Tom Tom Go 700 – not overly impressed
Discussion
Just come back from a 2 week driving holiday in Europe with my newly acquired Tom Tom Go 500. I have to say I’m not that impressed with it. I encountered the following problems:
The windscreen mounting bracket snapped off at the start of my return journey.
As a consequence of the above the unit hardly gets a signal when sitting on the passenger seat.
It tried to send me the wrong way down one way streets on three or four occasions.
It kept loosing its position on motorways and tried to send me off on non existent junctions or asked me to do a U turn!
It kept loosing its signal in town centres – when I needed it most.
I went over several junctions/roundabouts which it didn’t mention to me at all. I had to guess which exit to take.
I couldn’t find an easy way of adding a POI on a map as a destination in my itinerary. I had to go back to the list of POI’s after viewing it on a map and add it as a new destination.
Following on from the above, some POI’s that appeared on maps did not appear in the list of POI’s when trying to add them as destinations.
If I didn’t reach a destination on my itinerary to the exact meter the only way I could get the unit to navigate to the next destination on the itinerary was to delete the previous destination from the itinerary. Not much good if you want to use the itinerary again.
So overall I’m not that impressed with it. Once you have got your destinations in there and it has a signal it works quite well. It was good navigating the motorway routes between cities but that’s the easy bit. I found it awkward to set up a route and it let me down too often in town centres when I needed it most. I was lost in Monaco for an hour trying to find my hotel.
This is the first satnav unit I have owned so I’m not sure if the others encounter the same problems. What are other people’s experiences?
The windscreen mounting bracket snapped off at the start of my return journey.
As a consequence of the above the unit hardly gets a signal when sitting on the passenger seat.
It tried to send me the wrong way down one way streets on three or four occasions.
It kept loosing its position on motorways and tried to send me off on non existent junctions or asked me to do a U turn!
It kept loosing its signal in town centres – when I needed it most.
I went over several junctions/roundabouts which it didn’t mention to me at all. I had to guess which exit to take.
I couldn’t find an easy way of adding a POI on a map as a destination in my itinerary. I had to go back to the list of POI’s after viewing it on a map and add it as a new destination.
Following on from the above, some POI’s that appeared on maps did not appear in the list of POI’s when trying to add them as destinations.
If I didn’t reach a destination on my itinerary to the exact meter the only way I could get the unit to navigate to the next destination on the itinerary was to delete the previous destination from the itinerary. Not much good if you want to use the itinerary again.
So overall I’m not that impressed with it. Once you have got your destinations in there and it has a signal it works quite well. It was good navigating the motorway routes between cities but that’s the easy bit. I found it awkward to set up a route and it let me down too often in town centres when I needed it most. I was lost in Monaco for an hour trying to find my hotel.
This is the first satnav unit I have owned so I’m not sure if the others encounter the same problems. What are other people’s experiences?
My dad just bought the most expensive TomTom one cos he was sick of wires all over the dash.
Have you got the most up to date maps? that would explain non-existant junctions.
As for losing satellite contact in cities, fact of life I'm afraid. Tall buildings = no reception. Always annoys me that my GPS V always gives up the ghost in the City and I get lost...
Have you got the most up to date maps? that would explain non-existant junctions.
As for losing satellite contact in cities, fact of life I'm afraid. Tall buildings = no reception. Always annoys me that my GPS V always gives up the ghost in the City and I get lost...
i had a navman icn510 for a while and couldnt fault that, very, very easy to use. took me right to where i wanted to go with great ease. when i got to my destination it clearly defined that i was there.
great satnav system. a lot smaller and lighter than the bulky tom tom as well
to be honest i think the tom tom's have been over-hyped by a lot of people, i know i wouldnt get one
great satnav system. a lot smaller and lighter than the bulky tom tom as well
to be honest i think the tom tom's have been over-hyped by a lot of people, i know i wouldnt get one
Frik said:
I thought the 500 only comes with maps of the major routes of mainland Europe. Might explain the patchy coverage at least.
No, the 500 has a full street level detail of Western Europe on a HDD which is why I bought it. The 300 has full UK street detail and major routes of Western Europe on SD cards.
Most of your problems seem to stem from the mount snapping and hence poor signal - must say I find the mount to be excellent, top quality and no problem attaching it - yours must've been defective or you were too heavy handed.
As for the directions - as said above, the 500 only has the major roads, the 700 has much more detailed and accurate european maps and is frankly superb.
As for roundabouts appearing when the tomtom simply has a straight road - its a fact of life with all satnav and maps for that matter - with the tomtom on the windscreen within an easy glance, you don't need the instructions, you simply see the rough direction you are meant to go take it.
