AberJazz

Hello

We are heading to Sydney in April 08 and was wondering which sat nav is the best as my new job will involving a lot of travelling around and using hire cars in the major cities?

Is it work buying sat nav in the uk or oz? I can pick up a Tom Tom one in England with maps for the UK, Europe, USA/Canada & OZ for about £140

Any help would be much appreciated - many thanks

AberJazz

kjc79

my OH and I were discussing this just the other night. will watch for answers
ta
kath x

stuckinblighty

We used the tom tom one with the aus map downloaded.It worked like a dream and only sent us on a wild goose chase on a couple of occasions.

It was a godsend

Lee

isgraham

I downloaded tomtom + aus maps and installed on my PDA only had to buy a mount for the car. So far I havent had any problems getting around Sydney using it.

AberJazz

Hello

Many thanks for you replies regarding Tom Tom......

I have literally just bought a Fujitsu Siemens N500 PDA With TomTom 6 off ebay for £57, lets hope it actually works! It has TomTom 6 installed with street level maps of Europe, USA, Canada, and Australia.

Once again, thanks for your help and will post a reply in April when I am in Sydney!

AberJazz

pumpkin blossom

We bought one here, can't remember how much it was at the mo and hubbie has not got up yet, but it is great, so glad we bought it.

MarkMC

We downloaded the map in Jan and got it on offer for about 60 quid. Couldn't have managed without it while researching areas and houses. Also we helped us find the next hotel and took us to the hunter valley and down to wollongong.

The only trouble we had was getting in the right lane when crossing the Sydney Harbour bridge from North to South, It was: "Keep right", "get in the right lane", "slow down", "get in the left lane", "keep right and bear left", go straight on" all with in quarter of a mile.

Shoan and Rich

How much is a Tom Tom in Auz with the maps already on it?
Do you have to pay extra to down load the Auz map on a Uk Tom Tom?

Devlin

Does anyone really need a sat nav in Australia? Everywhere, except perhaps Sydney CBD is simple grid pattern roads and freeways!

Hutch

The simple fact of the matter is that if you buy a TomTom unit (like the real deal, not a PDA with TomTom maps on it) in the UK - then it'll come with UK (and possibly European) maps on it and you'll then either have to buy or download pirated Australian maps. If you buy here, then it comes with Australian maps and you won't have to buy or pirate anything. So - unless you're planning on heading home after a month - I'd buy here and get legitimate updateable Aussie maps on it.

Rosscarbery

My Navman is the best thing I bought here. Previously I would have to sit down with a map and memorise my route, then as I drove I was thinking was it right at the third or fourth lights and I'd have to stop and check. Now have satnav will travel! The other day I was headed from St. Ives to Castle Hill - I could have got myself to the centre of the place easy enough, but would never have managed to actually get to where I wanted to be without stopping at least once.

I paid $599 for the S50 if that helps anyone with price comparisons.

pumpkin blossom

We have found plenty of places which are not grids!! I personally like to venture out every now and again.

PoppetUK

We had a tomtom in the UK so just bought the Oz maps so now we have UK and Oz maps.

I took the mick out of my mum for having sat nav and then finally gave it a go and would never go without it again.

Don't ever think it will be 100% but it's never caused me a problem that I could get around.

We didn't have it on our validation trip but did as soon as we moved out. It's been fantastic. We struggled for a bit of a signal in Perth CBD but you are talking short distances of 100metres and the grid like roads.

Visitors have really benefited to. Give them a car and a tomtom and they will feel so confident they'll get more out of there holiday to.

From my research. If you buy a UK Tomtom it will cost you about £70 for the Australia maps on top of your unit price but you will obviously then have both sets of maps.

If you purchase the Australia tomtom and want the UK maps they are slightly cheaper at £40.

The unit prices are

Dick Smith Tomtom one xl navigator with 08 Oz maps $429
Tomtom go 720 with Oz maps $677

Amazon prices for xl is £149
720 is £194

You can still pick up the basic tomtom for about £100 in England and just buy the maps. I haven't used one of the new ones but find my old model very good and don't feel the need to have a super dupa new one.

I hope this helps a bit to someone out there.

Poppet

steve_uk

I was only thinking about Sat Nav - thanx for the info

Brigall

Picked up Navman at Rick Harts in WA for $389. It has maps of all states in Australia.