Why Did You Chose A TomTom?

I bought a TomTom 125 to try out because it was dirt cheap, and to compare against my Garmin.

1) After reading many reviews on the Internet, I saw fewer reports of mapping errors with the TomTom than for equivalent Garmin units. I started out on the TomTom 300, and moved up to the newer One 125. My brother was a fence-sitter until getting feedback from me on the TomTom experience, and also became a believer.

2) My wife's family is Dutch. Any website like this featuring windmills and Dutch cows has to be good.

3) A Chevy, Ford, Ferrari, and a Jeep can all drive down the same freeway to your destination. Your choice is in the styling, features, and reliability. All GPS units read the same GPS satellite signals and have the same theoretical accuracy. Again, it's the features and the reliability that should influence your choice.

Garmin was #1 in sales in the US, followed by TomTom. In Europe, TomTom was #1, with Garmin in second place. Here is a weblink to the market-share breakdown back in 2007; I haven't seen a newer one:
http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/05/gps_brands_market_share_d... .

The fast re-routing was a reason to buy and the map coverage that came with it

I chose the TomTom G930 because it was the top of the line TomTom; it looks great; it has a rubberized back; it feels solid; it gives me many screen color schemes; it plays MP3s and Audible books; it displays a compass; it shows me what street I am on; it not only tells me to turn 350 metres ahead but also when it's time to turn, the name of the street that I will turn onto; it displays the POI icons right on the screen.

I asked my friends who sell gps units at best buy, and they told me TomTom all the way.

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/12/tomtom_yearend_report_car... . When I see a newer one for 2008, I'll post it here for everyone.

Checked out reviews, liked the features of the Go920 and that I could get a refurbished with (new maps) of US, Canada and W-C Europe for $270 (Tigerdirect). I am in Europe regularly, so this was a factor.

a few of my friends own tomtoms and they love them. i finally decided to get one after seeing how much they liked theirs'.

the only complaint i have now that i own one is the lack of poi files that come preloaded.

It was cheap. Boy did I learn my lesson. I should have known you get what you pay for. I will never buy anything from them again. I just went out and bought a Garmin and it is Soooooooo much nicer.

But the ability to update/edit maps is unbeatable.

It turns the maps more realistic.

Out of curiosity, what TomTom unit did you have and what was wrong with it?

tazz49's account says they own a "tomtom one" and a "garmin 760"

I just gave it away. The big problem was with the software. When I connected to the computer to upgrade it would corrupt files. After many calls to tech support I was told to use their program to wipe the GPS memeory and reload. This worked sometimes.

When I asked about getting a replacement they gave me a hard time and after working my way up the tree they finally told me if I sent it to them they would send me another one in about six weeks. This is unacceptable. Most reputable companies will request a CC and send the replacement right away.

Next problem was bad maps. I had several roads including the street I live on that were wrong. They had my street as a dead end so it tried to route me 2 miles out of the way. I have never been on so many dirt roads until I got a Tomtom.

These are just a couple of the problems.

My garmin on the other hand is just great.

I'm glad you like your Garmin, they make good products. I have not had the difficulties you mentioned with my GO 930.

As far as maps go, I have seen map errors with both Garmin (NavTeq) and TomTom (Tele Atlas) maps. BTW, that is one of the reasons I chose a TomTom, so I could edit the maps; something Garmin wouldn't let me do.

I was unable to correct the map errors to my street. As far a using the Tomtom I did not have a lot of problems. Most of my disgust was with the software and the attitude of the Tomtom support staff. They do not read very well and do not listen on the phone much better. I would have to repeat my problems several times.

My garmin maps seem to be much better. The way garmin routes me makes more sense. The tomtom seemed to like dirt roads alot. And believe me there are a lot of them in texas.

I received my TT 720 as a gift from my family. After 36 years in the transportation industry, they decided I needed one. LOL

I am sorry for you. Could anyone please
guide him about?

http://www.teleatlas.com/stellent/groups/public/documents/co...

Regards,

Felipe

I thought that they were the best on the market. And had more options that could be added to the program.

I just like being able to customize it to my needs.

