Car Hire and Sat Nav

[suzybear6]

Just checked with DP......no SD memory card in ours and he too thinks there won't be enough memory to cope with adding extra maps to it, so we'll have to save our Europe maps on our computer and then over-write with the US maps

How much do hire car companies charge to hire a Sat Nav with the car in Florida?

As for being sad, well we're Dr Who fans in our house so we've got Dalek Tom's voice giving us instructions!

Luv Suzy

 

[Cyrano]

Just checked with DP......no SD memory card in ours and he too thinks there won't be enough memory to cope with adding extra maps to it, so we'll have to save our Europe maps on our computer and then over-write with the US maps

If you connect to TomTom Home you should be able to see if the US map can be downloaded. Then you can backup before replacing the maps

 

[wayneg]

How much do hire car companies charge to hire a Sat Nav with the car in Florida?

They vary but Budgets costs are here.
(GPS): 11.95USD per day, 59.95USD per week, 100.00USD max. charge
Approx £65.(+ tax probably)
As I said for that price you can buy at Walmart, buy off ebay and re-sell for a lot less or download a map for less.

 

[wayneg]

We have ours set to The Queen. She says " One has reached ones destination"

 

[suzybear6]

I've had a quick look at Tom Tom home and it looks like we can buy a SE USA map for around £35. Now I've just got to work out if it's worth the bother compared to just hiring a Sat Nav with the hire car

Luv Suzy

 

[suzybear6]

Thanks for the info Wayneg

Might have a look at Ebay to see what the prices are like.

Guess we were really lucky last year when we hired a car in France that had a built in Sat Nav so didn't have to actually pay any extra for it. Maire Claire (as we named her ) was the reason we went out and bought our own Sat Nav - I enjoyed being able to look at the scenery as we drove along rather than having my nose in a map the whole time

Luv Suzy

 

[Shazzie B]

Suzybear6; We have a TomTom 1 without a memory card too. We were able to load South West USA maps OK (and didn't need to delete UK & Europe). We've not had our Tom Tom long, but the TomTom site guides you through it OK; unless you've got loads of other stuff loaded you should be OK.

We also have Homer's voice loaded!!

 

[suzybear6]

Ohh thank you Shazzie... that's what I like to hear

It will be so much easier & cheaper if we can just download the SE US maps wihtout having to delete our UK & Europe maps

Luv Suzy

 

[bazzanoid]

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.

Speaking as a Garmin owner - You don't even need to switch maps, as long as they're installed on the system or SD card (recommended, you won't fit Florida on the internal memory - you can choose where to install them to in the CityNavigator software) it will just start working out there.

Word of warning though; take a paper map of the route from the airport to your hotel/villa/wherever as it can take up to 20 minutes for the unit to 'find' itself, it may ask you a couple of questions, including "Are you indoors?" and "Have you moved hundreds of miles since last turn on?" in the process.

Last time we went we stopped off at the first gas station we could find as we were thirsty after the flight (and won't pay airport prices lol), left the satnav on (but hidden) and by the time we came out and finished our drinks it was happily telling me exactly where i was.

 

[wayneg]

Speaking as a Garmin owner - You don't even need to switch maps, as long as they're installed on the system or SD card (recommended, you won't fit Florida on the internal memory - you can choose where to install them to in the CityNavigator software) it will just start working out there.

Word of warning though; take a paper map of the route from the airport to your hotel/villa/wherever as it can take up to 20 minutes for the unit to 'find' itself, it may ask you a couple of questions, including "Are you indoors?" and "Have you moved hundreds of miles since last turn on?" in the process.

Last time we went we stopped off at the first gas station we could find as we were thirsty after the flight (and won't pay airport prices lol), left the satnav on (but hidden) and by the time we came out and finished our drinks it was happily telling me exactly where i was.

20 mins is crazy, its only 20-25 mins to hotels. My PDA with TomTom software is active as soon as we leave the garage. Switching maps obviously cuts down the time it takes to process its location.
We have a Garmin etrex handheld GPS unit for Geocaching, that is same 15-20 mins to find new location when going transatlantic. I thought it was a fault with the unit but looks like its a Garmin problem.

 

[bazzanoid]

20 mins is crazy, its only 20-25 mins to hotels. My PDA with TomTom software is active as soon as we leave the garage. Switching maps obviously cuts down the time it takes to process its location.
We have a Garmin etrex handheld GPS unit for Geocaching, that is same 15-20 mins to find new location when going transatlantic. I thought it was a fault with the unit but looks like its a Garmin problem.

Oh yes it most definitely is - i think the trouble is that they store the last known location and are programmed to 'assume' they're in and around that area give or take a hundred miles (i.e. within the same country / area of country) - they seem to have difficulty grasping the concept of moving a long distance away.

One thing i found that helped a lot was turning the unit on and the GPS antenna off, then browsing manually to orlando airport, and setting it as your current location. THEN turn the GPS back on, it generally finds itself within a couple of minutes.

 

[igk]

I like the idea of buying one in Wal Mart, I hadn't thought of that. The only problem would be finding your way to Wal Mart in the first place

 

[bazzanoid]

I like the idea of buying one in Wal Mart, I hadn't thought of that. The only problem would be finding your way to Wal Mart in the first place

There's one like you in every forum*


*perfectly valid point tho

 

[CousinB]

Hi Jez123, In May this year I hired a TomTom1 on line from www.cheapsatnavhire.co.uk

It arrived by 1st class post the day before we left for Orlando and I returned it the day we got back post paid. It had USA maps, worked perfectly and cost £30 for 2 weeks hire.

 

[suzybear6]

Hi Jez123, In May this year I hired a TomTom1 on line from www.cheapsatnavhire.co.uk

It arrived by 1st class post the day before we left for Orlando and I returned it the day we got back post paid. It had USA maps, worked perfectly and cost £30 for 2 weeks hire.

Oh now that's an idea if we have trouble downloading the US maps to our TomTom

Thanks for the info

Luv Suzy

 

[Pegasus928]

Word of warning though; take a paper map of the route from the airport to your hotel/villa/wherever as it can take up to 20 minutes for the unit to 'find' itself, it may ask you a couple of questions, including "Are you indoors?" and "Have you moved hundreds of miles since last turn on?" in the process.

Last time we went we stopped off at the first gas station we could find as we were thirsty after the flight (and won't pay airport prices lol), left the satnav on (but hidden) and by the time we came out and finished our drinks it was happily telling me exactly where i was.

That does seem excessive. We have a Garmin and have never had to wait more than a couple of minutes - and we have used it in US, UK and the Middle East

 

[bazzanoid]

That does seem excessive. We have a Garmin and have never had to wait more than a couple of minutes - and we have used it in US, UK and the Middle East

Hmm maybe it's to do with the hardware of the GPS in certain models in that case.....