New Toy Snooper S5000 Ventura Pro SatNav

I've just purchased the new 2012 model Snooper S5000 Ventura Pro Satnav, having previously been a die hard TomTom fan I knew I was taking a gamble as online reviews for the Ventura units are non existent!

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The S5000 appealed because it is designed specifically for caravans and motorhomes, Ventura Pro calculates safe routes based on your vehicles width, length, height and weight. Includes unique search facility of over 20,000 campsites and motorhome stopovers in 31 countries! Other features that sold this unit to me are things like the sharp bend ahead warning, steep hills and declines, danger of side winds, low bridges and of course the height restrictions, width restrictions already mentioned.

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The lane guidance appears to be pretty clear as well, again this is becoming a standard feature on most units but I look forward to trying it out. My TomTom XXL had lane guidance but I often found it showed too late and wasn't always clear as to which lane to get in so here's hoping the Ventura is a bit more reassuring.

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Other positive things are the built in Bluetooth (that I missed on my TomTom XXL) giving you handsfree calling (pretty standard these days I know) It also has a built-in MP3 player enabling you to transmit both the navigation instructions and your music through your vehicles car stereo. One of the best features for me though is the option to add a reversing camera to the Snooper so it can be used as a camera monitor saving having to have another monitor fitted which really appealed to me. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I have set the unit up with my height, length, width, axle weights and had a play around, first impressions of the unit are that the mount is sturdy, the screen is bright and clear although the on screen display appears a bit animated. The software is not an all in one solution like the TomTom Home software, instead you get a basic looking safety camera updater and a POI updater which both seem to work OK but it would be nice to have a simpler all in one suite like the TomTom.

Registration I found was flaky, by default it was launching IE and I was unable to register the unit so closed the browser down and instead used Firefox where I was more successful, this was the first downside for me though as it prompted me to pay for the AURA speed camera database before I could register my unit, I had the option to just register alone but it was unclear if I could then download the database at a later date so I took the option of downloading it at a cost of £29.99 for a year (this really should be included in a new sat nav of this price) the next disappointment was to find that unlike TomTom the AURA speed camera database does not warn of redlight cameras, why not?

Sound quality from the speaker is also not as good as my TomTom XXL and there is no option to add custom sounds for safety alerts or change voices like you can with TomTom you have a female voice and a male voice, additional voices or sounds that you can download would be nice but obviously Snooper don't concentrate on this aftermarket upgrade stuff like TomTom do which is a shame.

Last night I programmed the unit to take me to my parents house, then watched it back on the route summary and was concerned that it would have taken me up a narrow unmade lane with at least two sharp bends as it took a short cut! I'm very surprised by this as I would not want to attempt going that way in our motorhome and that was the whole reason for buying this unit to avoid these kind of routes the only thing I can think of to counteract this is to program the unit to say I'm bigger than the Nuevo's actual dimensions (may actually contact Snooper in relation to this)

I purchased the S5000 direct from Snooper through their online shop which came with a few extra goodies (although two of these items as stated I never received) at a cost of £339.99 which was the best price I could find with free next day delivery [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

I'm hoping to give the S5000 a good trial at the weekend when we go to the Newark Spring Fair so will be able to give an update on my experience with it after this in case anyone is interested.

Don't you just love the name "mobile homes" havent heard that for ages.

Cymro wrote:

If you'd be so kind as to post some further reports in due course, I'm sure that they'd be much appreciated.

Hope to update with some positive feedback Cymro, thanks for the interest

Campievanner wrote:Don't you just love the name "mobile homes" havent heard that for ages.

I don't like them referred to as "motor caravans" although that's probably the correct term... it should say "motor home" on the box.. much cooler

Performance Products (Snooper) at Runcorn has a very good support team, would suggest you give them a ring if there are any problems