Car Hire and Sat Nav

[Jez123]

Our travel agent suggested we ditched the 'included' car hire in our package for which we had to pay extra for insurance and went for a separate package with another hire company (alamo) which included insurance and worked out about £20 cheaper. However, to include Sat Nav was about extra 150 GBP(estimate *** I cant remember full cost!). I have seen reports on here of people booking sat nav for around 80 USD. Anyone have any advice on this and whether I can do this when we pick up car.

 

[wayneg]

Price up a car thru these agents, all used by DISboarders. Compare to your quotes you have from TA.

http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/
http://www.uscarhire.co.uk/
http://www.netflights.com/carhire/
http://www.carhire3000.com/Home.do?c...a&city=Orlando
http://www.carhireflorida.net/
http://www.virginatlantictravelplus.com/DefaultCar.aspx
http://www.alamo.co.uk/Hotdeals/740/uk/aluk_discount_usa

For Sat Nav, renting is the most expensive way to go, costs about same to rent for 2 weeks as it does to buy a unit. You can buy in Walmart on arrival for about $100 (TomTom) or watch out on Ebay just done a Very fast search and found this £90 delivered, if you don't want it after your hol sell again you will more or less get your money back.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TomTom-GO-910...tems?hash=item2c50fe41e7&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[Jez123]

Wow ... thanks for the idea of buying a SAT NAV for usa ... I hadnt even considered that as an option. I will look into it.

 

[wayneg]

This is the one Walmart sell instore for about $100, on their site at $98 today.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10670232

I have a HP PDA I bought off Ebay with Bluetooth GPS and US maps, It was badly described but I knew exactly what I was buying, almost new, came with US plug which helped to keep price low, cost me about £30 for a unit worth about £200.

 

[bigbear]

Hi. We have a Garmin Satnav and can download the US maps from their website. Would we need anything else to use it in a hire car in the US? Are the lighter points you plug into the same? We have been to Florida before and had a hire car but no Satnav, to be honest it would have been really helpful so we are hoping to take our own next time. All help appreciated

 

[wayneg]

Would we need anything else to use it in a hire car in the US? Are the lighter points you plug into the same?

No experience with Garmin but I guess its same as TomTom on my PDA, just switch maps to US, lighter sockets are exactly the same, basic cars are like here just one socket, some of bigger cars have more.

 

[bigbear]

Thank you, that's really helpful

 

[bigbear]

P.S Just noticed your location, we live near Dewsbury!!!

 

[wayneg]

P.S Just noticed your location, we live near Dewsbury!!!

Where abouts? I am in Thornhill

 

[bigbear]

Where abouts? I am in Thornhill

Liversedge, so not too far away!

 

[Cyrano]

We have a TomTom 520 which I downloaded Southeast USA maps to so that we have UK, Europe and Florida all on one disc. As others will state it was a godsend to take away all the stress.
Being the anorak that I am I also downloaded lots of POI (points of interest). So we had all the WDW parks and hotels, Universal, Seaworld and lots of restaurants.

As I have just upgraded to a TomTom 730 I will be doing this all again for next years trip

 

[wayneg]

Liversedge, so not too far away!

My Uncle used to live in Milton Gardens, now on Thornleigh Drive.
You also have a lot of caches hidden around Heckmondwike area, did this one recently, just off Cornmill lane. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=fdb85f35-10a8-4250-a1e1-a4fcc3934f7a

 

[bigbear]

My Uncle used to live in Milton Gardens, now on Thornleigh Drive.
You also have a lot of caches hidden around Heckmondwike area, did this one recently, just off Cornmill lane. http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=fdb85f35-10a8-4250-a1e1-a4fcc3934f7a

Well, I have to admit, this is something I have never heard of before. Had to look it up on internet!!

 

[ScotScroogeMcDuck]

Can I ask a really daft question - do all UK sat navs work in america?

 

[suzybear6]

We've got a Tom Tom One with UK and Europe preloaded on it.

Has anyone tried to download US maps to this model? My brother thought that the memory wouldn't be big enough to cope with all the maps and that we might have to "overwrite" the maps we have on it now to get the US ones one there (saving them somewhere else first though).

Anyone done it on a Tom Tom One?

Luv Suzy

 

[wayneg]

Can I ask a really daft question - do all UK sat navs work in america?

What is it you have? Garmin and Tom Tom you can buy US maps for. It needs to either be able to connect to internet to download maps or have a memory card slot to load a different map on.
If you post what you have then someone might be able to help.

 

[buzz for boys]

We've got a Tom Tom One with UK and Europe preloaded on it.

Has anyone tried to download US maps to this model? My brother thought that the memory wouldn't be big enough to cope with all the maps and that we might have to "overwrite" the maps we have on it now to get the US ones one there (saving them somewhere else first though).

Anyone done it on a Tom Tom One?

Luv Suzy

we had to download ours on to a memory card - does your tom tom have a memeory card slot ???
If not i believe you do need to save the existing file onto your pc eg ; europe maps and then delete them off the tom tom!! add the usa maps and then revers the procedure when you return home or when you need the europe maps. When you plug your tom tom into your pc it will tell you available memory you have left but I doubt you will have enough to store all 3 maps on the tom tom

 

[Pegasus928]

We have a Garmin sat nav that has maps for Europe, Middle East and America.
We never have to do anything with it with regards to the maps. When we switch the unit on it looks for the satelites and automatically loads the correct maps.
Someone also asked about the power sockets (cigarette lighters) and they are the same over there as they are here.
The other thing we do when we arrive is to change the 'locale' of the voice so it speaks to us with an American twang. Sad, I know, but it is just another little thing we do that says 'We are here'

 

[Cyrano]

We've got a Tom Tom One with UK and Europe preloaded on it.

Has anyone tried to download US maps to this model? My brother thought that the memory wouldn't be big enough to cope with all the maps and that we might have to "overwrite" the maps we have on it now to get the US ones one there (saving them somewhere else first though).

Anyone done it on a Tom Tom One?

Luv Suzy

For our 520 I bought a 2gb SD memory card. Then copied the UK and Europe maps from the exisiting card. You are able to do this as the licence allows you to use the maps on the exisiting tomtom, but on a different card.
Then I downloaded the USA map onto the 2Gb card. This then became the main card that was used in the satnav

 

[bigbear]

We have a Garmin sat nav that has maps for Europe, Middle East and America.
We never have to do anything with it with regards to the maps. When we switch the unit on it looks for the satelites and automatically loads the correct maps.
Someone also asked about the power sockets (cigarette lighters) and they are the same over there as they are here.
The other thing we do when we arrive is to change the 'locale' of the voice so it speaks to us with an American twang. Sad, I know, but it is just another little thing we do that says 'We are here'

Not as sad as us, our kids have set ours up to speak with an Australian accent and they call it 'Bruce'. I'm sure they'll use the American one in Florida though