Tell me about Sat Nav

[Logical Improvement]

Listen, I'm an old fart, I believe in Maps and knowing where you are going before you set off, but last summer in France we happened to have a C6 rental car (It was an upgrade). It had brilliant sat nav.


Anyway, wifey, would like sat nav for Christmas, and I've done a little research and quite frankly they don't take me the way I'd go.

I'll Give you 2 post codes.

L37 (Formby where I live ) and TF4 (Telford where I work)

Now. If you go on Google maps It takes you across to the M58, down the M6 and along the A5. Even the way it takes you to the M58 is wrong.

Anyway, I don't go that way. I go into Liverpool, through the Tunnel, Down the M53, along the A55, Down the A41, Down some B Road through a Village called Hodnet, Down another A road and I'm there. This is 35 miles shorter, and 25 minutes quicker.

So I'm asking the sales man in HellFrauds, Maplin, Comet, and Argos, and they say "Oh put the shortest route then" - Er that takes me into Birkenhead, and not along the M53.

If I was on Google maps I'd drag the route to the road I fancied and let it recalculate, I'd drag a few times and then when I was happy I'd print off that route. I'd stick the pages in my 5 year old map book, just in case I need to take a detour.

If I bought the wife the cheapest £59 sat nav, http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_72 8857_langId_-1_categoryId_165685 she'd be happy, but I'd hate it. And yet none of the sales men could tell me that even a £900 http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_73 4351_langId_-1_categoryId_165685 one would work in the way I plan my routes. On some you can put via points in, so that would be the best way, but none of the shops could actually demonstrate them as they hadn't the foresight to fit an antena to the outside of the shop, and if the satnav can't see the satalite they don't work.

So Here's the question. Any reccommmmendations ?

[Ben]

I have a tomtom 720 and cant fault it in the slightest it directs me faultlessly around a europe and has never let me down.

[Fester]

IME they all use the same chipsets and buy the maps in so the only difference is user interface and how they calculate the routes.

Expect everyone to recommend the one they have! I'm on my second Navman which has done Le Mans and back no prob.

I'd probably just go with whichever has the most maps on and the latest version of said maps.

[Southie]

I use a Tom Tom go but I don't travel far very often but when I do it's got me as far as Devon and back so it must be okay.

With regards to the routes your use to, well if you know certain routes you can still travel them as you normally would or take roads you know, but once your out of your limitations then the sat nav will re route and lead you on your way.

Hope this helps.

[Jon_nova1]

I've got the tomtom1, had it for about 4 years, can't fault it, its taken lots of abuse.

you can change options so it goes via shortest/quickest/avoid tollroads etc routes

you can follow the usual route and the satnav will re-route you along the way

[auzzy2000]

you dont need sat nav if you know where you are going.lol.and as above tom tom is great.

[Logical Improvement]

I have a tomtom 720 and cant fault it in the slightest it directs me faultlessly around a europe and has never let me down.

But do I have to give up all my travel 'experience'. I have no doubt that they all will get me where I want to go, but I have experience of being in my Boss's X5 coming back to Merseyside from Melton Mowbray and it took us via Nottingham. When i looked at the Map afterwards I knew we'd wasted an hour of our lives. I'm not saying I know better, but quite frankly I'd like my brain to be able to compliment the Sat Nav rather than switch off my brain.

[Jon_nova1]

not at all, the satnav will set its route, if you follow what you know, say the satnav tells you to come off at the next junction, and you know coming of two junctions down is quicker, do that, and the satnav will change its route to compensate ;)

[Logical Improvement]

you dont need sat nav if you know where you are going.lol.and as above tom tom is great.

Indeed, hence using in the Alps was great, even with a Map.

It's for my wife. If she decides to visit me one evening in Telford, and just does what the sat nav says, then I'll have lost £10 in Fuel doing the extra 70 miles. If it was just for me, I'd just use it to see how long it takes to start agreeing with me lol

[Ben]

I am an extemly good map reader and for years said id rather maps but the roads out here are in a different league, i dont tend to use mine very foten at all but when i do its there.

And as said if you know the way dont use it

[brainsnova]

i do the drive and read map on route at the lights and prefer the quick thinking that is needed rather than using a sat nav.

[Nova_Tek]

I use the Nokia 6110 navigator in the UK for places that I haven't been before. It's been perfect and I have never been lost whenever I have used it (only about 4 times tbh) It has successfully recalculated any wrong turns I have taken or made in order to buy fuel lol

Can't fault it really.

[Mike]

Listen, I'm an old fart, I believe in Maps and knowing where you are going before you set off,?

Hear you on that bit (well, not the old fart bit lol)

You work in Telford & live in er whereevers ville?

BTW, Satnavs ALWAYS send you the route of the main roads, its just how they work, use the main roads to chorograph its route & basically plot it around said road ways. Its to stop B roads becoming gridlock every morning I reckon.

[Ben]

BTW, Satnavs ALWAYS send you the route of the main roads, its just how they work, use the main roads to chorograph its route & basically plot it around said road ways. Its to stop B roads becoming gridlock every morning I reckon.

That is very incorrect, have seen quite a few news reports/programs that have been about tiny little villages on back roads which have been ravaged with 40 ton trucks cutting through due to the sat nav sending them that way.

Also find it quite often myself, when i go to my mums house in west wales it sends me via the heads of the valleys road whereas in reality straight down the M4 is much quicker in reality.

