Sat nav choice | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Thu 26 May 2005 02:02

Sat nav choice - ian c

I want to buy a satellite navigation system - and wonder whether anybody can tell me if there is one that we can use abroad, not only in Europe but also in North America.

I realise we would have to buy a special chip or CD rom for the US - but I thought it would be a huge help to have one of these when we are driving a hire car there. Apparently these devices do vary from country to country - navigation devices that turn up in cars bought secondhand from Japan can never be made to work here.

Any other observations on advantages and drawbacks to look out for would also be gratefully noted. Here, we'd want to use the thing in an Audi A4 and a Mitsubishi jeep.

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Thu 26 May 2005 08:58

Sat nav choice - Altea Ego

Any one of the aftermarket devices TomTom Go, TomTom for PDA's, Navman ICxxxx are all available with North American maps and so can be used over here and over there. The maps will of course cost extra. See how much they cost in the US before buying here.

Or

Most US hire car companies offer cars with Sat Nav, why take one over there?

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Fri 27 May 2005 01:25

Sat nav choice - ian c

Thanks for that!

It just seems a good idea to take the unit with us ... knowing how US care hire companies operate, two weeks' rental of the thing will end up costing a hefty proportion of what one would cost to buy.

But I will take your advice and look up the cost in the US before I buy one here.

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Fri 27 May 2005 09:28

Sat nav choice - Altea Ego

If pricing in the states, dont forget to cost in the price of european or uk street level maps.

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Fri 27 May 2005 11:24

Sat nav choice - Bill Payer

Check the rental price first - one of the Disney forums mentions that Virgin are offering Nav for 2006 for £3/day.

I'm not sure how much I'd trust Nav in the US, though. I've had it on 2 cars in the US and it does some bonkers things sometimes - I tend to use it as a confirmation / back up rather than trusting it 100%.

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