Can anyone recommend a satnav

[joecraigfanclub]

Might be doing some driving in France this year so any recommendations on what to buy or where to get a good price would be appreciated

[aaid]

20 minutes ago, joecraigfanclub said:

Might be doing some driving in France this year so any recommendations on what to buy or where to get a good price would be appreciated

Use your iPhone. 

[Grim Jim]

Have used a TomTom One/XL for a few years now, and chose it because it came with European maps.   There have been newer versions since, and I remember noting that some came with free lifetime map updates.

Mine's still great, but drawbacks are that its memory isn't quite big enough to hold all of Europe, so you have to choose a chunk of it.   It is pretty slow at swapping chunks around too via USB2.

[Guest BlueGaz]

I have had satnavs for years but about 2 years ago i purchased the TomTom Euro app for my phone, which cost me about £42 at the time i think, and it came with free upgrades and speed camera alert too.  Due to it upgrading continuously it is now obviously "streets" ahead of my car nav.

[joecraigfanclub]

Thanks for the advice all. Am somewhat reluctant to use the phone app as a guy at my work received points and a fine when using an app on the phone as it was deemed using your phone whilst driving.

[Guest BlueGaz]

1 minute ago, joecraigfanclub said:

Thanks for the advice all. Am somewhat reluctant to use the phone app as a guy at my work received points and a fine when using an app on the phone as it was deemed using your phone whilst driving.

Only if you are holding it though, or you have to look down to use it, not if you have it in a cradle above dash level.

Edited December 20, 2016 by BlueGaz

[aaid]

2 hours ago, joecraigfanclub said:

Thanks for the advice all. Am somewhat reluctant to use the phone app as a guy at my work received points and a fine when using an app on the phone as it was deemed using your phone whilst driving.

You can get a holder that has a suction cup you can attach to the windscreen and a USB power adapter for the cigarette lighter for a few quid.  You can also get a free sat nav app called Navmi.  It's a pretty hefty download so you probably want to install it before you go and delete when you come back.

Thats what I use. 

[deecie]

22 minutes ago, aaid said:

You can get a holder that has a suction cup you can attach to the windscreen and a USB power adapter for the cigarette lighter for a few quid.  You can also get a free sat nav app called Navmi.  It's a pretty hefty download so you probably want to install it before you go and delete when you come back.

Thats what I use. 

Same here. £1 from eBay.

Google Maps are much better than iOS maps.

[aaid]

2 minutes ago, deecie said:

Same here. £1 from eBay.

Google Maps are much better than iOS maps.

The problem with using either Google or iOS maps is that they download the map data in real time so you can have issues with data charges - and it can be quite a large amount of data - so it depends on your mobile contract.

With a sat nav app, you install all the map data upfront and it just uses the GPS to work out where you are so there's no data charge.

[joecraigfanclub]

Once again, thanks for the advice

 

[Huddersfield]

I've used TomTom & Garmin & both are fine; look for one with free lifetime map & camera updates. Bear in mind as well that it's illegal to use any speed camera warning device in France. I think they've been removed from the main brands anyway, but if you use a third party camera app they might have them on.

With TomTom, the main W. Europe map covers France. I've used a Go1005 for a few years now & it served me well in a few countries. Most of the top brands have bluetooth & search facilities as well, so you can use them as handsfree, find the nearest petrol station or hotel, etc.