[Quilgy]

I have been using a Tomtom for about 2 years and absolutely love it. But I also find that it sometimes chooses a route that is nowhere near the best.

For instance, I live in Wimbledon and often visit Teddington. I used to always use the route the satnav told me to, until our friends who live there told us of a different way of going which took about half the time.

Their route still used main roads - it wasn't some back street short cut. I know that routing is a complex thing, but this seemed so obviously wrong. Does anyone else have this problem?

I also wish I could train my Tomtom to remeber the better route so it chose that one in future.

[Jonny Fortnight]

You should try using BMW sat-nav. It sends me down some real dirt track short cuts.

[mikeg]

I'm using a Garmin i3 that I picked up earlier in the year, and as a test, I asked it to do a route that I've been doing for the last 8 years. It's never yet chosen the one that I normally take!

My attitude tends to be that as long as it gets me there in a reasonable time, then I don't much mind how it does it! It's never yet asked me to drive through a ditch or a field, so that's a bonus.

Perhaps you could ask the Tom Tom to avoid certain roads, or maybe certain types of road to force it to choose the route you'd like it to use?

[Jonny Fortnight]

The best way of using any type of navigational system, is to plot out your route using a normal a-z and only using the sat-nav for when you get into the city/town that you're visiting.

That will generally make the journey a whole lot less stressful and accurate. :mad:

[mikeg]

This is also something I do - especially when driving to London - don't really need "drive 100 miles down the M1" type instructions, although I tend to find that I find it quite difficult to pick up satelite reception within the centre of London. Maybe that's just the i3, though.

[Quilgy]

I tend to use the "fastest route" option, but sometimes find that "shortest route" does choose some more sensible routes, especially those that take you the back way home that you know is better than using A/B roads.

[Meaty Weaty]

I always find that to navigate in a town or city, then "shortest distance" is the best option, whereas "Quickest journey time" is best for the inter-town journey. Sometimes mapping companies are asked to deliberately downgrade town centre roads to force people on to bypasses or ring-roads, even though they will take longer. Choosing shortest distance can overcome this.

In terms of the original Post, the best way to get the system to take you your preferred route is to drive it and insert points along the way as via points and save these to favourites, it need only be 2 or 3. Then the next time you go the journey, just build the route up using these.

I have to say though, that if you know the route you don't need satnav!

Satnav is good for getting you to places you've never been to before (or from a different direction), and for avoiding blockages on the way. They can never replace local knowledge or experience of 20 years going to and from the same places.

[Jonathon]

Sat nav - the wonder of off road

Only issue I have with Satnav is if you are in the country it can find a bit of an off road route to get to destinations not linked obviously by a main road. I have quite a few times in the past months found myself being the first person down a road for what feels like a decade with tom tom saying just a few hundred yards turn left - it's a field - you know one that you plough !

However it does remove the stress of having to think.

Also remote control must be worthwhile

[Markyboy]

I used to have Navman on my PDA and more often than not it always took me the long way around. In the end I did not trust the routes so stopped using it. i think the software must have been out of date or something because a lot of roads were not recognised.

[smörgåsbord]

Which Nav systems do via points well? I borrowed a Garmin Nuvi 300 and whilst I loved the screen, portability and interface I didn't like the fact that I couldn't seem to set multiple via points (apparently termed the 'travelling salesman paradigm'). I often like to plan A and B road routes to avoid motorways eg. Chelmsford to Luton via Harlow, Hartford and Hitchin but the only way I could do that was setting each location as the new end point as and when I reach it.

Any ideas which systems do this?

[Type A]

my company sat nav is a vdo dayton unit i think, it's not as good as tomtom 6 on my pda, it's good at playing cd's though:p

[Mair55]

Nuvi 300

I have had the same problem with my new Nuvi 300 - one via point is not enough to pre-programme a route and in any case you can't save routes, only points, so you would have to re-programme every time.

I like the machine itself - it is easy to use and set up - but it has sent me down a couple of real cart tracks when slightly less direct A roads were available (yes I do have it set to fastest route) and as I find the cart tracks difficult to drive at any speed at all, I have lost faith in its judgement... I want an 'easiest route' option for those of us who like to stick to the A roads whenever we can....

Are any other sat navs better in this respect?