Which Sat Nav?

[Lucio]

To be honest I'm quote happy with the TomTom One. Won one in the work Xmas raffle a couple of years back and it does the job. Think they're only £150 retail and the accuracy is fine.

Compared to the £100 NavMan one I bought (before I knew I'd won one! damnit), the TomTom wins hands down for useability.

[Saracen]

To be honest I'm quote happy with the TomTom One. Won one in the work Xmas raffle a couple of years back and it does the job. Think they're only £150 retail and the accuracy is fine.

I have a TomTom One too, and it's decent, especially for the price. But I also have a Garmin which, though a lot more expensive, knocks the spots off the One, in my view. And they're both sitting 18" away from me right now.

Parm, I've not used the Nuvi 7xx series, but the spec looks good. My current model was the top of the 6xx range of Nuvi's. I've seen that TomTom smart user routing scheme mentioned and it looks interesting in principle, but I must admit to also being a bit sceptical.

As for subscriptions, certainly with my Garmin, after the first year, map updates are based on an annual subscription. But if it keeps mapping data up to date, it's probably worth it. Some systems that have TrafficMaster (or whatever it's called) also charge a subscription. As far as I'm aware (and it's certainly true of mine) a lifetime subscription is included in the cost of the original Nuvi unit, and those with a T in the name have TrafficMaster.

I find TrafficMaster useful, but by no means faultless. It only seems to work on major routes, and even then, is a bit variable in terms of speed of updates. But essentially, if there are major holdups on the road ahead on your route, the SatNav gets an advance warning via FM radio reception (built-in, doesn't use car radio or anything), and the SatNav then offers you a route calculated to avoid the jam.

That option has got me out of major delays several times, and on one occasion, a colleague that was doing the same journey didn't have it and got caught and stuck on a stationary motorway for about three hours. I got to the client on time and he didn't. On that occasion, TM worked great. But it doesn't always seem to get the data.

To my mind, one thing to bear in mind with SatNav choice is what kind of motoring you're doing .... and how often. If it's occasional use, or largely local, perhaps things like TrafficMaster are of little or no use. For me, even saving that kind of hassle once or twice is worth having it.

My opinion is that the biggest single obvious difference between Garmin and TomTom (apart from physical design) is that TomTom seems to have more menu options. The Garmin interface is cleaner, and perhaps not quite as versatile, but I can't say I've ever found anything I needed that it doesn't have.

What would be nice, though, and my Garmin Nuvi doesn't have it, is PC-based advanced route planning. To be able to sit at home on the PC, plan and compare routes and then upload the desired routes would be nice. Maybe the newer Nuvi's do it, and certainly, some of the more expensive Garmins do, but then (last time I looked) those more expensive Garmins didn't have the compact, short-pocket deign of the Nuvi .... or as good a screen.

It's horses for courses, I guess, depending on usage. The more up-market Gsarmins certainly include higher levels of mapping data. But for my usage, the location of things like streams on my SatNav isn't needed. Maybe for some people it is.



It's also worth, in my opinion, keeping one eye on the core purpose of a SatNav and not getting too distracted by bells and whistles. TomTom and Garmin both put some advanced features in their higher-end models. For instance, I have a world clock, foreign language guide, travel guide, audio book and MP3 players, picture viewer, currency converter and so on. And I've never needed any of it.

Ultimately, I like the Garmins because :-

- top-class map data
- superb screen
- VERY easy to use
- many functions are context-sensitive, rather than arrays of menus.
- it just WORKS, and has never failed to get me there .... door to door.

In other words, it's done exactly what I wanted it to do, with minimum effort and minimum faffing about. It's just kinda unobtrusive in my travelling life.

[Parm]

I had to travel down to London toward the end of last week so the day before, I took the plunge. Ended up getting a TomTom 920T for £280.

So far so good, I'm liking the interface, the screen is clear and precise. The driving instructions are good and straight out of the box, it's very easy to setup and use. The packaging too was very smart - very Apple-esque.

I'm impressed with the device, and it seems a good purchase, but there's one thing I hate - the cabling and the mounting. I've not used it much so far, but when I have done I've stuck it in the top corner of the windscreen and I hate wiring it up when it runs out of battery. As standard, the TomTom only comes with a windscreen mount - those infernal things that leave rings on my otherwise sparkling windscreen.

So, what I need now is a better mounting solution. Here's the inside of my car:



Excuse my horrible scribbling, I had to use the trackpad on my laptop. The red circle (so-called) is where I'd like to put the TomTom. There's lots of space there, and it could easily be placed without obstructing the clock/audio display in the dash. The trouble is, the TomTom's ports are on its underside, so if I put it down on the dash, I can't connect any wires to it.

Also in the TomTom 920T bundle is one of these in USB form, for connecting to the PC:



The dock itself looks really smart and the TomTom fits very nicely. What I would really like is one of those with a car charger on the other end, instead of a USB cable. That way I could stick the dock to the dash and I think it'd look smart.

The other problem I have is where the charger cable has to go. The red arrow on the picture of my car's interior points to where the cigarette lighter is housed. Truly a horrible position, so I've got to have a wire running from there to the sat-nav.

Last but not least, the TomTom 920T comes with some sort of traffic cable. I haven't tried it yet cause it'll involve having the cable right up the windscreen. Don't think there's anyway to avoid that.

So to sum it all up, the TomTom itself seems great, but putting it nicely into a car is easier said than done. Spending the extra on a built-in Satnav might just have been worth it.

[hitman67]

Go into Motorworld mate.

Nuvi 710T - UK & Ire, Traffic Master, Bluetooth, FM Transmitter - £229.99
Nuvi 760T - As Above but Europe £269.99