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Post by grampa on Mar 20, 2018 9:36:08 GMT
Following on from the Beat the Sat Nav thread, how many are bothering with a Sat Nav now?
Our trusty Tom Tom has finally given up the ghost so instead I bought one of those magnetic things to hold my phone (and promptly left it in a hire car three days later!!) a car charger and downloaded 'Here We Go' which was free and I have to say, better than the Tom Tom, but that may have been because ours was so old.
When I picked up the holder and the charger, the big thing in Halfords now seemed to be Apple Play (it doesn't interest me, but I assume this is an interface for your phone as seems to be coming on some new cars these days?).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2018 9:56:48 GMT
Google's app is still not anywhere near as good as a recent TomTom, so I'll use the existing device. Whether I would buy a new one is a moot point, but the problems with free ones seem to be their difficulty in use when you want to change destination etc or use the phone to multi-task - the one I have is just not user-friendly enough. Yet.
(In 2013, an aeon ago in tech terms, I know, we were driven into London to attend a music festival by relatives who were using an app to navigate. It was an amusing experience from the back seat watching them bicker about it in a way that I knew they wouldn't over a dedicated unit . Like I say, an aeon ago, though.) |
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Post by LandieMark on Mar 20, 2018 10:37:20 GMT
The problem I have with app based sat nav is data allowance. It's OK if you have a massive data bundle and (more importantly) in a good signal area. The apps don't work if they can't get a signal. I know you can download offline maps, but you can't do it for the entire country. That's where the TomToms and Garmin come in useful. Saying that, I can't see myself buying a new one anytime soon, even if the thing breaks down.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2018 11:04:13 GMT
I did do a trial run with it a few months ago to see how much data got used. It was surprisingly little, and I only had a gig of data at that time (subsequently upped to 5 at no cost).
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Post by LandieMark on Mar 20, 2018 11:14:12 GMT
I did do a trial run with it a few months ago to see how much data got used. It was surprisingly little, and I only had a gig of data at that time (subsequently upped to 5 at no cost). That's useful to know, thanks. |
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Post by Blarno on Mar 20, 2018 11:28:47 GMT
It's not very often I drive a great distance to somewhere I don't already know, so using my phone as satnav is the best option. I have more than enough data allowance to allow me to do this, so buying a dedicated satnav is likely to be a waste of time and money for me.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2018 11:38:53 GMT
I did do a trial run with it a few months ago to see how much data got used. It was surprisingly little, and I only had a gig of data at that time (subsequently upped to 5 at no cost). That's useful to know, thanks. If you have an app on your phone for data usage (mine's Virgin's own), all you need do is check before and afterwards. I was genuinely surprised by how little it was, so use it on the odd occasion I get caught out without giving it a second's thought. |
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Post by racingteatray on Mar 20, 2018 11:55:12 GMT
I do, but then again my car came with the top-spec Professional Navigation system fitted as standard and it's jolly good. My wife likes to second-guess it from the passenger seat using Waze, but I can't stand the Waze interface, plus I figure that everyone else is using it and therefore being sent down the same roads, so I refuse to use it.
The removable Blue&Me TomTom that came with my wife's Fiat and slots into a dock built into the top of the dash is still going strong after 4.5 yrs so I occasionally use that. But to honest, most of the time driving around London, I only really use the SatNav for two purposes: (i) to show me where my destination is if I am unsure exactly where it is and (ii) to show me where any traffic is, and then I tend to pick my own route based on my own experience and knowledge.
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Post by racingteatray on Mar 20, 2018 11:58:21 GMT
The only time I use a phone to navigate in a car is if we have rented a car and it doesn't have built-in sat-nav. Or more frequently, like the GLA we had in Ancona last month, it does have built-in sat-nav but of the SD card-operated variety and the rental company has removed the card in order to try and charge extra for it....
And then it's usually Google Maps, or Waze if my wife is doing the directing.
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Mar 20, 2018 12:05:34 GMT
If my mother-in-law (who doesn't drive) is in the back seat I turn the satnav off to prevent arguments between the two.
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Post by grampa on Mar 20, 2018 14:19:13 GMT
It's not very often I drive a great distance to somewhere I don't already know, so using my phone as satnav is the best option. I have more than enough data allowance to allow me to do this, so buying a dedicated satnav is likely to be a waste of time and money for me. Same here (maybe 4 or 5 journeys a year if that) - and even then, I only find it really handy for the last 5 miles or so - until then it's telling me nothing that a quick glance at a road atlas (a what?!) won't tell me, which is why the app makes sense for me. I get no where near my data allowance in the normal course of things, so that's not likely to be a problem either. |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Mar 20, 2018 14:44:08 GMT
For years I said that I didn't need a satnav as it was rare that I was going anywhere I was unfamiliar with. Then you discover the benefits of real time traffic information and realise it's something you can benefit from most days.
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Post by Tim on Mar 20, 2018 16:59:04 GMT
I rarely seem to travel anywhere new nowadays.
In fact, even when I was sometimes visiting clients for work in the early 2000s I only actually used it 'properly' 3 times for places in deepest Edinburgh and Glasgow.
