Sorry to hijack the thread but can people post their findings with their Sat Navs. I bought a cheap Medion one which had Navteq maps on board Ive taken it back as despite having Fastest, shortest and most economical route options it was very inaccurate - telling me to take some downright bizarre routes (which i ignored and even after it told me to do a u turn continued to ignore until it recalculated and would go the route I thought most sensible.) If you weren’t on your guard it would take you miles and miles out of your way. Even coming home down my own road it tells me to turn right where there is no right turn - bizzare!
How accurate and user friendly are your units? I’d like one with a simple full postcode input that will get me there by a sensible route not Cardiff to london via John O’Groats.
A few years ago I bought a Medion PDA which had a sat-nav program (and it wasn’t cheap) it was complicated and really USER UNFRIENDLY, took 5 minutes to get it programmed and instructed me to do some funny things…turn right on a motorway was one thing!
I then put a Tom-tom program on to it and it was OK until the the PDA died.
Then I bought a dedicated sat nav (Tom-tom 720 go) and its great, 6 digit post code, door to door navigation and simple to use.
I’ve tried a friends Garmin and been in a car with Nav-man but IMHO Tom-tom is the best but that’s just my opinion and maybe just what I’m used too.
A Sat Nav is cheating, if you are driving a classic car you should be using a map
However the TomTom works fine in my S4. One thing to watch out for is noisy ignition (RFI) which may cause the Sat Nav to have problems. As long as the ignition is suppressed all will work.
Didnt John Harrison provide time information rather than mapping??? i agree though about TomTom being the best choice,i just wonder if my car might revolt at such modern equipment being wired to her…
Rocket, hence Mr. Pelly’s suggestion of a Harrison H4. Star positions mean nothing if you don’t know the time. Now Mr. Pelly, I think that the Harrison H4 is in higher than Bugatti Royale territory, even if you could persuade the Greenwich Observatory to part with it. Then again perhaps Parliament is thinking along those lines to bail out RBS.
what’s with the Mr. Pelly business, respect for the aged?
I’ll let you call me John, provided you go down on one knee when doing so
I suppose it’s nicer than being called a Mo??is Dancer though
My ref. to Harrisons time piece was “poetic licence” so to say.
You’re on the right lines though; keep an eye on ebay for the next couple of years, goodness knows what will be needed to bail this lot out
Might put in a bid myself, it would sit nicely next to my Octant
The product is as good as the map after the base technology (this is not typically proprietary but a licensed chipset) is taken into account. I find the Garmin maps have minor issues where roads have been mildly rerouted, but it’s fun to drive “across the field” or to see where the road used to go. Note that your vendor is likely to have a better map for its own country.
As to right turns on motorways, one common issue is synching to the road either underneath or beside you. There’s a distance algorithm used for this, but remember that on crossroads, the system is essentially two-dimensional.
I’ve used three different kinds and all were about equally accurate. Common annoyances:
Listing the town or city twice, once followed by “twp”. The person writing the map code didn’t bother to reduce these to one place (which they are) so you sometimes have to search both for your road. Ditto for spelling variants Marlboro vs. Marlborough and similar stuff.
Annoying off-route behavior (Garmin’s is good)
Inability to know how to avoid accident traffic.
Nobody yet seems to have issues like road restrictions (e.g., no trailers) built into their algorithms.
In the U.S., Delorme is a mapping company and has excellent maps. Unfortunately, their product is really cumbersome to use.
My ancient Garmin Quest is still my favorite 'cause it works well in the woods and on my bike. I wish I could find a replacement battery for it.
John, (yes I bowed deeply) I am aged myself, just trying to set an alternative tone to some of the recent rants on airbox clearances and dipstick failures. Honestly I don’t understand the Morris Dancer issue. Here in the colonies we have troupes of Morris Dancers out in the spring and fall, not minutes away from where General George Washington had his headquarters during the Revolutionary War and where notable loyalists were imprisoned. The dancers are fun to watch and seem to be quite innocent. If I ever get the +2 and Elite back together I may try the dance. Sir Twincamman should get a kick out of this!
I raise my hat to you Sir; a good start to my day. which should be a good one anyway.
I’m going to the BMW shareholders meeting to listen to them give the management a hammering.
Sadism lives
I’d have been very much on my own there, talk about a rose coloured glasses management report & not one soul screaming or shouting.
So everything’s fine & dandy. Mr. Brown would be proud of 'em.
The free sandwches & coffee were nice though, so the day’s not been all bad