Best GPS app for iphone car use?

[DavidU (Dave)]

My wife needs a good GPS (road map type) app for when she drives around.
What's the go ? thanks

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

There are a few mainstream apps David, but out of all of them I've come to prefer Navigon (now owned by Garmin) over both TomTom and Sygic. There are a few free or near-free systems too, but I've found that you can't rely on them being updated very often. Again - you get what you pay for.

[acropolite (Phil)]

I managed to get Metroview Australia for next to nothing on special after reading favourable reviews, it works as well as can be expected, doesn't have voice guidance though. Maps are excellent where I've used them, better coverage than my Garmin Streetpilot which is quite a few years old now.

Just took a peek at the app store, it's still only $14.99.

Whatever you buy take a good look at the reviews first, it can save wasting money on disfunctional apps. I wouldn't worry too much about updates, in my experience out of date maps are a minor annoyance and don't cause much of a problem unless the your destination street is not in your map version (which I've not encountered on my Garmin despite the maps being over 5 years out of date)

[Octane (Humayun)]

Navigon is the best.

I also purchased it for NZ. Didn't skip a beat.

H

[TWIGGY15]

I'd recommend Tomtom all day long over any of them and I've pretty much used them all.
Why?
It's very simple to use, it has a very attractive user interface, it can be customised to add a personal touch by changing the car picture and map colours and most important of all, it is accurate.

I would recommend Navigon second to Tomtom.
Once again, it is accurate and has a good looking interface.
It can sometimes be a pain to navigate through the menus at times though.

Either nav app you choose, I'm sure you'll be happy with.

[gary]

Hi David,

In 2009, there was some well publicized fuss about a VicRoads law that would
have potentially banned drivers from using smartphones with mobile GPS applications.

Curious myself as to what became of that and what the laws are down there now,
I did a Google and found this article from October 2009 -
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/...1019-h4d0.html

It mentions that VicRoads backed down on the ruling, but in revised laws of
Nov 2009, to quote the article -

Originally Posted by The Age Oct 19, 2009

"Using a phone as a GPS is also permitted, but only if the phone is secured in a commercially designed cradle.

"All other functions of the phone outside of GPS and music/audio (without video) remain prohibited."

So one additional tip out of that is that the unit needs to be secured in a cradle.

[shane.mcneil]

I think iOS 6 will have improved turn by turn navigation in its new Maps App. It is out soonish.

Shane

[troypiggo (Troy)]

I've got the Sygic one and am a little disappointed with it. It's very slow to start, and don't really like the route options - not really intuitive on how to add waypoints if you want to specifically go via certain paths, if that makes sense. It has crashed/dropped out on me a couple of times.

And also one version it was losing it's voice, so you'd be driving merrily along and it no longer saying turn etc, and 15 mins later realise you were meant to turn waaay back there. Must admit I haven't noticed that after the most recent update, but was pretty annoyed at the time.

If I had my time again, I'd probably look into the Navigon or TomTom ones.

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Another thumbs up for Navigon, can't beat it.

[TrevorW]

TOM TOM

the 2 GB solid state drive corrupted downloading updates after 18 months and only several uses. Tried to reformat but it would not, so I now have an expensive $140 piece of plastic worthless junk that'll go in the bin

[turbo_pascale (Rob)]

The iOS 6 update is due in only a few weeks which should include navigation. Wait for that before spending any money.