[PeteSpencer]

My 14 year old Tom-Tom car sat nav has finally given up the ghost, despite fitting new rechargeable batteries a year or so back and I need a replacement.

I'm quite taken with/used to Tom Tom: 'er indoors has one which I borrow and is pretty good.

Are there any other obvious choices for in-car portable Sat Navs? Garmin seem to do a few but I've only experience of Aviation Garmins.

I don't need maps of the back roads of Lithuania and Poland/rest of the world but near Europe would be nice, as would speed trap warnings in UK.

Blue tooth ? well, maybe. Voice activated? Nice idea.

To be clear I want a standalone unit for the car, I don't want to jury rig my mobile phone/ iPad in some spidery abortion of a dash clamp, neither do I want to have to dig my GPS out of my flight bag every time I travel by car.

So any pointers /experiences good or bad would be much appreciated:

Of course I've looked on Amazon and in Halfords just up the road but the choices are bewildering..

TIA

Peter

[malcolmfrost]

I have recently moved from Garmin to TomTom, so I would stick with them, the HD traffic is excellent so something like the Go 5100 or 5200 with standalone traffic via it's own sim is good.

[Jim Jones]

I've had 2 Tom Toms over the last 12 years. They've been better than inbuilt sat navs I've had in Mercedes and Range Rover. I have a free version of copilot on my phone for when I'm in someone else's car

Get a TomTom with lifetime updates.

[Spooky]

Have you considered a cheap phone/tablet with a large screen to use purely as a sat Nav? Just that I've found Waze much better than the sat nav options out there.

[aerial]

Try the Garmin Drive Assist 50 - it has a dashcam built in and includes free traffic and map updates.
I am pleased with mine.

[stevelup]

To be clear I want a standalone unit for the car, I don't want to jury rig my mobile phone/ iPad in some spidery abortion of a dash clamp

There are some -really- good mounts available though from companies like Brodit, and the performance and capability you'll get from your phone compared with even the best standalone units is pretty impressive.

I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

[masterofnone]

All I could suggest from experience is a decent mobile running Waze/Google Maps.

I have no idea how the likes of TomTom are still in business.

[malcolmfrost]

I think really because they are simple and live in the car permanently, apps like Waze use prodigious amounts of power and the phone gets very hot. First World problems, but it's still a bit of a faff to disconnect the phone and take it out of the mount!

[avtur3]

Probably as many answer as there will be responders ...

I've flip flopped between TT and Garmin several times over the years. There will always be folks who are confirmed supporters of one or the other, but I could never get particularly animated about the differences.

I've recently bought a Garmin 61 LMT-D, most obvious feature is the near 7 inch screen, although the case is no bigger than most 6 inch models because it is in a slim frame, it also has a good resolution.

It has 'digital' traffic which is Garmin speak for traffic info broadcast over the DAB radio network, it is received by an aerial within the power supply cable; it updates every minute and is reasonably accurate, also it does not cost. Lane guidance and enhanced junction view are pretty much standard these days.

It has voice command which works remarkably well and can search an extensive database of preloaded POI's., it can even understand postcodes (with a bit of practice). The model name LMT-D indicates lifetime updates for maps and traffic (digital); to be honest I'm not overly concerned about updating as I change models reasonably often.

In recent months I have come to believe that Google maps and traffic is more accurate than other offerings and with probably most new cars being internet enabled within a couple of years I think the days of the stand alone sat nav are numbered. As we are already seeing infotainment is being taken care of by a single screen for all functions including some flavour of nav built in but in future I see nav will be taken care of by Google .. very much as already found in Tesla.

The Garmin above is around £250, I thought it was worth it and find it a very useful travelling companion, worth a look.

[rikur_]

Probably doesn't answer the OPs question, but having recently converted from the built-in sat-nav to Android auto, I don't think I'll be going back to built-in sat-nav. There's no wiring spaghetti as it uses the car's own touch screen/audio, and the phone just sits in the tray in front of the gear stick with a single usb connection.
(nb: Being both an iPhone and Android user I have the luxury of choice between Android auto and carplay -IMHO the former is better for most things, the latter is better for music) .... but both beat the socks of whatever piece of software your car manufacturer cobbled together.

[Ben]

Why to spend money on a devise when you can have it for free as an app? For the last 2 years I use Waze and find it very very good very rarely I find myself in any traffic jam. However one warning. If you plan to use it 4-5h a day every day then be aware that the mobile screen will get burnt (like the old computer screens) after a period of about a year. This is because there are some buttons that just sit at the same place all day long.

[morticiaskeeper]

Waze on a mobile phone works for my 50k miles per year.

Always up to date, anyone can add warnings to let others know, up to date traffic.

The routing is surprisingly good, I've started taking her advice, even on journeys I know well, as she is invariably good with local traffic. A lot of the time, she looks at my location and the day and time, then sets my usual destinations.

Get towards a jam and she will suggest an alternative, get in a jam and she will tell you how long you will be in the queue.

[PeteSpencer]

To be clear I want a standalone unit for the car, I don't want to jury rig my mobile phone/ iPad in some spidery abortion of a dash clamp

There are some -really- good mounts available though from companies like Brodit, and the performance and capability you'll get from your phone compared with even the best standalone units is pretty impressive.

I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand.

Thanks Steve: I know all about Brodit clamps and their quality /integral plugs etc as I use one in the aeroplane with my iPad4.
However I still use an iPhone 4S which serves me well as a phone/texter/emergency weather gatherer but as Sat Nav its tiny screen would be pretty naff.

Peter

[Rob P]

As Mr Spencer has nominated me an 'enemy' there is no real point in me posting this (I only know as he took the trouble to IM me to tell me he was ignoring me.)

However, I bought the (then) latest Garmin for Mrs P when she grabbed herself the V6 TT Quattro Roadster which does the usual satnav stuff, but also has an inbuilt dashcam

Frankly I couldn't give a monkey's if Mr S gets the best available or some inferior option, but if anyone could they might care to 'quote' relevant parts of this so he can see it.

Rob P

[riverrock]

App wise, Waze is owned by Google: any updates you set in Waze also get published to Google maps, including when stuck in traffic. It isn't perfect - road closures are only automatic for motorways (and there is some hacking involved in it), all others require individuals to post them on a Web forum (reports though the app dissappear after a few hours). It also requires an Internet connection for routing and maps. Brief signal loss is handled for both, but no more. I have it running on my daily commute -great for warning me of traffic or other issues.

Here maps https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_(company) is free, has full worldwide offline maps (so works with no mobile signal), has traffic. It is the mapping system behind Garmin car Sat navs, the built in sat nav in many cars (it is owned by Audi, BMW, Mercedes). It also has full public transport info (buses, trains). If I need to rely on a phone Sat nav to get me somewhere, this is the app I use.

Sorry Peter - I didn't replace my Garmin Nuvii when it stopped working. I just use my phone.