Can anyone help, are sat navs illegal to use in Spain?

I have been told the police will fine us for using if we place in the windscreen but how else could a driver use it?

Wanted to double check as we use all the time whilst in Spain, although we can now find our holiday home without it (just about)


Thanks

Hi,
We used one and when we broke down for the billion time the guadia police came to see if we could do with any help but they never said nothing about our sat nav.
The only thing i would say is mary (my sat nav) was cr*p and i have made her redundant overseas now
she could not find anything!

I believe that this paragraph:

Quedan prohibidos los dispositivos que puedan distraer al conductor, como pantallas con acceso a internet, monitores de televisión y reproductores de vídeo o DVD. Se exceptúan a estos efectos el uso de monitores que, aún estando a la vista del conductor, su utilización sea necesaria (visión de acceso o bajada de peatones, maniobras traseras...) así como el dispositivo GPS.

taken from this part of the DGT web site:

http://www.dgt.es/legislacion/FOLLETO%20NORMAS.pdf

means that the use of GPS (SatNav) is not prohibited.

maybe confused with radar detectors?
Some satnavs have radar detectors and speed camer locations built in, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that the guardia are not too enamoured with such things ... and being in English of course they may not be able to discern between one with it and one without

Plenty of sat navs sold openly in places like Carrefour over here, and plenty of people use them, however, road coverage isn't usually a lot better than about 85%, so might well suffer in soem places, ther was an article in a locla paer about someone using one to get home after appearing at a concert venue, he followed the Sat nav directions, and finished up some 50km from where he wanted to be, not sure if that was a sat nav error, or an operator error..

Hi

I bought a Viamichelin X930 18 months ago and I would not be without it now. It may not know all the names of all the roads in Europe, nor can it tell the difference between asphalt roads and a track, but if you have a modicum of intelligence then they are wonderful (or at least mine is).
Mine also has the ability to add "favourite places" and navigate to them from anywhere. It works in central London and out in the campo where I live (Cadiz region)

Dave

Radar detectors are definitely banned. This refers to an actual radar detector that picks up the radar beam and gives a warning.

However, data which is preprogrammed into a SatNav from information given by DGT about static speed cameras is OK.


TomTom have also recently brought out a support which incorporates a very low powered FM transmitter so that you can play the instructions or MP3s etc through the car radio.

I tried to buy one in el Corte Inglés but I was told quite categorically that the item had not been authorised for use in Spain. In the end I had to get someone to bring me one from the UK.

So one can assume that its OK to operate an unlicensed FM radio station that has a coverage of, perhaps, hundreds of kilometres often wiping out the reception of legitimate radio stations but that is illegal to use a similar piece of equipment in your car that has a range of two or three metres.

I've got the latest maps for Tomtom 6. They claim now 99% for Spain and 85% for Portugal.

However......there is an area near us called Pedravila which has been there for years and no road names at all.

Do they mean that they show the roads or name them as well?

Ours was meant to have 98% coverage but she still could not find the road in front

good one ..

Learn how to use them before you drive.

When Paula Ceely blindly followed the instructions of her satnav she didn't expect top be led straight into the path of a speeding train. She managed to leap out of its path seconds before it ploughed into her car.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...e_id=1770&ct=5

Thank you for all your replies.

I have a Tom Tom 910 and it works in europe and north america. My only problem is it can take several hours to work in Spain but we know know the route to our house so we manage. When we used in Arizona USA it took 4 days!! Not sure why it takes so long and Tom Tom have no suggestions either

We feel happier knowing it is legal and it does help navigate when driving in a city ect

you can use tomtom in spain with no problem.
I just came back 2 weeks ago from spain, and it was all ok