sat nav - garmin / TT

Author
Discussion

cheekymonkey

Original Poster:

1,139 posts

231 months

Thursday 20th April 2006
quotequote all
Hi Guys,

Having had a read of the last couple of pages of posts in this forum i can see you guys have a fair bit of experience. I'm looking at sat nav options & have pretty much narrowed it down to the 2 big names of Tom Tom & Garmin.

I already have a Origin B2 solo for scamera alerts so that bit is covered nicely. This is currently powered by the cig lighter in both cars... can I get an adapter to power 2 devices off the cig lighter?... I asume most sat nav systems work of the cig lighter too?

What I'm after is this...

- UK & Europe roads (ideally detailed europe but as long as the options to get the maps is there if not standard that's cool) A question here is when i go to Le Mans later in the year are you allowed to use the sat nav over there? I know the B2 i can't??

- Postcode / address entry

- Portable as i have 2 cars (bear in mind one has a heated screen.... does it still work thorough this or do i need externa antenna like on my B2?)

- Ability to mount in both cars (will i need extra cradles?)


I'm guessing frommy research my likely products are the garmin i3 and the tom tom 500 / 700?

I want a simple, usable device that installs cleanly and can be easily swapped between cars. Price is not so much the issue really, I just want somethign that works well!

Thanks in advance

longwool

187 posts

241 months

Thursday 20th April 2006
quotequote all
have a look at the Garmin Nuvi. A truly excellent piece of kit. Bought one for the wife at Christmas. Size of a PDA and very portable. Mapping in UK is excellent with simple full post code entry. I have loaded all the speed cameras on it as POI from the GPS database and it gives out warnings. One machine does it all. You will need the 350? version if you require European mapping. Go and have a demo of one......in my opinion TOM Tom isn't in the same league.

cheekymonkey

Original Poster:

1,139 posts

231 months

Friday 21st April 2006
quotequote all
thanks longwool - looks a very nice device - yet to find a garmin dealer nearby me in dorset yet, they seem to be marine based as opposed to vehicle based... still worth a chat with them to see if they have the device.

longwool

187 posts

241 months

Friday 21st April 2006
quotequote all
Take a trip to Plymouth, excellent dealer at Bretonside who understands the word discount ;-)