GPS in your car - please help, college project

caroline

I have to do a stupid college project on GPS. It wouldn't be too bad but I need to do market research on whether car owners actualy want it.

Just wondering which of these features you would like to have in your car?

Tracker, Navigation, Fleet Management, 0-60, 0-100, 1/4 mile timing, speed monitoring.

It would be brilliant if you could tell me:
what price range your car is in (<15000, 15000-30000, 30000-50000 or >50000).
If your car is modified or not.
If you have ever had a car stolen/broken into before.
And finally what GPS features you would be interrested in.


Any comments would be a great help
Thanks
Caroline

Silvera

Don't have it, but would like to !

Silvera.

BrianD3

Tracker - yes would be interested
Navigation - yes
Fleet Management - not applicable to me
0-60 - no
0-100 - no
1/4 mile - no
speed monitoring - no

Price range of car - 15-30k
Modified - no
Ever had a car stolen/broken into - no

GPS would be quite low on my list of priroities when buying a car - things like air-con and a sunroof would be more important features to me than GPS.

BrianD3

shurl

Tracker - Yes
Navigation - yes
Fleet Management - N/A
0-60 - No
0-100 - No
1/4 mile - No
speed monitoring - No

Price range of car - 15-30k
Modified - no
Ever had a car stolen/broken into - No

Is Ireland even covered yet? last I heard there was no data for us dark age folks :rolleyes: ?

If it was I *might* go for it.

S.

NeRb666

Tracker - yes
Navigation - yes
Fleet Management- n/a
0-60 - no
0-100 - no
1/4 mile timing - no
speed monitoring - maybe

€15000-30000
If your car is modified or not - no
If you have ever had a car stolen/broken into before - no

And finally what GPS features you would be interrested in - Tracker mainly although there aren't enough Garda resources for it to be successful, if it helps reduce car theft (and therefore insurance) it's a good thing. Navigation would be useful, although I would rarely use it.

LFCFan

Tracker - yes, if the price was right
Navigation - yes. you'd need one to get around the city these days
Fleet Management - N/A

0-60 - no
0-100 - no
1/4 mile - no
speed monitoring - no

Price range of car - 15-30k
Modified - no
Ever had a car stolen/broken into - yes

I think GPS in Ireland is a long way from mainstream. If it was an added extra I'd go for other before GPS like sunroof, Alloys, ABS, AC etc etc so GPS would be a low priority unless I did a lot of driving abroad.

Victor

Taxi drivers (new and existing) are installing it with mini-computers than have every street logged in a searchable database. It will even tell you out loud when to prepare to turn and when you have deviated from the route. It costs about €2,000, but that includes the map database (basic GPS units are available for c. €100-200). I wonder how often the database is updated.

Innovations are DGPS (operated by the UK & Irish Coast Guards using six ground-based antennae to add to the GPS constellation and used by ships, accurate to one metre, handy for docking in misty / foul weather) and Gallileo with will be a European rival (accurate to one metre) to the American GPS (typically accurate to thirty metres). The Russians also have their own system Glonass (also Glosnass / Glosnoss), but it hasn't marketed very well.

I understand many bus companies are using GPS to monitor bus punctuality. As a derivative of this organizations like the Garda and AA can be aware of traffic congestion. Look at http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=1099426

Car hire and insurance companies are using it to penalize drivers who speed.

Regarding Tracker, I think about 1% of cars are stolen per year (check Garda Annual report at www.garda.ie), most for joyriding, but there is a definite market for stolen quality cars, where they are even given new chassis numbers.

I imagine business and government fleet owners eventually using it to keep an eye on their fleets, both to monitor disruption and employee misbehavior.

While not GPS based, some fleets can use mobile phone signals and the like for vehicle tracking.

punter281

pimping not allowed!

mloc123

Tracker - yes
Navigation - maybe
Fleet Management - n/a

0-60 - yes
0-100 - yes
1/4 mile - yes
speed monitoring - no

Price range of car - <15000
Modified - no
Ever had a car stolen/broken into - yes

maidhc

Tracker - No, unless very reasonable (car spends the night behind a locked gate, a door, and an angry dog)

Navigation - For playing with only. It would be a heart rather than head decision. I have never been in a situation where doing more than having a glance at a map the night before was necessary.

Fleet Management - N/A
0-60 - No
0-100 - No
1/4 mile - No
speed monitoring - No

Price range of car - <15k
Modified - no
Ever had a car stolen/broken into - No

junkyard

I have tracker in 3 of my cars and my jeep.
I have Sat/Nav in them too.
0-60 no
0-100 no
Speed monitering NO
Price range > 50k the ones with tracker
Modified yes all of them
Never had any car stolen or attempted theft.

dubtom

I have a sat nav in my car, cost about 230 euros. Only noticed tonight that it has average kph, 49 so far, distance traveled since I got it,distance used etc.
My car is in the 30-50K range. I wouldn't get built in sat nav in a car, upgrading the maps would be a pain I would imagine, although tracker would interest me.
My car isn't modified and I have had a car broken into.
On a side note my unit seems to lose satilite coverage regularly, driving between buildings and tree lined streets, which surprises me, on the one hand it can tell me what number house I am outside, which is great,but then loses me if I drive behind a bush:eek: How high are those satilites anyway:D

Spit62500

I'd be interested in the navigation aspect of things - not needed every day but really handy when going on an unknown route with no co-driver.

I bought a little hand held GPS thingy (one of the cheapest on the market) a while back. I use it as a backup speedometer on my classics as all their speedos read over or under. One has no rev counter and has a speedo that has a different margin of error at different speeds so it takes the guesswork out of driving at the speed limits.

colm_mcm

Tracker Yes
Navigation Yes
Fleet Management No
0-60, No
0-100, No
1/4 mile timing, No
speed monitoring. Yes (presuming it's real time speed)

price range 15000-30000
not modified.
never stolen/broken into before.

GPS features I like on Toyota Sat Nav system are showing of places of interest, and branding for petrol stations. Also pre-programmed dealer location is handy too

Owen

I've a few different GPS systems, built in, standalone, and one that runs on my cellphone. I drive a MINI Cooper, 2006. Features I'd want? Definitely a tracker, but I don't want my speeds logged, so that's fleet management out of the window. What I would like along with the usual GPS features is the GPS linked to SMS on my cellphone, so if my friends are out in their cars, I can see their location on GPS too!

Oh, and maybe the ability to see other cars on GPS as a rule, so I can get in touch with the car in front and ask them to turn off their rear fogs/move into the left lane

Car's worth 35k, never been broken into, modified with a 140Bhp MTH Remap.

dingding

caroline wrote:

I have to do a stupid college project on GPS. It wouldn't be too bad but I need to do market research on whether car owners actualy want it.

Just wondering which of these features you would like to have in your car?

Tracker, Yes
Navigation, Yes
Fleet Management, No
0-60, 0-100, 1/4 mile timing, speed monitoring. No

It would be brilliant if you could tell me:
what price range your car is in (<15000, 15000-30000, 30000-50000 or >50000). > 50,000
If your car is modified or not. Not
If you have ever had a car stolen/broken into before. No
And finally what GPS features you would be interrested in.


Any comments would be a great help
Thanks
Caroline

See above