[Closed] Do I need a (car) sat nav?

I have a sat nav, rarely use it, most journeys are routes you know, so no need. And for most trips, part of the fun is getting lost, and to be honest you can't get that lost. I find the onlt time a sat nav is really helpful is for the last mile or so when your looking for a particular street.

Problems i found, new roads get built, which the sat nav doesn't know about. Road layouts/priorities get changed, and the voice is annoying.

Just find i use Googlemaps on the home PC a bit and road signs when i am out.

Unless you're expecting to do a lot of driving on unfamiliar routes (sounds like you're not) I'd suggest a smartphone - then you've got all the usual useful stuff (phone, text, email, camera etc) plus sat nav all bundled into one.

I don't drive to many places that I'm not vaguely familiar with, and find the free sat nav app's are sufficient for the occasions when I do need some guidance.

For the driving I do, buying a specific sat nav device would be a waste of money.

I've found that the big strength of a satnav is in backing up what you think you already know.

Traffic info can also be invaluable. It had a dramatic impact on my commute when I used to have to drive into city centres regularly.

Went to Brean sands for week, day trips to Glastonbury and Cheddar, no way I could navigate all the lanes without sat nav.
If I go out for the day doesn't matter where I end up, sat nav will show me way home 😀

Personally I wouldn't be without a satnav. Car has one built-in and I have a couple of different ones on my phone too.

But... if you've just learned to drive then you might find it a distraction.

And some of the reason you are getting lost is probably because you are so busy concentrating on the act of driving that it is hard to navigate too (I certainly found this just after I passed, even on roads I knew).

I just got a cheap n cheerful unit as it seldom gets used. ( Absolutely perfect for what I need it for).
If you're a rep or someone who goes to all four corners of the country then look at something better.

I find I just rely on the voice prompts - Can't say I tend to look at the display much.

My 6 year old plus Navman F10's a bit long in the tooth now & city centres have altered too much for it to be relied on, but out on country lanes, it still works very well. Still, it's probably about time to replace it.

Chris

My 6 year old plus Navman F10's a bit long in the tooth now

Yeah try to get one where you can update the maps, ideally for free.
My car one uses a DVD in the glovebox and new DVDs (if you can find them) cost over £100!!

This is where smartphones are killing traditional sat-navs - frequent map updates (often free) and live traffic info.

You should be able to update the maps for the Navman. You'll probably have to pay for it but it's just done over USB. Or buy a new SD card.

I suspect that some of your mistakes are just due to experience right now. Busy junctions need planning and thought in advance to make sure you get in the right lane. I drive 40,000+ a year and still get caught out.

At the moment you are concentrating on driving and so maybe not thinking quite far enough ahead. As time goes on you'll find the actual driving comes more naturally and you will have more time to get yourself in the right lane. Also as the others say - you will get to know the routes.

I have a satnav and always have it on, more for the ETA than the route. My partner drives my car but hates it, he doesn't always understand the directions given and it confuses him even more. If we have the satnav on when he is driving I have to interpret and verbally give the satnav directions!!

EDIT: Sorry didn't mean to sound patronising! Just that all new drivers get lost at busy junctions - I used to end up in all sorts of wierd places 😳

Its an experiance thing i think

Once you become comfortable with roads and asserting your self if you find your self in the wrong lane youll be fine

Having a sat nav cant hurt , i always use one in foreign countries ( even english or french) as sign conventions are different all over , eg in houston by the time you see a sign you have missed your turn and most roads have more than one name.

I can imagine one would help in london alot.

You should be able to update the maps for the Navman. You'll probably have to pay for it but it's just done over USB. Or buy a new SD card

I'd just this minute looked into that - Decided the price differential between the cost of the new maps & the cost of a brand new (low range) toy wasn't 'that' big. - It's nice to have new toys occasionally 🙂

Chris

At c. £50 or so for a dedicated sat nav,or cheaper if you have a smart phone definitely give it a try. I use mine every so often when on unfamiliar ground, and they are good albeit needing some interpretation of their instructions.

I've never owned a dedicated one. Did put Tomtom on my old Windows Phone for driving across France, but just use Google maps if I get lost in the UK.

Picked one up second hand for about £30. About half a dozen times a year I go someplace new, and it's useful for that, especially where you're looking for a shop or B&B in town you don't know that well. probably more so if you're lacking experience and confidence on the road. That said, on a trip up to Skye a few weeks back, it did try to take me on "short-cut" up what looked like a forest trail. It can get a bit naggy when you decide not to follow it's instructions because you know there's an excellent bacon roll stop along this road.
It does warn about speed cameras, and pings an alert when you're driving above the speed limit, which can be useful, especially when you've just come off a motorway and haven't slowed yourself down to urban driving yet.
need one? no. want one? probably, they are useful, but don't use it all the time and try and use some common sense.

