Am about to order online but need to knwo a few things:
1: Does it have a 'take me home ' button, where you just ask it to send you home when lost?
2: How easy is it to add the Gatso locations? Is it expensive to do so?
3: Does it have the names of the roads you are on and near, not just an arrow on the screen and that's it?
4: They say the battery life is 8 hours...true, or exaggerated?

Any other comments on the Garmin gratefully welcomed!

Wow...not very popular models, I take it!!!

Just out of interest...question #1...I'd never put my home address into a sat nav under 'Home'
There have been cases where the sat nav, or worse the car keys have been stolen...Now they have your home address, and the knowledge that you aren't there!

Very good point.

Best bet...? Pop down Halfords. They will talk you through all the models, and what they have to offer.
Tom Tom seem to come out top in most tests, but as far as road safty warnings go, Road Angel have been getting their act together to combine both (seeing as they come from a camera alert system background), whereas Garmin have more of a hold in the U.S.

You may have already bough one but at the moment Halfords have got a great deal on the Garmin c510 deluxe for £199.99. The deluxe version comes with Traffic updates (free for life) and European mapping.

Hey thanks - that sounds like a great deal.

Haven't made my mind up yet, so I'll get down the Halfords and take a look.

Good one!

i've got an A_Z of the locale area

That's priceless!

Jondude - I have a Talex speed camera detector which is impressive. Doesn't work by radar, but by GPS. If you approach one you get a verbal warning of the speed limit and if you are watching the road and not the unit she will keep on saying - 'attention, reduce speed' - until you do.
I have just had an e-mail informing me that they are launching their own Sat Nav which will apparently incorporate the speed camera detector as well. Worth a quick look I would think.

Thanks too, for above.

I'm still using the A-Z myself!

I'll wait and see if Christmas brings out some super deals - the Garmin I talk about here is now at Dixons for £139!!!

( Via their website )

quote:

Originally posted by SR-71:
Jondude - I have a Talex speed camera detector which is impressive. Doesn't work by radar, but by GPS. If you approach one you get a verbal warning of the speed limit and if you are watching the road and not the unit she will keep on saying - 'attention, reduce speed' - until you do.
I have just had an e-mail informing me that they are launching their own Sat Nav which will apparently incorporate the speed camera detector as well. Worth a quick look I would think.

Sorry...not a patch on Road Angel. They already have both on the market. And from the speed safety camera side of things, they have pretty much covered them all...I wait to hear if the satnav is as good as TomTom yet, and the reason I have not decided between the two

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CupraR04:
Sorry...not a patch on Road Angel.
---------------------------------------
Could you expand please? Quality, accuracy etc
Be interested to hear your comparison.
Thanks

jondude

My son has a Garmin c510 which he bought from globalpositioningsystems.co.uk earlier this year. In answer to your questions:
1. Yes - "home function"
2. It has speed cameras loaded - globalpositioningsystems.co.uk charged him an extra £10 at time of purchase
3. Yes - "road names as well as direction arrow"
4. Its battery lasts 5 hours plus - if it does get low just plug it in to the cigi-socket with the lead provided.

Like the tomtom series it is very user friendly but the Garmin is not so good at finding the fastest route. It wants to go directly from A to B no matter whether it uses part motorway, A, B or "Z" road. As you probably know its "normally" better to use major roads when travelling x-country. This unit has 2 settings - "Faster Time or Shorter Distance." It doesn't matter which is selected it will still use the straight line method. This unit WILL DRIVE YOU NUTS!

I have also tried the tomtom one and the AA Navigator. I found the tomtom better than the Garmin but having tried the AA Navigator for a week in the Lake District I decided to keep it as it did the job best. It is less user friendly (I have to use a stylus pen to input any info) but it will keep you to major routes unless setup otherwise. It has traffic info for life and speed camera warnings. I think the most recent Navigator does away with the stylus and relies on finger input which is much easier. The AA Navigator is the most accurate unit I've tried and in my opinion this is what counts. The other units look better but IMHO the navigator does the job best!

Just one more thing. Whatcar recently did a test on satnavs and the Garmin c510 won! I wouldn't pay those testers in brass washers. They just haven't done their job properly!

Thanks all, again.

Agnes, great review. Very helpful.

I am still totally undecided!!

quote:

Originally posted by SR-71:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by CupraR04:
Sorry...not a patch on Road Angel.
---------------------------------------
Could you expand please? Quality, accuracy etc
Be interested to hear your comparison.
Thanks

Gladly! The Road Angel unit tells you of all fixed camera locations (including Gatso, TruVelo, SPECS, Watchman, Speedcurb and DS2) and also accident black spots (although some of them baffle me as to why they would be labelled as such!) and schools, using GPS. It's sounds as if it works in a similar way to the Talex, and for a subscription, can be updated through your PC as often as you wish for up to date locations. Travelling through an average speed check zone, it audibly and visually alerts you of your speed, and if you wish, you can set it to go off whenever you exceed the speed limit whist driving normally.
But that's not to say, because of GPS, it hasn't warned me of a local school, whilst driving on the M25 (I do hope there weren't any kids crossing!) and as Road Angel point out, as it detects hand held Laser devices, because it detects the actual beam, that means that the beam has already registered your speed (or if you are really lucky, the car in front!)
From personal experience, I would say the Road Angel is great for camera spotting and all round safety, but if it's Sat Nav you want, go for a Tom Tom

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CupraR04:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by SR-71:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by CupraR04:
Sorry...not a patch on Road Angel.
---------------------------------------
it works in a similar way to the Talex, and for a subscription, can be updated through your PC as often as you wish for up to date locations.
--------------------------------------------
Yes - sounds just like the Talex - EXCEPT that Talex does not have the laser capability as it is just a passive system.

How many of these toys can be programmed to alert you of low bridges? Our railway bridges here are forever getting clobbered by lgv's

With a Road Angel you can add or delete warnings. Many a time I have deleted warnings for blackspots from mine, on what appears to be a perfectly straight bit of road with no junctions or visible dangers.
Likewise, I have added some for roads I considered to have unseen perils

[QUOTE]Originally posted by CupraR04:
With a Road Angel you can add or delete warnings.

Ditto Talex.