Electrical: V60 Sat Nav

[Robbie34]

I'm not very impressed with the sat nav in my V60. My previous Honda CR-V was much clearer with greater contrast. How do other members feel about their built in sat navs?
I'm off to France in early May and I'm seriously thinking of buying a Garmin.

[Harvey1512]

Not a huge help to you but I have a built in satnav in my skoda superb and it is distinctively average at best. I had a Garmin's and it was / is superior in every way. Car mfrs would do far better to link up with Garmin or Tomtom then use their current suppliers.

Have you tried using Google maps through your car system? If you have an apple then you need to download apple car play, if android then android auto. Look them up, try them out and see what you think of them. Still not as good as a garmin imo but worth trialling.

[buzzman]

I've used TomTom GO sat Nav's before I got my V60 which came with Nav built in.
My first TomTom GO was great, until it got too old to be able to update. Its original battery was still working fine with a good 5 hours of use before it needed plugging in.
The replacement model has a tiny battery so needs to be plugged in all the time. I hate wires especially when they have to be draped over the dash. Updates on this one take forever (even with a decent internet connection to the PC doing the download) and constantly crash. I've never found it as easy to use as the original which really was take it out the box and GO!
The live traffic, showing delays and suggested quicker alternative routes does work very well though.

Now for my Volvo Nav.
It did take a little getting used to. I've Volvo on Call, so use the phone app to send the car my destinations, so don't often use the controls or voice controls in the car to set the destination.
I find the moving map at roundabouts a little annoying & confusing, there is probably a function / setting to turn this off, so the map showing the roundabout exits stays in the same position.
I'm not sure the Cars Nav live traffic is as good as TomTom, and the Cars Nav decides itself when to change the route due to traffic. Again, I wonder is there a setting to change so that the driver is asked first? TomTom gives you the choice showing the time saving to be gained, before you say yes or no to the proposed change. I’ve been on journeys with the Volvo NAV where the route was constantly being changed due to traffic. One instance involved leaving the motorway after the NAV changed the route due to “Local traffic reports” and driving several miles in heavy traffic before the cars NAV changed the route and sent me back to the same junction I had been told to exit!
Another time I exited a junction as instructed due to a route change only for the route to change again while still on the slip road, meaning I was taken back on to the motorway.
I’ve never experienced this with the TomTom.
The Volvo Nav also has some quirks with place name pronunciations and the like. I’m sure all makes of Sat NAV’s have their quirks!
Volvo NAV can’t pronounce Reading or Slough correctly and Breaks from an English accent into an American one when pronouncing Oxford!
Volvo Nav also tells you to “Enter the square” for some motorway junction roundabouts! I can only assume Volvo deem a roundabout not to be roundabout when it has many exits regardless of its shape, as plenty aren’t round, and it handles these as roundabouts just fine!
I’ve also found new roads and layouts to be slow to be included in the Volvo NAV maps updates.

[Robbie34]

Thanks for that reply, I was beginning to think it was just me with a new car.

I was travelling to Cheshire a few weeks ago and crossing the new bridge from Widnes to Runcorn. The sat-nav gave me contradictory directions which puzzled me. Fortunately, the road signs were good and I managed to meet my friends on time. I'm travelling from Zeebrugge to the Charente in early May and the road system around the port has changed considerably, so I need a decent sat-nav to guide me. As I travel alone I just can't keep looking at a map.

[GMcL]

Waze or Google Maps.

Some do not like the interface of Waze but i find it is the most up to date system for real time traffic though Google must be the same as they are both alphabet apps.

I've tried Android Auto a few times but I find it a bit too big brother. The fact you cannot switch it off when you are not driving bothers me. Kill the app and it is there again in the background within minutes.