Factory-fitted Satnav - worth the money?

[glnta]

Thanks for the update, glnta. I was thinking of asking if anyone had ordered a van with one fitted. Do you consider it worth the money? As discussed above, I bought the TomTom and reallocated the funds to other upgrades for the new van, e.g. T280 instead of T260. I can also use the TomTom when driving other vehicles.

Worth the money in the sense that it has loads of buttons It is a bit pricey, but I'm all for built-in features. I have a seperate Tom Tom and a Mio 168 sat nav. Unlike the Ford satnav the other two are fully customisable, I can add my own POI's via the computer for places I visit, like Wickes, B & Q, Builder's Merchant's, Plumber's Merchants, ETC, gives a great advantage and saves time, with the new Ford sat nav you can't do that, what you see is what you get, with only general POIs loaded. Signal is good on the GPS, don't lose signal even with a quickclear heated reflective windscreen fitted. And you can store Waypoints on the nav and Store addresses under any name you wish, i.e. Dad's, John's House, ETC. I'd mark the SAT NAV at about £500.00 tops, but then you are also paying for the built-in CD player and Radio all as one unit. Can't beat the looks though, looks superb and better than having two/three seperate units cluttering up the dash. Her's a picture of mine. You are also paying for the option of "bluetooth with voice control" You can operate the CD, Phone and Radio within that unit with your voice But becomes a pain when the stupid woman's voice does not understand you, and she tells you They should have preloaded a builder's voice on it

I have the manual for it and can scan it into the computer if someone is desperate to see the functions before buying it. I do have it on PDF but in German !! tried to translate in in Google translate but keeps crashing as a large file (4.6MB)

[Luke]

They should have preloaded a builder's voice on it

yeah can imagine it ............ turn left ............... sharp intake of breath .................... it's gonna cost ya

[glnta]

They should have preloaded a builder's voice on it

yeah can imagine it ............ turn left ............... sharp intake of breath .................... it's gonna cost ya

LOL

[dwright2104]

Iv got a funny feeling the same sat nav is in my mums ford focus, I agree with a lot of you that yeh it'll cost a fortune to upgrade the maps ect.

The big up side is in the focus the sat nav instuctions appear on the dash display next to the speedo, the sat nav is extremly accurate, much more acurate than tomtom or garmin. The audio quality from the unit aswell is supereor to any OEM unit iv seen or herd. Also it may have built in bluetooth, my mums focus has, and it works perfect, much better than my parrot kit i have in my car.

[evans88]

I've used a Tom Tom all over Europe and it is accurate to within about 10 feet by inputting gps coordinates. I doubt very much that they are any less accurate than the built in type as the maps are now produced from one source (Teleatlas).

There seems to me to be very little point in investing in an inbuilt model other than the fact it looks nice. I have seen a couple of inbuilt models in Fiats and Chevrolets and they are in fact far less sophisticated than the stand alone versions (you cannot find destinations by gps coordinates) and the maps are 3 or 4 times more expensive to update. If you use the vehicle in Europe you will need to update maps periodically as the road network, unlike here, is being constantly improved.

[glnta]

I've used a Tom Tom all over Europe and it is accurate to within about 10 feet by inputting gps coordinates. I doubt very much that they are any less accurate than the built in type as the maps are now produced from one source (Teleatlas).

There seems to me to be very little point in investing in an inbuilt model other than the fact it looks nice. I have seen a couple of inbuilt models in Fiats and Chevrolets and they are in fact far less sophisticated than the stand alone versions (you cannot find destinations by gps coordinates) and the maps are 3 or 4 times more expensive to update. If you use the vehicle in Europe you will need to update maps periodically as the road network, unlike here, is being constantly improved.

I don't need to find places by co-ordinates, in england you use what's called a POSTCODE, or city and road name. I'm not walking up some hill in the country It has 100% UK house number coverage, unlike tom tom 6. It has 175,000 POI's stored. You do have an "i" (information) button on the screen, at any given point you press this and you can see your GPS co-ordinates on the screen, and it shows you what satellite is giving the strongest signal at that point also. You can set "Waypoints" also at any given point in a journey, this data is stored by co-ordinates, and you can name this "Waypoint" with any name you wish. By default, the Waypoint is stored by the date and time it was set.

The maps built-in are for the whole of europe and I'm aware that once every three years I will need to update them, found that the cost will be about £99.00. In any event. any sat nav will need updating periodally to keep the road network in Europe up to date. This unit has built-in TMC (Traffic Message Channel) you get live instant traffic updates straight away, superb feature, unlike tom tom 6, although I am sure you can get something similiar for tomtom but at extra cost.

