Best sat nav for reasonable price?

Shurwhynot

What would the best sat nav for under 200 quid be and where might i get one? Are Garmin the best? Please share your knowledge!!

Gumbo

any use to ya?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055381066

Shurwhynot

Is this model good or anyone have any experience with it?

Ferris

Shurwhynot wrote: »

Is this model good or anyone have any experience with it?

I have a Garmin Nuvi 250 and can't really fault it. I have used it in France, UK, Ireland and recently in the US. I got an SD card with the US maps on it so I could use it over there. The only problem with Garmin is that sometimes you have to pay for map updates.

Some of the other Garmins have bluetooth connectivity and more storage so you can use them for a carkit for your phone or to store music on but these are $$$.

TigerTim

Also have a Garmin Nuvi 250. Have used it in Ireland & the UK with no problem. Bought it from Ebay.ie for about €150

T.

nogoodnamesleft

I bought a garmin nuvi 255w lately and I am fairly pleased with it has a lot of the backroads around where i live listed. Some addresses are not listed though and the address input could be more intitutive. It also has Western European maps as well as Uk and Ireland.I got mine from dabs.ie for 190 euro delivered was cheaper that other online shops. Actually saw the same unit for sale in Argos during the week it was going for 260euro!!! :eek: i love online shopping

homer90

Picked up a garmin nuvi 250 last week. Halfords are doing them for €139 at the moment, nice bit of kit for that price (Comes with european mapping).

Cookie_Monster

homer90 wrote: »

Picked up a garmin nuvi 250 last week. Halfords are doing them for €139 at the moment, nice bit of kit for that price (Comes with european mapping).

have a 250w. They are good pieces of kit but there are quite a few bit of road missing from them. Part of N4, N6 and N11 that were finished months before i got it were still not updated, even with download updates on the 2008 maps!

Ferris

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

have a 250w. They are good pieces of kit but there are quite a few bit of road missing from them. Part of N4, N6 and N11 that were finished months before i got it were still not updated, even with download updates on the 2008 maps!

Yeah but thats down to OSI not Garmin and is the same for all GPS's.

nicker_s

Cant fault my garmin 250. I was using a satnav that came with a rental car (Hertz) I THINK it was a magellan, it was awful.

Alun

Ferris wrote: »

Yeah but thats down to OSI not Garmin and is the same for all GPS's.

It's got nothing to do with OSi, they don't supply data for the maps, Navteq and TeleAtlas, two private companies do, and it can take a lot longer than a few months for recent changes to filter through to the currently available maps.

L1011

The two year old Parkwest Distributor is missing on my sat nav (Nokia N95-2) still. The mapping in this country is abysmal.

Alun

MYOB wrote: »

The two year old Parkwest Distributor is missing on my sat nav (Nokia N95-2) still. The mapping in this country is abysmal.

Have you reported it via either the Navteq or TeleAtlas websites (whoever supplies the maps to Nokia)? There's no use complaining about it on here.

Unfortunately there is no mechanism in Ireland (as there is in other countries) for the automatic reporting by roads authorities of new roads / changed road layouts, so it's up to you and me I'm afraid.

L1011

I didn't know such a facility existed, will have to find out who supplies the maps later...

Its not a road I use anymore, just noticed the phone blipping me for driving through thin air once!

Alun

MYOB wrote: »

I didn't know such a facility existed, will have to find out who supplies the maps later...!

Either

http://mapreporter.navteq.com

or

http://mapinsight.teleatlas.com/mapfeedback/index.php

Depending on who it is (probably Navteq). You'll be able to check in both instances whether the road has actually appeared on their latest databases in the meantime.

Dero

My wife has a Garmin 200W (same as the 250W but just UK & Ireland maps afaik), and it seems to be a very nice piece of kit. The Navteq maps have very good coverage of minor/rural roads

The map updater site however leaves a lot to be desired. It is a horribly designed Flash application that just doesn't work very well. I have tried to use it to point out some glaring errors (Marquet square Kildare, Cuttery Road Newbridge), but haven't heard a thing since.

eagerv

Have a Garmin Nuvi 200W and love the simplicity. Particularly like the map scrolling which doesnt require you to press menu keys first. Very simple to "Go To" from map. Much simpler IMO than TomTom or Route 66.

However a pity it doesnt show distance to destination on main screen. It only shows distance to next turn. Also most small towns and villages are not named on screen. TomTom better in this respect.

Alun

Dero wrote: »

The map updater site however leaves a lot to be desired. It is a horribly designed Flash application that just doesn't work very well. I have tried to use it to point out some glaring errors (Marquet square Kildare, Cuttery Road Newbridge), but haven't heard a thing since.

They should send out a confirmation straight away. It can take some time though until they finally send an email confirming the change has been made, even though it appears on the website as though it has. I think it has to go through some sort of QA procedure before it's fully approved and released. I reported 6 errors near me when i got mine in January and they've been corrected, but not finally approved, since about August or so.

Dero

Yeah, I just had a look again and it seems that the Kildare one is corrected on their map, but not finalised yet as the request is still open. I definitely received no e-mails other than the initial one to activate my account.

The frustrating thing about reporting errors is that you are providing Navteq/Garmin with a map correction service, but to get the benefits of your efforts you'll have to pay for a map update once the corrections have filtered through. :mad:

It BeeMee

I picked up a Nuvi 200W in Tesco for €90 - they have a half price offer on at the moment.

Seems decent enough, but I haven't had a chance to try it on a route that I don't know yet.

Angie

I'm going to buy one a Garmin 255. There is a car charger with the unit. Do I need to buy a mains charger?

Henry Ford III

What is "text to speech"?

Alun

Henry Ford III wrote: »

What is "text to speech"?

It makes (often laughable) attempts at pronouncing street names.