The old one went walkies. Foolishly left the car door unlocked and it vanished in the night, it left with an old broken iphone (ha sucker you are gonna get an angry punter after you!) Tjhe old one was old, over 5 years and was starting to need some maps updating.
Anyway, I have a new Sat Nav. The TomTom XXL IQ routes.
www.amazon.co.uk/TomTom-XXL-IQ-Routes-Europe/dp/B002ZN0K1O
Chosen because
a: its a TomTom, - its a format I prefer and am used to.
b: Its an older technology one, in that it uses the OV2 format for overlays, so easy to add POI's (inc the GPSworld Camera database)
c: it has the older style easyport mount, the easiest to pop on and off and the one least likely to fall off your screen.
I wont miss the bluetooth or SD card slot, mp3 player from the old one (it has all of europe maps on board, and its easy to dump the euro map and replace with USA when needed because its the old technology one.)
Quick review.
Used it for two days and 300 miles. Being a tomtom the interface is easy to use, piece of cake to enter addresses, postcodes, waypoints etc. The IQ routes is good, if pre planning it asks when you will arrive, in order to use the IQ routes functions which know traffic blackspots and speeds. I noticed right away it plans different routes and uses one I take due to experience (for example A1 south to my place the old one would suggest A1/Black cat/A421/M1 south/M25) Now I know the faster route is the A1 south/A414 north orbital/M25 south. It chose the route I know is faster. Audio is loud and clear, screen is big bright and reflection free. An RDS traffic receiver can be plugged in via the USB port, an item I will obtain later.
If fullfills all the basic requirements of a sat nav.
The new one does not have text to speech, so cant read out street names. The old jane was never the same after consecutive trips to Wales and Sicily. She sounded like a drunk with a speech defect after that.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 13:37
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Good choice mine sat nav wants replacing Tom tom one.I have a look at this one.
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Interesting. As you know I have a plethora of satnavs in various forms, and the one feature I really miss when I don't have it is the TTS.
Used dreary Waze last night instead of the more usual TomTom and found that "turn left" is just slightly less relaxing than "turn left on the B1050".
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Sincere best wishes on your new SatNav, Zero.
I'm on my 5th TomTom, and sad to say it will be my last. Definitely a step backwards, IMHO, and the latest ones are even worse - you are 100% correct in avoiding the very latest technology as you say in your post.
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>> Used dreary Waze last night instead of the more usual TomTom and found that "turn
>> left" is just slightly less relaxing than "turn left on the B1050".
You should hear TT jane spouting "Turn left onto Viale Carlo Umberto Dalla Chiesa VIII"
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Whilst on the subject of TomToms, my next car has a removable one built into the central console. Is there a TomTom equivalent of Garmin's Mapsource where you can have the same map on your PC and do route planning, and then upload to the GPS, or conversely download your track-log to the PC?
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Do they still do those aftermarket sat navs then? How quaint...Thought they'd gone the way of stick on heated rear screens and eight track players.
Ducks back below virtual parapet...
:-))
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i have never used a proper sat nav, but I had a job interview in Cheltenham last week and used Google Navigate on my smartphone as backup to my route planning - gaffa taped to the dash.
Worked pretty well until I was nearly in Cheltenham, then it tried to send me towards Oxford. Particularly impressive was its ability to re-plan the route on the fly - I deliberately took a wrong turn near home, it re-planned the route within 20 seconds.
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Prefer maps meself, hardly ever go where I dont know where I am going.
In Vegas for a week in Jan (business) though and am considering a hire car with Sat Nav despite the last one in Boston nearly making us miss our flight.
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Car is useless to you in Vegas, if you are conferencing on the strip, not a good place to drive, traffic on the strip is terrible. Dumped ours in the Hotel (the venetian) parking lot. Only got it out to drive to the Hoover dam.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 16:01
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>> Car is useless to you in Vegas, if you are conferencing on the strip, not
>> a good place to drive, traffic on the strip is terrible. Dumped ours in the
>> Hotel (the venetian) parking lot. Only got it out to drive to the Hoover dam.
>>
The car is to get to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley plus a couple of meetings in town away from the strip - it's not going to be all work.