You can see from the picture that it has built-in bluetooth, you can view phone numbers and dial them straight from the satnav screen, unlike tom tom 6

The audio and guidance in the Travel Pilot FX are superb, the only draw back is that it is 2d not 3D, on my tom tom 6 you can chose either 2D or 3D.

In summary, I do like the in-built satnav I have in my new transit but would not get rid of my other two satnavs, both have tom tom 6 installed, customisable options are far superior to the in-built model which also does not feature speed camera alerts.

The major drawback to the TravelPilot FX is if you lose or misplace the SD card it will cost you 250 EUROS (£217.00) to replace it, where as tom tom 6 cd for pc (then download to sd card) is cheap as chips, I bought a copy a year ago from ebay for £8.00 full european maps

The TravelPilot FX SD card (4GB) has built in encryption , it can only be used on that particular satnav (in that particular vehicle), it recognises it or not as the case maybe as soon as you put it in. Cannot be copied, some say it can be copied to produce a working copy with Media Duplicator, but it's yet to be proven.

[evans88]

I mentioned coordinates because if you have to make a delivery to a remote building site or an undeveloped area a postcode and road name simply might not work. My post was more motivated though by the fact that there are a couple of uncomplimentary references here to the model fitted by Ford suggesting in particular that even the postcode finder was only accurate to 4 digits. The pictures of the the inbuilt one do look great though - and so they should for £950plus VAT. My post also was motivated by the suggestion that the built in type was more accurate than the windscreen fitted type which is simply not true.

[dwright2104]

The built in sat nav's (not just fords OEM) are usually more accurate in a number of ways, I used to have an AViC X1r and it was the best sat nav system i have used in my life, the built in systems have gyroscopes, connect to the speed pulse (speedo) of the car. connect to the reverse light signal, and more. The ford sat nav knows when your reversing and dose not shout "recalculating" at you like the tom toms do, ok i understand you dont reverse that often, when im returning home if i use my sat nav when itf from somehwere iv never been before i simply just dont turn it off cause i cant be bothered, and the postcode for my house on my garmin is 200m up the road. when i stop to reverse into my drive off the main road, it willl say either "recalculating" or "make a dambed u turn" The new blaupunkt system has an option to disable "u turns" if your in a massive van with a trailer this is extremly handy. it will try to avoid stupidly small roads not safe for larger vehicles aswell. Then Massive built up city driving can sometimes not often but sometimes cause GPS Lag, this is where the gyroscope and speed pulse signal will keep your sat nav knowing where you are at all times, through long tunnels in france also. Also the startup time of the blaupunkt appears less, as it switches on and locates GPS signal asoon as you unlock the doors, so by the time your in the seat ready to programm it knows where u are. Also the built in satnavs have a dedicated reciver, sometimes located outside the vehicle, as front heated windscreens significatly reduces GPS acuaracy.

[glnta]

The built in sat nav's (not just fords OEM) are usually more accurate in a number of ways, I used to have an AViC X1r and it was the best sat nav system i have used in my life, the built in systems have gyroscopes, connect to the speed pulse (speedo) of the car. connect to the reverse light signal, and more. The ford sat nav knows when your reversing and dose not shout "recalculating" at you like the tom toms do, ok i understand you dont reverse that often, when im returning home if i use my sat nav when itf from somehwere iv never been before i simply just dont turn it off cause i cant be bothered, and the postcode for my house on my garmin is 200m up the road. when i stop to reverse into my drive off the main road, it willl say either "recalculating" or "make a dambed u turn" The new blaupunkt system has an option to disable "u turns" if your in a massive van with a trailer this is extremly handy. it will try to avoid stupidly small roads not safe for larger vehicles aswell. Then Massive built up city driving can sometimes not often but sometimes cause GPS Lag, this is where the gyroscope and speed pulse signal will keep your sat nav knowing where you are at all times, through long tunnels in france also. Also the startup time of the blaupunkt appears less, as it switches on and locates GPS signal asoon as you unlock the doors, so by the time your in the seat ready to programm it knows where u are. Also the built in satnavs have a dedicated reciver, sometimes located outside the vehicle, as front heated windscreens significatly reduces GPS acuaracy.

Amen I could not have put it better myself , my TravelPilot FX is ready to go as soon as I am, my TomTom 6 sometimes takes a few minutes to get a signal, and if you are calculating a reroute in the country with a turn up ahead, do you take it or not, by the time tom tom has worked it out, you've driven past it , the blaupunkt is rapid in that sense. GOOD POST Mate

I used to have a 7" widescreen dash mounted VDO Dayton, with navi unit under seat, MS5500. Good sat nav but again slow at start up. and slow to recalculate. and the TMC unit for the VDO was an extra £150.00. The Blaupunkt has it built-in.

