Garmin SatNav

gomara

The Garmin 2545LMT, which is a 5" SatNav with lifetime map updates and traffic information included is available on Amazon for £159.99. (Free Delivery). Maps included are all of Western Europe (basically everything from Ireland to Eastern Italy)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-2545LMT-Western-Lifetime-Traffic/dp/B007A1DFEU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339051575&sr=8-1

It's a very capable GPS and is currently at the same price as its 4.3" brother the 2445LMT.

As a bonus, it's eligible for Garmins Summercashback promotion http://www.garmin.co.uk/summercashback where you'll get another €30 off.

I've purchased it and got confirmation of the cashback payment. (Straight to your bank account)

Works out about €170 after cashback.

dodzy

gomara wrote: »

The Garmin 2545LMT, which is a 5" SatNav with lifetime map updates and traffic information included is available on Amazon for £159.99. (Free Delivery). Maps included are all of Western Europe (basically everything from Ireland to Eastern Italy)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-2545LMT-Western-Lifetime-Traffic/dp/B007A1DFEU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339051575&sr=8-1

It's a very capable GPS and is currently at the same price as its 4.3" brother the 2445LMT.

As a bonus, it's eligible for Garmins Summercashback promotion http://www.garmin.co.uk/summercashback where you'll get another €30 off.

I've purchased it and got confirmation of the cashback payment. (Straight to your bank account)

Works out about €170 after cashback.

170 for a satnav ? Where's the BA ?

gomara

ummm thanks for the useful input. It's a BA because the unit normally costs £189.99 (€233). Whether you consider thats too much to pay for a dedicated SatNav with advanced feature and lifetime map updates is up to you, but its a substantial discount, I'm sure you'll agree. And please lets not have the old 'my phone can do all that for free' argument, as a frequent traveller outside Ireland I know all too well the limitations of phone or mobile GPS, with limited coverage or no data roaming.

bogman

dodzy wrote: »

170 for a satnav ? Where's the BA ?

Great price when you include the Western Europe Maps, Summercashback promotion and Free Lifetime Maps , this cost approximately 70 euro, Garmin is a great piece of kit, ive a 550 & a 660 zumo

CreepingDeath

dodzy wrote: »

170 for a satnav ? Where's the BA ?

Maps are the expensive "consumable" part of sat nav systems.
A lifetime agreeement to map updates is quite interesting.

Just as a vague example, Honda cars have built in sat-navs and the update disk is about €200 per year.
Not quite comparable to this, but at least an example that the price of updating the maps every year is a lot more than the cost of the hardware.

rebeve

gomara wrote: »

ummm thanks for the useful input. It's a BA because the unit normally costs £189.99 (€233). Whether you consider thats too much to pay for a dedicated SatNav with advanced feature and lifetime map updates is up to you, but its a substantial discount, I'm sure you'll agree. And please lets not have the old 'my phone can do all that for free' argument, as a frequent traveller outside Ireland I know all too well the limitations of phone or mobile GPS, with limited coverage or no data roaming.

You will be able to use google maps without a data network within the next few weeks .End of sat navs me thinks .

Lawdie

rebeve wrote: »

You will be able to use google maps without a data network within the next few weeks .End of sat navs me thinks .

Can you please explain further.

A2LUE42

http://www.slashgear.com/google-maps-goes-offline-06232601/

gomara

"You will be able to use google maps without a data network within the next few weeks .End of sat navs me thinks"

