To Nuvi or not to Nuvi?

[Pedro2NR]

Great write up.

For me Im glad TomToms don't blip when scrolling through the menu or select an item. I think thats annoying as I've seen clips on youtube comparing a few gps units at once.
I've also heard other units actually saying their route is being redirected.

 

[digital-flex]

Great write up.

For me Im glad TomToms don't blip when scrolling through the menu or select an item. I think thats annoying as I've seen clips on youtube comparing a few gps units at once.
I've also heard other units actually saying their route is being redirected.

I guess it's only me that wants to have a noise when tapping options. For me, I like that audio feedback that you know the button is pressed. I can only compare it to pressing numbers on your cell phone. If you didn't hear the number tones it just doesn't seem right.

That's just my little tiny itsy bitsy teenie pet peeve about the TomTom software. At least have an option to turn it on or off

 

[Nextourer]

yeah true. as long as they have the options for toggling the beep.

 

[fanchee]

Oh man Pedro, now that you say that it brings back bad Nuvi memories. If you do decide to take an alternate route on your own, it says "recalculating" and then tries to take you back to the original. When you ignore it, it continues saying "recalculating" until it can catch up to the new way you want to go. Sometimes for 5 mins+. VERY annoying, and I had buried it until now, thanks for bringing it up. LOL.

 

[battom]

NOT to Nuvi

 

[lec510]

Though I don't agree with some of Boobaloolie's remarks, I just ask him a question: the bad even out the good, is Nuvi worth the price difference they ask for ?
Not if you ask me.
Lot of TomTom defficiencies can be remedied (POI), while you are pretty much stuck with Nuvi:

For me the most important features of a GPS in descending order are:
1- Ability to locate a place and get there reliably.
2- Ability to recover from mistakes or difficulties fast
3- Ability to plan routes at the comfy of your home and save them

all other are minor (TTS, MP3, Traffic ...)

Now the details:

1- As per my post elsewhere , the superiority of NavTeq is no more true. It all depends on where you live.
For TomTom, if I can't find the place, I can use Googlemap, Mapquest, find the coordinate, punch it in the TomTom & go. Try to do that on a Garmin (not all Garmins can do that).

2- Let's take this (true example): a Garmin user drove thru a tunnel, lost the sat signal (normal), out the other end he must exit right , which was very close, but missed the turn because his Garmin was busy thinking.

3- Try to plan a few dozen of your favorite Itinaries, then save them. Good luck with your Nuvi. Apparently lot of users never profit from this feature when they compare TomTom to Garmin. It save you hours of work, especially if you use it for commercial routing.

You still miss your 'Search for Exits' Boobaloolie ? I can be sure that I can find any Walmart, any TruckStop, any CrackerBarrels ... for an overnight anywhere in North America without resorting to that Exit thingy.

Now my rants against TomTom: bad mount, screen hard to see on bright sunlight, bad support ... and I hate TomTom home.

 

[Pedro2NR]

Oh man Pedro, now that you say that it brings back bad Nuvi memories. If you do decide to take an alternate route on your own, it says "recalculating" and then tries to take you back to the original. When you ignore it, it continues saying "recalculating" until it can catch up to the new way you want to go. Sometimes for 5 mins+. VERY annoying, and I had buried it until now, thanks for bringing it up. LOL.

That's horrible!

 

[bobaloolie]

Hey lec510,

If it weren't for you, I would like the TomTom less. Yes, you're absolutely right: POI's can for the most part overcome the "exit thingy." But not always. I have found, for example, a lot of the POI's (some of the rest stops etc. you put on this forum from Discovery) to be off by over a mile (been through four states since uploading them, and watching them go by.) Why, I don't know.

I agree with your order of importance, though the third is not as big a deal to me, but is to someone planning many routes, as you say.

I keep coming back to that number one though... reliability. The POI database in the TomTom has all kinds of problems. In the two weeks I've owned it, I've been taken to wrong locations probably 8 times. POI"s have been missing, and just today, two phones calls to the POI's listed were the wrong phone numbers.

TomTom needs to spend some money getting into the game... or lose money with customers reading reviews and forums like this.

Is the Garmin worth the extra coin? No. It's missing too many important options.

 

[battom]

A great online community!!

Hey lec510,

If it weren't for you, I would like the TomTom less.

It's right there.... THIS is why TomTomForums.com is the best site for TomTom related content!!!!

I would go as far to say users like this is also what makes this a great online community too!!

bobaloolie, thanks for posting your gratitude toward another member in an unsolicited manner!

lec510, you and everyone else should take a moment and pat yourselves on the back. It's definitely users like you that make others come back!!!

thank you everyone!
-and thank you Jason for the opportunity to help in my role!

battom

 

[lec510]

You're all welcome.
It's not because I love you guys so much, I just hate seeing people buying Garmin.
I hate Garmin.
I hate Garmin.
...

 

[battom]

never had a garmin... now that I have a ONE. never will try a Gramin.

 

[fanchee]

Had a Garmin, not worth the premium you pay. Sold it, kept the TT.

 

[battom]

Pre TT ONE I was looking at the Nuvi 350.... was ready to buy but my subscription to consumer reports said buy the TomTom....

happy subscriber!!!

 

[lec510]

Back June last year I ... almost bought a Garmin C330 ! Luckily I did my home work well. I decided against the odd knowing full well that the 510 map was crap.
By that time I had zero knowledge about GPS, cruising the Internet for informations.

