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Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 11:26 pm Post subject: Sat nave worth it?
Still pondering where to splash the cash on a TTG500. Ocurrs to me though that a sat nav is only worthwhile the first time (maybe second) you are going somewhere and you dont know the exact route.
Once you've been there and come back, you should know the route for the next day.
In my work, I do a lot of travelling from home to client site then, will make that same journey for the next 3 or 6 months. Unless you do a different journey every day, its not really worth buying a sat nav is it?
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 1:28 am Post subject: Re: Sat nave worth it?
Road_Hog wrote:
Unless you do a different journey every day, its not really worth buying a sat nav is it?
Short answer: No
Longer unswer: Well it's nice to have, especially if you like gadgets. It's nice to use when you're stuck in traffic and want to know if the next right might save the next two hours of your life. It's nice to take on holiday. And there are a few other examples why it's nice to have.
But at the end of the day, if you're looking to spend £200 or more, it's not really worth it if you will only use it once every few months.
Having said that, it's quite a cool thing to have and you can find many other uses for it, especially if it's in a PDA form.
But it is expensive _________________ Toshiba e750 wifi + Belkin Bluetooth CF card
Sysonchip Smart Blue Mini
TTN5, Destinator PN, Kingston 1GB SD
I use my Sat Nav all the time and not particularly for navigation per se. I know the bak from home to Skegness as I do the journey a few times per year. What I do not remember is the exact distance to a pieve of straight road, a junction, or a roundabout.
When you are stuck behind slow moving traffic the GPS helps you avoid that idiot moment when you overtake only to find the road becomes 2-lane or there is a junction where you have to stop anyway.
The other night, having driven to a friends for supper we drove back in pitch darkness. So dary it just absorbed the headlights. The GPS helped warn of the quite sharp bends and a tricky junction round a downhill bend.
We also do a 200 mile journey every month but the GPS often allows us to vary the route.
One day we were very short of petrol and when we filled up we were down to the last litre. We were so short of fuel we could not afford to drive round looking for a garage. We stopped, found a garage on the GPS and then navigated to it.
Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:37 am Post subject: Re: Sat nave worth it?
Road_Hog wrote:
Still pondering where to splash the cash on a TTG500. Ocurrs to me though that a sat nav is only worthwhile the first time (maybe second) you are going somewhere and you dont know the exact route.
Once you've been there and come back, you should know the route for the next day.
In my work, I do a lot of travelling from home to client site then, will make that same journey for the next 3 or 6 months. Unless you do a different journey every day, its not really worth buying a sat nav is it?
When I was researching the Pros/Cons of SatNav, I was of the similar opinion as that it was a 'Boys Toy' and once you know a route, it had little worth... After all 95% of my journeys are under 5 ~ 6 miles and on roads I know intimately. How wrong I was...
Having SatNav available, in the long run, saves more time, frustration and money and earns its keep quickly in more ways than one.
Setting up a route is easy (with TT certainly) and once done, you can relax and concentrate on the drive and not have to keep stopping to consult the map et al.
Even on familiar routes, it is a comfort and helps keep you on track. If you have the safety camera PIO set up to give an audible warning, it quickly re-focuses the mind back to safe driving. (And possibly saves the cost of a ticket.)
It may sound daft, but having Jane tell me “at the bottom of the road, turn left!” is comforting and gives me more confidence on the journey. At least, she knows where she is going! Not only that, she is company in the car and has never argued if I disagree with her instructions and turn right instead. She is so tolerant. She ignores being shouted at. She doesn’t tell me to calm down when I start shouting at other drivers. She is almost the perfect journey companion!
You are literally never lost with a SatNav system. Just one example: I needed to take my wife to a place in the heart of Bristol, in a one way system. No sweat, it put me outside the destination door. On getting in the car and setting the route “Home” , my wife wanted to go to “Cribs Causeway” A massive shopping complex. WTF is Cribs???? TT had a route set up in seconds and got us there.
I could go on and many other users will have similar instances. Yes, I do still carry a detailed paper road map – useful for the overview, but never use it for navigation now.
