Which sat nav to buy?

smithder

I am currently looking into buying a sat nav and have a few questions in relation to the Garmin and Tom Tom products:

1. I have read that Tom Tom allows free updates to the maps whereas Garmin makes you pay for these updates and they are quite expensive - is this true? In any case, could someone please advise of the approximate costs of downloading new maps to either product and how often do the maps get updated on average in a year?
Also, are POIs an extra cost again?
2. I have also read that the mapping used by the Tom Tom sat navs, i.e. TeleAtlas is not as accurate in Ireland as the Garmin mapping, i.e. Navteq. Is this true?

If both of the above are true then obviously each manufacturer has one major advantage each over the other.
For the same sort of money, would you advise one over the other? Any particular recommendations - ideally i would like to combine the sat nav with an fm transmitter and bluetooth.

Thanks in advance

robinph

How often do you expect road layouts to be changing that you 'd need regular updates to the mapping every 6 months/ year?

smithder

Well i read on one site that it could be up to €99 for the garmin updates so even if you were updating once every two years or so it would add significantly to the cost wouldnt it

smithder

thanks for that. is it true that tom tom updates are free?

protos

Yes - map updates are free for Tomtom, but if you want one of the advanced models with live traffic information and routing around traffic jams then you need to pay a monthly fee for that. You get the traffic feeds through a vodafone simcard - the cost is all rolled up in the monthly fee though and you can opt out. Poi info is all free.

Disclaimer - I work for Tomtom.

robinph

^ Do they actually have any of that traffic information service for Ireland yet?

T-Square

robinph wrote: »

How often do you expect road layouts to be changing that you 'd need regular updates to the mapping every 6 months/ year?

Map data changes by 15% each year.
Six months after buying a new satnav, 7% of the map is incorrect.

T-Square

protos wrote: »

Yes - map updates are free for Tomtom, but if you want one of the advanced models with live traffic information and routing around traffic jams then you need to pay a monthly fee for that. You get the traffic feeds through a vodafone simcard - the cost is all rolled up in the monthly fee though and you can opt out. Poi info is all free.

Disclaimer - I work for Tomtom.

They may be free, but the majority of the updates made by other TomTom users don't get published. The updates aren't as good as the updates by Garmin.

smithder

so in relation to tom tom sat navs then, what good value piece would include bluetooth and fm transmitter??

101sean

AFAIK Navteq mapping is more accurate in Ireland than Teleatlas as Navteq drove all the roads with mapping vans, the OSI wanted too much money to provide data. Not sure how TeleAtlas deal with Ireland.

I've recently updated my PDA to Copilot8 whiche seems to have Q1 2009 Navteq mapping as the M8 from Culahill to Mitchelstown is on there but not Mitchelstown to Fermoy.

Both Navteq and TeleAtlas update their maps every 3 months but the software companies like Tomtom and Garmin may not issue them as often. Some system providers only update when new software is issued every 18months or so, even less with in car systems.