What Sat Nav?

[mikki.young]

I want to get a Sat Nav to use in the UK but also in the US. What would people reccomend? I see there are Garmin and TomTom ones but with mixed reviews.

Do any of these smartphone sat navs work well enough to be considered?

 

[Pegasus928]

We have a Garmin. We bought it when we lived in the middle east and it came loaded with maps for there, Uk and the US.
We have used it over in Florida (and leant it to others to use there as well) and it has been great.
It did give us a problem once when it was asking us to make an exit off the I-4 at a point where there was no exit - but this was our fault as we hadn't updated the maps and they had carried out some roadworks at that particular point. Other than that it has been good both home and away.

 

[alisonbestford]

We've got a TomTom 940 - quite an old model now - but saved me drivingoff at every incorrect junction

Someone on the boards sent me some local US destinations (eg Publix and IHOP) to download which were very useful

 

[Cyrano]

Both makes seem to be very popular so it might be style and feel that ultimately help you with your choice.

I have a TomTom 730 upgraded from a 2nd hand TT 510, which has Europe and added USA maps. It gets used almost every day and was very much appreciated on our last two Orlando trips.

There is a range of satnav options for smart phones. I have download a couple for the iPhone when they have been on offer. But have yet to really road test them so not sure whether they really offer better functionality compared to a satnav unit.

 

[Chilly]

I've got a Garmin and it's really easy to use.

 

[Dimplenose]

We use Garmin and found it very accurate in UK and Europe, however in Florida it took us by some very strange and long routes.

We also had a problem (and I don't know if this is true with other Satnavs too) that when we were going to a destination that was parallel to the road (in particular LBV Factory stores) we would be told we were at the destination even though we hadn't found the entrance and therefore it wouldn't recalculate the route as we sailed past.

(I hope that makes sense.)

 

[mikki.young]

Thanks all. I think I will wait a bit. If my trusty old palm pda finally gives up the ghost I will probably go down the smart phone route and bite the bullet of monthly payments. Otherwise I will see what is available around christmas or the new year!

 

[jns]

we got the Garmin one when we were in Florida just added the Ireland / UK maps when we got back home

do you sums on the net before you buy

worked out a lot cheaper buying in the US

 

[PoppyAnna]

Thanks all. I think I will wait a bit. If my trusty old palm pda finally gives up the ghost I will probably go down the smart phone route and bite the bullet of monthly payments. Otherwise I will see what is available around christmas or the new year!

Which Palm do you have? I have run sat navs on a fair few phones and the phone before my current HTC Desire (running motonav) was a Palm Treo 500 running a version of Garmin that didn't require a touch screen. Admittedly, I didn't use it in the US but it worked fairly well for me in the UK.

 

[luke]

The USA version of TomTom on my iPhone worked brilliantly in Florida for us.
Whenever I've tried to uk one tho it's been less succesful

 

[Eddiemunster]

I used a Garmin from Dollar. It worked fine and had lots of pre-stored locations for attractions and dining.