Rees Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Has anyone bought and used a non-branded sat nav. (i.e. NOT Garmin, Tom Tom etc)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JudgeMental Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Some have and seem happy enough..use forum search function for older threads on subject. I like to plan trips/ routes on PC and download to unit so for that reason I stick with garmin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Not sure why you'd want to? (We use a tomtom go720 - now old by todays standards, but still works just fine for us in MH, in car, and on motorbike, all across mainland Europe) The prices of units from the two "Big Boys" are pretty cheap anyway, and their updating systems are very good and very regular. If cost is the big issue for you, maybe get a unit secondhand from ebay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BGD Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Not sure why you'd want to? (We use a tomtom go720 - now old by todays standards, but still works just fine for us in MH, in car, and on motorbike, all across mainland Europe) The prices of units from the two "Big Boys" are pretty cheap anyway, and their updating systems are very good and very regular. If cost is the big issue for you, maybe get a unit secondhand from ebay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike88 Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I have recently enquired about a 7ins sat nav from an ebay seller as I wanted maps of the USA as well as Western Europe. For £56 this sat nav had all the bells and whistles including lifetime map updates and an 8gb internal memory. However, the response from the ebay seller was not encouraging as the device did not allow for navigating by latitude and longitude and more importantly the mapping did not include street level searches. The message is that be careful about non branded sat navs as they might not be as useful as you think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overdrive Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 I have been using a 'Medion' Sat Nav for last 10 years with no issues (two in this period). Reason for buying years ago was that it seemed to be doing what Tom Tom was doing for a third of the price and without any of the 'update' issues - but prices of the big names have come down considerably over last few years, to that of Medion Sat Navs! But the reviews of Tom Toms still seem to be littered with update issues. http://www.medion.com/gb/cat/Sat-Navs/navigation?sortOrder=TOPSELLER_REVENUE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homenaway Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Hi, I bought a 7 inch non branded satnav off ebay for about £70 -a PNavi which runs Igo Primo and used it around France recently. It performed excellently compared to my old Garmin 1340 which tended to lock up from time to time. The Primo software interface took a bit of getting used to and although it had truck mode I switched to car as the speed limit warnings were set too low for my 3.3 ton Adria Twin. One advantage was the waypoints as lots could be set rather than just one on the Garmin and easily cancelled if missed, and I loaded lots of POIs as kml files. It had lots of supermarket POI's included but not so many tourist attractions. Free lifetime updates are included as well as an air vent holder which I easily fitted to my van with an extra support wedged in the top vent. Battery life was a bit short but I always run it on the 12v adaptor. I also exported all my routes to the trip monitor as gpx files and imported them into autoroute on my netbook. Other brands may not be comparable as there are a lot on offer. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Brown Posted July 3, 2013 Share Posted July 3, 2013 Hi, I use IGO mapping on an ipad. This gives me a large screen and I can tell you the mapping is first class. You can program whatever you want, it is in there. IGO also offer world mapping in bits. I use Western Europe which includes GB and those areas frequented by motorhomers in general. Additional mapping is available for the rest of Europe. The only dowside has already been mentioned, program for lorries and the speed limits are wrong so like the previous poster I use car programming which gives the correct speed. Regardless, I check my route before setting off so that I do not come across a bridge to narrow or a road to nowhere. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail. Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peedee Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 Yes I use Navigator from http://www.mapfactor.com/en/ Their agent in the UK is http://directions.ltd.uk/news. I used to use TomTom but they stopped supporting standalone software. This was my main reason for moving from TT to Navigator because you can purchase just the software for running on you own hardware. I am currently running their Truck version of Europe on a PDA, a Netbook and my Desktop. Their mapping and routing is as good if not better than TomTom last time I looked but on my latest trip on the Continent I did notice it gave one or two incorrect verbal instruction even though the routing display was correct. e.g. turn right when the display showed a correct left turn or straight on. In the UK it has been faultless and I am now on my third version of the software having made the original purchase in late 2009. An excellent free Android app is OSmand and for £4.95 you can buy OSmand+ which I also run on a Samsung Tablet. The amount of detail and information available is far better than any sat nav I have come across. peedee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peedee Posted July 4, 2013 Share Posted July 4, 2013 I will also add you get http://www.mapfactor.com/en/products/mapexplorer/mapexplorer/ free with the standard Navigator . I run this on my desktop instead of Autoroute which means I can use the desktop for route planning. creating and loading POI sets etc and then transfer them to my PDA for in vehicle use. peedee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.