Suitable satnav for deaf older person?

[Wyvern]

A friend on another forum I belong to wants to get her elderly father a satnav for Christmas but she's never used one herself so isn't sure what to buy, and as I've never used one either I'm about as much use as a chocolate fireguard on the subject. Any ideas? This is what she's looking for...

OK, I need some advice here. My Dad wants a SatNav for Christmas. Given his complete lack of sense of direction it's a good idea. The only thing is he's a bit deaf and finds complicated, fiddly controls hard to use.

As I get my sense of direction from my Mum, I have no experience of SatNavs. I have spoken to a couple of people, including the RNID, who say that, although he could link it to the loop setting on his hearing aid, everything else would be cut out (Police sirens, horns etc) so that's not a very good idea. Apparently you can also tune the car radio in to them, but presumably that means you can't listen to the radio on the journey. Is this right? Or does it butt in to whatever you're listening to when it has something to say?

It looks like TomTom are the better make, but does anyone have any suggestions about models that are straightforward to use and have a good, loud speaker and a clear voice option? Or something that is good but less expensive than Tom Tom?

Any suggestions gratefully received!

 

[VR6]

Don't, my grandparents bought me one for christmas and they tried to set it up for me before I got it, putting in my house as a destination and such and it was nothing but an epic failure, old people can't do technology its just a fact.

 

[Momentum57]

The Magellan RoadMate Series with simple icons and easy to find menus it far out paces others. My parents own a Garmin and spent a great deal like 500+ and still can't figure out simple things "didn't know that you could turn up the sound" The reason why is much of the technology is hidden through sub-menus and multiple screens. The Magellan 1400 offers as much as their fancy expensive GPS all for $200 less than half what they paid.

If your friend does buy one have them practice with it for a while and run some simulations to show how all the buttons work.

 

[NooDle]

Get one with as few buttons and options as possible. ALso a HUGE screen.
My wife's has this feature where instead of showing a pic of the road and where you need to go, you can have a bigass arrow instead, maybe that isn't bad for old people

Them being deaf isn't an issue, I usually turn the sound of my satnav off anyway (annoying women...)

but yeah, you're gonna have to walk them through the simplest of things, over and over again

 

[Hidden_Hunter]

Get one with as few buttons and options as possible. ALso a HUGE screen.
My wife's has this feature where instead of showing a pic of the road and where you need to go, you can have a bigass arrow instead, maybe that isn't bad for old people

Them being deaf isn't an issue, I usually turn the sound of my satnav off anyway (annoying women...)

but yeah, you're gonna have to walk them through the simplest of things, over and over again

My brothers sat nav has an "australian female" which sure as shit isn't an australian, sounds like someone trying to do paul hogan impersonations. My inbuilt sat is pretty much as neutral as accents come

 

[NooDle]

^ mine has a bit of an accent, I can even choose between Belgian Dutch or Dutch Dutch!
I used to have another one where you could install whatever the hell you wanted, a mate of mine made a whole bunch of different accents... which were all very fun for about 2.1 seconds. If you heard that stuff for the 1896th time they were boring. Even the John Cleese one got tired after a while...

I did set it to Spanish for a while,because "Maria" sounded like a hottie. It was annoying not knowing what the hell she says though. The best of all is Finnish though, I was just laughing out loud the whole time. It doesn't sound like a language at all, it's all just liki ikikllulllua manajai paaaie ntokinaniininiunynoiven prestioniooi totiooivennnenen.... :lol:

 

[Quiky]

... it's all just liki ikikllulllua manajai paaaie ntokinaniininiunynoiven prestioniooi totiooivennnenen.... :lol:

TALKING ABOUT MY MOTHER THAT WAY IS VERY RUDE!