had my 500 for a few weeks now hubby is going to buy the blue & me satnav unit for my b/day.... can any one tell me the type of mapping it uses ie teleatlas etc etc is it as good as a tom tom/ garmin unit ?? also having a problem with my i-pod wont play a thing .... hubby says he will reformat using a pc and not the mac...... as the unit in the 500 is microsoft based.... any pointers....thanx debbo.......

I would be inclined to buy a totally standalone system, so you can use it in your next car/ flog it on Ebay afterwards.

The MP3 conversion works fine, but consider just whacking a large memory stick with your music on instead. Less fuss, and takes up less space!

Piaggiocenter said:

I would be inclined to buy a totally standalone system, so you can use it in your next car/ flog it on Ebay afterwards.

Click to expand...

Yep agree totally, with Tom Tom & similar units its dead easy to download updates, add speed cameras etc from the interweb & its totally portable. We had a car break down in France & we simply put tom tom into the renter, added the gargae location as a favourite & found the car a week later without problems in the centre of a large city.
I have sat nav in my 350Z & we had it in the Skoda, neither got used, Tom Tom every time

todays special value on qvc 2/4/09 is a tom tom xl it has uk plus euro plus free breakdown cover and a years worth of free map updates £135 looks like a good deal but i already have a sat nav i have the ultra cool blaupunkt lucca 3.5 edition (it's the round one) £59.99 from sainsbury's around 5-6 weeks ago

LOL trust u white to have a cool one, Ive got a navigo off ebuyer, cost me about £50! Think theyre about £44 tho now! Mine looks a bit clunky but it goes in with the retro feel of my car

i,m just looking at one of those now notts,have you downloaded tom tom or are you using turbodog? £44 is a bargain considering a tomtom is twice the price so whats your verdict?

Mine is the older version, but my mate got the version they sell now at Xmas, he is usually quite picky with these sorts of things but he seems quite happy with it, and with the standard software. I would like to download tom tom onto it which I know you can do but didnt manage to find somewhere to get it from. Having said that, Ive used the standard turbodog 5 and found it fine for my occasional use needs, as long as you use the spoken prompts along with looking at the maps and junction diagrams ive had no probs.

I had an Acer PDA with nav software on before this, and it cost me over £200 and was worse. Not only did the woman have a snotty attitude ( she used to say "U turn" in the same way as teenagers now say "woteva" as if I was a moron) but it tried on several occasions to take me to destinations via blocked off service roads on motorway services! It took ages to find a signal too. Then the whole thing died completely.

On the navigo one, the touch screen works fine, it gets a signal within a short space of time and keeps it. For the price I have no problems with it at all.

I will be using it to go to the NFM2 meet so if I dont turn up youll know Im trying to get to Bournemouth via the sliproad at Tibshelf services LOL

that will do for me then!

I do over 30,000 miles a year using a TomTom 730, and while not perfect, it beats all the rest hands down.

My Wifes Garmin Nuvo was £99, works fine, but is caned by the TomTom once the traffic starts! It's verbal instructions are fine though, far less fussy than the TT, but overall, no comparison.

Buy a basic basic Tomtom if you want to keep costs down, they are still great!

Tomtoms's are great until they break down. Then you have to suffer the Tomtom helpline :bang:

As for me, I used to use my dad's old Garmin sat nav but now I use the GPS on my phone. Have yet to try it out properly though, have only used it while walking somewhere and for that it was faultless! Will come in very useful for my trip to London later in the month!

Tomtoms are great as long as you don't actually listen to the verbal directions, in which case you'll end up in a river - if you are lucky. The visuals are great though. I do 5000 a year with one - at night

On both the ones Ive used its been best to look at the maps/junction diagrams in conjunction with the verbal prompts... I suppose it depends on your learning style, Auditory you listen to the voice, visual you look at the maps, kinaesthetic you steer with your knees while trying to turn pages on your road atlas with one hand and sipping a cup of too hot costa cappucino with the other!

does anyone own the fiat 500 satnav unit ???? i do not wont info on tom/tom/ garmin units........just the blue & me type thanx debbo.......

i'm thinking of getting this too so would also like to know if its any good.

Got the blue me sat nav in my 500 and its a great piece of kit, Little bit more in cost than a tom tom xl but it works through the speakers and no wires if youve got the docking port had both working at the same time last week going to bristol and the fiat sat nav was giving instructions at exactly the right time were as the tomtom you were at the turning when it starting talking, okay tomtom can do speed camera warnings and the 500 one cant but but who needs that?? I paid £150 for mine when we bought the car last month well worth the cost, works the same as built in sat nav

many thanx for the info, hows the mapping in the unit ?? do you buy the unit then buy the maps online ? or is it complete ? thanx debbo .........

UK and ireland maps preinstalled on the unit, comes as a complete unit, looks like they use navteq mapping as maps come up same as our c5s built in sat nav which is navteq

nottsfiat07 said:

LOL trust u white to have a cool one, Ive got a navigo off ebuyer, cost me about £50! Think theyre about £44 tho now! Mine looks a bit clunky but it goes in with the retro feel of my car

Click to expand...

i have the navigo v2... i like it

put tomtom software on it and speed camera updates

just a note to say hubby picked up the blue & me satnav unit.... but its still in the box >>>> b/day on the 28th...... he thinks i dont know !!! about the pressy...debbo

just a note ref the blue & me satnav...... rubbish... went on a 360 mile round trip to yarmouth and back.... kept changing to meters instead of miles kept trying to send us the wrong way , poor mapping,had to reset the unit 5 times.... its going back tomorrow.... we kept checking useing a navigon unit..... very good results,traffic, up to date maps, easy to use, and they are cheap...........