Good afternoon , following on from my post this week . I have bought a new ford focus estate . I was wondering which sat nav system you guys would recommend fitting ? I was thinking Tom Tom or something similar . My main concern was where is best to mount it as how to run the cables. I notice on the top of the dash is a glove box type thing .

Any thoughts ideas are welcome

William

I run a TomTom Start 60, I dont have the storage on dash so mine sits where it should be. Does not obstruct vision and works for me :) I read somewhere that it can be drilled through the dash storage and ran behind the radio down to the power point.

Hi William,

Have you considered buying a headunit with integrated Sat Nav?

Ooo, what sort of money will that set me. Back ? And where would I get one ?

I've always rated Garmins as stand alone units. It's relatively easy to tuck the cables into the dash area and wire it up to an ignition live source. That way it will go on and off with the ignition and keep your cigarette lighter socket free.

You can get some good units on ebay. I have heard some good things about some chinese models. Some even work on the basis of the likes of Android, so you could install an app to it.

Generally though you can buy a multifunction unit with all the bells and whistles for £190 plus.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&_nkw=Focus+sat+nav+Radio+GPS&_sop=15

If you wanted an Android device, you could get one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=Focus+sat+nav+Radio+GPS&_sop=15&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.XFocus+sat+nav+Radio+GPS+android&_nkw=Focus+sat+nav+Radio+GPS+android&_sacat=0 Although more pricey in the short term, you can do a lot more with them and you can install things like Tom Tom, or (my personal favourite) Co-Pilot. You can get extra's like traffic camera management, speed warnings etc on the benefit as well that you pretty much have a shiny tablet PC in your car, so you could tether it to your phone and do whatever you fancy whilst your stuck bored on a motorway for 4 hours :p

Good afternoon , following on from my post this week . I have bought a new ford focus estate . I was wondering which sat nav system you guys would recommend fitting ? I was thinking Tom Tom or something similar .

I like TomTom, personally, but

• It gets harder if you must have traffic - the expensive ones have a decent traffic system (the 6000, 600, 500, 400, and the older go Live 1005/1000/825), and the cheaper ones don't (XL/XXL, Starts and Vias)
• the traffic system at the low end is 'RDS Traffic', and it doesn't really work in all circumstances (transmitter/receiver range problems, and it doesn't really get updates that often). This works on extended journeys, just about, but is next to useless locally, because your journey time may be almost over by the time it gets an update. And the 'traffic lead' is expensive (although 'ideal world' sometimes (now!) have an offer where they bundle that free, at which point it is reasonably priced!!!).
• The better 'HD Traffic' is more detailed, more frequent updates and just better. But you can only get it with the more expensive units, and with some it is an annual subscription, which would get expensive, eventually.
• the 400/500/600 get traffic via your phone and bluetooth, and that's fine provided that you have a phone deal with a data plan and that you don't intend roaming into other countries using the traffic service (would an independent Scotland....oh, never mind...)
• The 6000 (and I think there is a 5000 now (exclusive to someone, maybe), and maybe even a 4000 eventually) has the mechanics of a phone in the sat nav unit itself, and doesn't need bluetooth to your phone to get traffic, and presumably doesn't get you stung for using data when 'roamed' into foreign countries, but the 6000 is expensive.
• You might find someone clearing out the last of the older 100/1005 range, and that might be a bargain, but paying full price and then being stung for traffic and stung for maps? that's a bit much.

If you just want a 'basic' sat nav (no traffic), this gets easier because you can just buy one of the cheaper ones (with lifetime maps, if you can find one when you look), but, for me, traffic is a real plus. Although most of my driving is local, the occasional 500 mile weekend is a bit of nightmare without, at least, some kind of traffic.

And, you have to be careful with any stand-alone sat nav, because you can end up with leads all over the car, if you've got several bits of stand-alone electronics. And the web site side of TomTom is legendarily poor, although the actual Sat Navs are fine (provided that you buy the right one, which can be a bit confusing at first).

On the other hand, with Garmin, I can never tell which are their good models, and which aren't. Its not just a matter of the spec, some of them just aren't that good, so you need to look at customer reviews, as well. But they do tend to be more generous with the lifetime maps (eg, LM or LMT models), which is a factor...

These are good value at £36 via Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007CL4HYK?tag=thederangeddr-21&camp=522&creative=3898&linkCode=bn1&creativeASIN=B007CL4HYK&adid=1AK77B7AK4K5DCQB1S6F&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fcarnuts.weebly.com%2Fin-car-gadgets.html