Sat Nav not giving correct route

[welshy67]

I live in Bangor North Wales and last weekend I drove down to Gloucester. I entered the destination postcode and it calculated route and gave me three options. All these options used the smaller slower A and B roads through Wales and through loads of towns and villages. But what I wanted and the quickest and easiest route is on the motorways, A55 along North Wales to M56 to M6 (South) to M5.

I don't have the "Avoid Motorways" option selected nor the Toll one. All three options, short, fast, economical were the same, that is through Wales. I could not for the life of me find out how to tell the SatNav to go along the motorways.

What I did was to start the Route from the M6 instead. This was ok until I reached the M5 and it told me to come off and we went through Tewksbury (I think) and drove through small towns and villages for miles before reaching our destination. Once again the Sat Nav took us off the motorway too early and told us to follow the A430 which didn't even exist down there!

I looked at Google Maps that evening and that did give me the route I wanted and used the motorways and the whole of the M5. I think this Sat Nav is seriously flawed.

Anybody else have issues like this? I have spoken to my dealer and Seat but they cannot help. Who can I talk to about this?

 

[ma9mwah]

I have the same issue living near Chester. It never points me down the M56 when I want to go South and always tries to take me via Crewe or the A41

 

[JK1]

I'm going to guess neither Seat or the dealer will help as it's the company who provide the SatNav datas fault and I bet they have no end user support!

I had an issue with mine when coming home it wanted me to skip the Bedford bypass and drive down a lane that goes under it! If I was cycling that might work as the lane drops to a cycle track halfway down. Even when I was on the bypass it wanted me to turn off go back the way I came and go down the lane!

Probably fixed in an update that you may or may not be allowed to purchase from the dealer...

 

[Suicida1 Zombie]

The sat-nav in the Leon's get's you there on a wing and a prayer.

I am going to the coast of France from the midlands latter in the year, I have driven the same route and further all the way to Antwerp in Belgium using a cheap £30 sat nav and I didn't doubt it for a second but when I go across again later in the year I will be taking a back-up because I would fear for not getting home if I was relying solely on the Leon's Nav alone!

 

[sootytorques]

I have had same problem, when trying to get to thruxton it totally ignored M1, M25, M3 which would have been the right roads from where I was leaving from, and thruxton is not recognised !!!.

 

[J888ohn]

When is Sat Nav ever right? Buy a map.

 

[weirdkerr]

Modern technology.... Useless, May as well buy a chocolate fire guard, which is at least edible

 

[simonali]

Dunno why we're so reliant on this rubbish these days? Why not just get yourself there by studying a map beforehand and then use the nav just for the last mile or two to get you where you need to be. That way you use the route you want to use, not the one the voice in a box tells you to...

 

[Del80y]

Mine is quite accurate not that I rely on it day to day I set my normal work route and it follows the same one I have used for the last 8 Years
It is only in the car as it came with it, would not be high on my must have list
as others have said get a map we all managed for years with out it.
Only realy usefull for final approach in unfamiliar area's

 

[ma9mwah]

I find the automatic traffic/delay routing to be very valuable, though i generally use Waze as that seems the best for that.

 

[FRHighlander]

Interesting thread. Is it a question of software versions or is this just standard versions without update from earliest build to current build?

 

[leon1p]

I haven't used mine long distance but I switched off the route options so it just picks a route. Not sure if this might make a difference to the route it would choose in your example?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[bluenose172]

Dunno why we're so reliant on this rubbish these days? Why not just get yourself there by studying a map beforehand and then use the nav just for the last mile or two to get you where you need to be. That way you use the route you want to use, not the one the voice in a box tells you to...

My reply will be with you shortly via carrier pigeon......

 

[boltonredgt]

My reply will be with you shortly via carrier pigeon......

At least the carrier pigeon will take the most direct route and not go via the A god only knows, down the B where the hell am I, and finally 2 hours later than planned at your destination.

 

[welshy67]

i'll look into turning off the route options and see what it tells me.

I've also been reading up on using my nexus 7 (android) with google maps via bluetooth into the Seat media system. have read voice commands from google maps also works. you need wifi to set a route or change one though but for a single route already planned on the tablet or smartphone it should just work with the GPS enabled.

 

[leon1p]

Any links to that info?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[smurf123]

have done the same as leon1p also turned route options off i think it then picks the fastest route, the few times i have used the sat nav never had any issues.

 

[kshuker]

Don't forget that the Sat Nav will try and look at the traffic conditions on the roads ahead, so it might decide that avoiding motorways is quicker if it 'sees' jams ahead.

I've seen mine take me some strange routes in the past and I've ignored it only to be caught in heavy traffic that the sat nav would have routed me around.

I've also compared it to Google Maps on the fly and they seem to plot similar routes. That said, I always have a back-up just in case!

 

[gamer555]

for me the sat nav was really useful especially when passing several countries in long journeys. it was a bit awkward to hear "the route was changed due to traffic conditions" without asking me if I accept this. after 3 minutes I stopped to see what happened and had a good look on the original route (zoom in, drag over it) and saw 10km of queuing due to some accident. so the decision was a very good one, it saved me from losing 1.5-2 hours.

after a couple of days when I was driving on an empty highway in switzerland I hear the same message. I thought it was a joke, the road was absolutely empty and it prompted me to exit to some village roads, so I decide to ignore it and continue. 800 meters after the exit it mentioned I got stuck in a queue of 6 kilometers which turned in a 12 km one => 2h lost.

from now on I will trust the sat nav for sure of course I am planning in advance the trip and check google maps / via michelin in parallel to find out details about the trip and to compare with the route of leon's sat nav, I'm not just blindly following it. but for the traffic information part no map can help

 

[Hugo Nebula]

Firstly to the OP: When I used to travel btwn Liverpool & Bath (i.e., past Gloucester), I'd very rarely use the M6, as the chances of being caught up in a jam was significantly greater than the alternative A-road route. So from Bangor to Gloucester, I would definitely prefer the route through Wales than the M56 > M6.

I don't know about the Mk 3 sat-nav, but I would have thought there's an algorithm that works out distance x time at motorway speeds vs. distance x time at A-road speeds to arrive at the quickest route. IME of the Mk 2's sat-nav it over-estimates the speeds possible on urban roads and smaller roads.

Or maybe it's a member of Plaid Cymru?

Generally, I use sat-nav for the last mile only (i.e., to get me from a main route to an individual address). I usually plan my route beforehand, and w/ Google maps, can work out where the jams are likely to be and how to get around them, despite what the sat-nav says (I'm sick of that bloody woman telling me to, "turn around when possible").