What is the basic Sat Nav model for beginners?

Trotter

If you (the experts!) were buying a very basic, small, neat Sat Nav with good coverage of Irish roads, what would it be??

Im after a cheap and basic start to the GPS / Sat Nav idea just to see how much use I'd get from it etc.

Can you recommend a sat nav model ? Its quite a small car so it'd need to be something small and neat. All I'd need really is to be able to put in where I want to go, and have it show me where to follow on the screen etc.. as I said.. very basic.. Its just I havent a clue where to start looking in terms of Sat Nav models on the Irish market.

Thanks!

Trotter

Anyone?

humaxf1

I use a Garmin c310. Bought it last year in Halfords. A lil bit chunky, but it does the job nicely. My bro used it in UK navigating from Cornwall to Holyhead. No probs.

Another time I used it was, going to a house in an estate where the turn offs state the house numbers. Ignored all the signs and the GPS brought me straight to the door...bang on!

It may be discontinued, but if you do a lil bit of hunting you may find one online.

Trotter

humaxf1 wrote:

I use a Garmin c310. Bought it last year in Halfords. A lil bit chunky, but it does the job nicely. My bro used it in UK navigating from Cornwall to Holyhead. No probs.

Another time I used it was, going to a house in an estate where the turn offs state the house numbers. Ignored all the signs and the GPS brought me straight to the door...bang on!

It may be discontinued, but if you do a lil bit of hunting you may find one online.

Sounds good.. what maps does yours use?

Tiesto

I have the Garmin C510, im guessing its the later version of his model. Absolutely excellent.
I paid 300 for it and comes loaded with maps for UK and Ireland and you have european maps on a cd which can be loaded onto the sd card supplied..

You can find the basic model of this without the sd card for like 240 on pixmania or komplett i think.

Trotter

How about the TomTom One Europe? Thats around €345.. although I could get it next time I'm in the UK for £189 Sterling, which is only €278.

Thats on Halfords UK website.. I could get it sent to a relative in the UK. They dont post to Ireland. Halfords Ireland are charging €350 for it.. what a rip off!

Tiesto

Well the TomTom 1 europe is the one I went to Halfords to buy but they were out of stock. They are selling them for only 299 euro....

Trotter

Tiesto wrote:

Well the TomTom 1 europe is the one I went to Halfords to buy but they were out of stock. They are selling them for only 299 euro....

Which Halfords did you go to? I rang the one in Wexford and she said €349.99 , maybe its a store deal in the one you went to.. or maybe the Wexford Halfords is just dearer!

Wevin

TomTom One Europe is an excellent bit of kit. Has all of Ireland, with the exception of very new roads. Door to door navigation and easy to use.

Had a Route 66 Chicago which was rubbish and got this instead. TomTom One Europe uses Navteq maps so it's all up to date, unlike the regional versions of the TomTom One which use Teleatlas maps.

You can even load custom voices, Yoda giving directions is hillarious! (Right you must turn.)

bogman

TomTom One Europe /Chicago 9000
Hi, Just wondering in what way is the Tom Tom better than the route66, I have the Chicago and find it nothing short of excellent, still its my 1st gps but id like you to tell me please
The Chicago 8000 for under 269 euro on komplett looks great value
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=332417

Trotter

I went to try and buy the Tomtom One Europe from a few UK based websites today. Ignoring the fact that most were out of stock for 10 days, I noticed that they wouldnt accept my credit card because it had to have a UK address thats listed with the bank.

Thats a pain because I intended to have it delivered to a friend in the UK who would send it on to me then.

Has anyone had this problem before?

Tiesto

I went to the blanch-town Halfords.
As far as I know its 299 in all branches in Dublin.
Just call them up before hand to see if they have any and how much.

Trotter

Tiesto wrote:

I went to the blanch-town Halfords.
As far as I know its 299 in all branches in Dublin.
Just call them up before hand to see if they have any and how much.

Dammit.. the €299 was an offer that was on. Its over now and its back to €350 again.

Tiesto

Well i dunno Trotter if there is that much difference between the Tom Tom and the Garmin C510 that I bought..
I mean at the beginning it was crap but that was just cos i changed a setting.
Since I havent found a problem. The mapping is great. Probably the same as the TomTom? anyone know?
As far as I know, Garmin get the map updates quicker...

Trotter

I managed to get a Tomtom one from Amazon and shipped it to my friend in the UK who'll send it over to me.

Thanks for the tips!

eamon234

Good choice Trotter it's a great piece of kit!

Trotter

eamon234 wrote:

Good choice Trotter it's a great piece of kit!

So if a new road is missing now (for example, the outer ring road in waterford is missing on the garmin ones), and a newer version of that map (say the Ireland map) comes out.. do I have to pay for the new version or can I just update it from the tomtom website?

eamon234

you'll have to pay I'm afraid but in fairness the world isn't going to end if there's the odd road missing! Generally coverage is pretty good.

Trotter

eamon234 wrote:

you'll have to pay I'm afraid but in fairness the world isn't going to end if there's the odd road missing! Generally coverage is pretty good.

Its about 8km long though and its the one I go to work on It'll drive me bonkers!