[Closed] Help my marriage- Which Satnav

Google maps on a phone always seems fine to me.

Google maps on phone. Free.

You can pre download areas, and it keeps up with traffic etc really well.

I just downloaded Stirling to Alps and back via Geneva and Paris. Faultless.

I have a Garmin. It is shit. Don't get a Garmin.

Next one will be a TomTom.

I've tried my phone and didn't like it.

Apple Maps in ios11 beta is *really* good. Get a proper Brodit mount for it.

My BMW Navigator is essentially a Garmin and it is awful beyond words.

Rachel

Garmin in our car is pretty rubbish too. Phone with Google is much better

Phone app. - I use Google Maps in the car, Co-Pilot on a tablet in the motorhome (Co-Pilot allows you to enter vehicle dimensions and weight and routes accordingly)
Decent Mount that keeps the phone in your eye line but not obscuring vision out the car.
Power lead.

I have a Garmin. It is shit. Don't get a Garmin.

Next one will be a TomTom.

I have a Tom Tom and not impressed. Does the job but is a bit laggy and dumb. I suspect you wont be too impressed over your Garmin.

I think Google is the best, I just don't use it as I've not got my head around if it costs me data when I use it. If not I'd use it all the time. But the interface with Google is a bit fiddly for example if you want to change the route or take a detour to a POI.

I just don't use it as I've not got my head around if it costs me data when I use it. If not I'd use it all the time.

you can download quite a large area prior to going so it doesnt use data. stays on the phone for 30 days, after which i spose you could download again if needed all the time?

But the interface with Google is a bit fiddly for example if you want to change the route or take a detour to a POI.

do you mean doing it on the fly or knowing which route you want to take the day before? if youve got a bit of notice you can amend the route on a laptop the night before say, then email it to yourself, open the link in the email and voila, new route in maps.....

Don't understand the dislike for Garmin , mine is fine .Tom Tom are ok too but Garmin has the advantage that you can put in map co-ordinates

I like Wazeif I'm going to a specific address, I think that it's search feature isn't as good as Google if you are trying to find a p;ace that doesn't have an obvious address, e.g. a bunkhouse in the middle of nowhere that doesn't have a number on a specific road, etc.

Data usage is pretty meagre for either really, unless you really only have something like 500mb a month I don't think it has a massive impact. You can always set a data warning on your phone for when you get near your limit.

I can't see the point in spending money on a separate box when you have a higher res, higher performing device already (assuming you have smartphone). That and leaving something else in the car/van that might prompt a break in!

I like Here maps on my phone. Can run offline and you can set up the addresses using a regular computer while you are online. Navigation seems good as well

And free 🙂

I use Google on my iPhone all day every day and I've never noticed any significant data usage.

It can be scarily good at telling you where the traffic jams are.

Google maps on phone

I have heard lots of good stuff about Waze too

tomtom with built in sim and realtime traffic and Western europe and UK maps.

I use Garmin, mostly get to where I intend.

Traffic info is pretty good and we talk to each other.

Happy to stick with it.

Buy a decent cradle for your phone then use google maps.

It's really good now and you can store large areas offline so minimises data usage and negates poor phone signal.

as above google maps on iphone works well. I also have an app - NavMii which has all of the maps stored offline, i have uk and french versions. It's free and has been good bar the very occasional bit of weirdness. ie a couple of time directed me to turn left, left, left rather than turning around on the road i was on at the start of a journey.

The only acceptable answer is to buy a new car with factory fit satnav

Got Waze recently and so far quite impressed. It took me on a neat traffic dodging route on my way back from London.

The only acceptable answer is to buy a new car with factory fit satnav

As I mentioned, our factory fit Garmin is awful. I might rejig the screen bit to hold my phone.

Don't understand the dislike for Garmin

It tries to go down dead ends thinking they are through roads and the wrong way up one way streets. Also the speed limits are often wrong.

Waze or Google maps

Phone App. Get a charging cable and a screen mount (apps use lots of battery as screen is on)

Our favourite app is Waze (now owned by Google) but the Google one works well too. Waze works better in Grance as more people use it so the social network aspect to report accidents etc works better but it getting more usage in the uk. Would agree with the above comment that search is better with google but you can search an address in google then add it to waze

Obviously a good mobile data contract is useful so you are not worried about usage and a bigger screen phone is easier to read/follow

I have an adhesive Quadlock mount on my dashboard with a coiled power lead and it looks very neat and unobtrusive. Takes a second to clip in.

