Discussion
I needed a decent satnav and after some advice from my Head of Gadgets went for the Tom Tom Classic - it's discontinued now but is basically bottom of the range - I didn't need foreign maps, traffic updates or wifi thingywotsit. £90 from Amazon IIRC.
Basically, it's excellent. Only two minor points:
1) It can take a few minutes to find the satellites - irritating when you're setting off from a strange place to go home and don't know which way to turn.
2) The updates you can share with other users via TomTom Home don't seem to appear, and even the paid-for updates from TomTom seem to miss some very obvious things - so they seem a bit slow off the mark there.
However, for general navigation, ease of use and accuracy it's very good. It's even warned me of speed cameras when it's switched off in the glovebox - no idea how it did that!
ETA: There's a PH satnav forum if you want more info.
Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 5th January 18:17
I've had a Becker (90% of manufacturer installed unit are Becker), a Garmin Nuvi and currently a Tom tom.
Historically Tom tom used to use cheaper mapping compared to Garmin etc who used Navteq maps. My Garmin Nuvi is an excellent unit and I recommend them.
The key advantage to Tom tom is the interface with the net, Tom tom home, your ability to personalize and update the unit etc . .
The absolute winner for me with Tom tom (and I really needed convincing to relegate the Garmin to spare) is the ability to plan routes for trips using something like the tool attached in the link below and then load the route into the Tom tom. I've now driven over 10k miles on the continent using routes I've planned before hand and then loaded into the Tom tom. It used to be that it was only the expensive alternatives to Tom tom would have itinerary planning, where as it is more common now. Tom tom have dropped it in their firmware for the lower end of the range, but i'm a little out of date.
It is very useful and with the .itn converter below you can actually plan using Tom tom maps, michelin maps, google maps or others. I generally plan in Microsoft autoroute and then use the .itnConv programme to convert them from .axe files into .itn files.
'06 3 of us did 3k miles in 6 days, each with a tom tom, loaded the routes in and then spent our time driving excellent roads without any need to get a map out or have a co-driver. No stressing about keeping up as we're all following the same route. Loads of other examples, Le Mans etc . . last year 3750 miles, through the Alps and S of France, never got the map out, all routes planned before hand and loaded in to tom tom by day. Get up in morning, turn on tom tom and head of to see the stuff we wanted to see.
Tom tom having carved up the biggest chunk of the market for aftermarket units and are now investing in the mapping and that's why with the itinerary planning function I'd recommend them. Of course if you just want a plug and play unit they are intuitive and straight forward to use.
A very useful piece of kit
Historically Tom tom used to use cheaper mapping compared to Garmin etc who used Navteq maps. My Garmin Nuvi is an excellent unit and I recommend them.
The key advantage to Tom tom is the interface with the net, Tom tom home, your ability to personalize and update the unit etc . .
The absolute winner for me with Tom tom (and I really needed convincing to relegate the Garmin to spare) is the ability to plan routes for trips using something like the tool attached in the link below and then load the route into the Tom tom. I've now driven over 10k miles on the continent using routes I've planned before hand and then loaded into the Tom tom. It used to be that it was only the expensive alternatives to Tom tom would have itinerary planning, where as it is more common now. Tom tom have dropped it in their firmware for the lower end of the range, but i'm a little out of date.
It is very useful and with the .itn converter below you can actually plan using Tom tom maps, michelin maps, google maps or others. I generally plan in Microsoft autoroute and then use the .itnConv programme to convert them from .axe files into .itn files.
'06 3 of us did 3k miles in 6 days, each with a tom tom, loaded the routes in and then spent our time driving excellent roads without any need to get a map out or have a co-driver. No stressing about keeping up as we're all following the same route. Loads of other examples, Le Mans etc . . last year 3750 miles, through the Alps and S of France, never got the map out, all routes planned before hand and loaded in to tom tom by day. Get up in morning, turn on tom tom and head of to see the stuff we wanted to see.
Tom tom having carved up the biggest chunk of the market for aftermarket units and are now investing in the mapping and that's why with the itinerary planning function I'd recommend them. Of course if you just want a plug and play unit they are intuitive and straight forward to use.
A very useful piece of kit
crankedup said:
Good feedback so thanks for that, order gone in for TomTom now at 110 quid. Wonder if it will work off an 12v motorbike battery when I use it in my Vintage car??
Well if it's 12V DC I don't see why there should be a problem. It will also run on its own batteries for maybe an hour when fully charged - but it does lose charge quite fast when switched off - in fact I think it goes into a standby mode because if you power it up after a week or two, it has to reboot itself.Simpo Two said:
crankedup said:
Good feedback so thanks for that, order gone in for TomTom now at 110 quid. Wonder if it will work off an 12v motorbike battery when I use it in my Vintage car??
Well if it's 12V DC I don't see why there should be a problem. It will also run on its own batteries for maybe an hour when fully charged - but it does lose charge quite fast when switched off - in fact I think it goes into a standby mode because if you power it up after a week or two, it has to reboot itself.
crankedup said:
John, I note that the devise will power itself for an hour or two, so thats me from Eye to an strange address in Ipswich in my vintage iron
Yep, but you'll have to recharge it in another (ie normal!) car or buy a mains charger - the one supplied is for a fag socket. GPS seems to take quite a current.Gassing Station | East Anglia | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff