As the recent owner of a wife with gps navigation (not new wife or one fitted with gps)but wife now owns a gps nav device, it seems this is just another exspensive gimmick that is not very reliable or accurate and relies on technology that can be lost at the flick of a switch if our friend from the USA think fit to do so by turning off or introducing an offset.
Am I correct in my diagnosis of gps nav for us lesser mortals or have I got it wrong?
rustbucket (the original)
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Corporations such as Viacom own most satellites, especially the ones over us. I don't know whether the Americans can get them to turn them off?
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have I got it wrong?>>
If you buy a good GPS system or have one fitted to your vehicle, it's the best thing since sliced bread when you are in an area you don't know as well as the locals.
The last time I used one was in the early hours of the morning driving an S-Class deep in the wilds iof the far end of Cornwall - the satnav system guided us along narrow country lanes right to our hotel's car park more than 30 miles away.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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The EU (with contributions from member states, including us) is setting about putting up its own satellite gps system, possibly in collaboration with China as I understand it. They were going to call it Galileo, but have now discovered that the name is registered to a small Bahamas-based company so they are having to think again.
It's supposed to be the answer to the American system, but critics have said it's more likely to be an orbiting Railtrack.
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have I got it wrong?>>
From the replies so far you seem to be indicating that the factory fitted or exspensive end of the market are good.But what about the low end ie navman / tom-tom / aldi ect. It would be nice to hear from those that are using these.
playing with the gps nav my wife has it seems very tempremental in obtaining a sattelite fix and brings a whole new meaning to the mysery tour when using.I do accept that its only as good as the map data but the technology of being able to recieve a good signal from at minimum 3 satellites while on the move in a built up area seems a bit touchy.May be my wife has a duff gps nav and I am being unfair.
rustbucket (the original)
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My son has a PDA and added the TomTom satnav software - it worked very well on the occasion I was operating it during a visit to the Midlands.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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There is a long thread somewhere on PDA based systems so I won't drone on. I had an old Palm/Magellan/TomTom combination that was fairly unwieldy as you had to load up relevant maps before you set off, and it didn't recalculate the route automatically when you deviated.
Mainly because of the need to swap maps all the time, I switched to the latest Aldi/Medion package, and it is immensely useful with very few problems. Even finding locations in the middle of large cities is usually easy. It has quirks but once you have got used to using it, it really isn't difficult.
Used locally it is sometimes obvious that the route is not the best one (for example I know that it takes 20 minutes to get through Berkhamsted high street and it's full of road humps, but the system clearly doesn't) but if the alternative is reading a map while negotiating the Birmingham one way system then its no contest.
I'm a traditionalist and love maps but I wouldn't give this gadget up.
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Firstly GPS - Yes as currently operated it is owned by the USA. Its always been there free gratis and for nothing but used to have a thing called "jitter" added to it to make it less accurate. Even then it was useable for sat nav (by a good car sat nav that used other inputs like speedo pulses)
Jitter is now removed and is very accurate. The yanks cant turn it off, its now too ingrained in life or death and comercial operations.
Proper in car sat navs are wonderfull. Good ones (most are now) are very useable and clever.
I use an ancient clip on GPS receiver to an ancient palm with ancient maps. It still enabled me to negotiate round holland and the depths of amsterdam, albeit not quite as user friendly as a good one.
Summary? the single most useful device you can have in a car after a torch.
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Yes.
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Luddites is the phrase that springs to mind. A good GPS saves you hours in a strange area and consequently loads of money if you are on business especially if you travel alone.
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Absolutely no experience but have seen/heard nothing but good reports about Magellan Roadmate 700. Anybody used/got one?
VBR.......M.
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That's one I'm considering myself. gpsinformation.us/roadmate/rm700rev.html may help, and you can download the manuals for Magellan 700 in PDF at tinyurl.com/5qvgn . Any user experience would be welcome, please.
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I bought one as an add on advertised in Top Gear... not sure I can say the make as I found it as useful as a chocolate teapot! twas not cheap either!
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I use an ALK Co-pilot V4 Sat Nav system(on an Ipaq). Its been invaluable both in the UK and in Europe. It has saved my bacon numerous times, especially when navigating Paris. Chuck the car down a strange road to avoid traffic and it re-calculates within seconds. It is easy to pre-plan and save journeys with numerous waypoints so that you know in advance which way its going to take you before you are behind the wheel.
www.alk.eu.com/
In addition you can import for free up-to-date (updated montly) speed camera locations from www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php
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I've just got one of the 80 quid refurbed Medion MD40600 ones from MedionShop. Most impressed, came with two 256mb mmc cards with the UK and most of Europe on them. The UK tomtom maps fit on one card and seem more up to date. I've tried it with O/S maps and aerial photographs, but having a seperate gps widget makes it not so much use if cycling or walking. Works a treat in strange towns, just bung in a postcode and follow the directions.
Martin
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The gadget show this week reviewed a couple of sat nav systems. One was a nissan one which they found to be out of date but very detailed. It also sent them the longest route and tried to get them to turn right where you couldn't turn right. They looked at the navman which they found unstable, unable to see in daylight and it went back to the start screen for no reason. It did get them where they wanted to go but it wouldn't let them put in a complete postcode.
The best one they found of the 3 they tested was the tom tom go which sent them on the best route but they did have to put in the destination on a map which seems rather odd if you don't know where you're going!
teabelly
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I use Tomtom 3 on my PDA for satnav. It works absolutely perfectly, is rarely if ever wrong and automatically re-routes me if I go off course. When mounted properly it also looks good, and I found it easily as good as the system built into the E320 CDI Avantgarde I was in a few weeks ago.
10/10 from me.
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I've got it on my Mondeo and it is probably the best gadget yet fitted to any car I have owned. Supremely accurate.
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