Sat Nav Devices?

[SilentDeath]

having just spent two hours trying to find the local citylink depot, words can't contain just how much contempt i feel for this kind of moronic statement

two HOURS?

but then I do enjoy driving around looking for things.

It was in reply to:

and you've got lost after following multimaps crap directions, so...

meaning dont use lists of directions since it is equal to smearing your windscreen with peanut butter (or other equally smeary consumable item) before leaving.

As to "Do you really need it?" = "are you somone that drives places you dont know often?", rather than "noone needs sat nav", hence the '?'

[joshwa]

A friend is going to lend me his for the day yay!

As I'm currently trying to save money and don't travel random places too often I should be okay without one for the time being.

It seems like one of the cheapest ways of doing it is to get a compatible phone (free on contract?) and then get GPS reciever and software.

[directhex]

two HOURS?

"20 miles" each way, plus being-lost time. i wouldn't mind, but i arrived 15 minutes after they shut, by chance, after having given up & decided to try & find a less retarded way home than multimap suggested

(the problem here is the tomtom's off for repair, should get it back tomorrow)

i still have no idea why multimap would suggest miles of non-existent country roads rather than 5 miles down the a34

[directhex]

A friend is going to lend me his for the day yay!

As I'm currently trying to save money and don't travel random places too often I should be okay without one for the time being.

the traffic updates are the real time saver for me - i sometimes need to go through some real black spots, and it's nice to have it automatically calculate the fastest route with congestion taken into account

[SilentDeath]

"20 miles" each way, plus being-lost time. i wouldn't mind, but i arrived 15 minutes after they shut, by chance, after having given up & decided to try & find a less retarded way home than multimap suggested

(the problem here is the tomtom's off for repair, should get it back tomorrow)

i still have no idea why multimap would suggest miles of non-existent country roads rather than 5 miles down the a34

oh well... I still wouldnt listen to the directions on a sat nav, but I like the idea of a map with an X marked on it for destination, and a car marked on it for me, that would work...

Anyway I am quite bored, so I played around with some software I found and this was the result, clicky
I couldn't think of anything better to morph a jazz into

[Saracen]

oh well... I still wouldnt listen to the directions on a sat nav, but I like the idea of a map with an X marked on it for destination, and a car marked on it for me, that would work...

I find myself having to locate a client's site, often at night as much of the work I do has to be done out of hours. I'm in Durham one day, then the next job might be Cardiff, then Okehamption, then Canterbury, the Kings Lynn ..... or the King's Road.

Now, my sense of geography is half-decent, and I can find my way to Manchester or Brighton easily enough, but finding a specific address, in the middle of the night, is something else. And, on top of that, the clock is on and I'm charging for my time, so while I might be happy to spend my time at my standard hourly rate driving round some city looking for the client, the client is going to have a conniption fit if I charge him for my 'lost' time.

And, if I can't charge him for driving round the place, I'd MUCH rather be going straight from client to client, or after a long day, client to home, without the dubious pleasure of trying drive and read a map while knackered after a 14 hour day.

My SatNav has paid for itself easily, and that's just in the financial return without taking into account the reduction in stress factor from using it.

Does everybody need one? Nope.

Are they perfect? Nope. You do still need to engage brain.

But would I be without one now? Not a hope in hell.


As for what unit I use, initially, TomTom on a PDA. For the last few months, a Garmin 660T. I took some convincing, but I actually think it's better than the TomTom. It is not quite as configurable, but it certainly does everything I need, including realtime traffic updates, and it does it much more easily than TomTom and, my gut feeling having used both, is that the Garmin maps/mapping routines are better. I'd have trouble proving that, but I do believe it.

All told, each to his own. But just because TomTom is now probably the best known, don't write off other makes. Garmin still, in my view, hold their own .... and more.

Oh, Josh .... that 660T isn't a cheap model. It's the top of the Nuvi range, at about £400. But there are lower-featured models (such as without realtime traffic updates built-in), that are much cheaper. And the Nuvi has a VERY good screen. Much better, IMHO, than the TomTom 910.

[SilentDeath]

As to "Do you really need it?" = "are you somone that drives places you dont know often?", rather than "noone needs sat nav", hence the '?'

I miss something?

[dangel]

Are they perfect? Nope. You do still need to engage brain.

But would I be without one now? Not a hope in hell.

Well said. Sat nav is a tool for navigation (as is a paper map) but you shouldn't follow it blindly all the same.

[Howard]

I agree, it's a godsend if you don't want the hassle, pure and simple. It's dangerous, and probably illegal, to try following a map/crappy directions while driving. So having a little device with an interactive map voicing me directions is a fantastic invention.

They might not be cheap, but they are for the grief they save people.

Yes, you still have to look at the road, concentrate, and apply common sense, but that's a given

I use my PDA with a CF GPS adaptor hooked to an external antenna that I've mounted on my roof, so I get a signal virtually anywhere And it's awesome

[Butcher]

I have a TomTom One V1 and it's excellent, I really wouldn't want to drive anywhere I didn't know well without it. Speed camera database is nice too.

I had the traffic thing during the free month, but it cost a bucket load for the GPRS traffic (might be able to cut that by getting it added to my contract properly).

[dkmech]

Btw, this may be relevant for satnav hunters:

http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=98594

[kaillum]

personally I prefer the Snooper Indago to the Tom Tom...

Used both a Tom Tom One and my Snooper Indigo, and the Indigo just seems a little more refined..

But then again, at £400 for the Indago you'd expect that really!

[directhex]

note to self:

when multimap sends you through villages, it's because it's stupid

when tomtom sends you through villages, it's because there are major tailbacks on the a34

[Howard]

Sometimes I've found tomtom to act a little brain-dead, I've been sent down many a single-track dirt road barely wide enough for my car, when there's a perfectly good B-road that goes the same way. Must be something to do with a birds-eye view of the distance Still, it can be entertaining, the whole "oh crap, if there's a car coming the other way I'm stuffed" aspect

[autopilot]

Sometimes I've found tomtom to act a little brain-dead, I've been sent down many a single-track dirt road barely wide enough for my car, when there's a perfectly good B-road that goes the same way. Must be something to do with a birds-eye view of the distance Still, it can be entertaining, the whole "oh crap, if there's a car coming the other way I'm stuffed" aspect

The funniest yet was last year when TomTom tried to make me turn down a secure gated runway access road at John Lennon airport. Why that was on the map im not sure.

But after driving past it tomtom softed itself out and rerouted me down the right road. Thats the best thing about sat nav for me, if you take a wrong turn when using a multimap printout you are stuffed.

[Howard]

But after driving past it tomtom softed itself out and rerouted me down the right road. Thats the best thing about sat nav for me, if you take a wrong turn when using a multimap printout you are stuffed.

Too right!!

I had to drive to Milton Keynes on the way to Nottingham to pick up some Hifi equipment, and there was a route that I was directed that had a major road closure. Lucky for me, I just started driving in the other direction and tomtom quickly found me a route, else as you said if I'd have been reading directions I might still be there now!! Lol!