Sat Nav - Advice Sought

[Michaeljst]

I used to have a sat nav in my previous company car. Itwas built in. It was fantastic!

Recently I bought a GS300 (2001) which did not have sat nav.

Can anyone recommend a system that is both visual and verbal, one that really works well and where the software can be updated etc.

I should be very grateful.

Regards to all.

:)

[Matthew_McNally]

use the searcg - there are a bunch of posts on this subject ;)

lots of people using Tom Tom software, in various guises - with ipaqs, Bluetooth receivers, or go.

My £0.02 is to go for the Tom Tom Go.

My brother has TomTom Navigator 3 on an ipaq, and my father has the Tom TOm Go.

Of the two - I prefer the TTGo.

Neither of them are as good as the sat nav provided by Lexus though

[Mike246]

I'm just the chap to help you.

I have Lexus CD-based satnav in my GS. It's very good but downsides are 1) update disks are £150 and 2) You can't do much with it unless you are stationary which may be sensible except it prevents the passenger from doing so.

As I drive other cars, I bought a PDA (HP iPAQ) and TomTom Navigator. Result -brilliant. The two units converse using Bluetooth. The navigation is as good as the Lexus system and the 3D display ever better, it can be operated on the move and most importantly it is portable between family drivers and vehicles. I've also put a speed camera database on which is a great benefit.

The Lexus system originally added £2400 to the price of the car and comparable OEM systems are now down to £1200 - £1800.

TomTom also do a self-contained version which would cost a bit less.

The TomTom system added £175 to the cost of the iPAQ which was £300. I rest my case.

[Matthew_McNally]

As I drive other cars, I bought a PDA (HP iPAQ) and TomTom Navigator. Result -brilliant. The two units converse using Bluetooth. The navigation is as good as the Lexus system and the 3D display ever better, it can be operated on the move and most importantly it is portable between family drivers and vehicles. I've also put a speed camera database on which is a great benefit.

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I found the Tom Tom unit to be not as good as the standard Lexus sat nav;

- it is significantly slower to auto re-route if you take a wrong turn

- it is not as vocal, meaning you have to pay more attention to the screen

on several occasions using the Tom Tom, it did not give us vocal indications of when to take turns, which lead to us getting more and more off the route.

on one occasion, it gave us a vocal indication literally exactly as we were at the junction.

its a good unit - I would recommend getting one if you don't have factory sat nav, but I don't think it is as good as the standard nav I had in my IS, or currently have in my GS

[Plex]

I found the Tom Tom unit to be not as good as the standard Lexus sat nav;

- it is significantly slower to auto re-route if you take a wrong turn

- it is not as vocal, meaning you have to pay more attention to the screen

on several occasions using the Tom Tom, it did not give us vocal indications of when to take turns, which lead to us getting more and more off the route.

on one occasion, it gave us a vocal indication literally exactly as we were at the junction.

its a good unit - I would recommend getting one if you don't have factory sat nav, but I don't think it is as good as the standard nav I had in my IS, or currently have in my GS

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I have the iPaq with Tomtom 3 and its quick at rerouting (less than 200 yrds @30mph it will tell me I need to turn around. Never encountered any problems with vocal. When using the sat nav.. i disable all the sleep modes on iPaq to avoid any of the situations you mention Matt... Might be worth looking at the settings on your ipaq Matt

[Rodders_UK]

We have a VDP Dayton MS5000 unit in our other car. It's every bit as good as the Lexus unit in my GS - better in some respects and the later units have TMS (traffic) built in too.

We paid nearly £2K for the VDO unit a few years back, but I've seen them on eBay fro around 400-500 quids. You can also use the VDO unit for multimedia if that's your thing. Downside is that you have to find somewhere to mount the screen and a single-DIN sized CD reader

[ColinBarber]

TomTom GO. Better than normal TomTom on a PDA

[Mike246]

Probably more convenient, but can you add a speed camera overlay on the GO?

[TonyGoose]

I see Aldi have their pocket pc / gps nav system deal again next week.

Don't know much about pda's myself - looks a good deal though for £250.

http://uk.aldi.com/special_buys/product_462.html

Might be worth a look ...

[T7RY B]

Tony do you know what date this starts at Aldi ? My Mrs. needs a Sat/Nav and I've heard good reports about the MEDION set up. Apparently a monkey can use it so she should get the hang of it after a few months,

Cheers Terry

[Matthew_McNally]

Probably more convenient, but can you add a speed camera overlay on the GO?

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Yes - I did it on my fathers.

upgrade the TTGo software

then get the speed camera database from pocketgps.co.uk - full instructions are on that site ;)

[ColinBarber]

Probably more convenient, but can you add a speed camera overlay on the GO?

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Yes as Matt has said the current shipping software now allows user defined POI.

It's not just more convenient it is a bit faster than a PocketPC PDA as it's not running other tasks.

[Jiberjaber]

I have already mentioned this in the other sat nav thread, but check out www.pocketgps.co.uk forums, they cover nearly EVERY gps based system available, from recievers to software to car mounted to AVL equipment... there is both TomTom Navigator and GO forum sections on there as well...

HTH :)

(Colin is going to think I am stalking him now ;) )

[TonyGoose]

Tony do you know what date this starts at Aldi ?

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Queues outside the door start Thursday 11th :)

http://uk.aldi.com

[Michaeljst]

Thanks Mike, you version of events seems most sensible.

I am just going to check out the Sony Ericsson P910i with Sat nav before making my final chaice. (I still have my Ipaq)

Mike

[Mike246]

One essential for the iPAQ and TomTom unit is an in-car power lead as each will only last about 3 hours or so. The HP one is expensive at £24 or so but comes with an iPAQ adaptor to charge both, although not at the same time.

TomTom do have cradle kits but didn't fancy a rubber sucker mount.

[eXOBeX]

I can thoroughly recommend the TomTom Go. Added speedtraps to it, too, instantly rendering my Origin Blue i redundant.

Driving to Weymouth last Wednesday, turned off at Taunton to get a traffic announcement of a crash down the road. Hit the slow traffic, told TomTom there's a roadblock 1km ahead, TomTom rerouted me round the little back roads and back on track again. Fantastic.

[andybriggs]

Does anyone know if its possible to upgrade the Lexus satnav to add on the speed camera stuff like you can with the tomtom etc?