Ummmmm It's a little soon to announce the death of the dedicated SatNav. Google Maps has had the ability to pre-cache Map areas for some time but it required you to know the areas you were going to visit and cache them manually before travel. Fine once you knew where were going and were happy to manually cache multiple 'tiles' (each one is 14 x 14 Miles, try that for Calais-Cannes). I'm assuming the new version makes this a little easier, and allows you to continue navigation with no data connection. I'm pretty sure, however, that any search (e.g. Petrol Station, Restaurant etc) will require a connection to complete. If you change destination you're going to have to find a WIFI area to update your maps. You also have to consider the other features of SatNavs not found in Google Maps i.e. LaneAssist, PhotoRealistic Junction Views, RealTime Traffic Information (with NO data connection). The Garmin Model I listed above also has a 5" screen which nothing other then Tablets can provide. I've no particular truck with Garmin but as a GPS user of many years (pre 2000, aviation use) I think people should make informed decisions about what's best for them. I'd be very nervous about starting a trip into Europe with only Google Maps onboard. If 99% of your travel is in Ireland (Republic not north) then Google Maps is a great free product. Also look at Navfree for Android which allows downloading offline maps of most of Europe, and is also free, with 2-Monthly Map updates. Address searching, however, requires a data connection. I'd also highly recommend looking at Waze for Android, which now covers Ireland, and is a community-led GPS which allows users to notify traffic restrictions so that all users can be alerted. Finally on checking prices I discovered that the 2545LMT is €311 in Maplins (never cheap there) and €233 on mysatnav.ie, which is usually reasonable. If anyone needs objective advice about GPS, please feel free to PM me. So the 2545LMT is still a BA!

_AVALANCHE_

rebeve wrote: »

You will be able to use google maps without a data network within the next few weeks .End of sat navs me thinks .

They never gave a time line for this. Not even a rough guess.

Could be next year.

gizmo555

gomara wrote: »

"You will be able to use google maps without a data network within the next few weeks .End of sat navs me thinks"

Ummmmm It's a little soon to announce the death of the dedicated SatNav. Google Maps has had the ability to pre-cache Map areas for some time but it required you to know the areas you were going to visit and cache them manually before travel. Fine once you knew where were going and were happy to manually cache multiple 'tiles' (each one is 14 x 14 Miles, try that for Calais-Cannes) . . .

Nokia Maps has been free for years and includes maps with free updates for most of world. It is very straightforward to download maps and install them either on a regional basis or for an entire country at a time. It can be set to not use roaming data with the associated charges.

keithclancy

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alk.copilot.eumarket.premiumeumaj&hl=en

Copilot is excellent, I never use my TomTom anymore and it doesnt require data, unless you want the live traffic info.

Plus it takes live traffic info and has most POIs preloaded.

Works fine on my crappy Alcatel 918D Dual sim I bought for 100 euros

Paying over the odds for a dedicated Sat Nav is a waste of money in my opinion.

Also it means I'm not leaving an expensive device in the car, or having to carry a dedicated sat nav around the place.

I have the European maps, used it to drive from Eindhoven in the Netherlands to Ireland and from Eindhoven to Berlin without any problems.

gomara

I'm sure Nokia Maps is up to purpose, but as far as I'm aware is only available on Nokia Windows Phones, which is a very small segment of the smartphone market currently (<4% in 2012). Again, all small factor screens, not the best when driving. And yes copilot is very good but costs €45 or €65 depending on version, and still misses many of the 'advanced' features.

keithclancy

gomara wrote: »

I'm sure Nokia Maps is up to purpose, but as far as I'm aware is only available on Nokia Windows Phones, which is a very small segment of the smartphone market currently (<4% in 2012). Again, all small factor screens, not the best when driving. And yes copilot is very good but costs €45 or €65 depending on version, and still misses many of the 'advanced' features.

What 'advanced' features ?

gizmo555

gomara wrote: »

I'm sure Nokia Maps is up to purpose, but as far as I'm aware is only available on Nokia Windows Phones, which is a very small segment of the smartphone market currently (<4% in 2012). Again, all small factor screens, not the best when driving. And yes copilot is very good but costs €45 or €65 depending on version, and still misses many of the 'advanced' features.

No, I've been using it for over two years on Symbian phones and it does me fine for both Irish driving and continental holidays. Maybe it's just because I don't know any better, but I have no problem using the 7.5cm H x 4.5cm W screen on my Nokia N8 (running Symbian Belle) while driving.

Like Garmin, it provides free lifetime map updates.

What's copilot? (I found out!)

zom

keithclancy wrote: »

crappy Alcatel 918D Dual sim I bought for 100 euros

it's not so crapy phone, released Dec 2011, 130E in the shop...

_AVALANCHE_

http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/apple-spy-planes-to-film-homes-from-the-air-3134240.html

god's toy

Does the Garmin traffic thing even work in Ireland?
My last one has 'free traffic for life' too with a kinda FM receiver built in to the power cable. But has never worked over here. Have it about 4 years now, works fine in the UK however.

