Transferable Gps Systems

[alanbradley]

Hi folks...

The annual pay reviews have come through and I now have a little extra cash that I want to spend/waste on a transferable GPS system for the Yaris.

I only have a budget of about £350 so my choices are somewhat limited.

As I've said, I want to be able to transfer the unit between vehicles with relative ease (it could come in handy for work and also when I have to use company/hire cars, vans and lorries) but I also want to be able to use it on the continent (mainly France and possibly Germany/Switzerland) on my hols.

I've narrowed my choice down to 3 at the moment, but I'd appreciate your thoughts/help/input/abuse and suggestions of any others. I don't really like buying this sort of thing 2nd hand or from a dodgy source so e-bay is out I'm afraid.

Here are the choices:-

1) Garmin Quest - £340 - http://www.garmin.com/products/quest/

Pros: Small, comes with whole of Europe maps

Cons: Only does the one thing, quite expensive

2) Mio 268 - £299 - http://www.mio-tech.be/products/gps/268/de...?From=Topbanner

Pros: Cheapish, compact

Cons: Only does one thing (well, plays mp3s too - yippety skip <_< ) , Uncertainlty about price and availability of purchasing European Maps

3) Mio 168 & Tomtom 3 - £325 - http://www.mio-tech.be/products/gps/168/

Pros: Does more than one thing, can be used every day for other tasks. One less piece of kit to cart around.

Cons: Expensive with Tom Tom but availability of Euro maps suspect without. Do I really need to replace my Zire 71 already? Not available straight away.

I hope that you uys can help me sort out my confused little mind.

Cheers in advance,

Alan

[reece]

If you pop into Halfauds or a local WHSmith's, there is a car mag doing reviews on various sat nav units this month, but I can't remember which one it was but it's on the cover, I don't think it was Auto Express. There were a load in the review, I'm going to take a closer look at the mag this week.

[Robie]

Hello mate,

Take a look at http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/ for all your reviews and gps needs. :)

I would recommend creating the package yourself with a PDA , GPS mouse and mount. You will also need 110 mb of space on your PDA aswell so will need a compact flash card.

Tom tom 3 is easily available so PM me about that ;)

Tom tom 3 is widely regarded as the best gps software abvailable and you will be getting a PDA aswell, ideal for playing solitaire on the bog :P

With mine i have a speed camera database installed aswell so it shouts at me when there is a speed camera coming up.

[System~G]

Our work is using a site to buy our Satnavs from

package consists of HP PDA (I think - may be the MIO) with built in GPS receiver and the Tom Tom software with all the bits to make it work in your car. They are up at £270 odd.

I don't have the link with me now, but will find it when I get into the office and post it

[sotal]

I would highly recommend Tomtom, I have just got tomtom mobile for my orange spv c500 smartphone.

One of the best bluetooth GPS Receivers you can get is the Fortuna Clip-on. It has both Chipsets in so you can choose which to use. They are £109 from www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk.

You can download the tomtom mobile software from various sites :arrgg-matey: , or you can buy a package which gives you a bluetooth gps receiver and the software for around £150

You can then get an orange spv c500 for next to nothing. Mine was free on a £25/month contract, but you get 9 months line rental refund so it only costs £75 for the whole year and you get 240 anytime cross network minutes for the first 6 months and 120 anytime cross network minutes for the remaining 6 months. The phone was from http://www.onestopphoneshop.co.uk

I prefer it on my mobile phone as it means there is one less thing. I have the GPS receiver mounted under the parcel shelf in the boot, so it can't be seen, then the phone just mounts on the air vent with a little clip - no wires no mess, and slides into my pocket when I leave the car!!

Tomtom also supports all the Points of Interest (POI) databases, these can be found at pocketgps.co.uk, these include speed cameras, red light cameras, dangerous roads, mcdonalds, pizza hut, castles etc. You can the set warnings when you get close. Mine is set to say "GATSO" when I get 200 yards away from a speed camera, it also flashes the speedcamera symbol on the screen.

Anyway they are a great gadget, waste of time 90% of the time but invalueable the rest of the time!

[Gnome]

I have just had to look at this subject for the last 6 months for the company I work for.

We have 8 salespersons, out in the field visiting customers, mostly in the middle of nowhere!

We got them TomTom Go's.

Approx £400, but they've dropped about £40 in the last 3 months alone!

Highly recommended, and they sit on an "arm" which can be stuck to your windscreen, etc.

Very cool little machines

[Roytoner]

This is going to sound like a daft question

But can you put Tom Tom 3 on any PDA??

we have a Medion that as it's own Sat Nav on just wondering if Tom Tom will

work on it??

[alanbradley]

Supposedly it will - www.globalpositioningsystems.co.uk sell the Mio with it as a package.

Thanks for your suggestions folks. I've been trying to avoid the PDA+gubbins route as I have enough of a tangle of cables in my car as it is!

As regards the smartphone options, my mobile is one of the few parks I get from my old man's business (along with my tyres!) so I'm not going to be changing it to Orange anytime soon.

Reece, I'll take a look at the magazine shelves again - I was in Borders last night nut I must have missed that one.

The Tom Toms are just a bit too bulky and are still too expensive for me. I guess I could wait and save up, but I'm just not that patient!

I have access to a copy of Tom Tom so I think I'll get the Mio 168 - I'll probably change my mind again though!

Thanks again for your suggestions so far.

Cheers,

Alan

[JustJJ]

Well Alan.....

I can only really comment on the last one... the Mitec Mio 168 with TomTom because..... I HAVE IT! ;)

I love it, great little pda and brilliant software.

Its reasonably swift, definately loud enough to be heard in the car over the general noise you get, as well as stereo (though not -too- loud :P)

You can also load things like the speed camera database onto it... and there is a program you can load onto it, which hooks up with TomTom where you can do full postcode lookup too... seeing as Tom Tom itself with only let you input 1st 4 digits.

Are you coming to the Wales Meet? as I can show you it all then...

The Mitec comes with everything you need to install it into the car, and its surprisingly light!

All in all I love it... and give it lots of stars :hokus-pokus:

I bought mine here : Mitec Mio 168

Christine and Paul.... no you cant put TomTom on any pda.... the pda in question has to be GPS enabled...if it is.. then yes you can put it on... :)

[alanbradley]

JJ you're the best!

That's exactly what I wanted to hear and exactly where I was going to get mine from!

I won't be at the Wales meet (I'll be in Newcastle instead) but thanks for the offer.

Cheers,

Alan

[JustJJ]

No probs mate :)

but yeah... nice bit of kit... both my boyfriend and I have one ;)

deffo download the speed camera database (you can put your own sounds as warnings... hehehe) and the full postcode lookup... if you need to know where to get it let me know.. I'll grab you info ;)

[Robie]

If it is a windows operating system then its should run Tom Tom Navigator and if you have a palm then there is software for that too :)

[System~G]

This is the one our are company recommendngi us to get:

MIO & Tom Tom

Mio with the Tom Tom software. It also has it's own GPS receiver and all the mobile windows stuff. Easily transferable between cars and just plugs into you cigarette lighter. Has onboard sound which is more than loud enought to hear above motorway noise...

Your choice bud

EDIT: Just realised it's the same thing that JJ is on about

[alanbradley]

Just bought it... Ouch! :)

I was originally looking for a unit the would fit on to my Zire 71, but unfortunately you can't get one. This is my 3rd Palm, but they disabled lots of things that its predecessor (M130) could do so that you would have to buy the even more expensive one. I hate that sort of attitude in companies so they've lost my loyalty <_<

Cheers again to all,

Alan