Sat Navs: which one to choose that has a good sized screen & covers Europe & UK ??

Finally, we're looking at buying a Sat Nav & my OH has seen this one advertised.

TOMTOM ONE XLv2 -- UK & EUROPE, 22 COUNTRIES, 4.3" SCREEN, EASYPORT MOUNT

Halfords are advertising it online @ £139.99, not available in their shop near us so OH can't view it yet.

I know many of you have these aids so it's time I got some help please.

  with suggestions if you use a good tried & tested one.

We want personal recommendations .

Thanks.

 All of our reps use Binatone A350/430 from Argos. Excellent value for money and come pre loaded with Europe. Feedback from day-to-day use has been all good since we introduced them at the beginning of this year..

Oh says he's seen Binatone ones & feels they're very flimsy & he really prefers a larger screen than the 3.5" Also he wants the easyport mount. He seems set on a TomTom really. Thanks for answering though.

More, I have used the tom tom for last 2 years . It has Europe as I have used it in Spain but 3.5 screen.  But do not look at the screen to much just listen to the voice.

Pat  

My husband paid £1200 to have sat nav, Europe included,  when he bought a new VW.  I have a Tom Tom, and I have to say Tom Tom is far superior and a fraction of the price. It is easier to use as it can find a location by either street name OR postcode. On my husbands sat nav, it only allows you to put in 4 digits of a 6 digit postcode. This causes endless problems and much frustration.

Many thanks to Tish & Pat & Roy, I've relayed that info onto my OH who is more interested in Midsomer Murders at the moment !  

Pat, how are you both, been ages since we were in touch. Im having fun & games with some emails coming in. It seems if friends reply on mine they go into cyberspace, not even on Virgin's server.Just booked Easyjet Bristol to Murcia for May into June (5 weeks). Got three holidays before then. Sept into Oct (6 weeks), Nov into Dec (4 weeks) & March into April (6 weeks). Hard life innit ?

Just back from Los Montesinos  after 3.5 weeks and as always used mt Navman  sat. Nav .Excellent  detail  all over Cota Blanca

Hi More

I have the TomTom on XL and use it regularly for work.  I previously had the same make with a smaller screen, which was stole, so bought the XL.  Your OH is quite right, the larger screen is great.  I would recommend it.

Does anyone know if it is possible to download the European maps for Sat Navs?  Mine is a cheap one (A Medion I think) but it only has the UK maps.

Thanks

David

Hi David, will this suffice ? I just Googled for it.

(Now please can we please  keep to actual topic ? It'll become a driving in flip flop thread in less than 20 posts ! )

I use a Tom Tom One on a daily basis. Very easy to use, you are able to add your own places of interest and accurate. You get a 30 day map guarantee when you buy, so you can make sure you have the most recent map at time of purchase by download. You can also get a additional FM aerial that plugs in and receives free traffic information. Tom Tom also come with a 2 year guarantee as standard.

My Wife bought a Navigon which was a much nicer looking unit and the display was good. We downloaded the most recent map, but roads were missing in Spain near our urb. The display was great for navigating off motorways, it showed you what the road sign was saying and what lane to be in. The traffic info was built into the charger cable, so no extra needed. No additional POI's available, although it is something that was being worked on for the more expensive models. Had to send it back though as the screen developed a neon blue vertical line through the middle.

Mark

OH has been reading posts & has more info now so thanks to you all.

Been to PC World (just to look at Netbooks actually ) & saw a TomTom GO 730 Deluxe Europe 31 (4.3" screen) with IQ routes, luxury leather case, USB home charger as well as the USB travel charger. Great offer £149.99, heavily discounted as new stock coming in of brand new one.

Mark, you said ' Tom Tom also come with a 2 year guarantee as standard.' Are you certain as I can't find anything on WWW that says that when I Google. In fact John Lewis say 1 yr & I'd assume they would be correct. Hubby has not yet opened the whole thing yet but PC World didn't mention this 2 yr guarantee, says nothing on box itself as I'd expect. I'll get back to you tomorrow.

Edited to add: Mark, we saw the Advent Netbook you told me about (in PC World too, we have them next door to their partner Curry's here) so are buying one, thanks.

Unfortunately, mine has had to go away twice for repair in the last 18 months. I have some paperwork here from Tom Tom stating about the 2 year warranty but I can't find it at the moment. Will post the details whn I find it.

Mark

Unfortunately, mine has had to go away twice for repair in the last 18 months.

You didn't tell me that, Mark.  Hope ours is ok. Guarantee on ours states 12 months, BTW.

I didn't receive notification of this (Justin) & it's actually 17:15 here (UK), so Mark posted around 30 mins ago, I think as your clock's always on Spanish time.

Mine has, but I know others that have lasted yonks!! Mine must have been a Friday unit . I would buy another one, so they can't be that bad.

Mark

Okay so I was right, and I was wrong!

Products purchased between 1 Jan 2005 and 31 March 2007 have 2 years manufacturers warranty.

Products purchased between 1 April 2007  have 1 years manufacturers warranty, with the exception of models under the Tom Tom Limited Warranty.

Tom Tom Limited Warranty includes the following devices: 510/ 710/ 910/ 715/ One V1, One New Edition and Rider.

Mark

I have a TomTom 910 bought nearly 3 years ago. It needed fixing 2 months ago, I said I know it's out of warranty just fix it and let me know what it costs. They had it picked up from my business in UK same day by DHL as they all go back to Holland for repair. I waited for the estimate but to my surprise it was back within a week. Actually a brand new 910, no bill, even for couriers. They obviously have a stash of 910s in their warehouse and as the model has now been replaced they use them to generate goodwill. Sadly, the map was the same as in my old one, ie nearly 3 years old, so I upgraded to the latest Western Europe map for about 50 euros. I still have the original map of the USA the 910 came with, and it's done me fine whenever over there. So, ten out of ten to TomTom for customer service. I would definitely buy another.

Excellent Guy.

My husband downloaded the maps last night after closing down everything like Messenger. Download was meant to take around 50 mins but about 3 mins from the end we saw a friend of mine had tried to get to me on messenger as her name showed in orange along the bottom of the screen. OH had closed messenger down, task manager didn't show it as running.

This seemed to mess up the download & the remaining 3 mins took another almost 3 hrs ! Thankfully at the finish TomTom showed ticks in all boxes so we assume it is ok, just took much longer.

Morerosado, I should have told that part of the tale. I have a Vodaphone internet dongle. It's fine for reading newspapers, emails, etc but downloading the Western Europe map of 2 Gigs would have taken up to 36 hours depending on connection. I also read on a support forum that if your internet connection is other than good that the file can get corrupted and so you're wasting your time anyway. So, I went to my local internet cafe plugged my TomTom into a usb port  - done and dusted in under an hour.

To get back to the original question of which model to buy, unless you need the USA maps I would go for the "740 Live" at list price of sterling 280.