Smilz

My built-in Sat Nav has gone on the blink and have been quoted £1200 by Vauxhall to fix it (replace unit, they dont repair).

So being sensible I thought I had just as well buy a Tom Tom or Sony Sat Nav for £150 ish.

We are due to land possibly next March in Auckland so maps of NZ would be desirable to download on to the unit when the time comes so as we can use it there, trouble is no one can tell me if this is possible.

Has anyone done this, if so which make and how much did it cost?

Many tks in advance

Stoof

there was a thread on this a while ago... from memory quite a few people had done it... we've got a navman and the maps are downloadable from their website for something like £34... haven 't done it yet, but did some 'research' a while ago... think most of the makes have nz maps - check their websites for prices etc...

think they're really only going to be worthwhile if you're planning on being in auckland or one of the other bigger cities - can't really go wrong with a map book elsewhere! (hmm.. famous last words?!?)

Maz1

Have you already bought one in the UK. If not then by the time you convert your money over to the NZ$ you will be better off buying one in NZ. Thats what we did and its been a life saver.

lapsed kiwi

Dick Smith have them from $249 upwards - so not a great idea to buy at £135 then pay extra for maps, unless you can't do without until you migrate

lardyl

Some of the "freeware" maps are a little ropey but useable.
I have them on my Garmin Streetpilot i3, and they were free along with loads of POIs, as seen here:

www.zenbu.co.nz

and the maps for Garmin are here:

http://gwprojects.orconhosting.net.nz/gps/

good luck

teebrown

I too was thinking about this question whilst in the midst of disposing of 'stuff' - so anyone know of the top of their heads if you can download NZ maps from Tom Tom site??

Smilz

I have now found out that Navman is a NZ make and maps are downloadable for about £68 for NZ. Sony have maps from Navteq who as of this time dont (I think do NZ) and Tom Tom are just about to add NZ maps to their downloads .... watch this space.

Thanks for the replies I think I will buy a cheap Navman in this country and take it with us.

However if the locals are to be beleived you dont need a sat nav just a map (and compass) because in relation to the Uk there are not many roads.

If you see a scruffy white male, with odd socks and shorts in Dunedin asking the way to Northland you know Ive followed my instincts rather than buy the maps.

BEVS

Mate ! You took the words right outta my mouth. What roads ?

gazzer15

I live in Papamoa and downloaded a NZ map from tom tom before we came away cost was approx £50 it works pretty well its got us around very well up to now look out for sales on tom tom website any problems let me know if I can help I will. you can buy a tom tom 1 here at Dick smiths quite reasonable obviously with NZ maps You can download other maps on the website.
Best of luck
Garry

Kiwiprincess

I know taxi drivers in wellington may have satnav but i don't recall ever seeing it on a regular car here in Wellington. Except naice cars where it may come as standard??

That could be different in Auckland though!

Get one if you visit palmerston north though. I think the square is like the Bermuda triangle. You just get lost and never get out.

luvwelly

I find Satnav very useful especially when visiting an address or a sports field for the first time. You don't need it to drive from say Wellington to Napier as there's only one road you can take and it is signposted but it is great for finding your hotel quickly when you actually arrive.
It's a boon for people (ok I mean women like me ) who maybe otherwise would be apprehensive about driving around not knowing the area 100% as when you get lost/miss a turn, you can relax knowing it will eventually get you back on track. It does go haywire sometimes though especially if new/changed roads are involved....you learn to ignore some of the instructions it gives in the Mount Cook area (I think the bypass is the cause of the confusion).

I thought the Garmin system we had in a hire car in Australia was more user friendly than the Navman we have in NZ.....and both are better than the built in Toyota system I had in Europe.

Margaret Parkinson

Off the topic I know but I see you live in Papamoa have you been to my son in laws butchers (Doug Jarvis) in Parton Road. I may have mentioned him before.

June

Kiwiprincess

That makes a lot of sense. Still, funniest sight I have seen in years was a Fiat Punto in Brentwood, Essex in 2005. I am not sure what they are called but the raised horse/walking tracks that surround some farms and large estates??

Well I was sitting at a friends house on Christmas morning when we looked out the window and saw the punto stuck with the wheels on each side of the track. Turned out they had followed their GPS without actually paying attention to where it was telling them to go

They got their car back ok though. We just kind of pushed it back again and then they had to slowly reverse it back about 100mtrs where they could roll it back down the bank.

luvwelly

Very funny. My most irritating Satnav experience was in the UK with built-in Toyota system...it had a facility for inputting the postcode of your destination and so I used it for Centerparcs - big mistake the postcode was in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere about 10 miles from the actual park location and a call for better directions revealed I was not the first one to fall foul of this .

Margaret Parkinson

Its more fun getting lost. You never know where you might end up.

June