My dad uses Garmin Nuvi 250 Wide Sat Nav System from Halfords Price £129.97 as this was recommended by Skudmissile. The criteria was European Maps, Simple & Easy to use as my dad is a bit of a Techno fobe. Works really well and as far as I'm aware he's not had any problems with it.

I'm thinking about one of these myself.

Garmin Nuvi 760 works a treat and if you are using the other hals car it has its own bluetooth built in. I use it all around N Ireland and it is the only one that works @ 90% coverage here. Have used it on journeys from Liverpool to lancasher,Blackburn and Saltash.

im getting one next year before the CZ trip, looking at the 730 at the moment, but its got loads of things i dont need like bluetooth, fm radio thing etc. all i need is the IQ routing, traffic rds (even if its useless) maps to cover to CZ and back and thats about it.

im getting one next year before the CZ trip, looking at the 730 at the moment, but its got loads of things i dont need like bluetooth, fm radio thing etc. all i need is the IQ routing, traffic rds (even if its useless) maps to cover to CZ and back and thats about it.

Hmmmmm it might not have too much more than you think.....

The Bluetooth (for handsfree) may not be used in your car if you have a handsfree kit installed but what about your other halfs car..... Or a hire car on holiday or a courtesy car.

The FM transmitter..... Again depends on whether you already have an ipod hardwired in the car etc.... as to whether you would use it with your mp3's. The FM transmitter is also for the actual navigational instructions too.

Also do you already have the RDS receiver??? If not you'll have to way up whether it's worth the extra cost of the receiver compared to just using your mobile (via bluetooth) to get the traffic info. Data usage is pretty minimal for the traffic facility so it would depend how much your data charges are and how often you'll be using the traffic facility. You can set how often it updates but i always set mine to update when it wanted and it would only ever use a few k in data transmission. I now have a data package with my mobile giving me unlimited data for about £5 so it definately doesn't bother me now.

As for maps..... TomTom split europe into Western, Central & Eastern..... Aswell as the individual countries too. None of the TomTom's come with western and Eastern/Central europe maps as standard.... Apart from possibly the 9xx??? which also comes with USA maps.

Hope that hasn't muddied the waters even further for ya.

Cheers

Dave.

As for maps..... TomTom split europe into Western, Central & Eastern..... Aswell as the individual countries too. None of the TomTom's come with western and Eastern/Central europe maps as standard.... Apart from possibly the 9xx??? which also comes with USA maps.

.

Not wanting to be a pedant but my 720 came with preinstalled Western/central and Eastern european maps. maybe it slipped through the net as it was one of the last ones before the 730's etc took over

Not wanting to be a pedant but my 720 came with preinstalled Western/central and Eastern european maps. maybe it slipped through the net as it was one of the last ones before the 730's etc took over

S'ok my mistake..... I thought they were just western Europe but you are correct they cover Central and Eastern too...... Well correct sort of..... The 730 says it come with full Europe but if you take a look at the TomTom page for the 720 it shows as only coming with Western Europe.

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems - GO 720 - Map of Western Europe

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems - GO 730 - Map of Europe

Cheers

Dave.

I run TomTom v7 on my PDAphone and do not have to carry anything extra around, and do not run the risk of leaving it in the car etc.

Works for me.

You have v7?

How the heck did you get that, as it's not out yet - I asked TT last night!

It is, put it on my dads PDA for him, TT devices are upto v8, PDA's etc upto v7

...PDA's etc upto v7

Only if using the pirate version or buying a specific PDA from new.

Only if using the pirate version

:shock:

The HTC Diamond comes with TomTom 7 and a taster edition map (ie just one city of your choice)

Incidentally, the view taken on a well known PDA website is that discussion etc of the software is OK (This is given away free with the Diamond, and hence running it on another PDA is not such an issue) PROVIDING that you purchase your maps from TomTom. Any discussion of non official maps or how to obtain them etc is warez and strictly banned on that site. I am not sure if you can buy TomTom 7 standalone for PDA, in which case using the repacked programme is not denying TomTom revenue. In fact, it is opening up more revenue as you cannot use old maps with it, and so will need to buy new ones from TomTom (plus speed ameras, traffic etc).

All sites are different and that view may not be echoed here.

Another Vote for Tom Tom,

My 910 guided Adam and I around CZ with no problems, also this year to the south of France and back.

Another benefit is the bluetooth and 12 gig of music i have on mine.

Hi mate, i have Tom Tom! i think its ok! Thou the screen pic is rubbish and the direction not to clear and a pain! e.g turn left on a left bend!lol! Wouldnt have one again!

Try the snooper syrius! Its spot on! Im sure someone secord that comment!

Matt

i have a very simple garmin 200, its a bit like Ronseal really.

Never failed, a monkey could use it and 100% accurate every time

Whatever you do, DON'T buy a Magellan Navman 1250.

It sounds great, less than £80 with all of UK and Europe preloaded.

In reality it gets you lost with annoying regularity and has a liking for directing you to 'keep right at the fork' on a motorway with 3 branchings and it actually wants you to take the middle one (I found this out at 1 in the morning on the Périphérique)

I've got the Garmin 300T, never had a problem with it.

Paid £99 for mine in June and it's still about the same price now.....a word of warning.....if it tells you there's a traffic jam it's not exadurating !

Also you can put your own startup screen on, here's some i did if anyone else wants them although i did put them up a while ago.

I use photo's of my car as the start up screen on my TT GO520..... Very easy to do.

Cheers

Dave.

how easy to upgrade go520 spec to go530 spec?