I dont know why I choose my Tom Tom Go720 at the time, I guess just a good sales person. But now that I've had it for a year or more, and also a Garmin (in the form of the Kenwood DNX) I have to say that I would choose the TomTOM over again. The display is soo smooth, and I like being able to customize the information bar. Then there's all the new features that have come with the firmware updates, like advanced lane guidance. The only thing I'd really like is a bigger screen.

I bought a TomTom 130S because of it's Traffic feature. I love it when I'm heading to and from work during rush hours and the Traffic feature will tell me if there's an accident ahead, road blocks, lane closures, and traffic delay's. I also like the feature of estimated time of arrival. When I'm on the phone with someone while driving and they ask me "what time will you be there"? I tell them "my GPS say's ETA of 1:33 PM etc. I love it .....

I bought a TomTom One XL but ended up returning it because of map inaccuracies, specifically that the maps had 2 street names in my neighborhood switched and it couldn't even find my house correctly. (That was before the map correction software was available.) I returned it and bought a Garmin. The maps are more accurate but I miss some of the features from the TomTom. I have been looking at the XL 340S. I just don't want to spend the money as long as the Garmin still works.

Only reason I'll buy a TomTom is not for it quality but because it's cheap. Garmin all the way.

The old adage of you get what you pay for most certainly doesnt seem to apply to GPS. For a moderate amount of money, I got a TomTom with wonderful features great directions and superb support. In the case of Garmin/Kenwood, for a lot of money, I got a great sound system, and, at best, an average GPS system, with Zero support.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Kenwood, but it doesn't perform to the level that I would expect from a device that costs in excess of a grand. I have called Garmin support a few times, only to be greeted by long wait times and no solutions. TomTom on the otherhand have given me great service, I usualy have the solution in my email box before the conversation is over. What a difference!

I bought a refurb TomTom XL-S from amazon.com for $99

even with up to date maps still few streets missing(v8.25)

TTS SUCKS BIG TIME

no auto power off/on

suction cup doesn't hold for too long

I guess my Garmin 260 will still be my 1st choice on any trip I take

For anyone with a TomTom GO 300 with a dead battery wanting to replace it, go buy a new battery on eBay, and then go to this website online:
http://www.fixya.com/support/t340617-replace_internal_batter... ;
I have done a battery replacement on my GO300 and brought it back to life. If your unit runs only when plugged into the charger but not by itself, then it's time for a new battery.

I bought based on my experience with Navigator 1 - 6. Held off a long time to move to the AIO 930T. Not my father's TomTom. Very buggy and disappointing.

Once my map and traffic subscriptions expire, I guess I'll try Garmin.

What specifically did you find buggy and disappointing?

I have hated my Magellan 4250 for a long time now, and kept threatening to replace it. The problem was that I never could find a GPSr that fully met my needs. (I still haven't.) But the decision was forced on me to pick something as my Magellan finally became so unreliable as to be useless.

I narrowed my choices to a TT Go 740 Live and a Garmin 765T. It was really a close decision, but I finally chose the TT for several reasons. (There were offsetting reasons to like the Garmin that I won't go into here.)

1. It is much more customizable. With every new version, Garmin keeps dumbing down it's products and I like to make my own choices. The TT 740 has a load of options to make the screen look the way I want.

2. The IQ map concept makes sense to me. I don't live in an urban area, but sometimes that makes it worse when I travel to one because I don't know the best way to avoid the big delays. I like that the TT will take past history into account in deciding which route is fastest.

3. There is an error in the Navteq maps in the streets where I live. They show my street ending well before my house, for example, and the other streets are in the wrong places. I have reported the error to Navteq for over four years now. I even once got an answer that it was fixed, but it wasn't. Although this is the one place that I really don't need a GPS, I am ticked off at Navteq and since Teleatlas has my streets correct, I leaned toward the TT over the Garmin.

4. I like the way the TT handles custom POI's better than the way Garmin does (and both are miles ahead of Magellan).

5. The Live content was not a positive factor in my decision. In fact, I would have bought the TT 730 except Sam's Club had the 740 for cheaper than my best price for the 730. Now that I have the unit, I love the Live features. They have turned out to work very well. I'm not sure if I love them $10/mo yet, but I am actually considering it where I was not when I bought it.

