Sat navs

[Robert_374373903]

So as it is a bit chilly today decided to stay indoors .Have got couple of Satnavs one a Tom Tom other Snooper S5000 later for caravan purposes. Took a look at the umpteen pages on it, second time in six years or so and found out it would work better if one done a format , so I did and now I have a satnav with nothing on it. Snooper no longer support it either .

 

[otherclive]

I’ve only ever had Garmin and never carried out a “ format”. Didn’t even know you could do it

 

[Jcloughie]

The TomTom’s I have had in the past have had a reset facility, don’t think it was called format. I did it regularly and it did speed things up.

If I remember, it just involved holding the on/off switch for a few seconds.

Looking to the future. I think the way forward is a smart phone with one of the apps, Michelin, Apple, Google, Waze, Garmin and TomTom. When I looked about 1 year ago I favoured the Garmin as they did the caravan option for a slightly increased fee. It worked well in my trials, but Covid cut this short.

John

 

[Hutch]

I have the Snooper 2000, and about 4 months ago they sent an email to me to say they were not updating it any more, but would give me £150 off a new Snooper S5100, so I bought that one. I use the old S2000 on my motorbike now.

 

[Beachball]

I’ve only ever had Garmin and never carried out a “ format”. Didn’t even know you could do it

I am in agreement with otherclive we have only own a Garmin

 

[Sam Vimes]

I would think the market for dedicated Sat-navs must have shrunk considerably given the ubiquitous smartphone.

I have two Sat-Nav programs for my Smartphone and car head unit. Sygic - which is a one time payment, about £10 I think; and HereWeGo which is totally free and covers the whole world. Both have their good and bad points and common sense is always needed.

 

[Beehpee]

With my garmin it came with lifetime updates of maps and speed cameras, usually I try to update it at least 2 or 3 times annually so that new roads that have opened then show up, I think when you update it it wipes it and reloads the info so I suppose that’s much the same as formatting it, also sometimes it’s taking longer to boot up and find the satellites so a forced stop where you press the on off button and keep it pressed until it goes off then switch it back on with the button held in, seems to do much the same as a reboot, sometimes it helps, other times not, I use mine continuously for up to 10 locations per day so it needs to work well and I’d never buy one that doesn’t have a reliable speed warning, I’d soon have no license.

BP

 

[Beehpee]

If you were to pick up your smart phone while driving to set or look at the sat nav app whether you could argue you weren’t using the phone should you get pulled over by police, I doubt for a second you would.

BP

 

[Buckman]

We have a TomTom that went faulty when we tried to upgrade it and TT said they did not support it any longer. Found a specialist and it was all sorted for £25.
Recently we purchased the latest all singing and dancing TT and it is a lot easier to use and updates itself.

 

[Robert_374373903]

My u/s Snooper S5000 , Snooper said not only do they not support now but as I have erased it "bin it". Dumped the umpteen pages of instructions , looked at replacements and just for the hell of it put it on the PC again. You know that saying "I don't believe it " well I could not believe it , the thing is now working fine apart from updating maps .

 

[Buckman]

My u/s Snooper S5000 , Snooper said not only do they not support now but as I have erased it "bin it". Dumped the umpteen pages of instructions , looked at replacements and just for the hell of it put it on the PC again. You know that saying "I don't believe it " well I could not believe it , the thing is now working fine apart from updating maps .

Maybe it is their way of saying get a new one as we had similar with the TomTom.

 

[otherclive]

With my garmin it came with lifetime updates of maps and speed cameras, usually I try to update it at least 2 or 3 times annually so that new roads that have opened then show up, I think when you update it it wipes it and reloads the info so I suppose that’s much the same as formatting it, also sometimes it’s taking longer to boot up and find the satellites so a forced stop where you press the on off button and keep it pressed until it goes off then switch it back on with the button held in, seems to do much the same as a reboot, sometimes it helps, other times not, I use mine continuously for up to 10 locations per day so it needs to work well and I’d never buy one that doesn’t have a reliable speed warning, I’d soon have no license.

BP

My Garmin just loads successive map updates onto the SD card and periodically I delete the oldest to clear space on the card.

 

[Sam Vimes]

If you were to pick up your smart phone while driving to set or look at the sat nav app whether you could argue you weren’t using the phone should you get pulled over by police, I doubt for a second you would.

BP

You don't need to pick up your smartphone as you can mount it in a cradle and stick it to the windscreen or dashboard, just like your Sat Nav. The same rules apply to Sat-navs and Smartphones in this respect - don't adjust them while driving, i.e handsfree

The Sygic Sat-Nav app has voice control although I've never used it as I usually have a co-pilot on board to operate it

 

[Woodentop]

You can even get TT for a phone.