So does anyone know if this deal is the same radio type or a cell tower type like tom-tom?

gizmo555

god's toy wrote: »

Does the Garmin traffic thing even work in Ireland?
My last one has 'free traffic for life' too with a kinda FM receiver built in to the power cable. But has never worked over here. Have it about 4 years now, works fine in the UK however.

So does anyone know if this deal is the same radio type or a cell tower type like tom-tom?

According to one of the user reviews on Amazon, you need an accessory receiver.

That, I suppose, is one of the advantages of mobile phones with integrated GPS - they already have the ability to receive traffic info, map updates, etc. built in.

Of course, you may incur serious roaming data charges if you're using them in this way abroad . . .

keithclancy

zom wrote: »

it's not so crapy phone, released Dec 2011, 130E in the shop...

I bought it here for 92 euros, was 98.95 in total with delivery.
http://www.belsimpel.nl/alcatel/alcatel-ot-918-dual-sim-black/overzicht

Its not great, low resolution, screen is too small and its a bit off for typing messages, the bluetooth stack is rubbish also, has lots of problems pairing with other devices.

Dual Sim functionality works well though, battery is alright too.

gomara

Yes I wasnt sure about the traffic here in Ireland but it certainly works in Dublin, (note below in features) traffic enabled models such as the 2545LMT have a built in traffic receiver in the car power cable, and I'm certainly getting warnings about traffic. (The only difference between an LM model and an LMT model is the supplied cable). This information is done over FM signallling as far as I know, and it does not require any Data connection. Another asked about advanced feature of this model. They are :-

Map data includes: Ireland, UK, Western Europe
Free Lifetime Maps - up to 4 map updates per year for the life of the unit
5" diagonal, dual-orientation WQVGA colour TFT display with white backlight, split sceen display
Guidance 2 for faster route calculations, more intuitive user interface and quicker searching
Free Lifetime 3D Traffic - , data connection not required, *** Coverage includes Dublin and the surrounding areas ***
Lane Assist and PhotoReal Junction View - guides you to the proper lane for navigation
ecoRoute - for fuel efficient route calculation
Multi-stop routing and automatic re-routing

shovel

This one has bluetooth as well for just a tenner more and qualifies for free delivery and €40 cashback as well


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-2595LMT-Lifetime-Updates-Bluetooth/dp/B005LGTLWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339535053&sr=8-1

Libera

Note the max cashback promotion is actually €30 - it's £30 if you provide a UK address/bank acct. A bit unfair of Garmin to ignore the exchange rate! Even though buying through UK site (Amazon), think you apply through the Irish link.

Thanks to the OP for this thread - my sat nav died (Mio Navman...never again!) and deciding on the 2495LMT, 2545LMT or 2595LMT...oh decisions! Would folk favour a 5" screen over 4.3"...if anyone has any experience?

Libera

Stumbled on some more information on the Irish traffic feature:

http://www.garmin.com/uk/irish-traffic

If anyone has one of the models mentioned, do you know if the Cyclops speed camera system is included, or do you have to pay for it annually? I note the specs say "contain our unique Cyclops speed camera system" but not sure if that just means the software is pre-loaded and you then pay for the updates etc.

bogman

shovel wrote: »

This one has bluetooth as well for just a tenner more and qualifies for free delivery and €40 cashback as well
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-2595LMT-Lifetime-Updates-Bluetooth/dp/B005LGTLWQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339535053&sr=8-1

Better value as has and Full Europe maps & bluetooth which the original offer does not

gomara

In answer to some of the queries above, Traffic definitely works in Dublin. The Cyclops Safety Zone system is trial only, and you'll have to pay St15.99 a year to keep it up. You purchase from Amazon UK but you have to go through the Irish version of the summercashback promotion, so the cashback is €30 (I just scanned my delivery docket from Amazon, and supplied a serial number) and got approval straight away (may take 30 days to lodge). The 2595 model is good value also, but I didn't need bluetooth. As it has full Europe Maps, however, it must have more internal storage the the 2545, so thats a good thing. Finally I had a 4.3" model (Nuvi 660) and dont see a huge difference with the 5". BUt as pointed out in my origional post, the 5" worked out less then the 4.3" (2445LMT) so why not?