Sat Nav Recommendations Please

[cassa333]

I have a sat nav I got from Amazon but it is a nightmare to programme and doesn’t find half the places. It is supposed to be simple and idiot proof but not even my genius daughter can do it sometimes.

I have google maps on my phone I’ve been using but I know why I keep getting lost. Yesterday I went from my home to Langleybury studios and knew the route was A3, onto M25 off at J19 and round to the unit.

Map on the phone had a lovely blue line to follow but the sat nav lady kept telling me to go in a different direction. She didn’t want me to get onto the M25 and told me to come off at every slip road. When I finally came off at 19 she said to go right when I needed to go left. The odd thing was when I got to the destination it did say your have arrived’. Where would I have ended up if I’d listened to her???

However after telling you a pointless story about my satnav google map.

I want a new sat nav. The things it needs to be able to do is.

1. Easily programmable
2. Clear real-time images,
3. Clear corresponding verbal instructions.
4. Real-time traffic alerts, information and alternative route planning BUT it must tell me why it is changing the route (otherwise I will just panic lol)
5. A facility to show an area map when I do get lost. (The motorway was closed and sat nav kept taking me back to the closed route and I didn’t know where I was to be able to get round it).

If anyone has a recommendation and why would be great.

Thank you

[douglas9401]

Santa brought me a Garmin Drive 51 to replace my doddery old machine, cassa.
Free lifetime updates, voice prompts using identifiable landmarks like traffic lights or a particular shop, speed camera warnings and all the usual favourites and history functions.

Spookily enough I saw it on special in Lidl yesterday for £79.99.

[bhg481]

It sounds like you have the wrong "Route type" settings on your current machine ie, set to "Avoid motorways" or "Shortest" instead of "Fastest". If you don't have a model which has "Traffic updates" it won't know that a road is closed. Because of the time it takes to calculate a route most sat-navs try to get you back to the original route if you deviate, rather than start from scratch and leave you floundering whilst it calculates.
The advice I always give to people looking for a sat-nav is to go to, say, Halfords and try programming some and see which one suits your particular brain best. I don't like Garmin and find TomTom work for me, whereas Douglas clearly gets on well with Garmin with his comments above.

[margarettom]

I bought my son a Garmin 5in one for Christmas (as recommended by AB- thanks to those people by the way) and he loves it. We bought one costing about £110 in a pre Christmas sale. He has not used one before but the set up was really easy.