A recommendation sought for a good inexpensive Sat Nav. please :-)

[**bustysinclaire**]

I'm in need of a Sat Nav. but havent really got a clue where to start in regards to choosing whats best.

Has anyone got any recommentations please, as always cost is a concern.

I'm a women driver with a poor sense of direction lol and my manual navigator (hubby) sadly is getting increasingly confused by trafic, directions and my written routes 

Any help would be most appreciated, thank you. xxx

[evoman3957]

Have a read of this, it should help you choose & answer any questions you might have. Click on the red box at the end with tomtom 40 go written in it and then look through what's on offer.

http://www.trustedreviews.com/best-sat-navs_round-up

[joe_bloggs*]

I've just had a look on my local Gumtree,and there are a few for sale,in the price range: £15 for an RAC satnav,£20 & £25,I wouldn't pay much more than that

[soppysofty]

The main problem with buying a second hand sat nav is that the 'free' map updates may have expired which would mean that the routing data can be horrendously out of date.

My elderley father uses a Garmin nuvi 50 as he only needs UK mapping and they can be picked up for around £40.00 new.

If you need European mapping try a Garmin Nuvi 57LM for around £80.00 new.

[margaret*e]

Garmin  in is the only make I would buy.

[mikes*corvettes]

If you have an android or smart phone then there is no need to buy a separate sat-nav, both the android and smart phones do the job just as well.

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

If you often drive to places you don't know then it would be wise to buy the best you can afford - maybe spend a little bit more than you really want to. After all getting lost all the time uses fuel and that costs money.

I have an old TomTom (about 7/8 yrs old) and I do not have updates now so at times I can be driving down a road (usually main roads or motorways) and TomTom thinks I'm in a field. So annual updates will be necessary and that also costs money. The screen on mine and cheaper ones is also very primitive compared to the better priced ones and far more difficult to read and understand. Information from it is excellent though. I use it very rarely and have reasonable sense of direction anyway. It has been invaluable at times though and I'm sure I've arrived much sooner than I would have if I didn't have it (due to getting lost)

The answer is buy the best you can afford. Try not to save money as you'll be disappointed. As for which make and model are the best, review of these things can be easily found on the web and they should give you some idea of ongoing costs if that's what you want or need.

All that said, if like mine it's a rae occasion tool; a simple one will do with a bit a Google street homework before your journey. Annual updates will also then become irrelevant as the number of times you find yourself 'driving in a field' will not be often enough to justify the expense and then you can just work it out from road signs or by asking someone.

[**bustysinclaire**]

Thank you everyone for replies.

I am googling but to be honest I'm not sure of which is best.

I have an android tablet and have downloaded an app, but what has really impressed me was my daughters phone, in the car OH was trying to follow and relay back to me mny pre studdied route for a long journey that I had written and was getting all confused, so my daughter used her mobile and got the directions speaking to me.  This was a real help.

So I am wanting somthing that could do that for me.  I do have a phone myself but only on a basic service so cannot get the internet when out.

I wouldnt be able to afford more than perhaps £100

xxxx

[aand2136-voqfz8yx]

You'll get an excellent one for £100 and probably wouldn't need to spend that much. One of the questions you need to ask yourself is do I need European mapping? If not your Satnav will be cheaper. £100 is also likely to get you lifetime map updating, so no ongoing cost.

Without going into lots of reading research myself I'm afraid I couldn't give you a specific model or make and each person will swear by their own favourite or swear at the ones they don't like.

A very quick search showed me Argos is doing the TomTom 25 with 5 inch screen, decent and understandable visual imagery and lifetime updates for UK and ROI for a reduced £80. (don't take this as a recommendation as I've no idea what it's like, it's just an example of what you can buy). They also do the same model with EU roads and one year speed camera updates if you're a fast driver for £90. Garmin do a lifetime Europe one for £90 and so on. There are also user reviews on Argos to give you an idea of what each one is like to use. Once you pick one or two favourites, shop around various stores for the lowest price on those models

[*****sonny*****]

I bought Sygic world maps for my ipad/iphone for £25 following recommendations from a motorhoming forum.

Only used it in the UK as yet but does the job.

https://www.sygic.com/gps-navigation

[**bustysinclaire**]

Hi all,

I would like to thank you all for your help and recommendations.

It turns out the mobile phone I have has the facility to use it as a sat nav when offline from the internet, my son who works for Microsoft has helped me set it up. So it looks like I won't have to buy anything else apart from a holder and in car charger.

I really had no clue I could do this lol, hehe some advances in technology are brilliant, just shows how much of a numpty I am lol

Thank you all for your help, and here's to some better travelling xxxx