Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm after a Sat Nav. It must be:

1. Cheap
2. Not shit

I've seen a few Garmins and NavMans under the £100 mark (and some shady looking RAC and Binatone ones for £60!) but should I be spending more? Why are TomToms always the dearest, are they the bestest?

Go.

I have only used TomTom on a PDA and I did like the functions on it.

I much prefer it to the NAVMAN one I have built in to my Vauxhall, as the TomTom allowed full post code entry and allowed me to review and edit my journey so I could miss parts out etc...

The Binatone one can be hacked to run TomTom, like this blog post I wrote. It's not brilliant (notably, it's slow to acquire a satellite lock, and the screen could be a bit brighter) but for under £50 you can't go wrong.

Edit -- that post only covers TomTom6, but one of the commenters somewhere in there has instructions to install TomTom7 instead.

I don't want no geeky faffage thanks Doc. I want it to work out of the box and not make me swear.

How soon do you want it? My new car has it built in, so if you can wait 6 weeks, you can have my old one for nowt. It works, but it's a little bit out of date (usually means unexpected mini-roundabouts) and the battery life isn't great (but it has a car charger). It's a TomTom Go 700.

Otherwise, I'll always recommend the TomToms, they're great.

There's a Navigo that Ebuyer do that can also be hacked that way. I went through all the hassle of doing it and I've not used it once.

Aye, I should have mentioned that. They come from the same OEM. There are probably more too.

You have idiots in your blog comments, man.

Interesting article though. I wish I'd done this instead of throwing money away upgrading my official TomTom One, to obtain newer but still shit maps.

That's bloody wonderful of you, I'll let you know if I buy one before then because I need it for the weekend ideally.

Oh apparently Toys R Us are selling TomToms for £75.

My brother bought a Sat Nav for about £60 and has hacked TomTom onto it. It was a piece of piss, apparently, and the unit itself is superb. I'll find out what it is later if you're interested.

Wouldn't hurt. Ta everybody WoS Beteo is the greatest forum in the interverse

I know it. About 20% of them are quite helpful though.

These procedures all revolve around using the WinMob version of TomTom with a crack, and the standalone devices run different binaries. So the procedure is different.

I have that Navigo one with tomtom on it. All I had to do was download a file from http://www.thepctailor.com or maybe .co.uk and copy it to the sd card. They post map updates as well but I haven't been sent wrong so far even though the a1 now has less riundabouts on it

Any Tom Tom with the RDS traffic add on so you can get free traffic info.

There are companies who sell recon units at good prices.

That's the site I used too, although I didn't realise they did map updates too. I'll have to check mine at some point - no rush though, I've not had a car since February.

Reading back my reply it's a bit short. It should read that I believe they do map updates but the last time I checked was august 2008 and I haven't bothered installing updates because I've never been sent wrong yet despite the work on the a1 eliminating the roundabouts

You can get a good tom tom (last years widescreen model) for £120 which seems pretty damn good to me.

Where have you seen those Nemmie?

The cheapest I can see a widescreen Tom Tom is £150.

Tom tom one xl is what I have. Paid 120 last november. It widescreen. Included the rds antenna, case, fixer for window and sd for western europe.
Was from amazon.

Its not bluetooth but I didn't want that. Its never got me lost and has actually helped me a couple of times.

Get the TomTom stuff for you iPod?

I thought it was software for iPhone only.

See iPhone thread for BREAKING NEWS

No. Read kalmar's shizzle in the iPhone thread.

The cradle-me-do isn't out yet though, so Zardoz can't buy it for the weekend.

I've got an RAC one and it's pretty bad. Can take 10 minutes to find you or sometimes you'll be driving on the motorway and then you're suddenly in the middle of a field and you have to reboot the bugger.

It's also the only sat nav I've used that's told me to turn 'slightly to the right', when it actually meant go around the roundabout.

My Sat Nav is voiced by Mr T. He clearly has never said "roundabout" or "motorway" before

But that doesn't really matter - go the wrong way and he'll scream "Turn around when possible! Don't make me mad! Don't make me jump out of this machine, 'cos I will!"

Yeah, traffic circle and freeway in America, I believe.

Almost every one one of those novelty satnav voices is done by an impersonator, and the celebrity in question is not due any royalties for that.

Well it seems that everyone is spunking for Tom Toms, I'm going to have a look at Toys R Us and see if they have any left. If not I'll probably get the next cheapest one Mrs Z will let me have in Currys/Dixons/Comet and offset this cost when Craster send me his in six weeks and I flog it on ebay.

Thanks everyone x

NavTones says it doesn't do that, and anyway, I think even the most dedicated of Mr T impersonators will have trouble getting stuff onto his website

I pity the fuel.

No Tom Toms left at Toys R Us

No widescreen Tom Toms for less than £150.

Thinking of going for a Garmin Nuvi, seem to get more for your money at the price I'm willing to pay. Will the hive mind permit me?

Why don't you just use a map if you're desperate?

Everyone who has broken away from a hive mind decided course of action has strongly regretted it.





EVERYONE.

Or I could attach myself to a huge fucking pigeon.

We am not in [a] permissive moods.

By your command.

[puts serious consumer hat on and looks stern]

Don't be cheap. The Tom Tom is easily the best trust me, and that's coming from someone who did 1500 business miles in the past 4 weeks.

My 4 year old Tom Tom is still going strong as well (Mrs Chinny now has it). For a few quid I was able to update the maps and install the newest software so it ran like new.

A good satnav will last years and will be invaluable. A bad one will be replaced after a year and the support will be bad.

All the hardcore off-road competition people have a Garmin satnav (or two) in their trucks.

CONTROVERSIAL!

(I won't be offroading though)

I have a Garmin on my bike. They produce good stuff but having been a satnav user for quite a while now I think Tom Tom edge it for standard driving.

The RDS stuff is cool when it works. I used to have the traffic sub via my mobile but now I have an Iphone that went out the window. But between Google on the Iphone and the RDS (when it has a signal) its just as good (and free).

Whereas it cost me many, many quid, and the newest software turned out not to be noticeably better than the 6 year old version, and the maps equally horrifically outdated.

Just saying like.

Its no good complaining about maps, the manufacturers themselves don't compile them. They all buy them from the same companies and they are always a little out of date. But at least with Tom Tom mapshare if you keep your unit up to date you can see if roads are closed etc automatically.

The software updates should be free (mine was) and the maps only about 30 quid from memory. I did spot alot of changes when I upgraded mine but it still insisted I was driving through fields on the A30 through Devon where the new bypass had only been opened 6 months before. Lead time still seems to be about a year for a change to show up but gone are the days of the whole new section of the A34 being missing up near Newbury!

Satnav forums are full of people moaning about such things. My view is that if you go and buy a map that will be out of date as well. So best thing to do is remember that satnav is a tool and not a brain replacement!

Garmin! Ideal for when you don't need to know where the roads are.

Halfrauds have TomTom GO 520's for £139.99.

Nice how none of them come with cases or mains chargers.

Aye. It's always been Garmins I've used

Garmin! For boats and mudwallowers!

I went for the full western europe which was either 50 or 70 quid, I can't remember.

I just think it should be better than it is - do they really all use the same maps?

What's the best Sat Nav for bicycles? I always fancy going for a ride somewhere I've never been before, but can't be arsed stopping every ten minutes to look at the map and making sure I'm heading in the right direction.

Standard since the prices dropped I'm afraid.

You don't need a mains charger. You can charge via USB or in the car. But a case is essential! I have a 530T.

I like to have a screen protector as well.