CarTrek 400

Wanted a satnav for use delivering in rural areas, this thing will take me miles in the wrong direction and then only to the general post code. I would not recommend a CarTrek 400 to anyone and would NEVER buy another of same make. I cannot find any updates. When I bought it it was supposed to have speed camera warnings again it's never worked. It takes an age to load and my particular unit sometimes goes into a loop telling me to do the same thing over and over till you switch it off.

My sat nav is used in a truck on a daily basis. In the 3 months that i have been using the CarTrek 400, it has never let me down, whether it be finding an address in the system or physically directing me to an address.

I bought the pink version of the car Trek 400 for £219 and its been nothing but trouble. No assistance help. It is awkward to use and expensive! Very poor.

The CarTrek 400 looked good value for money as it was supplied with full European maps. However, as other reviews have stated, it takes forever to find a signal the routes given are poor and the screen is really difficult to see in daylight and impossible in sunlight. Soon after buying it the internal battery gave up meaning that it had to be permanently plugged in and to cap it all the first time I tried to use it abroad (Spain) it refused to work at all!

Please avoid this piece of rubbish and buy a TomTom or something similar.

I had used a friends TomTom one for a London trip and had a brilliant experience with it. I bought the CarTrek cos it was just over 100quid from Savastore thinking 'what a bargain!' You're probably doing the same, looking at units like the TomTom and the CarTrek wondering 'what's the difference then?' and you're here looking for a review. Well, I don't know about those other people, but I wanted to use this to navigate around place where I had not been before and for this purpose, the Cartrek is rubbish. there are times when the signal just drops out and you have to turn it off and on again several times. Routes can take 30mins to find often the route is never found. This is nothing to do with the signal being poor, my route in and out of work is fine - so how can it be a weak signal? It's not like a mobile phone! This unit just stops working as if the satallite just goes out of range (y'know, like in Patriot Games?) that's the only way I can describe it. I threw the unit to the floor from my window in utter fury after it had got me totally lost in London. The unit is in very small pieces by the side of the road - where exactly? I have no idea. My recommendation: DO NOT BUY THIS spend some more money and buy a TomTom.

I have had my CarTrek 400 for 2 years, so it is one of the earlier ones. It takes a long time to start and register the signals then takes a while to work out a route. It loves motorways and will take you out of the way to use one. At times you appear to be in the middle of fields whilst driving and also some areas of the UK maps have vanished, just a blue screen. If you are in a tunnel for more than 15 seconds, go to France and you will see in the cities, it loses itself and you don't have directions until it has recalculated the route. Not bad just not good.

I tested this on routes that I know well and on every occasion it tried to take me on routes that would have been of greater distance and taken more time. One built-up area disappeared altogether leaving a big sea of blue, and again on the return trip, so no coincidence. The unit takes ages to start up, on one trip I gave up waiting for it and switched it off! Both the history and favourites don't seem to record what, or how, you would expect. The voice is too quiet on anything expect maximum 10, but when the unit is switched off, it returns to a default, so you have to remember to turn it up, each time. It's cheap, but save up for a Tom Tom, Navman or Garmin. It will be worth it. Do not buy.

Everything in the CarTrek 400 satellite navigation system is already installed so you do not have to down load anything from the computer, all the speed cameras for both the UK and the whole of Europe are already in CarTrek. This was good for me when I went to France as I found it so easy to use.

I found the CarTrek 400s good value for money I had looked at a lot of makes before I brought the CarTrek 400 and I must sat I am very please with it. What I did find very good was the fact that when I was not sure on something I could phone there help line. This I found good as I did not have to wait for an e-mail from the help desk.