Looking for an inexpensive sat nav with good support for Ireland

tk03

I'm looking for a sat nav to give as a christmas present... to myself. A few weeks ago I was telling myself that I didn't need a sat nav and I could get by with the OSI maps but after getting lost, AGAIN, at night just trying to take a different route to a place I'd been to many times before I don't think I have a good reason not to get a sat nav.

First concern is price. I don't have a lot of money to spend(E290 for instance would be too much). The second main concern is how well the sat nav works in Ireland. I know that all of the sat navs on sale here were made for the UK so it seems hard to know if feature x would really work in Ireland. Which one would have good, complete maps of Ireland? I've heard complaints before of sat navs not even showing side streets in Dublin. I've also heard complaints of signal strength. All of the sat navs advertise complete maps but that statement really only applies to the UK.

I would be looking for one that shows/says street names and gives clear voice instructions(Like turn left in 100 metres, turn left now) especially since the main reason for getting a sat nav is that it's nearly impossible to figure out the name of an upcoming street you don't already know since even if there is a street name displayed it isn't in a place easily visible from the road which makes my street atlas useless.

I wonder if some of these nice features that some of the sat navs advertise work here(obviously the postcode search wouldn't) such as search by street name(is there good support for Irish street names or places of interest) or displaying the speed limit(that would be really handy). One feature that I'm particularly interested in is advance lane guidance like on this TomTom (http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_728451_langId_-1_categoryId_212513) but would this feature work very well in Ireland or would I just be wasting money?

Another factor is that I want to be able to buy good maps of North America for the sat nav as well since I'd like to use it to travel a bit in the US & Canada.

What brands/models should I consider? What should I be looking for at the store?

Rulmeq

In my experience the maps used by TomTom are not as accurate as those used by Garmin.

101sean

Yes, go for a Garmin, better mapping for Ireland than Tomtom.

Street names should work fine in urban areas, the Navteq mapping Garmin use treats townland names as streets in rural areas. Depending the on the settings you use you can get the unit to display the current road name or the next cross street. Only units with text to speech (TTS) will announce a street name in the turn instruction.

I have lane assist on my Sat Nav and find it a bit of a nuisance, stays on too long and obscures the next instruction when coming up a slip road to a roundabout, will probably turn it off.

eirman

This is good value

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=458653