I've used my tomtom many times in europe and found it to be absolutely invaluable, but only with the full correct maps. In my opinion the 500 is a bit of a white elephant, only really the 300 and 700 are needed.
As for the directions - as said above, the 500 only has the major roads, the 700 has much more detailed and accurate european maps and is frankly superb.
As for roundabouts appearing when the tomtom simply has a straight road - its a fact of life with all satnav and maps for that matter - with the tomtom on the windscreen within an easy glance, you don't need the instructions, you simply see the rough direction you are meant to go take it.
I've used my tomtom many times in europe and found it to be absolutely invaluable, but only with the full correct maps. In my opinion the 500 is a bit of a white elephant, only really the 300 and 700 are needed.
Sorry I´m getting confused. It's the 700 I have so I have the full European street maps.
Also the problems I had such as it loosing it's way on the motorway, missing the junctions and sending me down one way streets the wrong way happened on the way down before the bracket snapped.
On the way back after it snapped it was near useless.
Also the problems I had such as it loosing it's way on the motorway, missing the junctions and sending me down one way streets the wrong way happened on the way down before the bracket snapped.
On the way back after it snapped it was near useless.
t1grm said:
Sorry I´m getting confused. It's the 700 I have so I have the full European street maps.
Also the problems I had such as it loosing it's way on the motorway, missing the junctions and sending me down one way streets the wrong way happened on the way down before the bracket snapped.
On the way back after it snapped it was near useless.
Not sure about the European map quality but I know of a few anomalies in the UK. But then that is down to whoever supplies the maps so the same problems are likely to exist in different systems using the same mapping source data. That said most of the issues I have found relate to recently built roads and I am not using the latest maps.
What car were you driving on your tour? There are a number of vehviles around which have either heated screens or heat reflective screens which introduce problems for GPS tracking. Any chance that that might be a problem? And what caused the bracket to snap and where. Mine seems very sturdy but I would like to check for signs of imminent failure.
>> Edited by LongQ on Monday 29th August 20:17
t1grm said:
It tried to send me the wrong way down one way streets on three or four occasions.
Either the maps for that area are poor or the signal it was getting was not very good. How many bars were showing on the satellite signal strength indicator?
t1grm said:
It kept loosing its position on motorways and tried to send me off on non existent junctions or asked me to do a U turn!
See above. I have experienced something similar though rarely unless the entire GPS system seemed to be down (one occasion) or it is obvious the that the GPS signal is poor due to location or overhead foliage or similar. (Road Angel has an even greater problem).
However, with the ASN facility the system will attempt to work out where it is and if it is getting a regular high frequency of intermittency it seems to be fooled into thinking it still khnows where it is when it clearly does not. Again, Road Angel is the same. You get some very odd speed readings!
t1grm said:
It kept loosing its signal in town centres – when I needed it most.
See above. You might want to test it with an external antenna.
t1grm said:
I went over several junctions/roundabouts which it didn’t mention to me at all. I had to guess which exit to take.
Did it think it was in the right place? Or was it confused (as in above possibilitites.)
t1grm said:
I couldn’t find an easy way of adding a POI on a map as a destination in my itinerary. I had to go back to the list of POI’s after viewing it on a map and add it as a new destination.
You should be able to get to the list of POI's but yes you do have to go through the list as far as I can see. On the other hand you could just go for the 'point on the map' rather than the POI option since it too would get you there, albeit without telling you the name of the related POI but you can always get back to that from the map.
t1grm said:
Following on from the above, some POI’s that appeared on maps did not appear in the list of POI’s when trying to add them as destinations.
That's interesting. Was that anything to do with POI categories?
t1grm said:
If I didn’t reach a destination on my itinerary to the exact meter the only way I could get the unit to navigate to the next destination on the itinerary was to delete the previous destination from the itinerary. Not much good if you want to use the itinerary again.
I think you will find that it simply expects you to say that that leg of the itinerary is complete by indicating that you have visited that point - which you can do at any time. It will then offer to calcualte the route to the next point.
t1grm said:
So overall I’m not that impressed with it. Once you have got your destinations in there and it has a signal it works quite well. It was good navigating the motorway routes between cities but that’s the easy bit. I found it awkward to set up a route and it let me down too often in town centres when I needed it most. I was lost in Monaco for an hour trying to find my hotel.
This is the first satnav unit I have owned so I’m not sure if the others encounter the same problems. What are other people’s experiences?
My Tom Tom Go Classic is pretty good, especially with the latest software update (which you should have anyway afaik).
