Hi All,

I have a 2007 VW Touran with an inbuilt GPS. More and more often it seems my system does not recognise the roads. I am a poor map reader and I seem to get lost lots on new roads not recognised by the GPS :-)
Does anyone know if new discs from 2011 include the new roads around Zurich? I am not sure whether to buy a 2011 disc or wait until 2012.

Does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks for any helpful suggestions.

buy a new tomtom, its cheaper, better, more upto date and you can put it in any car.

if you shop around you can also get 'free' map updates for a couple of years on some.

Whenever you buy a new one, sooner or later it is going to be outdated. So, I am not sure if it is worth waiting till 2012.

Yes I think "on board" GPS are so rubbish!!

Outdated, not practical, etc...

It's much more convenient to buy a relatively cheap "external" gps such as tomtom- (it costs like 200chf-300chf).

Although i've had a tomtom live 750go and not so happy after all-
At first I was impressed but then... the screen is hard to touch, confusing device, etc...

Any suggestions for good alternative?

Garmin seems to be an ideal candidate for Tom Tom replacement.

I find tomtom the easiest to use,
IGO based ones are best (imho) more features, better maps etc
garmin is ok
mio - not so good, avoid
median - again, not so good, cheap but 'standard' features on other systems are expensive add-on on these, also if you buy one thats been sat of the shelf for a long time then the maps are out of date and you have to pay to update them!!!

the only feature I really look for on the hardware is TMC (traffic master), its free to receive and will re-route you round hold ups etc.

if you get a system that is based on windows ce then its simple to change the software to any of the other brands anyway.

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If you buy a Garmin, make sure you buy one with "lifetime" included. It includes map updates four times a year for as long as it's still functioning.

The mediamarkt near me had one on sale for 199.- recently.

Well. You live in Zurich and there is exactly one road that changed a lot: The Westring highway was finished and therefore did the city change the way they route the traffice through and around the city - one way streets and blocks have changed accordingly... this renders any old GPS pretty much useless in large parts of the center.

Yes, I'll say it: I bought a Navigon instead of a TomTom and love their interface. Much better IMHO and tomtom always tried to sell some rubbish extra services on top. I am not going to buy a subscription, I only want a GPS.

Those built-in GPS's really suck. A Tomtom I find is much better and much cheaper.

Are those FM antenna things any good? To be honest its one of the things that really puts me off, yet more messy wires trailing about on the dash.

I've used TMC and it seems to be OK, though can't guarantee that works as designed

There are a number of traffic apps for Android and iOS that pull the information in over 3G. I may be wrong, but I think they use a different traffic network provider than standard TMC.

? My one has TMC and a build in FM antenna - no cable at all.

Works well: You see how much traffic jam is on your planned road... interesting to watch on a Friday afternoon: I once went from Zurich to Frankfurt and had 140km (!) of jams on the route at 17.00 that went continuously down on the way...

As an alternative to the usual suspects, Tomtom and Garmin, I have a Medion, bought a few years back from Aldi (was main CH supplier of Medion electronics, but now available from Landi - of all places - who also seem to have a Medion franchise-type thing - plus the odd PC seen at Conforama).

Anyway, I have been more than happy with mine, and much better ones are now available - although, I was able to upgrade my software/OS plus full 2010 map package (3yrs. later than installed) for E.- and W.-Europe (45 countries) for €69 -20%, as a new year offer from them.

Map updates alone, also available at a price - but include N.America and Australia to name a couple. Pay, download onto SD card and insert into SD slot of device.

For the same money as I paid for the small size, this is now available from Landi:

there is a free version call "swiss traffic" on the iphone at least, seems ok

TMC is free over the normal radio networks, its excellent in france, a bit patchy in the uk and ok in switzerland, the rubber type antenna work well, I bought one off ebay for a few quid. only down side is tmc seems to need a really quiet car electrical system, I have various things running in my car (car pc setup) and tmc really doesn't like the fan in the pc running, when I disconnect the gps power supply then I get the tmc straight away, plug it in and it goes a bit of a pita, keep meaning to get a power supply smoother for it.

__________________
https://starkindustries.ch/
http://www.swissr2.ch/
http://www.tk16431.com/

I have a medion as well, got it from aldi last year, the hardware is excellent, excellent screen, well put together etc but its really badly let down by the software, its terrible, everything is an add-on and chargeable even stuff everyone else gives as standard, for just a to b stuff its fine. I dumped there software and put igo on it.

The included power supply is also poor, (see above) no inbuilt noise reduction, so tmc doesn't work for me when its charging

199chf is a pretty good deal though.

thinking about it I have a Navigon, blaupunkt, medion and 2 no make handheld gps's, as well as tomtom on my iphone, what the hell is wrong with me????

__________________
https://starkindustries.ch/
http://www.swissr2.ch/
http://www.tk16431.com/

TMC on my device functions fine, as in how the device interprets and reacts to the information received. However it is only as good as the traffic reports from the radio stations that it receives.

In my experience, for non on-going situations (i.e. long term roadworks), radio stations' traffic reports are often out of date by the time they're broadcast (and picked up by the GPS).

In the UK, when I heard of an hold-up on my route on the radio traffic report, I always headed there, because I knew it would be over and done with by the time I got there and other motorists would try to avoid it and cause hold-ups elsewhere.

I bought Navicom for my iPhone for about 80 CHF last year (but I think it was on special offer at the time), it uses GPS and gets me all over Europe with very regular map updates for free through iTunes. The only slight drawback is the smallish screen and the fact that my wife always phones me just when I'm about to hit a major traffic junction (OK, you can reject the call without leaving the app, but then I get an earful when I do call her back).

You can also play and control your music in the app at the same time.

I've only ever used Tomtom. They seem to be the most highly regarded, so maybe you've had a bad experience. They are currently doing a trade-in offer for any GPS model towards the purchase of one of their range.
See http://breakfree.tomtom.com/trade-in...reak-free.html

Nope - not experienced the above, other than agree that useful additional downloads are at a price. Upgraded to Go-Pal 5.5 (which I guess yours has) and seems to work fine. No problems with TMC when connected in-car for power/charging. Also bought a Medion mini solar-powered akku to charge it when I'm away from car/computer (39 chufs from Landi) - good for 2-wheels and foot - extends usage time from internal battery by a couple of hours or so - and if solar panel (size of a box of Swan Vestas) is permanently connected and in the sun, will go even longer.

You're a gadget freak, with a poor sense of direction, who gets lost a lot.