Fwi Google own waze and seem to feed that info into their maps. The benefit of using the waze app is that you can add info about blockages if you can be arsed. I find it too difficult to do safely while driving

The only acceptable answer is to buy a new car with factory fit satnav

Bollocks. Many cars I drive have satnav fitted, I never use any of them.
Use a phone app if you've got a decent smartphone. I've used HERE WeGo, Navmii, CoPilot UK-IE, and TomTom GO, currently using TomTom and paying £17/year for it. I use these apps for my job, which is driving cars for auction/delivery, often for a couple of hundred miles at a time, and everywhere from the far south of Cornwall across to Norfolk, all along the south coast and up as far as Liverpool.
I [i]have[/i] to be able to rely on these apps, because I have to be at any given destination in order to be picked up by my team leader, and TomTom is by far the most reliable, and most easy to see the mapping on the screen.
For simpler recreational driving, any of the free ones I listed should do the trick - the important thing is that the maps are installed on the device, rather than from the net, if you get to a destination, then need to go to another, and you're using Google or Apple maps, and there's little or no data network available, then it makes things a lot more difficult.
The TomTom app I'm using is identical to the TomTom unit my team leader uses, which cost him about £150, IIRC, and we always set them to fastest route, NOT shortest.
Advantage with phone apps is that you'll get regular updates regarding mapping and other items, and you should get live traffic updates and diversions on the better ones.
Here, Navmii and CoPilot are all very good, check them all out to see which you prefer, I've got six on my phone right now.
As far as screen mounts are concerned, I use these:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal-Car-Windshield-Mount-Stand-Holder-For-iPhone-6s-6s-Plus-Samsung-GPS-/191752000057?hash=item2ca54f5239
Work really well, they don't wobble too much, they can accommodate an iPhone 6+ in an Otterbox, and they're cheap as chips!
I broke one dropping it on tarmac, left another one in a car, so I bought three a while ago, just in case; at 99p, they're a consumable.
And like I said, I'm using these ten to twelve hours a day, five days a week for work, and again weekends if I'm going somewhere where I don't know the route.
Why would you pay more?

I use navigon on my iPhone 5s with a brodit mount and hardwired charger, easy to use, especially with the voice controls, never had a problem with it.

I own a new VW with a built in satnav, a TomTom, and I often use Google maps when I'm directing someone else while they drive.

In my opinion, Googlemaps is waaaaay better than the other two. There are occasions where it has spotted traffic jams that the other systems simply are unaware of. Plus it recognises addresses etc much more easily.

I continue to use TomTom since I use the satnav overseas and don't want to run up data bills outside Europe etc. The TomTom is better than the built in satnav imo.

thanks CZ, just ordered a couple of those to use while im trying to figure out my options 🙂

just trying to figure out my satnav/bluetooth/music options as you know. i dont spose you know of any 'triple fag lighter adaptors with an on-off switch' do you? as i mentioned in my previous thread i currently swap between dab adaptor, bluetooth adaptor, and if my phone needs a charge then my phone charger too.
just thinking if i could have them all plugged in at same time id be happier. flip side to that is i couldnt leave them plugged in all the time or they would flatten the battery. (i get by with my dab adaptor always being on at present)
if there was such a thing as a triple adaptor with a simple on-off switch id be a happier bunny?

sorry for the slight hijack but it IS still related to satnavs (google maps for me btw) 🙂

In the van, I use Google maps and I have a Brodit mount so it's secure.

On Google maps, it's great to be able to see the traffic jams coming up. In the car, I use a Tom Tom again with a Brodit mount, which is really good but I only use it for work with the students as the new Driving Test is coming up.

I miss not having traffic updates when using the Tom Tom compared to Google.

My twopence... Copilot App.

Used on my Android phone and has guided around UK, over to Alps, USA and Canada roadtrips. Been reliable with stuff like Lane Assist, Live traffic updates, etc. Maps are permanently downloaded (onto SD card if you want) so data not used (except if you opt for the live traffic alerts, etc.

Used with a decent mount (like Brodit).

As I have never used a phone app GPS, such as Google maps how well do they work in areas without even 3G phone signal coverage? like round where I live, where it is very patchy

They use the phones GPS.
3G is only used to pull down data/traffic etc.

so how do they get the google map data in the first place if you start a new journey out of a phone signal area-do they download the entire UK when you download the app?

Google doesn't but CoPilot, TomTom, etc store the maps offline on your phone as has already been mentioned a number of times already.
Only google/Waze get the google map data - the others have their own maps as part of the app.
Google however can download offline areas for when there is no signal. However it isn't ideal and has a fair few bugs.

