Evening all,

Firstly, I hope this is the right place to post this. Last night I drove into Manchester, somewhere I'm only familiar with on foot, so I borrowed a TomTom sat nav. However, it gave unclear and to be honest, pathetic instructions and tried sending me down streets that didn't exist. I know I'm going to need some sort of navigation device for future journeys (mainly in city centres), so I was wondering if I should go out and buy an actual Sat Nav or purchase an iPhone app and use that instead.

Any suggestions and recommendations would be very appreciated as last night's experience has put me off the idea of a TomTom.

Thanks.

what kind of tomtom was you trying to use and how old was the map on it?

I generally wouldn't like to use an app as it will incur data charges and i've head if the signal drops your stuck

I use a tomtom go 5000, ok piece of kit n comes with lifetime free map updates

I don't know what model it was but the map was only a few weeks old.

I've heard that some apps contain the map, therefore only requiring a gps signal so barely any data is used.

I'm now thinking it's going to be Garmin at this rate

TomTom Satnav,

I personally wouldnt choose anything else.

But i also live in Ireland where we dont have an instant traffic update service available or any remote contact with devices,

TomTom has the best map of Ireland fammon roads and everything :)

I have used the navmii app and is very easy to use works well. The map is downloaded so no data charges. I had it on my old iPhone but when I switched to android it was the same and is free. Try it and if you don't like the ads you can remove them

Garmon are far better than tom tom in my opinion

I've got cheap Garmin satnav and Sygic on iPhone and I think Garmin is better.

I'd choose any kind of purpose built navigational device over an app, purely because; as already mentioned, the app will use your mobile data whereas Tomtom, garmin etc won't...

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I'd have satnav over app any day. The tomtom can't have had maps that's where a couple of weeks old if it didn't know the streets and was sending you wrong. Tomtom are very good with keeping it all upto date. I've never had a problem with mine it's 2 year old and hasn't had a map update as I don't use it that often and it's never failed yet.

I use the tomtom iPhone app and have never had a problem. Free updates for life clear instructions speed camera warnings etc.

And you always have your phone with you and don't have to carry a sat nav with you when you get out of the car

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I've used the Navmii app on my iPhone but it wasn't perfect as it would send you on ridiculous detours for no apparent reason!

The app I use now is Waze, it is free to download but it does use data unlike the Navmii. The beauty of this app is that it's information is crowd sourced so just by using the app you are contributing information on traffic flows which the app can use to re-route you. Users can also manually report jams, police, accidents or other hazards.

Another benefit of crowd sourcing is that the maps are always up to date, as a user you can edit the maps yourself if you spot any errors.

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TomTom for me any time i also have the traffic managment cable so if there is a problem on the route it tells me and re routes me if i choose to do so

...i also have the traffic managment cable...

I have used the 'traffic data cable' in the past, and didn't find it very good. Yeah, it is (way) better than nothing, but it isn't the best traffic data system out there.

I've been using a 'Go Live 1005' and that has a much more accurate traffic system. Still not perfect, but better than the traffic data cable. (And my latest toy is a Go 600, and I'm not sure that I've got to grips with it yet, as they've re-designed the user interface all over again, but it is way cheaper to update than the 1005.)

Last night I drove into Manchester, somewhere I'm only familiar with on foot, so I borrowed a TomTom sat nav. However, it gave unclear and to be honest, pathetic instructions and tried sending me down streets that didn't exist.

The only time I've seen that, either the maps have been hopelessly out of date (and I don't just mean one or two editions out of date), or the routing has been set up strangely (walking routes, shortest routes, allow un-made roads, or something); the most obvious clue is often that the arrival time predictions are all over the place, like the predicted journey time being twice as long as it should.

Regarding updating systems, one system I found very good was when I had a Nissan qashqai in Dec as a hire car, it was brand new (5 miles on the clock) that had a very good system, re routed me automatically when an accident had blocked the road and caused traffic to back up (it new where the traffic backed up to (junction) and took me off... Well...it tried too, I ignored it because I thought it was faulty and then ended up sitting in traffic for (luckily only) 10-15 mins until the next exit which I DID take...

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Haha typical of us guys thinking we knot better than a machine. Was your missus with you? Mine would have had a right lot off at me.

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Haha typical of us guys thinking we knot better than a machine. Was your missus with you? Mine would have had a right lot off at me.

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Haha no, but it was in the hire car which was due back in one of those situations where you have something like 60 miles and only 1 hour to do it in...

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Thanks for all the advice.

I'm back in Manchester City Centre on Wednesday afternoon so I'm going to try Apple's Maps. I'd rather use data and have reliable instructions.

Wish me luck