current (2011) recommendations?

[james_f]

Hi

Thinking of buying a sat nav, for the first time, as I can obtain good discounts direct from Garmin (Inst. of Adv. Motorists member deal)

No idea what sort of thing we'd need, and they offer
1210 for £40 - rrp = £100
1240 for £60 - rrp = £110
1340 for £70 - rrp = £130
1390T for £100 - rrp = £170

Being a gadget-type person I'd like the 1390T, but I do accept that I may be buying more than I need!

Any advice out there on sat navs? How much do you look at a sat nav, as opposed to listening? ie does having a widescreen make any difference if you're just listening to the voice telling you where to go?

What about running costs? I understand you need to update every now and again, which sounds expensive - how often do you need to do that in real life?

Any help much appreciated!

James

 

[Stu DemonD]

I would go for the 1390T at that price! Then again, I love gadgets

I use a widescreen Garmin at the moment, but it is getting a bit old now - it is a Nuvi 200W! The main reason for buying it was because it was wide...

As for updating it - never had to pay for that and it is running the latest maps

 

[Caravadossi]

It’s generally believed that the RRP of dedicated SatNav units are in free-fall now that mobile phones with GPS are being offered with `free-for-life’ map upgrades (e.g. Nokia).

I believe Which? tested some 100 SatNav & GPSmobiles - & concluded some 20 or-so were “Best Buys.” Can anyone with access to this report be more specific?

.

 

[james_f]

Cheers for the replies guys

I'd be interested to see / hear what Which? have recommended

 

[james_f]

Well, payday and several impending trips for 'er indoors' means I have given in and ordered the 1390T

 

[Stu DemonD]

Good call

Personally, I would prefer a dedi SatNav than using one off my smartphone, especially at that price.

Feel free to give any feedback on it

 

[james_f]

Well so far the only feedback is that Garmin (buying direct from them ) were ace in sending out the unit on the same day for next day delivery.

The unit arrived at our house at 3.20pm which is a bit of a strange time to call at a domestic dwelling, as most people either going to be at work, or collecting from school. As it happens we missed the bloke by about 5mins, which is of course very friustrating, esp as they don't deliver over the weekend, so despite Garmins best service we're waiting in all day today for them to deliver. I will then have to have a very quick play / setting up session before my wife goes off on a complicated set of trips at 5 tomorrow morning!!! (and why I'd wanted the set asap)

Will certainly update on the units peformance as / when I can

I wonder if I can / should buy a load of these and sell 'em on ebay?!

 

[Stu DemonD]

I am tempted for £100 lol

 

[james_f]

Right, well, after three days of use driving all over North Yorkshire, my wife has come back and declared her love for the unit!!

It didn't get her lost once (I'd preloaded the various destinations as 'favourites' and she just had to choose which one each time she started a journey) and so is now a fan. As a committed technophone this is a bit of a rarity

We've not used all the functions yet of course, but I can see where some of them will become really useful when we go away next time.

The only thing which was slightly disappointing was that the included sticky disc which you can stick to your dashboard (to save having tell tale marks on the windscreen) wouldn't stick to our curvy dash. The padded sticky pad needs to be thicker so it can allow for contours on the dash, and being a bit stickier would help too. So, I've had to stick on the 'screen which is something I really hadn't wanted to do.

But, overall, the Garmin 1390T is very much a recommended product, esp for £100