Which Sat Nav to buy???

timemachine

I am looking to buy a Sat Nav for a birthday present. Limit is 180 euro. I havent a clue which one to buy, as there are so many different ones on the market. Any advice please.

kinkstr

For that kind of money your looking at a TomTom one or a Garmin nuvi250. Atleast thats what ive got it narrowed down to. komplett have a nuvi250 for 137 and the tomtomts are around 200 in bricks and mortar shops and a few pound less online.
Ive had both in my hands and i have to say i prefer the nuvi but thats just me. Read through this forum too, theres plenty of threads about both sat navs and many others.

timemachine

Thanks for advice. Have seen quite a few on ebay at good prices, but have never heard of most of the makes, unlike Tom Tom, Garmin.

gone2themoon

Hi, my first post so hi to all and usual stuff.
I've just bought a Garmin Nuvi 610 from Satnaveasy.co.uk, came in around é180 inc £10 delivery. They've a good range. I did some research into which is the best and all the reviews i saw said garmin beats tomtom and navman. But hey, spend some time doing your own research and compare prices. but i was well happy with mine. Came in 3 working days by Royal mail as promised.

Mr. Fancypants

Whats the story with the maps on the garmin versus the tomtom these days? I bought a tomtom with 6.75 maps which were navteq but they since went to teleatlas which are not as good for Ireland (at least from what i heard). Dont the garmins use navteq maps which are going to give better results for Ireland?

gone2themoon

I'm not sure how the latest Tom Tom Units work in Ireland compared to the Garmin. My unit came with Version 10 of the NT Navigator software used by Garmin and the 2008 Maps from Navteq. From a number of reviews I read the Garmin alway seemed to give better directions and often a shorter route. Even telling you which side of the road your destination is on. To be honest both Tom Tom and Garmin will probably do a very good Job at getting you to your destination in Ireland, I went with garmin cos I've used them before and found them good. I just went for a unit that had the latest maps and software, bluetooth, Pic viewer and MP3 among other things.

meglome

Going to buy one for a present too and haven't a clue as I've never owned one, nor even used one. So all advice is appreciated.

podgeandrodge

For my money I would always go with a GPS running Route 66 software - simply because Route 66 has "Fuzzysearch" search facility meaning that you don't have to go through the rigmaroll that Garmins and Tom Toms do such as "street number", then "street name" etc etc - just type the whole string (or part of a street in ) and job done - also, you don't have to select country ever - so if you go abroad there is no selecting that country before doing a search.

believe me, if you try this type of searching you'll find it so superior to the others. I have the Airis T920 which has this software.

the likes of the Route66 Mini uses Route66 software.

(Note - one disadvantage of the Route66 Mini is that you can't charge it in the car without an accessory)

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/review/2008/01/07/Route-66-Mini-Regional-Sat-Nav/p1


edit - I'm not sure which maps the route 66 mini uses - if they are teleatlas I'd stay away from it. I'm really only pushing the route66 software itself for the search facility.

BTW - does anyone know about updated maps for the Airis T920??

tom1979

the only sat nav to buy living in ireland is a sat nav with navteq maps
the garmin or rac sat nav i would recommend

also dont let the shops fool you by selling you traffic updates they dont work in ireland

the garmin nuvi 250 is a great little sat nav and it has great coverage of even rural ireland

hope this helps guys

i can offer a brand new garmin nuvi 250 for 140 euro plus 8 euro p+p brand new in box with 1 yr warranty with euope and uk irl maps