Car manufacturer satnavs

Posted by: Dungassin on 17 September 2013

After a week away with SWMBO and her attempts at navigation (she was almost always wrong, I was wrong only once, and that was immediately corrected by moi), she has finally persuaded me to get a satnav.

 

My first thought was to just go along to my BMW dealer and see about getting one installed there, so that it would be always immediately available and not involve any additional 'clutter'.  You should have seen my face at the prices they were quoting.  It was going to be well over £3000 to retrofit to my >6months old car!   I was expecting not more than 50% extra over what it would have cost to have it fitted pre-delivery.

 

So off I went and bought a TomTom Go 600.  Less than 10% of the cost, and all the functionality.  Did have a little hiccough registering for download updates, because for some reason it (or the website) didn't like one of the USB 3.0 inputs on my laptop.  Just need to persuade myself to sit down and work out this Bluetooth thingy so I can have live traffic updates to the system via my iPhone while in the car.

 

I have spoken to a few cronies, and it would seem that this enormous markup is quite usual, and applies to Mercedes, Audi etc.  I also suspect that the garage didn't really want to do the work.

 

C'est la vie ...

 

John

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Bananahead

I will probably never have a fitted satnav simply because it is fitted.

 

I need to be able to put it in my pocket for walking.

 

I need to be able to put it in hire cars.

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Marky Mark

TomTom seem a bit money hungry. They want money for map upgrades and money for the traffic service. Basically for you to pay them a substantial proportion of the cost of the device every year.

 

Seems many use their phones now too.

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Dungassin

My TomTom has lifetime free map updates

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by MDS

Mercedes and BMW have long charged huge sums for their in-car Sat Navs, though I've noticed that they are gradually trickling down through the ranges as standard kit eg the latest E-class.  

 

I've only had limited experience of using the in-car system as compared to Nuvi/TomTom etc.  Instruction books are intimidatingly thick but once mastered they seem to have more functionality. That said, the satnav I tried in an S-class had no speed camera functionality - a big downside.

 

I've had a few Nuvis and have been pleased with them.  But the cost of buying map and satnav updates seems to me too high. I guess this provides a large part of their sales revenue.  Instead of subscribing I've tended to just buy a new one after a few years. Like most IT kit, functionality improves all the time and prices fall so that seems a better VFM to me.

MDS   

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Bert Schurink

I am stuck to the BMW stanav - while I could take the Iphone one I prefer the convenience, as I am a lease driver it's still ok, but the amount of investement is too much...

 

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by EJS

I knew Tomtom from when they just started out. They had the best system then, and I think they still do, although the gap with Garmin etc. has closed. You can get Tomtoms with free map updates now, and the iPhone app maps are also updated regularly for free.

 

That said, I prefer the new BMW in-car system, it gives more situational awareness and the rotational control is easier to work than a touch screen. 3000k is excessive, though.

 

EJ

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by BigH47

I've got SatNav2 app on my iPhone £0.69 works fine.

So it's portable but like the Garmin I used to have doesn't work too well in towns London especially.

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Marky Mark
Originally Posted by Dungassin:

My TomTom has lifetime free map updates

You have done well there then. Mine came without but was £80 cheaper and 3 years on I still haven't updated the maps but no navigational issues yet. I think the processors are at the point now where there is little value to add so will get a new one next time a traffic update is needed.

 

One thing I now realise also is that in the older models like mine the traffic data was included via an onboard SIM whereas now this comes at the highest end only and on other phones you have to tether your smartphone and pay for the data usage yourself. Presumably this is because TomTom were getting burned on the en masse data charges for the traffic service.

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Marky Mark
Originally Posted by EJS:

I knew Tomtom from when they just started out. They had the best system then, and I think they still do, although the gap with Garmin etc. has closed.

Tried an equivalent level of Garmin's range fairly recently. Dire in comparison. Surprising as I think they're a lot more sophisticated as a company and have excellent GPS devices for other applications.

Posted on: 17 September 2013 by Dungassin
Originally Posted by Marky Mark:
Originally Posted by Dungassin:

My TomTom has lifetime free map updates

You have done well there then. Mine came without but was £80 cheaper and 3 years on I still haven't updated the maps but no navigational issues yet. I think the processors are at the point now where there is little value to add so will get a new one next time a traffic update is needed.

 

One thing I now realise also is that in the older models like mine the traffic data was included via an onboard SIM whereas now this comes at the highest end only and on other phones you have to tether your smartphone and pay for the data usage yourself. Presumably this is because TomTom were getting burned on the en masse data charges for the traffic service.

You still have to pay your own data usage for the live traffic updates (holdups, roadworks etc).  That's not a problem for me, as have a large part of my data allowance unused each month.

Posted on: 18 September 2013 by Gavin B

The built-in BMW nav system used to have an annoying limitation - they didn't allow you to put in a full UK postcode.  Back to Garmin for my current car.