 

[hermdog]

I must confess, that while I was looking to replace my Go Classic, I was tempted to consider the Nuvi's. But fortunately cooler heads prevailed. Plus The price today for a 910 can't be touched by the price of a Nuvi with the equivalent features.

 

[chipichape]

Hi,

I had picked up a TomTom920T, but the idea of trying a Nuvi7 series bugged me. I returned the TomTom and picked up a Nuvi750 for 100$ less. I played with it for 2 days, then I returned it and picked up a TomTom920T again...

TomTom
Pros:
- Flexible routing, much more options
- Bluetooth hands free
- much better, louder internal speaker
- can play video via 3rd party applications (Mobilnova, Tomplayer) -> very useful on those long flights, with external battery support!
- Mapshare
- Ability to mark changes on the maps
- Show POI-s on navigations screen (Speed trap warnings, etc)
- good PC software (TT Home)
- both NA and Europe maps included
- better overall quality
- fast screen update, almost continous movement during navigation

Cons:
- graphics is nicer (but much slower) on the Nuvi w.r.t. street names and no jagged edges (altough the TomTom is not bed at all, I guess it is up to personal preference)
- BIGGEST ISSUE: one must enter city name for the address (Nuvi needs region only) - it is a problem when you are not sure about the city. I yet to figure it out how to search an address in the Greater Vancouver area when I am not sure if the address is in Richmond, Vancouver or Burnaby, etc.. The Nuvi takes B.C. then offer all cities where the street name exists.
- Navteq maps said to be better than TeleAtlas - I cannot confirm it, so far my TomTom took me everywhere I wanted to go.

Nuvi750
Pros:
- Better mount (you can leave the power cord plugged in to the mount)
- Navteq maps are said to be better? (cannot confirm, ref. above)
Cons:
- no bluetooth
- not flexible at all (routed me over a non optimal route with no chance to modify the route)
- routing issues (routed me over a regular road instead of the paralell Richmond freeway - TomTom took the freeway)
- no video player
- terrible internal speaker, distorted, metallic voice at 100% loudness
- bad PC software support, I actually had to hunt for their upgrade software on the web.
- no Europe maps, NA is preoaded pnly

So, it was a no brainer, TomTom920 vs. Garmin 750: the TomTom hands down wins the comparison, especially when you consider that both cost the same 499C$ (920T is 599C$, but comes with the traffic receiver).

BR, Chip

 

[Smokiewolf]

And alot of Garmin users bragged that the Navteq maps are more updated in the US, and I honestly don't think that's the case anymore. At least not in my area. Before I sold the Nuvi 660, I had it and the ONE at the same time. My brother's 4 year old neighborhood was listed in the TT but not in the Nuvi.

The Today show proved that wrong! Tom Tom was tops in Boston of all places!

 

[feejo]

I was thinking to switch to nuvi, my mother in law have a 700$ that play MP. We calculate a road from Ga to Montreal, it took something like 17 minutes. I wanted to cancel, impossible. I trued it on my XL tom tom, it took 5 or 7 minutes. I was stunned.

When you go above the speed limit the NUVI do nothing, Tom will horn to you.

Just go on amazon and look that nuvi, 350 at bad feeback, they most say that signal to get GPS is really poor. TT have GPS FIX, that allow better signal. I got signal in heavy snow.

 

[boren]

My wife has a Nuvi 200 and I have a TT 720. I got the TT since maps of Australia and NZ are erm cheaper. We just used the 720 on a trip down there for a couple of weeks and it really did well.

On the way to Chicago O'Hare Airport we ran both side by side compared the differences. I won't look at things like Bluetooth and such since the Nuvi 200 is the lowest of the low and the 720 isn't.

I have moded the 720 by adding the 920 POI database.

Where the Nuvi 200 did better:

• ETA is right/close. (Tomtom was 1 hour wrong on a 2 hour trip)
• WAY better POI database. (even compared to the 920 poi database)
• Zooms out with more detail.
• Routing picks better/faster routes.
• Two clicks to reroute around a road block.
• Let's you know when you missed a turn audibly, it says "Recalculating".

Where the Nuvi 200 performed poorly compared to the TT:

• Going underground then back to the surface can really send it for a loop when it gets sat lock back.
• Slow at looking up POIs
• Less features in general, like the ability to find alternate routes, etc.
• The TT tells you to take express lanes on the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. Good since I don't know I need a local vs express, but since some of the express lanes aren't always open since they change direction based on the time of day it gets a little confused sometimes.

Looking for addresses on the 720 when you don't know the exact city seems fine. If you do a search on a close city, then street name I have seen it frequently show a the street name followed by the town it's really in. For example in Brisbane, AU when you put the city as Brisbane, then search for Chapel Hill Rd, it shows you Chapel Hill Rd something like this:

Chapel Hill Rd
Chapel Hill Rd (Chapel Hill)
Chapel Hill Rd (Mogil)

Where the name in parentheses is the actual city name.

The Au and NZ maps were fine in town. When we started going to some pretty remote locations in Western New Zealand the maps started to have roads in the wrong place. Like the highway at once point jumped about 300m to one side and over the next 5km worked it's way back.

The Australian POI database is missing an odd set of major chains. For example it doesn't have Woolwolths (or maybe it was Coles, anyways a major grocery store) under grocery or anywhere, but it has Woolworths Express which is a gas station corner store listed.

 

[dhn]

Thanks for the feedback...

I've been lucky enough to have been to New Zealand a couple of times. What I'd really like to know is how the voice(s) you used for the 720 handled some of the street & city names in New Zealand.