Hello wise ones,
Sorry if this has been rehearsed a billion fold, but I can't find any recent thread.
I want a good Sat Nav system for my new car that may be delivered one day soon, I hope .
I have a Palm Zire 72 so suppose I could get the software, but I am not keen on all the trailing wires my husband has with that set up.
Is there anything small and neat, simple to operate, that won't fall off the dashboard, make a mark on the window, or confuse me until I cry etc etc?
I rejected the one I could have bought with the new car because it phoned some centre and told them my daily calorie intake and what I was wearing - it was all a bit too personal. And a lot too expensive for what I need. I am not lost often, but when I do get lost, it is spectacular.
All suggestions gratefully received.
Thanks.
Alijazz (who doesn't own a Honda Jazz and isn't a man)
|
TomTom is mostly excellent, sometimes annoying and occasionally obtuse. But, I wouldn't be without it, and I believe the One is supposed to be very good. I use it with my PocketPC, and find it very good. Mostly.
I'm jealous about the new rocketship coming to you - I've just had to buy a diesel estate! (although saying that, you can get a helluva lot of weekend toys in the back, so it's pretty good really :-).
G
|
Hello Gordon!
Fancy seeing you here.
Thanks for responding. I love this forum. You can just make lists and go shopping having a real idea of what you need. Your Tom Tom is first on the list to check.
I still have no news on my car but I found this today:
www.globalsuzuki.com/swift/index.html
Ok so their driver is a tad wooden in front of the camera, but oh, the mountain passes. They were very sexy. You must go and take your diesel estate straight back to the dealer. Life is very short, and if you are not careful you will end up as sensible as I used to be. If you can't take it back, then join the Crisis Club and fit a spoiler. Right now.
Ali
PS and stripes.
|
Can't take it back, as need it to put large bits of kit in and drive hundreds of miles for work (own company). And also I'm fairly sure I actually can't as well.
But. It's got lots of lovely room in the back for mountain bikes, climbing gear, camping kit, climbing kit etc etc... Or the boot lid from a Clio, as I rather surrealy found out this evening (one for another thread I think). Which is great. And I managed to get the big stereo for free, which is great also.
Stripes tho, now there's an idea. I think it might look rather good with a pair of white stripes over the top (it's gunmetal grey). Might rather commit me to buying it at the end of the lease tho!
G
|
|
|
|
Hi Ali -
(Alijazz (who doesn't own a Honda Jazz and isn't a man....I've always assumed you to be Alison rather than Mohammed !)
I have a Tomtom Go 300 and love it - it was £270 in December. However I believe the Tomtom One is cheaper and just as good if you don't mind a smaller screen and apparently a rather low-fi voice. With mine you have a choice of male (Tim) or female (Jane).
There's a thread at the moment on page 2 called "tomtom question" which has some useful input for you.
Watch out for what you do and don't get, particularly a full postcode (mine only has the first 4 digits and another time I think I'd go for ine that had the whole lot); you may or may not want a Bluetooth connection (I don't, and it sounds to me like something out of an old-fashioned children's story about wizards and goblins....).
Anyway you can have fun shopping around while you wait forever for your Suzuki Notveryswift. No sign of my B-class either, and that's supposed to be in stock at a Mercedes dealer somewhere. I'm getting tempted to pull out and hang on to the beloved A4 for a few months more, as no money has changed hands at this stage.
Sorry - back to the point: most people on the forum seem to think that Tomtom has the edge over the competition.
|
Hi Avant,
Happy Wednesday.
I am really sorry to hear you are still waiting for your car. I know exactly what you are saying. Having spent so long reading the posts, sifting through HJ's road tests, looking at the recommended cars, test driving the short list etc, it is a real anti-climax to find that there are no cars in stock at the end of it.
How utterly sad that I am reduced to shopping for accessories before I get the car. The spoilers and stripes may be here next week. Perhaps I should have them fitted to my husband's BMW in the interim, to keep them alive; as one might a skin graft?
Is it actually possible to buy a new car in Britain, in 2006? Why are the manufacturers all advertising so frenetically, if they have nothing to sell? How much disappointment do they think we can take? Will I eventually stop asking rhetorical questions in a forum?
Perhaps my idea of wandering around asking dealers what I can get for £14k wasn't such a silly idea, after all. I might even have ended up with a car.
Thanks for the info. re Tom Tom. Hubby agrees with you, and agrees about the postcode thing. He has his voice set to John Cleese, which I find very irritating. The last thing I need is sarcasm, when I've driven the wrong way round a roundabout and am reversing up the hard shoulder.
John Cleese is nevertheless a vast improvement on "Jane". With his "Jane" he never used to listen to anything I said, and once, when I showed him the way to a house we were hoping to buy, he drove straight past it because she had told him to! I hate "Jane".
Wouldn't it be typical of me to have the first ever divorce citing a Sat Nav as co-respondent?
