So i'm looking to get a GPS Sat-Nav unit
But i don't know what to buy. Not wanting to break the bank, but not wanting to get a s*** unit either.
Any recommendations/things to look for/things to avoid?

iphone

iphone

Just avoid the s*** ones.

My brother/sister in law have one and it's pretty crap. It doesn't give you enough warning when to turn etc so you pretty well always miss the turn unless you are going slow. Dunno which one it is though.

We were trying to find a certain place up near Redcliff a while back and it was s***ting me to tears.

Give me the old fashioned book anyday.

I have an iphone and it is wrong more often than not. I have had a garmin in the past and it was ok but the Tom Tom I just got seems pretty kick ass.

iphone lacks basic s*** like turn by turn, voice commands etc
it doesnt even do re-route calculation if you miss the turn off etc

it is epic fail as far as a gps goes, but still a good all rounder'
i would just stick with tomtom or navman, i got my old man one for fathers day and although he knows brisbane pretty well - he still uses it even just for the bluetooth functionality heh

it spends a lot of time in mums car too because being a woman, shes a pretty bad navigator

+1 Tom Tom
-1 iphone

Whatever you get make sure it uses Tom-Tom maps. They are easiest to... err... upgrade.

I wouldn't go iPhone.

I have a Garmin and it does just fine, my maps are a little outdated now (2004) but the price (~$180 official) to get a new set of maps isn't worth it for me at the moment. Garmin has a few options over the Tom-Tom (co-ord displays and other minor things that really wouldn't interest Joe Public) but they're pretty much the same.

Dad has a Tom-Tom; at least once a week I have to get his watch out of 24hour time because he doesn't know how it got there or how to get back. Yet he can navigate the Tom-Tom fine. So if you have a family memmber that might borrow it and isn't computer savvy, Tom-Tom is the go. The new Garmin/Navman with touch screens seem just as user friendly as my Dad's Tom-Tom.

yeah iphone not an option i want to take.
I have used a few GPSes before, but only briefly, and i do prefer:
3D 3rd person view
Actually knowing the names of the streets (i used copilot live years ago and it didn't have this and it was s***)
Not talking incessantly at me when the turn is a million miles off
Not being stupid, being quick to recalculate routes
Updated maps.

at least once a week I have to get his watch out of 24hour time because he doesn't know how it got there or how to get back.

LOL
Yeah i have used a TomTom before and it was pretty darn good. Oh and i do recall a mate of mine telling me that they were 'easy' to upgrade the maps too.

last edited by MrHardware at 16:12:45 07/Apr/09

Get one that can support OpenStreetMap ... and then tell me what model it was and how you got it all to work with their maps so I don't have to figure it out myself. more info

sounds like linux for a gps - ie for people with unlimited time
i want the 'works out of the box' version (windows-like)

sounds like linux for a gps - ie for people with unlimited time
i want the 'works out of the box' version (windows-like)

haha that's exactly what it is :)

Well, I've only ever used Tom Toms once. Before I used it, I Googled the trip, then I checked it in the Tom Tom - which gave me almost completely different directions. I decided to take the Tom Tom directions and was glad I did cuz I got there perfectly with no traffic - if I'd taken Google directions I would have ended up going through the city during peak hour which I'm sure would have been a total fail.

Yeah I had that once, used google directions, thought to myself, that's gotta be wrong, whereis'd it, fairly different directions, 20mins less travel time.

OpenStreetMap has a lot of work (A LOT) before their data is easily translated for end user GPS systems that can tell you where to go/turn. And they need to allow you to export the XML data freely, not limit it to a piss ant area.

RACQ have a trip planner as well, gives approx travel time for each leg.

Just looked up TomTom maps, for a similar product to the $180 Garmin maps you're looking at ~$140 so the (official) price difference isn't that much.

why not just buy a car that comes with gps in it, problem solvered

Garmin

in eu everyone has either a tom tom or a phone with tom tom software on it

the HTC HD with tom tom > iphone gps software

sexy times

I use a Tom Tom, it works well but can get a bit confused in regional country areas where the GPS will go sailing off a road out into the middle of nowhere, every once in a while it doesn't have roads listed. The nice thing is you can make map corrections and upload them to the Tom Tom site.

Also, having Mister T yell directions at you is always worth while.

Tom-tom if its incidental routes.. eg a-b and you don't know the area (its pretty good at figuring out speed zones aswell and some of the POIS are updated with speed cameras and red light cameras.. dunno how often the aussie ones are updated but in europe they're done pretty regularly)

Garmin whatever if you're planning holiday stuffs because their streetpoint backend on the pc is awesome to plan stuff, not sure of their poi stuff because i basically used a garmin to plan a european adventure and used a tom tom to find cool s*** along the way :p

I had a Navman and it didn't have TTS so just said "turn left" "turn right" etc without the street names but other than that it was ok. That died though so I decided to try a Garmin this time around and it has the TTS which announces street names to turn into which comes in handy.

I preferred the QWERTY keyboard of the Navman as opposed to the ABCDEF keyboard on the Garmin.

Both units s*** me to tears and get me lost in heavily built areas and areas that constantly change. You're better off with a road map.

yeah the GPS would never replace my 2009 UBD, but merely complement it.
I know, i've been stung three times now by believing a GPS over a UBD.

Only thing better than one iphone is two.

Sweet, I've been looking at getting a Tom-Tom for myself.

I preferred the QWERTY keyboard of the Navman as opposed to the ABCDEF keyboard on the Garmin.

On both the Navman and the Tom Tom units I've used this can be changed to suit your preference so this is a non-issue.

Mum bought a Tom Tom XL for herself on the weekend after giving me an entry level Navman for Christmas. I had a play with it today and I'll be taking hers from now on as it seems way better, different but probably better. The ability to correct problems with the maps is a greater feature, except I've noticed that has led to multiple instances of some POI and poor spelling of some POI names. I guess that's not a major issue in the scheme of things.

Just have to take the Tom Tom out on the road for a test tomorrow to seal my verdict I think.

last edited by Triamks at 19:43:46 07/Apr/09

That'd be good Triamks.

Did you ever end up buying one mr hardware? I have been looking at the tomtom go730

yeah mate ended up getting a TomTom One XL. Exactly what i wanted, works great.

I bought one from ebay, it cost $110.

ITS SUPER AWESOME, EXCEPT IT BASICALLY HAS NO BATTERY.

tom tom

got an ebay 7" special and it goes allright. FM transmiter so u can upgrade the TF card to 8gb put some music on it and it plays through your speakers of the steereo system in your car. Touch screen, free maps and more.

tom tom or dutch so they must be awesome

Tom Tom.

I paid $250 online for my GO730.

I especially like how it links up with my phone (bluetooth) for hands-free when I'm driving

last edited by koopz at 09:41:14 30/Apr/09

tom tom aren't bad, stay away from mio/mitac.

Where'd you get yours Mr H? Price? Still looking at getting one for myself

Good choice, Mr Hardware.

I was happy with it's performance when I tested it the day after my post.

yeah the mrs bought it for me from wow sight and sound
tree-fiddy iirc.

the mitac/mio stuff is made by ecs elitegroup i believe. i think anyone should groan whenever their name is mentioned.