SAT NAVS

[crisis123]

I have the RNS 510 in my car, I also have TomTom on my PDA and my phone (And yes I can read a map , I find Satnav saves on arguments with wife when we she gives dodgy directions).

I personally prefer the overall package of the 510, being able to start the car and its there, no setting up, no time waiting for my PDA to talk to my GPS unit, looks good, large screen, directional arrows just in front of you, can't beat it. It is an expensive unit, but if it is in the car when you buy it then you don't see the cost as such.

The 510 has been invaluable recently altering my route due to traffic problems getting me to where I was going and saving time. I never found TomTom did that for me.

However, I have had a couple of problems with the 510; when I got the car the SD card slot would not recognise my media, the unit was swapped under warranty, and a few months ago the GPS unit died, again swapped out under warranty.

I only use my TomTom when I am abroad, or in wifeys car.

[mac7]

What I want to know is why did the RNS510 cost about 10 times more?

Now I'm not defending the price of the RNS-510, which is way to high, or its less-than-ideal sat-nav functionality. But it is probably 10x more expensive than a tom-tom because it's not just a sat-nav, is it. It's also a Radio and DVD player, with ipod compatability, which can integrate with bluetooth add-ons and your mdi, etc, etc and made specially to fit in the hole in your dash.

Plus, I'd guess economies of scale come into play. Tom-tom sell tens of millions of their units, whereas VW probably don't.

Personally, I use a map, some pre-planning and my brain to get places. Sat-nav is breeding a generation of people who blindly follow instructions without ever know where they are now relative to where they were or are going to.

[FamilyDub]

Sat-nav is breeding a generation of people who blindly follow instructions without ever know where they are now relative to where they were or are going to.

 

Here's a wee story... a friend and I were visiting another friend in Stirling (about 35 miles away) one weekend when he whipped out his shiny new sat-nav xmas pressie on the journey back...

I laughed at him as he sat stony-faced and reminded him he f00kin already KNOWS the way road back and surely knows where he lives?

If i did have to buy a nav, I'd get meself a RNS510

[corgi]

Or my mates wife who went to pick up their kids from school in his two week old BMW 130i. She used TomTom... why?

I don't know but it routed her down a road that crossed a ford... it was a few years ago and it had been raining heavily for days... to cut a long story short she attempted to cross the ford, the car stopped, got washed into the bank and her and the kids had to be rescued by the fire brigade (all unhurt if a liitle damp)... The car was left in the river for 24 hours and subsequently written off...

When he asked her why she had gone that way home she said "Tomtom told me to!"

He's not popular with his insurance company £29,000 for the BMW, a year earlier he aquaplaned his brand new Impreza STi into the central reservation (allegedly at 70mph) of the A1 wrting that off (another £28,000) then a few months later he received a bill for the central reservation of £38,000... so in the space of 12 months his insurance company footed a bill of £95,000... gulp!