Sat Nav Or Not?

[Blum]

Just to decide now whether to have sat nav or not in the new lease car. Popped into Lexus Woodford and asked them about it, the bloke there said you enter a street name. I asked if it used post codes and he answered no. So would someone tell me how :-

1) If I wanted a High Street address there must be thousands, it finds it?

2) On a very long road EG: Great Cambridge Road, Enfield it would direct you?

3) what if you want somewhere that hasn’t got a street name?

[Matthew_McNally]

1) If I wanted a High Street address there must be thousands, it finds it?

You enter High Street, and it will prompt you for the name of the town.

Or - you enter the town you want - then type in High Street.

2) On a very long road EG: Great Cambridge Road, Enfield it would direct you?

Yes - my sat nav got me to my hotel on Warwick Road in Solihull (aka the A41!).

When you enter the Great Cambridge Road - it then asks for the house number.

3) what if you want somewhere that hasn’t got a street name?

you can find your location all sorts of ways.

I use hotels a fair bit - so for example, this week.

Enter destination as "Point of Interest (POI)"

Choose "Hotel" as the category.

Enter Tower - get the Thistle Tower in St. Katharines Dock - select that, and it gives me location exactly to the hotel - even though I do not know the address.

Works this way with all sorts of POI - I use the "petrol station" search a lot, to find the nearest Shell garage.

[djanderso]

We got Sat Nav installed in the CR-V we recently purchased and it doesn't allow post codes either - this appears a major oversight! you can also enter a telephone number and it'll direct you (non-domestic only).

I think sat nav is worth it if you do a lot of driving to strange places - the CR-V came with sat nav as standard and I doubt we would have got it as an option.

[Mattj]

Blum - Matthew has described the way it works very well, its downside is that its not perfect and does some rather strange things at times in terms of the route it wants you to go specifically.

It may well not direct you the best route at times, but its a lot simpler than other alternatives, unless you have a really good map reader in the car.

One thing you can certainly guarantee is that you will never be lost, the route might be funny but you can always decide to go another way instead, but you will never not know exactly where you are!

Also bear in mind its a factory fitted option, so once you have made your mind up you are pretty much stuck. Its expensive, but since I was spending a pretty huge amount of cash anyway, I made sure I bought a car that had it....

Best thing to do is take one for a test drive!

[javaboss]

I think sat nav is a great idea. It's just sooooooo expensive!

I don't drive to many places that I don't know - and when I do £5 for a map book (and the map reading Mrs) is much cheaper!

If the price was £1000 then I'd have it on my next Lexus, but at around 2.5k it's just mad! It won't add that to the resale value of the car - it'll probably only be worth a few hundred quid when the vehicle is 3 years old.

The M25 was shut a few months ago and I had to read a map on my own in the car and I really really wish I had sat nav then! I still wouldn't pay that much for it though! :D

[Unity_neil]

Sat Nav is superb! although £2300 punds is a lot to pay for a system which does nothing else and sits in the car all the time.

There are some very good portable systems for the IPAQ out there, Navman, Tom Tom navigator etc. They are easy to use (although no postcode either) accurate and also can be moved from vehicle to vehicle (cigarette lighter powered and suckered to windscreen) and you also get a Hand held PC into the bargain!

The cost for this?

about £700 -£800 all in

Oh and the Navman comes with maps for the whole of Europe.

You pays your money...

[Mattj]

I agree it is expensive, for sure in 3 years time it won't be worth much, so go and buy a 3 year old car with it in then for a bargain!

Otherwise if you are prepared to spend about 20k on a car, which is a lot of money, then stretch a little more and get the sat nav!

Regarding using other systems, the newer DVD based systems in the is200 do have all of europe in them.

Its a fairly valid argument for the ipaq route, considering you get a PDA for your cash as well, however its a pain in the bum to remember to bring all its bits with you every time, plug it in to the lighter etc, so much simpler when you just press a button and there it is!

I can well understand that not everyone is willing to pay for it, I certainly don't use it every day by any stretch of the imagination, however the arguments that I listed were enough to sway me, it might not be the case for everyone....

If you are a poser though its good, everyone who has been in my car is well impressed by the bird I have hiden inside reading out directions for me :D

[TonyGoose]

I think sat nav is a great idea. It's just sooooooo expensive!

If the price was £1000 then I'd have it on my next Lexus, but at around 2.5k it's just mad!

From personal experience ...

The Nav option isn't much more than £1000 in other EU countries ...

Surprise Surprise ... rip off britain is alive and well ...

[Monster-Mat]

my slant on sat nav is.............

without it you get to visit the parts of the country you would never see.............

and there are some nice bits of england out there ;)

[Mike246]

without it you get to visit the parts of the country you would never see.............

I'll remember that next time I'm running late for a business appointment in Birmingham and have to rely on a lousy sense of direction.

I've had my GS SatNav for 3 years and wouldn't want to be without it.

[Mattj]

and there are some nice bits of england out there ;)

well let me know when you have found one and where it is, I can type the address into my sat nav and get there easily :P

[Unity_neil]

Its a fairly valid argument for the ipaq route, considering you get a PDA for your cash as well, however its a pain in the bum to remember to bring all its bits with you every time, plug it in to the lighter etc, so much simpler when you just press a button and there it is!

True! But is it 1800 pounds less hassle? My ipaq takes longer to first fix in the morning. I gotta plug it in (the sucker and charger stay in the car) the only extra I have to bring is the sleeve which it fits in, so I'm happy with that. Regarding the quality of the systems, there are actually only a couple of companies which do the mapping so you'll either get one or the other anyway, even with an "In car system". A grand I would've paid for the Lex system (even without the additional functionality of the IPAQ) but not £2300, thats steep to me.

p.s. If you've already got an IPAQ, the Sleeve and software for satnav is about £300 quid!

:o :o :o

nerd alert!

[ricky_is200]

p.s. If you've already got an IPAQ, the Sleeve and software for satnav is about £300 quid!

Thats what I did and like Neil I leave the holder and lead in the car all the time, I've connected the power lead permantly to behind the cigarette lights (which only took 10 minutes and I know nothing about car electrics). The NavMan solution uses the same mapping software as Lexus do.

Its hard to see how Lexus justify charging so much when many lesser cars have SatNav as standard, even europeans and the US pay a lot less for it in their Lexus's.