[madmark_50484]

Thanks for the update, glnta. I was thinking of asking if anyone had ordered a van with one fitted. Do you consider it worth the money? As discussed above, I bought the TomTom and reallocated the funds to other upgrades for the new van, e.g. T280 instead of T260. I can also use the TomTom when driving other vehicles.

Worth the money in the sense that it has loads of buttons It is a bit pricey, but I'm all for built-in features. I have a seperate Tom Tom and a Mio 168 sat nav. Unlike the Ford satnav the other two are fully customisable, I can add my own POI's via the computer for places I visit, like Wickes, B & Q, Builder's Merchant's, Plumber's Merchants, ETC, gives a great advantage and saves time, with the new Ford sat nav you can't do that, what you see is what you get, with only general POIs loaded. Signal is good on the GPS, don't lose signal even with a quickclear heated reflective windscreen fitted. And you can store Waypoints on the nav and Store addresses under any name you wish, i.e. Dad's, John's House, ETC. I'd mark the SAT NAV at about £500.00 tops, but then you are also paying for the built-in CD player and Radio all as one unit. Can't beat the looks though, looks superb and better than having two/three seperate units cluttering up the dash. Her's a picture of mine. You are also paying for the option of "bluetooth with voice control" You can operate the CD, Phone and Radio within that unit with your voice But becomes a pain when the stupid woman's voice does not understand you, and she tells you They should have preloaded a builder's voice on it

I have the manual for it and can scan it into the computer if someone is desperate to see the functions before buying it. I do have it on PDF but in German !! tried to translate in in Google translate but keeps crashing as a large file (4.6MB)

Its that good he needs to keep a map above just in case

[glnta]

I mentioned coordinates because if you have to make a delivery to a remote building site or an undeveloped area a postcode and road name simply might not work. My post was more motivated though by the fact that there are a couple of uncomplimentary references here to the model fitted by Ford suggesting in particular that even the postcode finder was only accurate to 4 digits. The pictures of the the inbuilt one do look great though - and so they should for £950plus VAT. My post also was motivated by the suggestion that the built in type was more accurate than the windscreen fitted type which is simply not true.

You have a good point mate, the older TravelPilot EX used to have only a 4 digit postcode search (I think it was the EX), but the newer ones like mine are full 7 digit search. I agree, a 4 digit postcode search would be useless. Whereever I have navigated with the TravelPilot FX (as in picture) it has been absolutely spot on every time. Accuracy wise, my Tom tom 6 has been wrong on few occasions, but overall very good, but does lose signal alot whereas the travelpilot fx never has yet.

[glnta]

Thanks for the update, glnta. I was thinking of asking if anyone had ordered a van with one fitted. Do you consider it worth the money? As discussed above, I bought the TomTom and reallocated the funds to other upgrades for the new van, e.g. T280 instead of T260. I can also use the TomTom when driving other vehicles.

Worth the money in the sense that it has loads of buttons It is a bit pricey, but I'm all for built-in features. I have a seperate Tom Tom and a Mio 168 sat nav. Unlike the Ford satnav the other two are fully customisable, I can add my own POI's via the computer for places I visit, like Wickes, B & Q, Builder's Merchant's, Plumber's Merchants, ETC, gives a great advantage and saves time, with the new Ford sat nav you can't do that, what you see is what you get, with only general POIs loaded. Signal is good on the GPS, don't lose signal even with a quickclear heated reflective windscreen fitted. And you can store Waypoints on the nav and Store addresses under any name you wish, i.e. Dad's, John's House, ETC. I'd mark the SAT NAV at about £500.00 tops, but then you are also paying for the built-in CD player and Radio all as one unit. Can't beat the looks though, looks superb and better than having two/three seperate units cluttering up the dash. Her's a picture of mine. You are also paying for the option of "bluetooth with voice control" You can operate the CD, Phone and Radio within that unit with your voice But becomes a pain when the stupid woman's voice does not understand you, and she tells you They should have preloaded a builder's voice on it

I have the manual for it and can scan it into the computer if someone is desperate to see the functions before buying it. I do have it on PDF but in German !! tried to translate in in Google translate but keeps crashing as a large file (4.6MB)

Its that good he needs to keep a map above just in case

ha ha, funny I'd had that book for 8 years, didn't wanna part with it , I admit it doesn't look good

[V184]

i never drive London purely on sat nav, good choice of map

[madmark_50484]

Im only joking I always try and keep a map just in case

[glnta]

Im only joking I always try and keep a map just in case

Yeah I know, no worries, good thing about the atlas, it lists all the congestion charging zones and it cost me £15.00 that's why I kept it