Sub 100 sat nav, can't make a decision!

stubbly · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 05, 2009 Posts: 4

I am trying to decide on a sat nav for my car, nothing fancy, and I am looking at the under £100 pound range that you can find in Halfords/Tesco/Amazon etc. I have not owned a sat nav before.

I had whittled it down to the newer TomTom V4, however on further research today, I find it has no facility to be expanded, and that it does not include any route planning. It does however have the mapshare, and editible maps facility which sounds useful. Really I would only want to possibly expand to europe in the future. Would it have enough room?

I hear the TomTom classic (apparently the V3) does have the route planning, but you have to hack the device to show it, and some sites say it is expandable but others say it is not. Can you hack the v4?

Today I also came across the Navigon 2200, for a similar price to the TTV4, with free traffic, and lane advise and other useful sounding bits, but apprently no way of adding custom locations, POIs. No idea on the route planning on this.

I also understand GARMIN and a good choice too, although I could see no features that stood out above the others (I have no use for bluetooth, mp3 playback, or guidebooks). Are they generally expandable? I noticed when playing with one in tesco that it could go somewhere via somewhere else.

In essence I am looking for a device that does good routing, gets a quick and reliable GPS fix, makes sense to use, and that I can add custom POIs and routes to (or at least go somewhere via somewhere else). In future I may want to add european maps, but don't need them currently. I'm not amazingly bothered by traffic but it is a bonus. I have no need for Bluetooth, MP3 playback and all that other gubbins.

I am in the UK and only require UK maps.

philpugh · Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2009 9:11 pm Post subject:

Have a look at the nuvi 2xx series from Garmin (possibly also the 310) These can be got for a decent price. THere are some good deals on TomTom also

Totalpda.co.uk are offering some good factory refurbished deals on TomTom. I bought a 720 from them (came to just over £100).

Have a look at the page linked to their name.

I would stick to one of these two manufacturers.
_________________
Phil

stubbly · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 05, 2009 Posts: 4

Yeah, I figured they were the ones I should be concentrating on. Any idea of which ones would best fit my requirements?

stubbly · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 05, 2009 Posts: 4

Thanks for the link to the refurbs. I've just bought a refurbed 520. Ticks all my boxes, and adds a few bonuses all for a similar price to the new v4s.

philpugh · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:58 am Post subject:

If you can still get the 720 I would have no hesitation in recommending one - it exceeds your stated needs - but it is very good.

The 520 would be the same (it has UK and Ireland mapping). Both have SD card slots so you can add additional maps as and when you need them.
_________________
Phil

stubbly · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 05, 2009 Posts: 4

Just what I figured, thanks for showing me the refurb route Phil!

Anita · Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 1:23 pm Post subject:

	PocketGPS
	Web