so... what satnav?

[Feek]

Originally Posted by Jasper

I thought the Garmin UI was a bit crappy - it seemed to have some cool features (known speed cameras), but what I've seen of it, the unit wasn't as robust. Having used a TomTom Go 300 since I knew about GPS, I wouldn't use anything else, and I wouldn't advise using anything else! which is what I said the other day - silly woman

It's six of one and half a dozen of the other really. I love the Garmin UI, to me it's naturally easy to use and very straightforward. I think the TomTom one sucks, things aren't where I'd naturally expect them to be and the display isn't any where near as customisable as the Garmin.

But the same thing goes - I've been using Garmin GPS units since 1997 so I'm very used to them.

I'm also not impressed by the map database that TomTom use, from what I've seen of friends units, it's generally about two years out of date which is much older than the Garmin one. I think that's partly why TomTom is so cheap, they use old maps which are cheaper for them to buy.

I do like the TomTom 3D display though which automatically zooms in and out depending on distance to travel (and speed?). I think that's a nice touch and although I know Garmin now do a 3D display, I've not seen it in operation to compare.

I've had Garmin GPS II, GPS IIplus, GPS III, GPS V, Streetpilot, Streetpilot III, eTrex and my current Streetpilot 2600. Ideally my next one would be a 2800 series but I can't justify the cost right now.

[jmc41]

I have the navman 530 or something similar. I love it as I'm absolutely useless and get lost all the time. It directed me around half of W.Sussex a while back when the police closed the A24 (as in the entire SE section of it apparently), directed us into the middle of the countryside, and it got me to where I needed to go with no problems after 5-6 hours on the road (~130miles) and at breaking point.

The only issue I have which is a general navman issue is that it came with 2004 maps (I got it just over a year ago?) and it costs about £100 to upgrade. Considering the entire thing cost about twice that it's a rip off.

It's not a major problem most of the time but in certain city centres such as Cov and Newcastle it directs me into walls. Generally pretty good at getting me where I want to go through. It also doesn't know a 5 mile stretch of the A1 exists around Leeds and kept telling me to find the nearest road, but I digress.

Only advise is I'd steer clear of anything less than 6 digit postcode matching as LE12 is rather a wide area compared to LE12GH (I made that up).

Oh yeah, and get one you can add POIs to, ie: cameras