Tom Tom versus Garmin Sat Nav

[Philip E]

Mark
Halfords know sh... about anything. Its like calling the police and giving them a grid then there is a long silence then the answer can I put that on my toast for breakfast

[mark_n]

Mark
Halfords know sh... about anything. Its like calling the police and giving them a grid then there is a long silence then the answer can I put that on my toast for breakfast

[StuartL]

CoPilot will also accept lat/long and OS grid references. I'm running it on an Android phone.

[Judith]

Thanks for the info guys. I want to avoid using my phone as a sat nav - have tried with Google Maps recently, in desperation, but it doesn't "talk" to me and the screen info is too small to see without taking my eyes off the road for too long - not to be recommended! Having a BB I don't have any of the really fancy mapping software on my phone anyway.

I shall check out the Garmin Nuvi and see how that suits me!

Thanks
Judith

[Andy W.]

Judith,

try reading the user reviews on Amazon. I bought a garmin Nuvi to replace my very old TomTom 1 about 6 months ago. I won't buy another Garmin. It is less user friendly than the TOM Tom and although Tom TOm cutomer service sucks big time at least the TomTom never shut itself down, unlike the Garmin which has done it several times to me - never at a good time for example whilst driving through Paris at a crucial junction or in London so i think it can't cope with built up areas very well. Yes it does accept lat and Long, unfortunately its been my expereince that it can be up to 10 miles out on those Lat and Longs. In france it put me the wrong side of a hill that meant 15 km detour to get to the right point. Unlike my TomTom the maps it came with in 2011 are frequently plain wrong, i.e no right turns, one way and junctions, etc.

The Garmin Traffic reports are cr*p. I have this evening driven back from Cornwall and for about 25% of my route it was telling me to expect congestion that wasn't there! I also suspect that if you allow it to automatically re-roue you around traffic it has on many occassions taken me longer than if I had stayed on teh road through the alleged congested area (which I now suspect didn't hve nay traffic to avoid anyway.o0

Garmins do seem cheaper than TomToms but its my feeling that they are inferior products. The hands free on the garmin is OK.

If you've bought a Garmin already I can only say oops.

[Judith]

Thanks for that, Andy! I haven't bought anything yet and am now totally confused! Sounds like I may have to rethink!

[baileyhilldog]

Judith I am sure someone posted on the forum that you could use a site called www.nearby.org.uk to find postcodes from a grid reference. I have tested this, it gave me a postcode 80 metres from my house, which is in fact the next group of postcodes up from me 80 metres from my house. I can access this website from my Nokia N8 phone, which also has its own basic mapping programme, have used this to find petrol stations and shops when I have been away from home - i.e. it has taken me to Wickes in Bracknell and Sainsburys petrol station in Bridgewater. This bit of the phone has the option to use in walking or driving mode, can save points and I downloaded a trial copy of Viewranger, but have yet to put this to the test!!

As for the TomTom One, I have used one for five years, the first I found in a field, having been left there by a car which crashed through a hedge! When this died after two years I purchased a replacement which was a re-conditioned model from Ebay (half the price of a new one) it came in a box as a new one would, with the warranty and cables etc supplied with a new one.

I stuck with the TomTom because the friend I work for gritting runs two lorries transporting containers all round the country, he recommended the TomTom to me as he has tried several satnavs in the past and found these to be the most reliable, also easy to keep updated - he also uses the traffic holdup warnings and finds these more reliable than warnings given out on the radio which are frequently out of date by the time you hear them!

Linda

[Judith]

Thanks Linda, that's really helpful. I shall have a play with "nearby", will have a look on ebay for Tom Toms and see how I get on!

Judith

[StuartL]

Can I add a vote for TomTom too? Although I use CoPilot now that's mostly because TomTom isn't available for my phone and although I'd not actually go back to TomTom for phone use I've never found ANY alternative standalone GPS that even gets close to TomTom.

A reconditioned one off ebay sounds like a really good bet. Do check with TomTom UK regarding map update costs etc since you don't know how old the mapping will be on the one you buy secondhand.