[mowgli]

I have been driving hgv's on and off since 1995. I was brought up on roadmaps, and once got to a friends house via instructions on a beermat, and he lived in dusseldorf........

recently, I did a fortnights lorry driving as a favour to a relative, & it was equiped with satnav...... now. I know my way about the country, so I can get to a lot of places without a roadmap, but the last couple of miles is always tricky, so I was printing google maps off for the local area of the del addresses. then I tried testing the satnav out.... it was spot on for the last couple of miles, but it was obsessed with sending me up ridiculous motorway routes!

we also once tried a satnav versus local knowledge thing with trying to work out the best route to drive from our yard to a building site on the other side of the county... the satnav had it at 45 miles, google at 35 miles, we measured it on the road at 22 miles.

they are ok, as an additional source of info, but i'd never rely on one.

someone pointed out that they used one to get to leMans & back.. in '91 i did it via leHavre & had never driven in france before.. I pulled out the docks & followed the roadsigns to leMans & never needed a map once

[Welsh Dan]

My TomTom always tries to keep me on the motorways for as long as possible, but does occasionally get confused. Its never failed to get me anywhere though, which is their true purpose. If I'm going somewhere new I tend to write down a list of towns/road numbers/junction numbers incase all else fails, and mainly rely on the satnav for its knowledge of speed traps.

[Stuart]

gutnav (aka gut instinct not food hunting lol) and a £3 road atlas FTW!!

I got to Kevs old house by simply finding an old email with the builders plot layout for a house he had just purchased, and simply aiming the car ar norf whales.... got there with no dramas at all!

I see lots of the same cars daily on my commute with gashnav on just aiming them up the same road they drive day in day out.

My pet peeve is that they all use the same "argh im stuck bypass the mess" algorhythm, meaning everyone diverts the same way... so a road atlas gets you round that ;)

[draper]

gutnav (aka gut instinct not food hunting lol) and a £3 road atlas FTW!!



+1 - i have a pretty good sense of direction anyway

i use the satnav when im local to my destination just to find the actual street (saves having to phone the person and give them street names, then phone back 10mins later when your lost again etc lol)

i also buy a local A-Z if i could be travelling back there at any point

[Logical Improvement]

Hear you on that bit (well, not the old fart bit lol)

You work in Telford & live in er whereevers ville?

BTW, Satnavs ALWAYS send you the route of the main roads, its just how they work, use the main roads to chorograph its route & basically plot it around said road ways. Its to stop B roads becoming gridlock every morning I reckon.

I'm working in Telford, am renting 4 nights a week in Shrewsbury and live in Formby (Merseyside), where I have a wife, 2 kids, a dog, a cat, and a Mortage. I work as an engineering contractor, so the next job could be anywhere when this ends. (whenever that might be, could be Christmas 2009, could be Christmas 2010)

This is me : http://uk.linkedin.com/in/logicalimprovementprojects

[Plug]

I use a Tom Tom go but I don't travel far very often but when I do it's got me as far as Devon and back so it must be okay.

With regards to the routes your use to, well if you know certain routes you can still travel them as you normally would or take roads you know, but once your out of your limitations then the sat nav will re route and lead you on your way.

Hope this helps.

and you didnt pop in for a cuppa :confused:

lol i say tom tom but as already said thats all ive used

[Mike]

That is very incorrect, have seen quite a few news reports/programs that have been about tiny little villages on back roads which have been ravaged with 40 ton trucks cutting through due to the sat nav sending them that way.

Also find it quite often myself, when i go to my mums house in west wales it sends me via the heads of the valleys road whereas in reality straight down the M4 is much quicker in reality.

Hmm, i dunno then? My Tom Tom does just what i said, along with my mates ones, an everyone elses i know off lol

Only reason i use a satnav is i work in so many places at once, an need to be in said places the day before yesterday its simply easier then reading a map, whilst driving, whilst organising jobs & labour over the phone all at once lol

[bmw156]

i have a tom tom XL europe and it has never let me down

if you know the route, as you drive it the sat nav changes for you and recalculates it.

why does it all matter anyway, as your missus will be using it no? lol

[Logical Improvement]

Just Purchased a secondhand Tom Tom go 910 off a mate for £60, with European and North American Maps included. Cost him £445 in 2006 (he gave me the reciept)

Used it to drive home on Friday and set a couple of via points and It took me more or less the 'right' way

[Ste L]

I got a TomTomOne, and TomTom for the iPhone :)

[Lee]

A collegue of mine has one of the latest Tom Tom's which gets real time traffic updates. It gets info from a sattelite which looks at the amount of mobile phones on your route. If a load of phones start bunching up, it knows there is congestion, and calculates a bypass or lets you know an approximate delay time. Fapping clever stuff!

The only thing I dont like about sat nav is I no longer pay attention to where im going. I could drive the same route all week by sat nav, and if I tried to do it again without it, I would fail hopelessly, whereas if I was navigating by signposts and landmarks, id probably remember it after only 2 goes.

[dhdev (Oli)]

Stick to the maps!!!
My mate bought a Navman which used to tell us to turn around and get on the motorway even though we were at our destination and the Navman was showing us as there :confused:
I went on a road trip to the 'ring earlier this year and my mate was driving in a brand new Toureg, followed the sat nav despite me telling him otherwise (he said I was drunk, which was true) ended up in the middle of London on a Friday afternoon :roll: route was Midlands to Dover lol Even filled to my eyes with Stella I knew that was wrong PMSL.
Used a Satnav on a works trip to Holland and it would continually tell us to pull off the motorway and re-join. In the end I got sick of my colleague listening to the damn thing and insisted that I drove (sans map) and made it the rest of the way without a wrong turn.

Maps FTW

[dhdev (Oli)]

It gets info from a sattelite which looks at the amount of mobile phones on your route. If a load of phones start bunching up, it knows there is congestion

You're screwed if you're following a Vodafone lorry lol