It is odd that most people (and salesmen) do not rate or seem totally unaware of the "waypoint" feature of satnavs, which not all models have. Ie the ability to set a route to pass through defined intermediate points.
I have a 2005 satnav (Destinator) with this feature, fairly easy to use. But bought a Mio for my wife last Xmas and assumed that being nearly a decade later it would have more features, not less. Instead I found it cut down in every way, including no waypoint feature! I did ask the assistant (Halfords, Bath) about it but he hadn't a clue; but surely, I thought, any modern Satnav must have waypoints. After all, software costs nothing once developed, and processor power and memory are now cheap as chips.
So we sold the Mio on ebay and went shopping again. After hours of research on the web, I had an inkling but not certainty that the TomTom XXL did waypoints. This was roughly the conversation in Halfords, Cymbran, with a salesman I believe was the manager :-
ME: Can you set waypoints on that TomTom XXL?
SALESMAN: Of course sir, they all do [on an up-market Garmin demo model, he sets a route to London. Literally "London", the simplest possible challenge to a satnav. Do I really look that dumb? As if anyone would need a satnav to find London. He thinks "waypoint" means "destination".]
ME: No. Suppose I want to go from here to Ipswich but via Swindon-Oxford-Cambridge, rather than the obvious M4-M25-A12. Can you show me that?
SALESMAN (patronisingly) : You can set it to avoid motorways if you don't like them.
ME: But I do want to use the M4 as far as Swindon
SALESMAN: If you know what way to go sir, why do you need a satnav?
I didn't try to explain to this idiot that, while I might have a general route preference, I would not know every roundabout exit, twist and turn along the way. He could not see any point in a satnav except to find the fastest route from A to B. Perhaps most people wouldn't (so who buys these more-than-basic models?).
ME: Can you demonstrate on that TomTom XXL in the glass case ?
SALESMAN: No. It is not part of our contract to demonstrate anything but this Garmin. [!!]
The itinerary feature is not just needed for my route whims. Some fleet managers of delivery lorries like to set up daily itineraries for their drivers. For planning a route with a caravan it is surely essential if you want to avoid shorter and quicker routes but which are narrow. And I don't just mean "avoid unclassified roads" - some A-B roads around here (like Monmouth High street) are single track in places for a caravan. Yet it is extremely hard to find out if particular satnavs allow itineraries. Eg TomTom's website does not make it clear.
I ended up buying a TomTom XXL not from Halfords, and yes it does allow waypoints, though buried in its menus and non-intuitive, and it does not re-assure you verbally when it passes one, as my Destinator does.
I have a 2005 satnav (Destinator) with this feature, fairly easy to use. But bought a Mio for my wife last Xmas and assumed that being nearly a decade later it would have more features, not less. Instead I found it cut down in every way, including no waypoint feature! I did ask the assistant (Halfords, Bath) about it but he hadn't a clue; but surely, I thought, any modern Satnav must have waypoints. After all, software costs nothing once developed, and processor power and memory are now cheap as chips.
So we sold the Mio on ebay and went shopping again. After hours of research on the web, I had an inkling but not certainty that the TomTom XXL did waypoints. This was roughly the conversation in Halfords, Cymbran, with a salesman I believe was the manager :-
ME: Can you set waypoints on that TomTom XXL?
SALESMAN: Of course sir, they all do [on an up-market Garmin demo model, he sets a route to London. Literally "London", the simplest possible challenge to a satnav. Do I really look that dumb? As if anyone would need a satnav to find London. He thinks "waypoint" means "destination".]
ME: No. Suppose I want to go from here to Ipswich but via Swindon-Oxford-Cambridge, rather than the obvious M4-M25-A12. Can you show me that?
SALESMAN (patronisingly) : You can set it to avoid motorways if you don't like them.
ME: But I do want to use the M4 as far as Swindon
SALESMAN: If you know what way to go sir, why do you need a satnav?
I didn't try to explain to this idiot that, while I might have a general route preference, I would not know every roundabout exit, twist and turn along the way. He could not see any point in a satnav except to find the fastest route from A to B. Perhaps most people wouldn't (so who buys these more-than-basic models?).
ME: Can you demonstrate on that TomTom XXL in the glass case ?
SALESMAN: No. It is not part of our contract to demonstrate anything but this Garmin. [!!]
The itinerary feature is not just needed for my route whims. Some fleet managers of delivery lorries like to set up daily itineraries for their drivers. For planning a route with a caravan it is surely essential if you want to avoid shorter and quicker routes but which are narrow. And I don't just mean "avoid unclassified roads" - some A-B roads around here (like Monmouth High street) are single track in places for a caravan. Yet it is extremely hard to find out if particular satnavs allow itineraries. Eg TomTom's website does not make it clear.
I ended up buying a TomTom XXL not from Halfords, and yes it does allow waypoints, though buried in its menus and non-intuitive, and it does not re-assure you verbally when it passes one, as my Destinator does.