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Up until now I have not been a Sat Nav fan, preferring to stick to 'good ol maps', my first experience of a satnav did nothing to change my opinion (this was the Sat Nav on my wife's phone and had less sense of direction than her, she will be the first to admit her lack of map reading skills).

But.......following a recent trip to Scotland using father-in-laws TomTom I am converted Yes, it's not perfect and I think common sense has to prevail, I like to plan a route on the map first so that I have some idea of the journey, I think it is foolish to just punch your destination into the little silver box and follow it without some idea of where you're going.

So, to the point............

I am now looking at buying a SatNav as father-in-law only has UK maps and would like to know what to go for, I found the TomTom easy to use and don't need an all singing all dancing live this and automatic that model, cannot justify the cost for the amount of use it will get, so looking for something that meets the following criteria:

1) Easy to use

2) European maps (France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy etc)

3) Musn't be obsolete after a couple of years.

I llike the look of the TomTom Start 20 Europe, right sort of price

I especially like the sound of the advanced lane guidance, does this cover European roads?

Can you update this easily with new map details so that it doesn't become out of date (may be a daft question but I am a SatNav newbie)?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

We got a Garmin 255W (£99 Amazon Feb 2010) to use in France, for the first time last year, fantastic, for finding our overnight stops, and also a dream, for getting us to our day out destinations, and back to the campsite, which we were on for a fortnight.

We have been going to France since 1978, so still have loads of maps, and do use them still.

The Garmin came with all the ACSI campsites pre-loaded, which is handy, even though there was no mention of this feature, when I bought it.

I have since added, Archies camping French campsites, and the upto date list of ACSI CampingCard and none card campsites, which now appear under the extra POI menu  with 3 seperate headings, all for free which is great.

The unit is a 4.3" screen, so I may upgrade to a 5" screen model next year.

Some Garmin models come with lifetime maps, worth considering as Garmin updates can cost more than you paid for the unit in the first place.

Having said that, a bloke down at our local computer fair, will update any Sat-Nav for a tenner, to the latest mapping!.

With the Garmin, you have 60 days in which to update your maps to the latest version, the clock starts ticking, as soon as the unit first locks onto the satellites, so if you can, don't use the sat-nav untill just before you go, to benifit from the most recent mapping version.

Remember that when you buy a sat-nav, it's maps may well be 2 years old or more, it just depends when it was manufactured, and how long it has been in storage etc.

hope that helps.

Edit = link.

http://www.bestdigitalmarket.com/en/product/garmin-nuvi-255w-noh

We have had a Navigon for the last couple of years. Very pleased with it on all 3 trips to France. The lane guidence also worked on Autoroutes and major roads in France and it came with free all Europe mapping quarterly updates for 2 years. Something I will probably subscribe to when the last free update is downloaded next month.  

Carol

I have only ever used TomTom models currently Go730.

Excellent and easy to use. When you buy a new TT I think you have 30 days to update maps FREE thereafter you pay.

Using my PC updates are straightforward and any problems can be sorted by emails.

I would certainly recommend you buy a TomTom - any model you choose should be fine.

Factory refurbs here;- http://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/products/tomtom-outlet-store/

Tesco Direct have £20 off TT's when you spend £20 on fuel.

I have used a Tom Tom for several years now and as you suggest using a bit of common sense it meets our needs. Updating and adding POI's (points of interest) is pretty simple. I don't think you need worry about the device going out of date but you do need to think about updating the maps from time to time. I don't do mine that often but if you are going somewhere where has been a lot of new road building it might be worth it. I was coming down the A1 of Friday where they are converting it to motorway standard and TT got a bit confused! But it was clear where we needed to be.

David

One of the best offers at the moment is the garmin 1490mlt at halfords which has bluetooth, street name announcements, lifetime mapping, lifetime traffic avoidance etc.  Getting a cheap refurbished one and using updates from the market will eventually work out dearer.  The maps can be updated up to 4 times a year on the 1490.

garmin 1490mlt

Thanks for the advice everybody, some interesting stuff there.

My plan is to wait for the next Tesco voucher exchange and see if SatNavs are included (I think they were before), if not will have to wait until next year.

Interesting about the map updates, have just been looking on the TomTom website, I think the Western Europe Map covers everything we will need and includes UK at £50. 

Wondering if updating with this every couple of years or so is a better idea than paying £20 a year for quarterly updates which I think only covers UK?  I can see the advantage of these quarterly updates if you use the SatNav lots but as we will be mainly using it for holidays (UK & Europe) I think it is a bit excessive as we will still need to update European maps from time to time, or am I missing something.

Still get free update of latest map when purchasing TomTom, thanks for the suggestion about not usinng the SatNav until you need it to make sure you get the latest map for free..........only one problem,.... I am a man and when I get a new toy I have to get it straight out of the box.

Quote: Originally posted by mikeandangiem on 02/10/2011

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Wondering if updating with this every couple of years or so is a better idea than paying £20 a year for quarterly updates which I think only covers UK?

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My Navigon is an old version, at least 2 or 3 years old, so the maps must be at least 5 years old. I can count on one hand, the number of times I've found the map inaccurate, here or in France .

Everyone panics too much about map updates, IMO. It's like PPI - you don't really need it...