TheAshleys

Glad someone posted on Garmin. Everyone jumps on the Tom Tom bandwagon it seems, but I used one and found it rubbish. The car I used also had it's own Satnav in built, and it was more reliable than Tom Tom.

Can you buy Aus maps for Garmin's in the UK, and how much. Anyone know. The father in law swears by Garmin, and he's tried them all !

tonik25

We have a Tom Tom and have been looking at the maps on their website. The one for Australia looks like it only comes as a download and costs £175 which seems a bit steep. Was it a while ago when you paid £120?

Pam

It was a SD card we bought last January from the tomtom web site for 175.00
Euros. just been on their site but can't find it now.

DunRoaminTheUK

The reason that SatNav is not as popular here is that Holden cars come with an Aboriginal Tracker as an option.

Ian12

NO! Do not go for Nav Man, unless you want to buy mine. Although good once it gets going it can take too long to lock onto satalites. This is a well known problem.

Wol

I don't find that a problem unless you don't use it for a while and/or start it from a different position to that when it shut down. I think it may be to do with finding the correct time - which obviously has to be correct to nanoseconds - and refining this when it's worked out a rough position. But I stand to be corrected!

stevemich

I use Navman and had no problems with excessive locking times...
I have used both the Smart ST software on my PDA, and now the F20 portable unit (excellent by the way!!)

Wol

The gripes I have had with Navman are:

The software you are provided with to update and get maps with is appalling - certainly NOt user-frindly at all!

The Sensis maps are very sloppily done in some areas - apparently you drive through a huge lake near Kangaroo Valley! And over the escarpment the thing goes off into the dark side - you are apparently driving miles from the road over 45' slopes.

The software on the unit does the most peculiar things at times - will take you off on a detour and then back onto the original route. It has at times added tens of miles to my route. The only way to avoid that is to know where you are and where you are going plus all the names of inbetween places - which rather defeats the purpose of having satnav!

stevemich

I only had 1 persistant error on the Smart ST when back in the UK (taking me off a junction on the A14, then telling me to get back on!), but it did struggle round Sydney CBD for a couple of "take the next right" when there was one way only, or a concrete barrier down the road. The new F20 seems to have no problems so far and is MUCH simpler and more intuitive than my old one.

I think people have to realise that there may never be a flawless satnav device - there will always be issues with sloppy data, out of date maps, poor satellite pickups etc.
I always keep a map in the car to revert to if required, but have found that I have needed it just once in 5 years of using satnav.

I am sure TomTom or Garmin users will also have their gripes over inaccurate info etc - it is just if you do not happen to be driving in the particular area with some kind of error then you will not know there is one!

Anyway, the graphics are prettier on Navman

DunRoaminTheUK

We had a propreitary Sat-Nav system in our Honda CR-V and my Dad managed to piss it off once. He was giving my OH and me a lift back from the airport in our car and he took a "short-cut" at the M4/A33 turnoff at Reading and he changed from minor to major road so many times that the sat-nav effectively ended up saying "Oh for f***s sake.....Find your own effing way home!!"

skye

Sorry if this has already been covered.... I have a navman 320 and the best quote I can get for Oz mapping is $299 US!!!! Will I be able to get mapping (queensland) in Oz for a better price or is it going to be cheaper buying a complete new unit out there?

Cheers,

furkew

I actually bought a Navman set while over in Feb for my PDA, and it was only because I was fed up getting lost 4 hours a day in Melbourne, that I paid the extortionate price they where asking.

I dont know if much has changed in the last 10 months on the prices, but it might be worth looking at a complete new nav set, or you can always buy a smart phone with navigation (very very handy !!), or better still buy a car with sat nav

Have you checked out the Navman site in Oz for prices ?

slipshot

I've always found Tomtom to be the best but there are only about 3 main mapping companies who provide the data in the world. Sensis is one, TeleAtlas (tomtom) is another, so in effect you may be buying the same maps but with a difference conduit - ie the user interface. Check this out - I'm sure different units will use the same software therefore it's not going to matter which is more expensive - the data will still be the same.

Any satnav unit that takes 30 mins to locate a satellite has a fundamental fault in it. I work in Formula One and thus travel a lot and we all use tomtom - every new country is a challenge but as long as you turn the unit on outside of a car (some cars have windscreens that offer poor satellite imagery), AND you are not moving until the unit has located the satellites, then it should take between 2-7 or so minutes, but in general I found it takes about 4.

I did not use it Melbourne as I know my way around there but certainly none of the other chaps in my team had an issue...

FluffyTheCampfireSlayer

My opinion: (and only my opinion, you stress heads )

Buy a map and don't bother with satnav! Tried it myself, biggest waste of £450 ever!!

Sooooo much easier to pull out a map and plan your route than rely on these piles o crap!!! Yet to find one that actually works as they should do!

Only time I actually thought it was any good was when I was well and truly lost and it [eventually] managed to get me back onto a main road!

Clippy

We've just bought a Tom Tom One v2 Europe (nothing fancy!)- hoping to use it when we go on hols to Austria and then hoping we can get maps to use it in Oz too when we go. I have an absolutely terrible sense of direction so hopefully it will come in useful!

For anyone that's interested, I had a code which got me 10% off at PCWorld - not exclusive to Tom Tom, it's 10% off all the SatNav they sell

Think we paid £224 for the one we bought, which seemed to be a good deal compared to elsewhere