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You will find that people will recommend the satnav they have (as with most things on here).  This shows that most units work as they shoiuld.

Tom tom sell the most car satnavs as they were first on the scene for car users and don't sell to commercial users such as airplanes or nautical users.

Garmin are the biggest overall as they are number one for 'serious' users and were manufacturing satnavs first.

Tom toms are supposed to be user freindly and have nicer 'voices'.  Garmin have better mapping and don't 'lock up'.  Garmins perform better with weaker signals and in areas where road options are close together and accuracy and detail are needed.

These are opinions I have read in reviews.  Most people are happy with what they have.  Do go for proper european mapping though, rather than relying on the major roads option of some.

I have used a Tom Tom 710 for several years now and without it would have been completely lost at times. I would always suggest that a route is checked against a map just to make sure you are not being taken down a country lane although for some campsites in the countryside that is unavoidable. There is a little program called Tyre which you can use in conjuction with Google Earth to create itineraries which you can then load into Tom Tom. For France and the rest of Europe get a decent set of POI's from Archies web site.

David

This is the site to ask. Its all they do.

http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/

I have a Tomtom Go 520 and it is very good. Very easy to use, can be customised with things like POIs (Points of interest such as caravan sites etc

The routing is excellent because it uses a thing called IQ routes. This is essential to have. It gathers information (via the Vodafone network) on the speed people actually travel on each section of road at differnt times of day, weekday & weekend etc, then uses this to calculate the best route.

Previously satnavs used speed limits etc as the road speed. This gave the silly routes like taking you through the town centre beacuse its an A road rather than the very fast B road that every ones uses. IQ routes has stopped all this and this,, in my opinion, makes Tomtom the best.

Tomtom also do Live which is realtime traffic information which is supposed to be the best vailable at the moment. I don't have it.

I have a Tom Tom One, and im very pleased with it, easy to use and very acurate, our daughter bought a Navman but wished she hadnt.

Julia  

Garmin Street Pilot 550 - we've used it in Europe (it has full Euro mapping) and of course in the UK. It was a Which Best Buy, it works perfectly and when we went to Switzerland was fully put to the test and got top marks from us.

It also gives you road names when telling you to turn which is helpful. If you tell it you are driving a truck (!) it avoids non-caravan friendly routes too.

I like my Garmin Nuvi.

I had the 250 because I needed Europe on it at the time - it got me round France with no probs. I liked it so much that when I lost it I bought the up to date equivalent - 205 this time as I'm not planning any trips abroad, but the 255 has Europe.

It doesn't have lane guidance, but it alerts you early enough that this has never been a problem for me.

If lane guidance is essential to you then look at the Nuvis with higher numbers as I think some of them have it.

We have a Tom Tom 3rd addition, never  freezes or lose a signal in France for us. But in England, can take 2-3 minutes before it works properly  

We all use TomTom, three in regular use in lorries & two in cars but not regularly. They've always one what we've asked of them, but have been known to lock up when we need them to be working.

A friend of mine uses Garmin & wouldn't use anything else. He told me they make very good marine equipment & in his opinion are the best.

I shall be looking at Garmin soon to replace my old TomTom 700, it'll be interesting to go on their stands if they're at the Caravan or Truck shows this spring.

BB

Quote: Originally posted by David Klyne on 05/2/2010

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I have used a Tom Tom 710 for several years now and without it would have been completely lost at times. I would always suggest that a route is checked against a map just to make sure you are not being taken down a country lane although for some campsites in the countryside that is unavoidable. There is a little program called Tyre which you can use in conjuction with Google Earth to create itineraries which you can then load into Tom Tom. For France and the rest of Europe get a decent set of POI's from Archies web site.

David

Quote: Originally posted by hookup on 11/2/2010

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 Tyre sounds good
David. Where do I download it from ?

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Have a look here http://www.tyre.tk/

David