I think Mrs Tim has used it in the 320 a few times to make it a bit easier to get to some locations in those 2 cities but as they're usually hospitals she could've managed without it.
On that basis I wouldn't pay a penny extra to have it, even on the phone.
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Post by Martin on Mar 20, 2018 17:14:13 GMT
For years I said that I didn't need a satnav as it was rare that I was going anywhere I was unfamiliar with. Then you discover the benefits of real time traffic information and realise it's something you can benefit from most days. I agree. I know my way to work, but I always put the sat nav on as the roads (inc M1) regularly have delays even at the time I travel. |
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Post by ChrisM on Mar 20, 2018 20:39:34 GMT
For years I said that I didn't need a satnav as it was rare that I was going anywhere I was unfamiliar with. Then you discover the benefits of real time traffic information and realise it's something you can benefit from most days. I agree. I know my way to work, but I always put the sat nav on as the roads (inc M1) regularly have delays even at the time I travel. Similar.... I bought a TomTom 5100 when it was on offer a couple of years back and it's brilliant as it has live traffic that updates about every 3 minutes (I'm sure Alf will confirm this). Even on the daily commute it can warn of incidents and suggest the best alternative - however it's not really that clever as despite me taking an interesting way through Basingstoke on my way to work each morning, it insists on instructing me to follow the ring road every time, and then updates once it realises I have strayed from its instructions. It also has worldwide lifetime maps and traffic and uses an inbuilt SIM which means to drain on the mobile phone's monthly data package - and it is supposed to work worldwide like this too; not yet tried it but if I ever go to the USA and hire a car it will be coming with me; if I were buying today I'd get the 5200 which updates over wifi, saving the effort of having to take it indoors and connect it to a computer |
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Post by Tim on Mar 21, 2018 12:58:14 GMT
One of the benefits of my commute is that the traffic isn't really bad enough to ever need to find an alternate route and even if that happened I'm stuck in that I have to come across the Tay Bridge so there is no need for satnav.
It'd be the same if I worked in Edinburgh every day.
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Post by Roadrunner on Mar 21, 2018 13:11:08 GMT
One of the benefits of my commute is that there are never any holdups of any significance at all, whichever version I use. Mostly Cotswold country lanes and B-roads, with one version including a stretch of A44 from Moreton-in-Marsh. Maybe because of this I only use my satnav about half a dozen times a year.
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Post by franki68 on Mar 21, 2018 14:37:29 GMT
One of the benefits of my commute is that there are never any holdups of any significance at all, whichever version I use. Mostly Cotswold country lanes and B-roads, with one version including a stretch of A44 from Moreton-in-Marsh. Maybe because of this I only use my satnav about half a dozen times a year. There can be bad traffic around stow ,but honestly compared to living in a major city its driving nirvana here (aside from the shit potholes,the tractors,horsey vehicles and huge SUVs being driven very quickly down very small roads) I use the tom tom app on the phone in the bmw and the porsche system in the porsche.Tom Tom app is now free with a £15/year subscription and includes all the camera alerts . |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2018 14:39:20 GMT
We had a week at a village just outside Stow last year - the traffic was generally OK, but when it was shit it was astoundingly shit. Mercifully, we were on foot.
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Post by Boxer6 on Mar 21, 2018 14:44:57 GMT
My commute is limited to either the M80 then city suburb, or country road for about 5 miles then city suburb. Whichever way I go, if there's a hold-up on the motorway every route is gridlocked in seconds, so the 'straightest' way is usually easiest.
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Post by Roadrunner on Mar 21, 2018 15:06:34 GMT
We had a week at a village just outside Stow last year - the traffic was generally OK, but when it was shit it was astoundingly shit. Mercifully, we were on foot. Fortunately I rarely have to pass through Stow. It is the biggest bottle neck around here. |
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Post by Roadsterstu on Apr 4, 2018 7:36:30 GMT
I've not bothered updating the satnav in the V60 and usually use Copilot on my phone. The cost to update the V60 system is about 85 quid at the dealer, for a software update that then allows the old DVD based system to use free, downloaded updates via the USB port. For me it's just not worth it. How quickly tech moves on, eh?
I've yet to try Android Auto in my dad's Superb (so has he) to see how that might work with Google Maps but the built in nav is fully up to date anyway.
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Post by LandieMark on Apr 4, 2018 8:58:23 GMT
Used my TomTom to get me to Cadwell and back and it was faultless. It directed me around the worst the A1(M) had to throw at me.
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Post by Martin on Apr 4, 2018 9:33:55 GMT
Android Auto with Google maps is really good, so much better than the Apple alternative.
I’ve had to use Google maps a couple of times recently to give me more accurate live traffic, as there are issues with the BMW RTTI system....traffic flow isn’t being picked up on a number of major roads at all times. It was OK yesterday and helped me negotiate a knackered M1 yesterday on the way back from Watford, turning a 75min delay into a 10min one, but it wasn’t picking up anything from the A34 on Friday evening.
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