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>> The car is to get to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley plus
>> a couple of meetings in town away from the strip - it's not going to
>> be all work.
Think the new bridge is open now, (and really spectacular it is too) not sure you can drive over the dam any more. Still worth a trip tho. Great train museum in Boulder!
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>> Think the new bridge is open now, (and really spectacular it is too) not sure
>> you can drive over the dam any more. Still worth a trip tho. Great train
>> museum in Boulder!
>>
You can walk over the dam now, better still perhaps.
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>> get to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley plus a couple of meetings in town
So why the need to state "business" in the OP?
p.s. paper maps will be fine for finding your way to the destinations you have in mind.
Last edited by: John H on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 18:09
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>> >> get to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley plus a couple of
>> meetings in town
>>
>> So why the need to state "business" in the OP?
>>
Business is the main reason for going.
>> p.s. paper maps will be fine for finding your way to the destinations you have
>> in mind.
>>
Agreed.
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@Z
I don't know what experience you have of the RDS RX add on - I got one (when Halfords were clearing them out for about £5) for my youngest to use with her TT GO720.
I'm told it wasn't helpful (in the frozen north) on a number of occasions - the second or third tour around Lancaster when the M6 turned out to be clear means it's not used anymore.
YMMV.
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 16:27
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My old bike ran a BMW badged Garmin 660 - overpriced at nearly 500 for the plumbed in version - it was a poor device, very slow in rendering at times. I had a car mount for it and it doubled as a car based one. I sold the head unit for 300 notes when I changed bikes and got myself a very nice little TT Rider (waterproof unit) for a quid more. The only gripe is the smaller screen size otherwise superior in most respects.
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>> @Z
>>
>> I don't know what experience you have of the RDS RX add on - I
>> got one (when Halfords were clearing them out for about £5) for my youngest to
>> use with her TT GO720.
>>
>> I'm told it wasn't helpful (in the frozen north) on a number of occasions -
>> the second or third tour around Lancaster when the M6 turned out to be clear
>> means it's not used anymore.
>>
>> YMMV.
They were clearing them out for a reason, the ones for the GO were as deaf as old mother riley, V2 for the Go was slightly better. The ones for use via the USB are much improved, but still require a good signal on Classic FM, not available everywhere.
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>> They were clearing them out for a reason, the ones for the GO were as deaf as old mother riley....
>> .... still require a good signal on Classic FM, not available everywhere.
That would make sense - a double whammy.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Still you'd think there'd be coverage there:
www.mds975.co.uk/txmaps/classic.html
Morecambe bay is near enough.
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 17:16
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>> used Google Navigate on my smartphone as backup to my route
>> planning - gaffa taped to the dash.
>>
Stephen from Khoo systems used to sell a very effective sticky rubber mat which sat on the dashboard and things would stick to the mat - not permanently.
Very effective. I don't know if he still sells them, I did a search, but couldn't find the mat.
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loads of them around, I bought sheets of them from lidl for under the rugs in the home
a qucik google search reveals
www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=sticky+mat&tag=googhydr-21&index=aps&hvadid=8915304273&ref=pd_sl_123z9bl0vv_b
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I'm really amazed at how many car drivers have their Satnavs on the windscreen within the sweep of the windscreen wipers.
It is illegal and can incur a fine if pulled into a multi vehicle check by VOSA or the police.
What's wrong with the disc that fits on the dashboard to mount it on?
No more rings that mysteriously appear on the windscreen in fog or bad visibilty and legal too.
Pat
Last edited by: pda on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 18:12
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Even better is the bean-bag mount, which can be easily hidden without leaving the tell-tale disc.
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I would think they are in a car, lancara, I hadn't thought of that but in a lorry the bean bag tends to slide about with air suspended cabs leaning all over!
Pat
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you put the bean bag on top of a sticky rubber mat
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On the Mondeo (the first car I used an iPAQ for sat nav) I had a vent mount. In the Mazda6 I used velcro to stick the TomTom 720 mount to the cubby hole lid on the top of the dash.... the one where the £1500+ factory fit sat nav would go. I do not like sticking anything on the windscreen.
Passat CC has a rather impressive sat nav unit built in. Shame you can't edit the map data like you can on others to add camera warnings or your own POI. I can always run CamerAlert on the phone for speed cameras if I want it. Or just have the TT720 running out of site.