It was Google maps I was askng about, I did see about the others, thanks

Another question about using phone apps in the car without a system such as apple play, how does interacting with the app on the move differ from texting etc. as far as the police are concerned? I know that by the letter of the law, any distraction that causes a lack of concentration such as adjusting the radio, eating an apple etc. can lead to problems , but is seeing a driver fiddling with a phone potentially asking for closer scruitiny?

"okay goigle navigate me too STtowers"

"Okay navigting to ST towers"

"Okay Google play prefab sprout on Spotify"

just been trialling all this on my phone in the car.

'ok google, open deezer' deezer opens

'ok google play sex pistols' plays god save the queen

'ok google navigate to lincoln' maps opens and starts telling me directions to go

'ok google play stranglers' opens google play to play stranglers. thats not what i wanted, i wanted it to stay in deezer.

was just checking how easy it is to keep giving instructions and whether itd do what i want. stopped the car, picked phone up to cancel everything and start again, it was red hot. not looking good for multi tasking......

Google maps and this:

[img] ?v=1483575206[/img]

[url= https://www.spigen.com/products/spigen-car-mount-stealth ]https://www.spigen.com/products/spigen-car-mount-stealth[/url]

does interacting with the app on the move differ from texting etc. as far as the police are concerned?

No problem, it's no different to using an inbuilt satnav or altering the volume on your entertainment system, climate control, rear-view mirror, etc.
There has to be reasonable latitude allowed for doing things to the controls, otherwise it would become almost impossible to actually drive anywhere, driving with the screen fogged up because you couldn't operate the demister, etc.
Once the satnav has been set up, appropriate route chosen and activated, and the device mounted on the screen, there should be no further need to touch it. You do need to spend some time familiarising yourself with how it works, and making sure all the guidance parameters have been set, like nighttime setting, voice, speed limits on various types of road, tolls, shortest/fastest/scenic routes, etc.
I pretty much always have fastest route, although there are occasionally journeys I make where I know the beginning but not the end, and choosing fastest gives me a route I don't want to take. The best satnav apps should give a choice of routes, with distance/time for each.
The thing is, as I emphasised, apart from TomTom, the other apps [i]are all free![/i] so long as your chosen device has enough capacity, you can download all of them, and play with them all to see which works best for you; it's not like going into Halfords or wherever, shelling out actual cash then finding the chosen unit doesn't really work well for you.
I use TomTom every day when I'm working, I started using Here a year ago, swapped to Navmii, then switched to TomTom, purely because the way the display shows the route you're on is better, the line/road is bolder and clearer, and complicated junctions, and those where a route leaves a motorway/dual carriageway on a very slightly diverging lane are shown more clearly. I'm quite prepared to pay for this, because I'm under time constraints, and when you're talking about a two to three hour journey to drop off a car with someone waiting at the other end, it really is important.
Otherwise, any of the others are fine - I did over 25,000 miles using Navmii without too many issues over around six or seven months.
Professional use has different requirements to leisure use, try them, you have nothing to lose but a bit of time if a route has a problem that the satnav fails to pick up - this even happens with TomTom occasionally, shit happens, live with it.

All very helpful for my requirements, thanks very much.

Have a garmin a Tom Tom and also Google maps. Honestly if you want stress free don't worry about 3g etc the garmin pisses it. Much better than the Tom Tom. Google is v good when it works though.

So CountZero, you drive a bit yeah? Cool. Yeah, me too. Only semi-pro but I hear what you're saying. Can be lonely on the road. Tough job. Not all of us are cut out for it.

I use Google and find it really good, however twice in the last month it's failed completely to tell me about premium planned closed roads for road works.

First was the heads if the valley road into south Wales, second was the A50, both resulting in massive diversions.

Anyone else had any issues?

So CountZero, you drive a bit yeah? Cool. Yeah, me too. Only semi-pro but I hear what you're saying. Can be lonely on the road. Tough job. Not all of us are cut out for it.

I'm trying to help someone who has little experience of using such devices, and I've got roughly 50,000 miles worth of experience in the last twelve months using six different satnav apps on a mobile phone.
Tell me, is it many years of diligence, effort and hard work, or a congenital condition running in your family that makes you such a sarcastic jackass.
Have a nice life. 🙄

Waze on a phone. As mentioned it's owned by Google which might put some people off. It's big strength is that users (and there are millions of them) input any problems, so it's constantly updated with traffic problems and re-routes you accordingly.

I've used it commuting for a few years and it always picks the best route home.

Apologies CZ, you're providing a lot of useful information but you do seem to take your job a bit too seriously . Not doing anyone any harm though so I'll wind my neck in.

Regarding the sarcasm - it does run in the family but I still have to work on it. Being a professional **** takes a lot more effort than your common or garden recreational **** has to put in.