best car GPS navigation in NZ

[farzanakhan123]

Hi,
Can anyone suggest me what is the best GPS car navigation should you recommend to use in NZ ? Eg. Tomtom, garmin...

[Bozeman]

iPhone. Seriously, the GPS features of today's smart phones are so good, I don't know why anyone would spend the money on a stand-alone GPS.

[rogercruse]

Get a smartphone and use Waze. It's free and provides near real-time traffic information.

[kiwieagle]

If you use a smartphone as a sat nav, I'm pretty sure you have to have it in a fixed hands free holder.

[breeze]

I use Google map on my iPhone. Uses some 3G but it's good and 'free'.

[jawnbc]

Data charges. GPS data charges can be hateful!

iPhone. Seriously, the GPS features of today's smart phones are so good, I don't know why anyone would spend the money on a stand-alone GPS.

[RedVee]

I use my iPhone just for the last few Kms or so, the first part of the journey is usually so straightforward you don't really need it on if you've checked your route before you leave.

But if you are reasonable comfortable with technology, get a cheap garmin that takes an sd card but don't pay for maps! Have a look at this website http://gwprojects.org/forum/. I had an old one with US maps built in and it runs the nz ones very happily from the sd card. Not that I use it anymore.

I really recommend planning your route online on googlemaps or similar before you leave. It's not that the directions are difficult - usually only one way to go. But sat navs don't give you any indication of the terrain. Driving from here to Martinborough seems straightforward on a sat nav. But the most direct route takes you over the Rimutakas, not for the faint hearted!

[Sun777]

Try negotiating about having the GPS fitted when buying your car (if you haven't bought it yet), typically we did this twice and actually the fitting charges was complimentary - our dealer installed touch screen - All in One (GPS, DVD, Bluetooth, radio, SD to play mp3/mp4/avi, USB) Player called "Domain". I always do sanity check on Google maps at home or office before starting anywhere.


Google maps has a really good advantage of showing the traffic conditions and auto calculating time so +100 points there for it

[enuun]

I bought a Garmin unit off ebay for my yearly travels to NZ. Free map updates for life and has been good so far. Got it for about 130nzd exclude shipping

[catt]

I have a Navman and still find it useful even after 5 years of being here, not updated maps as I find that very little changes year on year.