is because of the way it gives directions e.g 'In 500 metres, turn right' Some of the others (including I think Tom Tom) say things like 'TURN RIGHT.... in 500 metres' A small point I know but it suits me. I wouldn't have a Tom Tom just because of the irritating adverts on TV- Fool me once, shame on you Fool me twice, shame on me Fool me 3 times and you can see a statistical tendency    Report

14/05/2008, 12:27 nectarine Joined on 02/08/2007 London & Lot-et-Garonne Posts 179 Re: Sat Nav We have a Garmin Nuvi (Halford's special) and it suits us fine, navigates just right and doens't have too much choice of functions to confuse you.  Just an easy choice of display, choice of miles/kms, and a choice of quickest route or shortest route.  It took us from Calais to Chateauroux via the centre of Paris ... as I was entering Paris I thought, oh heck where on earth is the Garmin taking me? - but it found a direct route through housing estates and minor roads and cut off about half an hour from the usual route.  The only problem is that somewhere in Periguex it always tells me to turn right, quite insistently, into a row of shopfronts!  Other than that, it suits us just fine. If you look like your passport picture, then you probably need the holiday.    Report

14/05/2008, 12:49 Keith CHANNING Joined on 22/11/2007 northern Puy-de-Dôme Posts 52 Re: Sat Nav They are all fine provided you remember one thing. The SatNav is your servant, NOT your master. You don't absolutely have to follow the road it says, particularly if the suggested road looks narrow and twisty and you have a large vehicle. They all suggest shortcuts to cut corners, or take you through the middle of a city when the ring road is a more sensible approach. Even those that allow you to choose between shortest, fastest, cheapest etc don't allow you to choose the most sensible. Like most things connected with IT, they are brilliant if used with a sprinkling of common sense. I wouldn't be without mine, but I am still in control. If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. - Carl Sagan http://www.beaugut.com    Report

14/05/2008, 13:32 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,489 Re: Sat Nav I borrowed my daughters Tom Tom to get to a funeral and found it REALLY wanted me to use the M4, M25, M1 option - in rush hour I still would want a map with me at all time (how old fashioned is that ? ) Also although I arrived at my destination, it kept wanting me to go back there, even when it I had pressed the home option, I guess that was user error, my daughter swears by it and didn't like Garmin, which she used in Australia. www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

14/05/2008, 13:51 ErnieY Joined on 05/12/2006 Nr Prayssac (Lot) Posts 2,945 Re: Sat Nav  Keith CHANNING wrote: They are all fine provided you remember one thing. The SatNav is your servant, NOT your master Wise words indeed. Remember the story recently of the UK coach driver who got off the ferry and told his Sat Nav to go to Lille. Unfortunately he wanted Lille France but ended up in Lille Belgium. You'd think it would be pretty hard for a professional driver to make such a brainless mistake but many have done similar. I have a Garmin Nuvi 360 and it's been great but like many other things, if it's your first one, then sometimes there are facilities or functions which you didn't know that you needed until you found you hadn't got them. For me with the Garmin that missing function is multiple waypoints. The Garmin only allows 1 which means, other than reprogramming en route, you can only journey from A to C via B not A to G via B, C, D, E & F. Practical example: Cahors to Calais. The Garmin will only allow you to tell it that you want to go via Rouen say in which case it will take you all the way to Paris and then turn you left to Rouen whereas what you wanted to do was come off at Orleans then go Chartres - Dreux - Evreux etc. etc. If you could enter those as way waypoints in the first place it would take you that way without further intervention. As it is now when planning a journey I have to first find all the places I know I want to go through and put them in as favourites then, when I get to point C tell it to go to point E via point D and so on. I've learnt to live with it but if I were replacing it with another then multiple waypoints would definately be top on my list of must have facilities. Personally I have no need of Bluetooth or media players etc. they are a pointless distraction from what a Sat Nav is supposed to do but then it's the same for me with mobile phones, all I ask of them is to be able to make or receive phone calls ! One final thing, and I don't know what the answer is to this one nor is it exclusively a Garmin issue, because of the system of departments in France when you enter a destination you are frequently presented with a choice of identically named communes with a department number, great if you know where you're going, if not it's out with the map  My doctor said one drink per day, I can live with that !    Report

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France Forum » Living » Driving » Sat Nav

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