Which Sat Nav to buy next?

[63720]

The very first satnav we owned was sold by the AA probably 20 years ago. It was the size of a large box of matches but had slider controls for all types of roads from motorways to whites so you could select your preference. With motorways on max and everything else on minimum it gave a trouble free route everywhere with only the last mile down country lanes. Why can't modern units do the same?

 

[kevenh]

The very first satnav we owned was sold by the AA probably 20 years ago. It was the size of a large box of matches but had slider controls for all types of roads from motorways to whites so you could select your preference. With motorways on max and everything else on minimum it gave a trouble free route everywhere with only the last mile down country lanes. Why can't modern units do the same?

At some point route selection choice descriptions was changed.
I’m pretty sure our routes preferences in our 2008 Garmin Nuvi 255W were done as you described - by sliders for road types.
The same SatNav with umpteen firmware “improvements” since is now “fastest” “shortest” and - without turning it in to look - the 3rd choice is “fuel economy”.
I’d like the sliders back, but you can approximately overlay the old ones onto the new route options.

 

[Just smiffy]

Sat-navs are “guidance” systems, There to guide you and they are not autopilots......

 

[Minxy]

Sat-navs are “guidance” systems, There to guide you and they are not autopilots......

... trouble is sometimes they become 'guidunce' systems when people disengage their brains!

 

[Just smiffy]

... trouble is sometimes they become 'guidunce' systems when people disengage their brains!

Some people are easily led Mel ....

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[joe and sue]

If you use CMC sites & CL's then the Garmin thro' the club is excellent,
Outfit dims can be in-put
and so easy to find nearest CL's / sites when stopped somewhere.
We find it great for us

 

[Ian Bosman]

Youll get several different replies. Most ppl will reply with what they have or have had so............

Garmin 660 if you want one of the better ones or you just go for a £50 chinese lorry sat nav and know it will last a couple of years.

Having had to use a smart phone with mapping - an iPhone comes with maps built in - due to leaving my satnav at home when I borrowed a car with built in sat nav forgetting I was getting the motorhome back mid trip - I can say do not buy a sat nave but a smart phone with either google maps or as I say an iPhone which has the maps. I navigated soon hairy stuff in the area of Wiltshire called Pewsey Vale with some very narrow roads and coped well with it. However if you want the trucking stuff then you would have to buy a trucking mapping app which does the business. The advantage they always are very up to date and pick up live traffic hazards as we found while use=ign my iPhone for live routing. You do not get charged for the benefit of using the apps while navigating.

 

[suavecarve]

Having had to use a smart phone with mapping - an iPhone comes with maps built in - due to leaving my satnav at home when I borrowed a car with built in sat nav forgetting I was getting the motorhome back mid trip - I can say do not buy a sat nave but a smart phone with either google maps or as I say an iPhone which has the maps. I navigated soon hairy stuff in the area of Wiltshire called Pewsey Vale with some very narrow roads and coped well with it. However if you want the trucking stuff then you would have to buy a trucking mapping app which does the business. The advantage they always are very up to date and pick up live traffic hazards as we found while use=ign my iPhone for live routing. You do not get charged for the benefit of using the apps while navigating.

One important point, can you put in height weight length on those apps ? I havent got a clue but anyone who has ventured near Rouen knows how important it is !

 

[DJA]

I believe Tom Tom use Apple Maps

Actually Apple Maps uses Tomtom Data not the other way round.

 

[SpeedyDux]

One important point, can you put in height weight length on those apps ? I havent got a clue but anyone who has ventured near Rouen knows how important it is !

My brain is now hard-wired to avoid Rouen. Stress-free Pont de Brotonne detour (also toll-free) pour moi.

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[Jaws]

Lets face it, ALL the options have issues one way or other
We use 2... A Garmin 760 Camper ( which you can put the dimensions in ) and a TomTom camper ( model ? Dunno ! )
We also carry a chinese thing as an emergency back up
The routing on it is good, but some of the things it does drives me nuts !!! It brings a whole new level to the term SatNAG !

 

[Bielgeets]

I drive always with 2 navigation systems. I have a Chinese one with Igo on it (Windows CE) and I have a tablet with Copilot on it.
I Use my Igo satnav because it is very good with poi You added Yourself.When You have started a route , You can search for your own poi (like pub stopovers ,motorcaravanners pois , campercontact etc..)
It shows within a few seconds which pois are exactly on the routes (green) , the pois which have a detour of 100 meters or 200 meters (ie on the exit of a motorway (yellow) and pois with a detour between 200m and 10 km(red)
It can also show a fulll description of the poi (if provided in the poi)(see attachment)
In Igo You can also put a plugin (mapchanger) to change between tomtom maps and Here maps (Garmin maps)
Igo is the most flexible satnav on the market.
My tablet have different satnavs on it: Copilot ,Sygic,Tomtom,Magic Earth (ex:Route 66) and Maps.me.
MagicEarth with Openstreetmap have the most up to date maps of all satnavs.It is completely free and have speedcams in it for free!
Copilot is the second best paid satnav I know ( After Igo) but has a better routing than Igo.
Satnavs I don't Like are Sygic (always software problems) and also TomTom which has a good routing but poi searching is very bad:many new versions of TomTom You can't even search for i.e the nearest supermarkets if You don't know the exact name of the supermarket.TomTom is only good to drive from point A to point B ,and that is all.
People who say:My satnav send me in a narrow or small way , I can say the following: I tested already about 10 satnavs and everyone of them send me once or more in a narrow street (even TomTom and Garmin)