Still not round to testing the top speed of the CC.... 143mph I think. Don't think I'll ever get near it :-)
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 16 Dec 11 at 18:31
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I have the Garmin branded bean bag mount, bought as part of a kit which include a case for the Gramin itself.
The mount unit is pretty heavy and has a non-slip base. It never moves an inch when on the dash of the Alhambra.
tinyurl.com/7wv8rcj
I hasten to add I paid less than that price for the pack!
Last edited by: Roger on Mon 19 Dec 11 at 23:33
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>> I'm really amazed at how many car drivers have their Satnavs on the windscreen within
>> the sweep of the windscreen wipers.
>>
>> It is illegal and can incur a fine if pulled into a multi vehicle check
>> by VOSA or the police.
>>
>> What's wrong with the disc that fits on the dashboard to mount it on?
>>
Not all satnavs have a dashboard mount available.
ADAC did some tests and found the vent systems were actually more dangerous than the screen mounts as they released the satnav which then became a projectile around the cabin of the car in an accident.
The problem with a lot of modern cars is the size of the swept area. The only place you could realistically place it if you want it outside the swept area would be at eye level on the passenger side. Not much use over there when the sun visor is in use.
Why is it the sucker for a satnav is illegal in the swept area but the tax disc is OK with a bigger footprint ? Technically the environment sticker which must be displayed in Germany including on non-German registered cars is illegal for the MOT in the UK as it is supposed to be displayed in the swept area at the corner in front of the driver in a RHD car.
Last edited by: gmac on Sat 17 Dec 11 at 08:26
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I've not heard of the regulation that covers that, but it does make sense in a way. The one in the Volvo V50 we 're thinking about comes up from the top of the dash (shiny kit) and sits in the middle of the dash in the swept area of the screen. Being OE it must have been type approved.
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Always place tax disc in top left hand corner. Plenty of space not within sweep of wipers.
Had a Garmin. Changed to TT XL IQ Live. Have had this over a year. If Garmin were to have live traffic updates, without need for a dangly bit of wire, I'd go back.
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>> Stephen from Khoo systems used to sell a very effective sticky rubber mat which sat
>> on the dashboard and things would stick to the mat - not permanently.
>>
>> Very effective. I don't know if he still sells them, I did a search, but
>> couldn't find the mat.
well looky see whats turned up at Aldi
www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/special_buys3_22470.htm
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Are not dashboards of modern car shaped specifically so you don't put thing on them, because of the danger in a crash?
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The beanbag mount suggestion might still work.
I'd need to look at the Passat dash to comment on that. If I wanted to use a TomTom I'd probably consider some sort of vent mount. And I contemplating something for my mobile phone too (Brodit). But the car has Bluetooth for the phone.
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>> Whilst on the subject of TomToms, my next car has a removable one built into
>> the central console. Is there a TomTom equivalent of Garmin's Mapsource where you can have
>> the same map on your PC and do route planning, and then upload to the
>> GPS, or conversely download your track-log to the PC?
No
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I really miss my conversations with Tom, he had such a sexy voice too.
'Turn around when possible'
No, I know what I'm doing'
'Turn around and then take the next left'
'Oi, I'm captain of this ship, not you'
'Turn around'
'If you don't stop nagging Tom, I'll turn you off'
Pat
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I don't know why people stick their SatNavs in the middle of the screen right in their field of vision. I normally use my old Navigon with the window mount and stick it in the lower corner of the windscreen on the driver's side next to the instrument cluster. Not yet found a car where this doesn't work. Also noticed some rental cars with a SatNav mount fixed to the A-Pillar on the driver's for the unit you can rent with the car.
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Ford do a pre-wiring installation for a GPS based on the A-pillar mounting also.
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I have the TT low down on the R/H side where the A post meets the dash. I have three inches of spare USB cable hanging out of the A post trim to plug it in, the rest is hidden within the car trim and dash.
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That's exactly where I used to put the window mounted Garmin in the A3 - the only slight drag was routing the cable to it, but since it'd hold enough charge for a 5 hour journey it wasn't really a problem
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New Sat Nav - Dutchie