I use a PDA version with an amplified power mount. It is easy and convenient to put in and take out of the car. The PDA is also incredibly useful; addresses/notes/appointments/calendar/music et c etc….
I certainly recommend SatNav and strongly urge you to look at the pros/cons of a PDA version Vs a Dedicated unit.
What ever your decision, I wish you well with your choice. _________________ Axim X50 & TT5, Arkon CM820 powered mount with built in sirf2 gps
Axim 5 sans GPS Rx
Ford Focus 2L Ghia, Wife, kids, dog, cats, mortgage, bank manager & taxman to support, debts, windows need painting - (I cut the grass! - its rained - it needs
I have to agree that it's only once you own one you realise just how useful they are?
I have a theory as well that if you dont spend much time in a car, then you going to be the kind of person that gets lost, if not lost then maybe take routes which are either slower or further that neccessary? People on the road all the time no the little short cuts which most of the time you'd never know about them? I bet if you venture out of your town just very slightly your be suprised at just how many alternative routes there are to near by towns and villages which in the past you'd may never have thought about or considered?
I bought my Dad a system for Christmas last year. Now he has a good sense of direction but he likes to travel all over the country to go Sea fishing. The problem with his hobby is that he found lots of places that have been good to fish from but many, many times he could not remember where these little coves etc were. By using his Satnav system he could store these places as favourites or POI's and now he no longer has problems finding these places if he wants to return. It's a simple example but from his point of view it's been as he puts it "bloody Clever"
I dont drive a huge amount maybe 10k a year but a few years back i was travelling from Swindon To Romford. I got on the M25 and got halfway around and had to get off no where near my destination due to an accident. I figured i try and run as parallel to the M25 as i could and rejoin and the next junction or 2...... yeah right!! A good few hours later and i was still easing around no where close to where i needed to be. What should have been a a 2 hour journey took me around 6 hours..... Please dont laugh!!
My point is a current satnav solution would have sorted me out in no time. Not to mention saving my bleeding ear drums from my whining girlfreind!!
I know it's a lot to shell out but once you have it, it's a god send. I now have a satnav system as i was so impressed by my dads. I think with additional features like Mobile Handsfree communication with the likes of the go 500 / 700 and the portability of the units (transferable between vehicles) and passive camera detection they almost pay for themselves over time in saved fuel, ware and teare on your car......... speeding fines (if you silly enough to get caught?).
Dont hold back, get yourself one!! It's just deciding on which, dedicated or PDA based.
Darren _________________ Acer N10....yeah I know, but it does the job!!
Sysonchip Compact Flash with external patch antena (Works a treat)
Brodbit Mount (the only dedicated N10 mount available)
512Meg intergral fast (80X) SD card
TomTom 5
Snooper S5-R & Cheetah active Sa
Just to reiterate. the GPS is great. The other day I foolishly broke the plug. We were going to Southampton to catch a cruise ship. We were stuffed. We had to buy a new atlas, then we hit a jam on the M27.
I admit I would not have pulled off on the GPS alone but would have had a quick glance at the map to see if there was an alternative and then let the Sat Nav take-over.
A couple of times I have made detours only to have the Sat Nav take me back to the jam as soon as possible! Now had I set up the road blocked feature . . .
All of the abovei can only agree with, i would not be with out my sat nav even thoe my journeys are about 10 miles around the local area with the tt system just punch in the postcode and away i go. not only that the speed camera feature is GREAT
I can't speak for TomTom but the Medion Navigator had this function and the Navigon product does too.
In navigation mode, if you press the navigation window (short press) a window opens with one pane 'Block Road'. If you then press this 8 more panes appear in another window with various distances: 200 and 500 yards, 0.6, 1.2, 3.1, 6, 12 and 31 miles.
From the manual it say:
Blocking a route section manually
You may block a route section manually in order to evade it.
Manual blocking forces a recalculation of the route.
Presume that you are driving on a freeway and a radio message
announces a traffic jam 4 miles ahead of your current position.
With the "Block route sections" function you may instruct the
navigation system to evade the announced traffic jam.
