Where to buy a Tomtom/Garmin/Navman?

[verysideways]

Where can i get my satnav device for the best possible price today?

This link should help:
http://www.satnav-discounts.co.uk

Shows you the best price for various models of Tomtom, Garmin and Navman devices from a variety of retailers, both online and high street.



N.B. Petrolhead Nirvana has no affiliation to this external link or website, we have simply found the links useful for purchases in the past.

[Boxer]

Of the three, which do you recommend?

[verysideways]

Of the three, which do you recommend?

Definitely the Tomtom series - for ease of use and for mapping, and the LIVE! service is truly exceptional at diverting you around traffic jams (for example when there is an accident on the motorway).


22/April: bargain of the day would be the 950 - UK/Europe/NA maps and LIVE service @ £199 from Amazon
http://www.satnav-discounts.co.uk/tomtom-go/tomtom_live_x50_550_750_950.htm

[spiritof'76]

'Live' services can be a real life saver at times :D For the extra outlay on the device itself and the subscription to the service it really is great as i've got that money back many times over in the time i've saved myself from being stuck on closed motorways incurring lost earnings ;)

You just have to be a bit careful though as the device can take a while to log onto the service sometimes so you may start a journey and run into traffic as you have not given the device enough time to log on and gather all the traffic info :rolleyes:
Also, i guess the thing is like a mobile phone in that the signal can drop out in some areas and then take a while to log back onto the reception again which can be frustrating :o but on the whole Tom Tom live is definately worth a reccomendation :thumb:

[verysideways]

Tomtom LIVE is a Vodafone sim card buried in the device - which both sends traffic info to Tomtom and downloads it from Tomtom :)

[Elliott]

How does the punter's Tom Tom SEND traffic information?

How does it know that it's in a jam, rather than, for instance, involved in a "Gillian Taylforth" situation?

[Boxer]

Thanks.

Good drive back yesterday?

[verysideways]

@Scott - great thanks, put pictures up on Facebook when i got home. That Egg is photogenic :)

@ Elliott - basically the Tomtom LIVE devices communicate with the server on a fairly constant basis, so if you have a Tomtom device and you get stuck in a traffic jam then your device (and those around you) are sending the info back to Tomtom. They then send out the update to all the other (subscribed) live devices to tell them where the obstruction is and approximately how long the delay is likely to be. If the delay exceeds a few minutes the device will treat it as a roadblock and try and find an alternative route to save you time.

Once i was the person waiting at the crash on the M4, sending the data back to Tomtom so other people didn't get caught out, but every other time the Tomtom has saved me from getting stuck in horrendous traffic. It also finds some very cool back roads to skip from one motorway junction to the next :)

[Elliott]

Ah. Right, I think I shall go and buy on today. I've been meaning to get one for ages. As eventually, I want to go on one of the tours and I'll need a sat nav with those ITN thingies.

I'm heading off to Suffolk this afternoon.Presumably, I will be active on LIVE as soon as I buy the thing and register?

[verysideways]

Yep - buy it, plug it into your pc/mac, install Tomtom home, and then activate it.
The 550/750/950 have actually been replaced by the 1000/1005 - but the 1000/1005 don't come with a US map option (though you could buy one afterwards) and don't seem to offer much extra in the way of features, just a bigger screen.
Personally i think the 750 & 950 are bargains at the moment.

[spiritof'76]

Yes, i should think you should be able to get yourself LIVE for today.............. just allow yourself a bit of time to load the software onto your pc at home and get the device registered.

You have to connect the Nav to the pc docking station periodically to download info on fixed speed camera locations and other LIVE info like Fuel prices etc................... take the fuel price info with a pinch of salt though as i've diverted my route in the past on the premise of the Nav finding me cheaper fuel only to find when i get to the filling station that the cost of the fuel doesn't always tally with the info on the Tom Tom :rolleyes:

If you are going to Tour in the future then the itn thing is a 'must'............. i used to do PH runs and the like in the past before i had Tom Tom and the whole experience of that sort of thing is just completely transformed by having itn's at your disposal :D

[Elliott]

Thanks guys. I'll get a 750 or 950.

:D

[spiritof'76]

Yep - buy it, plug it into your pc/mac, install Tomtom home, and then activate it.
The 550/750/950 have actually been replaced by the 1000/1005 - but the 1000/1005 don't come with a US map option (though you could buy one afterwards) and don't seem to offer much extra in the way of features, just a bigger screen.
Personally i think the 750 & 950 are bargains at the moment.

........... and i think i'm right in saying your first 6 months of subscription is free when you buy a new Nav :)


Saying that, i've had mine a couple of years or more now and they have never charged me a subscription renewal lol................... sssshhh !!! keep that quiet though in case they cotton onto me :boing:


Thinking about it though, they may have given me some free time as i have had a lot of trouble with the thing re-booting itself mid journey which they have never really resolved as it still does it occasionally even now, even though they have sent software updates etc to me online :rolleyes:

[Boxer]

@Scott - great thanks, put pictures up on Facebook when i got home. That Egg is photogenic :)

:)

I think I am the last person on the planet not on Facebook. Are you going to post them up here?

[verysideways]

Sure thing - here you go:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.10150154770391653.287228.500036652&l=63712244c5

https://s-hphotos-ash4.fbcdn.net/202022_10150154770576653_500036652_7114835_4294272 _o.jpg

[Boxer]

Thanks.:)

[Sparky]

The tomtom 1000 doesn't appear to have anyway of loading .itn files on to it or have an itinery oprion on it. Friend has got one and was looking at it the otherday to see if I could show him how to put routes on it.

When you connect the 1000 to your pc it does not show as a disk drive, it shows as a network device and tomtom home is now a web page.

[Bigburd]

I bought my NavMan 1690T from John Lewis with a lifetime map updates included in the price