Some anmolies on the maps but every system, including PC based maps, seems to have that sort of isue somewhere.
Monaco could be quite tricky - especially if you are not getting the best of signals anyway. Tallish buildings, narrow streets and the hills to the north. Could be quite tricky keeping a triangulation on the satellites. If you go to the Main Menu and then move to page 3 and tap on 'Configure GPS' is will tel you where it thinks it is and which satellites it can see. Sitting here on my office desk (4th bedroom!) about 4 or 5 ft from the window (west facing) it can see 6 satellites well and another 2 less well and 2 others that it knows should be there, not at all.
I certainly don't think that mine has a reception problem, though of course yours could be faulty. Try viewing the config screen in the open and then in the car and see if it makes a big difference.
On the other hand if you were in France, and knowing that the US are not too keen on the frogs, the US forces may just have reduced the local positional resolution availabe.
Or maybe the French are trying to jam the signals.
I got very frustrated with my TT Go 700 because it would not pick up a signal in my Audi A8 - until i realised all the windows are coated to reflect heat. I bought an external antenna and the signal is superb - usually 8 satellites all at full power signal. Worth purchasing!
The mapping issues are a concern - I have found several anomalies even close to home - but this will happen as the mapping cannot possibly keep up with road changes happening all over Europe - I think the current maps are 2003. I read somewhere that Tom TOm are looking to use Garmin's map supplier as well as the current one. I've used a Garmin in Europe twice and it was pretty much faultless. However, I've just been putting in itineraries for Megahoon, and aside from some problems with road names or designations, I have been able to navigate door to door for all the destinations, and the routes follow the routebook instructions perfectly - and Nick who wrote the Megahoon instructions, "drove the course" - so the book and TT Go are corresponding 99.9% of the time.
I have some issues with the lack of flexibility in the software - when you start a pre-planned itinerary, it always asks if you want the fastest/shortest/no-motorway options - which can then alter your carefully planned route! I've e-mailed Tom Tom to try to get them to look at that.
When planning an route from a recent destination, go into "new itnerary", and "add" -> "recent destination" -> put in your current GPS position or previosly added destination, and then convert it to a waypoint, not destination. Otherwise it will ask if you want to navigate to where you are already! (Because it's the first destination on your itinerary)
The mapping issues are a concern - I have found several anomalies even close to home - but this will happen as the mapping cannot possibly keep up with road changes happening all over Europe - I think the current maps are 2003. I read somewhere that Tom TOm are looking to use Garmin's map supplier as well as the current one. I've used a Garmin in Europe twice and it was pretty much faultless. However, I've just been putting in itineraries for Megahoon, and aside from some problems with road names or designations, I have been able to navigate door to door for all the destinations, and the routes follow the routebook instructions perfectly - and Nick who wrote the Megahoon instructions, "drove the course" - so the book and TT Go are corresponding 99.9% of the time.
I have some issues with the lack of flexibility in the software - when you start a pre-planned itinerary, it always asks if you want the fastest/shortest/no-motorway options - which can then alter your carefully planned route! I've e-mailed Tom Tom to try to get them to look at that.
When planning an route from a recent destination, go into "new itnerary", and "add" -> "recent destination" -> put in your current GPS position or previosly added destination, and then convert it to a waypoint, not destination. Otherwise it will ask if you want to navigate to where you are already! (Because it's the first destination on your itinerary)
) with the Maps of Western Europe, and the additional antenna. Having spent three weeks touring France and Spain in the Chimaera this year, I didn't have any issues. www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=26405
See the above for details about a batch of faulty mounting brackets.
See the above for details about a batch of faulty mounting brackets.
pls said:
www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=26405
See the above for details about a batch of faulty mounting brackets.
Thanks for the info! I’ve sent Tom Tom an email. Will see what happens.
Whilst the bracket looks sturdy enough there’s a plastic shaft only about 10 x 6 mm linking the suction cup to the bracket. This shaft slides up and down inside the main bracket body as you move the release leaver. Add to this the fact that the shaft has a hole through it at right angles which houses a 3 mm dia metal pin then at this point you only have about a 20 mm2 cross section of plastic supporting the whole assembly. The big black plastic chunky surround is merely show. My bracket failed when this shaft sheared at the point where the hole for the steel pin is. Not surprising really.
johnny senna said:
My Tom Tom Go 700's mounting arm broke after just a week. The weakness is where the arm meets the suction cup part. Pretty naff really, the device should be much stronger than this.
Exactly where mine broke - also after a week. And I've received no acknowledgement of my email to Tom Tom support yet.
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