Sat navs are also useful for finding the nearest petrol station etc.
I drive a lot of places that are unfamiliar, didnt used to have a sat nav and always got lost. it is tricky to read a map book and drive at the same time, so i got a sat nav.

Handy? Yes, can be.

Need? No.

Do I use one? No, although I have in the past.

For inter-town travel, UK road signs are up there with the best. If you plan your route so that you know whereabouts you are heading, what the waypoints are and have a map (I often use prints from Google Maps), then the urban bits aren't often that bad either.

Sat-Nav has become a way of life for a lot of people. Many, many people have no idea of the route they've taken to a destination. If the sat-nav fails, then they are completely lost and have no idea about how to find their way.

I may well be odd, but I enjoy navigating (in the UK and beyond) and find it quite satisfying to find my way around with a combination of a memory of the 'shape' of the route, some observation, a bit of thought (& working out in which direction I'm heading), some local knowledge if it is an area I've visited before and, if all else fails, a map. Years of practice probably helps too.

Of course, if desperate, Google Maps on the phone will show approximate position, although I've never used it out when out and about.

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'll look into a smart phone, if I can get a good deal, as at least it would get other uses. Or maybe an
I-pod touch, which i was thinking of getting anyway.
It's true I don't really get lost as such. Just frustrated getting taken out of my way when caught in some infernal one way trap because I took a wrong turn. But good points about finding specific places, like a B&B, and for just getting home.

Or maybe an I-pod touch

I don't think an iPod Touch has GPS so not much use as a sat nav.

I can navigate from maps, and I can drive, but I can't do both at once. I like my satnav: it's usually only useful in the last mile or less of a journey, though much more on rare visits to greater London. And it has a way of directing me around the worst jams.

Garmin, if you're collecting data. And she's referred to as 'Bitchin Bettie'.

It does warn about speed cameras,

pings an alert when you're driving above the speed limit, which can be useful, especially when you've just come off a motorway and haven't slowed yourself down to urban driving yet

But... if you've just learned to drive then you might find it a distraction.

GrahamS - Member

Or maybe an I-pod touch

I don't think an iPod Touch has GPS so not much use as a sat nav.

The iPod Touch triangulates on visible wireless networks, so it's useless as a GPS where we live, but we did get a GPS cradle for it very cheap which made it very useful as a GPS.

You might still be able to get said cradle on Amazon for about £25 if you look... And the Touch is brill in every other way.

NavFree (most of western Europe seems to be available free) is good but by no means perfect - guidance of wise men and obedience of fools and all that.

I'm very good at reading maps, but not so good at reading them whilst driving and concentrating on the road. So that's why I use them.

Sometimes I just use them to browse the map or see when my turning is coming up in a spot or two I'm not familiar with, rather than actually setting the route. I tend to plan the route first with paper map so I get a sense of geography. I feel very disorientated if I don't.

Get used to driving first. I only use the Satnav on my phone for the last 5% of my journey. I never have the screen on display as I think that is dangerous. Enjoy the drive.

There's some sh*t spouted on this thread.Machomap reading bollox.
Try moving to a new city/country and rely on maps-which you have to pay for and can't read while you're driving,and spend your free time planning a route to the nearest Asda,Halfords,mountain,trail centre whatever etc.Or just put the postcode in the satnav and follow the prompts.Know what I'd rather do and what works.

NavFree (most of western Europe seems to be available free) is good but by no means perfect

Well help make it* better then:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/

*(and any other product based on OSM maps, like CycleStreets and Bike Hub)

Get one. First time I used a tom tom it knocked 30 minutes off a route across London, I'd always gone the simple route (about 3 junctions to remember) the sat nag took me through lots of nifty back streets and there I was early 🙂

Mine is a tom tom xxl, so it is very easy to glance at it rather than peering at a dinky phone screen when the voice instructions are not clear.

And please position it so it obscures your view of the bonnet, not the road...

Lastly, to counter the "it's a distraction" argument, passengers talk and you look away from the road to check the rear view mirror (I hope) so what's the difference?

I got a smart phone in the end and been using Nav free and googlemaps. Pretty happy with it and glad I didn't buy a dedicated sat nav. This is good enough for me, and still like to look at the route before, and will probably buy a Motoring atlas.