I have driven 200.000 miles with my motorhome and tested all these satnavs.
More than once I tested 2 Satnavs at the same time with the same software version of TomTom with updated maps and several times the routing was different. I did this also with two same versions of Copilot with also having sometimes different routing.

So there is no 100 % reliable Navsystem!

 

[Bielgeets]

The screenshot of previous post (attachment) comes from my smartphone with Pioneer Avicsync (which is OEM software provided by Igo)

 

[Garfields]

First sat nav we had was loaded with the voice of Victor Meldrew
Made us smile with the odd things that came out from time to time

 

[Raymond Bonello]

At moment we have Tom Tom Go Camper which is about three years old. Used to be really reliable but lately turns on and off and map updates etc are expensive.

We are looking for a Sat Nav that we can put dimensions of MH In etc as don’t want to be sent down a too narrow road. Also would like free map updates, speed cameras and live traffic.

Any recommendations gratefully received.
Thanks

Tom Tom new model is now available with automatic updates. I also think it is possible to give it dimensions of your camper and warns you of narrow roads. I am thinking of getting one mayself. At the moment I have a GARMIN which takes the dimension of the motorhome. It is very modern and efficient. Never let me down. The only hassle is that it will have to be updated, for free, from a good computer and this I find very tiresome. Every so often I have to take it out of the camper and plug it in to my comp and wait for updates. However the best choices are Garmin or Tom Tom in my opinion.

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[Squirepete]

We have an Aguri 720. Put in van dimensions, motorhome or caravan. Free updates and dash cam built in. Had it for 3 years and still pleased with it.

I have Aguri 700 The display is unreadable tiny graphics and very dim screen.

 

[Clarky]

Just had an email from Garmin to advise that their new 8” Camper sat nav is available in the U.K.
Rather expensive but looks to be the best so far with lots of 'goodies' on board.
Link here:- https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/7...MEA, Camper 890 Availability Follow-up, 13718

 

[minesapint]

We use the Garmin Camper Edition 660 or something - really not impressed and prefer Google maps.

I have looked at a few of the sat-navs available and they all seem to offer two route calculation methods, Fastest Route or Shortest Route. The fastest route took us off a good A road to save 10 minutes on a single track, exhaust scraping, tree scratching route.

How hard can it be to have a camper edition sat-nav with a "Main road" priority calculation method, A, then B, then C and finally the really small tight lanes. Happy for the journey to take a bit longer to avoid the stress of some back roads.

CM navigation does all that at 1/3rd price of a Garmin or Tom Tom.

 

[Kreos7012]

Tomtom's CarPlay compatible App haw been out for some time and works well. The display is not the same in CarPlay mode as it is on the iPhone or a PND in that the route bar is not shown. This is because the templates Apple provide upon which the Apps must be based does not allow it. Tomtom are gradually seeking to provide the Route Bar information in CarPlay. It displays cameras and can announce them including the Camera type and it counts down the yardage to the Camera, it also displays your Current speed and advises when in an average speed zone but doe snot yet display your average speed in the zone. You can create routes on CarPlay including adding stops on the way. One feature in the TT app is the ability when just using the App on the phone is to be able to select a Picture you have taken or someone sends you, which if it has the necessary location data, App will calculate a route to where the picture was taken.

Hi, can you specify the size of the vehicle in the tom Tom app?

 

[g3cwi]

Forget it.

Buy a map.

The people who say they are impressed with their satnavs have just paid £300 for it.......well,you would ,wouldn’t you?

Absolutely the biggest waste of money you could ever find. Forget it. Live life,use your eyes and your brain,with a map.

Does your map show real time traffic information and offer you alternative routes before you hit the hams?

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[DJA]

Hi, can you specify the size of the vehicle in the tom Tom app?

The Tomtom Go Navigation App has no facility for entering vehicle dimensions / weights.

 

[Diabalo]

I bet satnavs have saved a lot of marriages.

 

[Podney]

Does your map show real time traffic information and offer you alternative routes before you hit the hams?

No,but my satnav does. Trouble is,it’s usually wrong!!