Tomtom go950

[Smoothed]

Hello fellow TomTom'ers I have owned a few navman's before, their products are good but service and support is seriously bad. So I am thinking to buy a new GPS and found a TomTom GO950 in good condition for around $100 NZD. It would be a big update since my old navman was 6-7 years old. I did want some cool features such as Live Traffic, Speed cameras, voice and remote control. The 950 Doesn't seem to have live traffic updates free? But most Garmin has it for free? The 950 also seems to have voice commands. I guess as for a remote, I could pick it up from this forum. Was wondering what you thought? I will be living in Australasia region for another few years so a good GPS would be wonderful.

Edit: I see the TomTom GO 930 has more features including a remote? So maybe that would be a better option?

 

[dhn]

Well, if you go here:
https://www.tomtom.com/en_nz/shop/maps/#deviceSelected=22905&mapSelected=New%20Zealand

You see that a Go 950 can get the current (895) map for $130 Kiwi Dollars. The point is that TomTom screws you guys in New Zealand (and Australia) with its map pricing. If converted to Canadian dollars, that would be $106 while we Canadians would pay $80 for a NZ map in Canadian dollars (still overpriced) and pay just $60 CDN for a North american map.

So:
See what map is on the unit you are considering. As I said, 895 is current BUT 900 is due within a week.

As an aside, my wife just took a TomTom unit to New Zealand (should have landed about 3 hours ago ) and the map is 835. She felt it was not worth updating as she thinks not that many changes ever take place in the North Island where she'll be .......

There also seems to be a 950 LIVE model that was out there but not offered now.

You might get more info from Kiwi support at: 0800 450 973

 

[Smoothed]

She's right on the money, I have lived down here for a while and not many road changes, my navman with outdated 2005 maps served me well. I am not too worried about maps, I am buying it locally so preloaded with NZ and Australian maps, probably a year or two old.

So do you think I should get the GO950 or instead wait for a good GO930?

And what about the LIVE Traffic thing? Is it free? Do I need a Live enabled version or can I make it work with regular GO950?

 

[canderson]

Garmin doesn't have "Live" traffic (I'll explain in a moment). Like Garmin, one of the TomTom options is RDS traffic, obtained from subcarriers on local FM stations. It's done with a special car adapter that has the RDS antenna built into the cable. In the U.S,, at least, it's neither as timely nor as thorough as the "Live" version, but it certainly can warn you of impeding trouble on the main highways.

The "Live" version (which Garmin gave up on for some reason) uses a 2G cellular (GPRS) data connection to get traffic and other things, and covers more roads and is quicker to respond to situations than RDS is here in the U.S.

To get "Live", the device must have started out life as a "Live" unit since it must contain the 2G cell modem internally to talk to the server that produces the traffic and other data.

If the device you are looking at never was a Live unit, it can't be turned into one. If memory serves, the 950 with a serial number prefix of "M1" were the Live units. Those starting with "W5" were not. That's an easy way to check.

 

[Smoothed]

Thanks canderson, That explains a lot. So if the 950 is a Live unit, can it be turned on and used without any additional cost / fees? Or is there a fees for using this feature? Do you think I should buy the 950 or wait for a 930?

also, do you think if I were to purchase a 950, I could grab a remote from this forum for a couple of dollars? I saw some in ebay but they won't ship to NZ, shame since it would cost around $5 tops.

 

[canderson]

Negative. There are annual fees for "Live" services. I just don't know what they get for them in Australia. With luck, someone else will pipe up. They get $60/year here in the U.S. Depending upon what kind of travel / commute you have, it can be worth every penny. I've sure I've saved more than $5/month at times just in gas avoiding idling on freeways.

 

[Smoothed]

Ah, I wish it was free, So would you say I should get the GO930 or 950?

Also what would be the Garmin equivalent of a TomTom 950

And do you think I could grab a spare remote from you fellas in the forum if I were to buy the 950?

 

[dhn]

We do not have any products available, for sale or otherwise. We are NOT affiliated with TomTom the company but, rather, an independent group of Tomtom users such as yourself.

There is a buy/sale forum here but it isn't very active.

 

[Smoothed]

I know lol, I meant to say since quite a few of you guys have a number of TomTom's that come with remotes then maybe I could convince one of you into letting me have one, I will pay of course. I found some on ebay but most of them wont ship to NZ.