Wanted to Hire or Borrow: GPS for UK and Ireland

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Forums › Offers and Wanted › Wanted to Hire or Borrow: GPS for UK and Ireland

eracode

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#190663 8-Jan-2016 09:18

Towards the end of this month my wife and I are heading for the UK for a couple of months. A bit cheeky but I am wondering if anyone has a GPS unit not currently being used, with UK and Ireland maps, that they might be happy to rent or lend to us? Happy to pay because don't really want to buy another one - we own a Garmin unit but have lent it to a neighbour family who have gone to the US. Our trip has come up unexpectedly while they are away and they don't get back until a couple days after we leave.

I guess people may say 'use your phone for GPS' but I don't really want to do that.

Would be grateful if any who would be OK with this could PM me. Will pay postage or could pick up in Auckland area. We live on the North Shore.

Cheers

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

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#1465622 8-Jan-2016 09:18

Hey, have you listed a price, location and how much shipping would be to other parts of New Zealand? Also if you are asking for a PM make sure your Privacy settings allow your account to receive PM otherwise people can't contact you. Also note if you are selling something we ask you to offer to other members first. Links to private sales (including Trade Me posts) aren't accepted anymore and will be removed.

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jonathan18

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#1465650 8-Jan-2016 09:33

I guess I'd ask why you're not keen on using your phone for GPS?

On the advice of people here, I suggested my sister use Here maps for her recent trip to the US; she loved it and said it worked brilliantly. No SIM or data required, just download the maps before you go and Bob's your uncle.

If you're not keen on using your phone for this, what about using a small tablet?

geekbhaji

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#1465665 8-Jan-2016 09:48

Agreed with Jonathan, Here Maps is the best app for free offline voice navigation. It works great on Android and Windows platforms. You can try it here in NZ and fiddle with the settings and then download UK maps It has cool features like reminding you about over speeding etc.

Edite Reason: Added link to apps page.

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lxsw20

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#1465671 8-Jan-2016 09:53

Much to my suprise the 2 cars I've hired in the UK in the last month both had built in GPS that wasn't disabled.

Batman

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#1465674 8-Jan-2016 10:00

Iphone Or Android. Never used anything else that was any better.one caveat you need in car charger.

gregmcc

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#1465677 8-Jan-2016 10:01

eracode: Towards the end of this month my wife and I are heading for the UK for a couple of months. A bit cheeky but I am wondering if anyone has a GPS unit not currently being used, with UK and Ireland maps, that they might be happy to rent or lend to us? Happy to pay because don't really want to buy another one - we own a Garmin unit but have lent it to a neighbour family who have gone to the US. Our trip has come up unexpectedly while they are away and they don't get back until a couple days after we leave.

I guess people may say 'use your phone for GPS' but I don't really want to do that.

Would be grateful if any who would be OK with this could PM me. Will pay postage or could pick up in Auckland area. We live on the North Shore.

Cheers

You can get a low end Garmin Nuvi55 for $158 from Harvey Norman, then upload the open source maps on to it for free, I done a similar thing for my parent when they went to the UK last year, worked well for them

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eracode

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#1465714 8-Jan-2016 10:47

Thanks for the suggestions and particularly to the guys who suggested Here. It is a good idea and I will reconsider my anti-phone view. Cheers.

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RUKI

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#1465726 8-Jan-2016 11:07

While upgrading to W10 on HP Probook discovered that Microsoft offers to download for free maps of any region to be used for navigatin offline.
Out of curiousity tried NZ and AUS maps offline and bingo - built-in GPS module in my Laptop showed exactly where I was.
I did not play with that, but I think it is not voice-guided navigation. At a glance - the map and a trial route to work looked good to me.

oxnsox

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#1465735 8-Jan-2016 11:16

Another recommendation for Here Maps.
They're kept updated, and you simply download the ones you need before you travel.
And if you don't put it on your own phone you can always buy a cheap Windows phone to run it on..... gives you a backup phone/contact device which may be useful, but you don't need to put a sim in it.

GregV

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#1465748 8-Jan-2016 11:40

Looks like it has been well and truly covered, but another recommendation for Here Maps on phone. We were in Oz last year, and didn't pickup our local sim until day two of our trip. However, I had preloaded the Aussie maps onto my phone, and added the places we were driving to on day one, and everything "just worked"

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#1465775 8-Jan-2016 11:57

HERE maps use zero data. Guides you exactly where you want to go. NEver got lost with it.
"GPS Sta Nav" however ....

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jonathan18

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#1465807 8-Jan-2016 12:27

Here maps is even useful in NZ - If I'm not in my own car (with built-in GPS) I'll often just use Here on my phone (as opposed to Google Maps or our external Tomtom unit) as it means I can save some of my meagre 500MB monthly data allowance for more useful things!

It's interesting that Google's never bothered to release a more stable and user-friendly means of saving maps off-line - when I had no data I used to do this, but so often I'd find the downloads were no longer. Not a problem with Here.

I suggest you give Here a go in NZ before you go to the US to make sure it works for you and that you can cope with using your phone (or tablet); nothing to lose really!

dylanp

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#1467390 11-Jan-2016 10:24

jonathan18: ... It's interesting that Google's never bothered to release a more stable and user-friendly means of saving maps off-line - when I had no data I used to do this, but so often I'd find the downloads were no longer. Not a problem with Here.

I suggest you give Here a go in NZ before you go to the US to make sure it works for you and that you can cope with using your phone (or tablet); nothing to lose really!

Google have added offline mode again. In Android hit menu on the left of the search box, then offline areas, then choose the area and download. I think it lasts for a month before it updates the information again. The estimates for how much data might be used in my experience are far higher than the actual amount used - I downloaded the maps for all of Auckland region and it's 44MB. Then you can put your phone into flight mode and still search and navigate. Here's a support page about it https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/6291838?hl=en

I also suggest testing it out before leaving so then you're used to it before having to drive on the other side of the road etc! :)

Edit - also, remember to take a charger to charge your phone in the car.

jonathan18

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#1467405 11-Jan-2016 10:44

VodafoneDylan: Google have added offline mode again. In Android hit menu on the left of the search box, then offline areas, then choose the area and download. I think it lasts for a month before it updates the information again. The estimates for how much data might be used in my experience are far higher than the actual amount used - I downloaded the maps for all of Auckland region and it's 44MB. Then you can put your phone into flight mode and still search and navigate. Here's a support page about it https://support.google.com/gmm/answer/6291838?hl=en

I also suggest testing it out before leaving so then you're used to it before having to drive on the other side of the road etc! :)

Edit - also, remember to take a charger to charge your phone in the car.

Good to know, thanks! That old system of maximising the download area by selecting the correct zoom was messy.

Does this new Google Maps offline access now include offline search? That's a significant benefit of Here over the old Google Maps offline.

Size-wise, the whole of the NZ map for Here is 212MB, including the searchable data; like with all GPS data, it does start to get up in size if you're downloading the whole of the US, Europe or wherever...

jonb

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#1467407 11-Jan-2016 10:46

One of my niggles with Here Maps is the search function is not very good offline, e.g. searching for a shop rather than an exact address. Other than that it is very capable. I also like how it pronounces State Highway 1 as 'Sh-wone' :)

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