Alijazz
|
I won't have a bad word said about Jane. She never complains when I corner too quickly, would never dream of taking my last piece of chewing gum and doesn't adjust the position of the rear view mirror when I'm not looking.
John has now been replaced by some sort of mad professor voice (my son's fav) but also by a NASA voice as well. The NASA is a new family addition and I have to say my personal favourite. You even get the little "roger beep" when it has finished talking to you like they do on films. It is almost worth taking the wrong exit on a roundabout to get it to authorise you for an "additional burn" to come back on course. So far I have managed to resist the temptation to talk back to it in a weird American accent but I know that time will come soon.
The GPS is probably the best gadget I have, and that is saying something. Apart from the occasional wobbler, (and when I set it to the wrong address) it has paid for itself a million times over. Worth every penny.
|
Mr. Hula,
It was not your last piece of chewing gum.
I am going to go for the Tom Tom One, and hope that I eventually find a car to be lost in.
Alijazz
|
|
Tom Tom have announced upgraded new models through most of their range. Prices have fallen so now you can get a bargain on the old models, or you can wait for the new models, with upgraded software that allegedly does not lead you so much astray, with lower entry prices anyway. Should start to appear in shops end next month.
|
|
The basic navcom icn 320 does everything it should looks good and has a better build quality than most.
|
Thanks, both. Excellent advice. I shall have a look at the older models and see if they will do what I need. Failing that, go for the newer one.
Merci buckets.
Alijazz
|
Alijazz
Don't get too wound up over the wait for your Swift. Look at this way, you are buying a car that is in demand - that bodes well for its future value when you come to sell.
You'll also be getting a car which is 'factory fresh' and not something that's been deteriorating in a field for 6 months before someone wants to buy it. I've seen Fords what were built a year before their registration date - and heard of 'new' cars that have been as much as two years old!
Confirm the TomTom recommendation by the way.
|
Hi Aprilia,
How was your week?
I am only kidding. I realise you can't buy anything instantly now, apart from frozen food or postage stamps (and even then you have to queue at the checkout.)
I am just being silly. I was born with absolutely no patience whatsoever, so have to fake it in order to get through life. I just can't bear the excitement. I make my husband give me my Christmas presents weeks before, and then I get all upset I've had everything already, by the time Christmas Day comes round.
And you are right. All the points you make are absolutely right. BUT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR FOUR DAYS NOW, ahem, sorry, and it is all getting a bit much. Imagine what I will be like after four weeks.
They should sell cars on amazon.
THanks for the sat nav recommendation. It seems the best way to go, doesn't it? Although the Sony one does look pretty.
Have fun.
Alijazz
|
|
I have the new Sony one and reviewed it briefly a here a few days ago, to a somewhat muted response, shall we say. I imagine it's too expensive or too new to have any general interest yet.
|
|
Tom Tom have announced upgraded new models through most of their range.
Including the TomTom GO 910, which is "the first ever portable navigation device featuring multi-continental map coverage including the whole of Europe, the USA and Canada" www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=228&Languag...1
That should be just the ticket for all those who drive back-and-forth across The Atlantic.
|
TomTom GO 910, which is "the first ever portablenavigation device featuring multi-continental map coverage including the whole of Europe, the USA and Canada" www.tomtom.com/products/product.php?ID=228&Languag...1 That should be just the ticket for all those who drive back-and-forth across The Atlantic.
As you say not many will be driving across the Atlantic but it is portable so you can put in your hire car and it has an inbuilt mp3 player so you have your entertainment with you as well. Anyone else, like me, got a cheap flight to a European city, did not know how far away the hotel was, got a taxi, paid a fortune for a 15 minute trip only to find next day that the hotel was only a 5 minute walk?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Any idea where you get the NASA voice from?
|
|
|
|
|
The Garmin i3 had some good comments made here recently. cheap to at £119.
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=39535
|
>>The Garmin i3 >>
My best mate has just bought one of these from Halfords and, so far, is very happy with it.
Mind you so far he's only used it to get to and from his shop some two-and-a-half miles away.....:-)
He wouldn't be persauded that, as someone who visits relatives long distance twice a year at most and on routes he knows well, it would be a waste of money.
A case of keeping up with the Joneses.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
|
|
Navigators Have a look in the May issue of Personal Computer World (PCW) at their review of 10 navigators. Editors choice was Tom Tom One. Recommended was Garmin Street Pilot i3 and the Novogo. Not sure if the May PCW is in the shops yet.
|
|
|
|
|
I got a Tom Tom one from a local large motorists/cycle shop and while the unit itself is absolutely brilliant the suction mounting device is not reliable...i.e it kept falling off the windscreen. I have since remounted it on the dash and all is ok.
|
Garmin 3 streetpilot bought 1 a couple of months ago from somerfield for £100
|
Hi Everyone,
Thanks so much for all the messages and suggestions. I am checking them all out. I appreciate your taking the time.
Watch this space. I hope to get a car tomorrow. Failing that, the sav nav will just get strapped to my back!
Alijazz
|
|
|
|