A manual blocking is only valid for the current navigation
process. The respective route section will be unblocked for the
next navigation or when you restart the software.
Blocking a route section…
Precondition: The navigation system is in navigation mode and
the map is being displayed.
1. Tap short on any place on the map.
2. Tap Block road.
The BLOCKING screen opens.
2. Enter how many miles (from your current position on) you
want to block.
3. Tap OK.
And that answers my question. Once you are in a jam then the GPS can only tell you the bleedin obvious. If you can see the jam (200 yards) and there is no turn off before then, well you are still in a jam!
Joined: Aug 21, 2005 Posts: 1761 Location: Kent, England
Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2005 10:37 pm Post subject: Re: road block
grayus wrote:
Thanks M8 I thought that I was missing something on TT5
There is the same facility on TT5. Tap the screen, then choose "find alternative". Then choose "Avoid roadblock" and you are presented with 4 options for distance ahead for blockage, 100yds 1/4 mile, 1 mile or 3 miles. Choose one and the route will automatically recalculate.
The problem is that this range is a bit limited - queues can often be longer than 3 miles - but that normally occurs on motorways where opportunities to turn off are limited. I suppose the shorter distances may be OK in town where you can see the blockage ahead. If queue is longer you can use the "avoid part of route" option to pick a longer section to miss out. That can also be useful if you know a particular junction is a traffic blackspot (or have just heard it on the radio).
Posted: Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:39 pm Post subject: Re: Sat nave worth it?
Road_Hog wrote:
Still pondering where to splash the cash on a TTG500. Ocurrs to me though that a sat nav is only worthwhile the first time (maybe second) you are going somewhere and you dont know the exact route.
Once you've been there and come back, you should know the route for the next day.
In my work, I do a lot of travelling from home to client site then, will make that same journey for the next 3 or 6 months. Unless you do a different journey every day, its not really worth buying a sat nav is it?
On purchasing my Mio168 with TT3, I went to the US for a brief holiday, Satnav was absolutely perfect in Manhattan both driving and walking. A few times whilst out walking, I really did get lost, out came the Satnav with a highly detailed map of Manhattan. I also used it whilst touring in Italy (Tuscany) and it guided me through Florence (very narrow back-streets) to my destination. Try getting from Pisa to Luca at midnight when all the roads look the same. The only problems I have had is that there are no detailed maps for Greece or Eire (Europe), on my TT3 system anyway.
On a short (100 mile) jouney in UK, I had to come off the M1 due to an accident, on went the SatNav and guided me off the M1 and through villages to a position 2 junctions up from where I came off, thereby missing out all the backlog of irate drivers.
I use mine as a PDA as well and find it invaluable.
I dread the day the satellites all fall out of the sky because I will then be forced to try to read a map at night travelling down the M1 at 69.99mph whilst listening the Meatloaf.
I still think you're all missing the point a little.
Satnav is great. G-R-E-A-T. I have it on PDA and I like it and I have many good things to say about it.
BUT,
if the question is whether it's worth the £200-£500 price tag if you are going to use it a couple of times a month (which is the original question is this post) then I still think it's not worth it. It's pretty cool and useful (more so in PDA format), but if you're on a tight budget and don't really need it to navigate on a daily or weekly basis, I don't think it's worth the money (have we forgotten that £350 (on average) is still a lot of money?)
And again I will say that I am a GREAT FAN of the whole thing. I just think we have to be realistic.
(I suppose I am about to be lynched now by everyone ) _________________ Toshiba e750 wifi + Belkin Bluetooth CF card
Sysonchip Smart Blue Mini
TTN5, Destinator PN, Kingston 1GB SD
exfive, you are right that £350 is a tadge expensive for a twice a month usage. However you can buy a perfectly useable basic model that works as a PDA and GPS for less than £250. This is outstanding value compared with the dedicated GPS sold in PC World etc at up to £500.
You can also buy these bottom range models on eBay for less than £200. If you are using it as infrequently as is suggested then you could even forego regular map updates.
We have all said that it save hassle, time and temper. At £240 this would be £10 per trip for the year or a fiver per trip over 2 years.
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