In summary, this is much better than the Magellan and than an older Garmin that I once used, but there are still many things that annoy me about it. I keep hoping that someone will release a complete GPSr someday, but in the meantime, this one is pretty decent.

My GF has a Garmin and I have a TT. Both are about similar in price and features, but the TT is more customizable. Color schemes, more route planning/correcting options, POI's AND the ability to change to QWERTY style keyboard. Garmin's do have their strengths though. Sometimes, their menu's are a bit more intuitive, but the TT has way more options to mess with.

I got my TT1 as a hand-me-down and since I've modded it, it's got way more features than I could have ever hoped for.

When it's time to buy a new unit, I think TT will get my $.

We started out our trip with a Garmin 755T. Five days into our trip it died and as we had purchased it in Canada and we were in Oregon I phoned Garmin and spoke to a really nice Service rep who was going to ship us a new one to the RV park we were at for 4 days. He would bill my credit card and refund the payment when the dead one was received. He checked and had them in stock, but he made the mistake of checking with his supervisor first. I was told that because so many of the 755T models had failed that replacement was not an option and I would have to send it in and wait for it to be repaired. When I asked what I was to do in the meantime I was asked if I had any maps. We were one week into a 6 week trip with all of our POIs programed into the Garmin, when I explained this I was told that they would get mine back to me in about one month.
We went to Best Buy bought a Tomtom which which worked perfectly for the rest of the trip and returned the Garmin when we got home.
If you go to Garmins web site they have posted the list of problems they have had with our model and others. We paid $500 in Canada for the Garmin . You would think that in the interest of PR they would make exceptions for people travelling

These are bot excellent units, and there are lots of pluses and minuses on each unit. After trying out both units, I ended up with the Garmin.

My Garmin choice boiled down to $$$. Both units are available at my local Sam's Club, with the TomTom being $30 cheaper. So if the TomTom was $30 cheaper, why I chose the Garmin. I did some math, the Google Online services will cost $10/month after the first 90 days. That makes it $120 a year!!!

Free lifetime Traffic updates on the Garmin. But the TT has fuel, weather, and buddies! You do have the option to get the MSN Direct cable and bring some of the functionality to the Garmin, no TomTom Buddies, but there are other perks, like flight updates, stocks, news, local events and movie times. After the initial cost of the cable, these features also have a premiun, but unlike the TomTom, a $100 lifetime option is available, whereas on the TomTom $120 every year you continue the service!

I did like the fact that you can submit map corrections right from the unit (the TT uses a GSM cell phone to communicate). But is was annoying, when the unit is connecting, and you are listening to the car's FM radio, I could hear the noise generated by the cell phone communication!

Then there is map updates. TomTom will set you back $48/year for updates. Garmin updates are more expensive, but once again, there is a lifetime option available. I got mine through Amazon, and it was less than $85, free shipping and no sales tax!

So a little math, makes it $$178 year for the Garmin, vs one time map expense the Garmin of less than $90. Should you buy the MSN, I paid a little over $80 at Amazon and it will set me back another $100 after a year is up for the lifetime subscription.

Over a 5 year period (what I estimate will be the lifetime of my PND)

TomTom:
$178 x 5 = $890 plus $324 for the TomTom makes it a total of $1,214.

Garmin:
$81 for MSN Direct receiver, plus $111 for the lifetime subscription, plus $95 for the lifetime maps (I got mine cheaper because I had a $10 coupon), plus $354 for the 765T (w/tax). That adds up to $354 + $95 for the lifetime maps = $449, add up the MSN cable and lifetime $81 + 111 = $192 for a grand 5 year total of $641.

Net savings over 5 years $573

I do miss the great windshield mount on the TT. I do not miss the low brightness of their screen during the bright Texas days. Garmin is a winner there.

Both units come up quick, but it anoyed me that the TT does not turn itself on when you connect it to the cradle. Good news is the TT now powers off automatically when removed from the craddle (its an option you have to set). Both units have a power windshield mount (cable remains permanently on the cradle, you do not have to disconnect from the PND).

Though some people think the TT display is busy, I liked being able to see the Time to Destination, Distance to Destination, and arrival time all at the same time! On the 765T you have to make manual entries to change the display... really annoying. Suggestion to Garmin, have the information cycle every few seconds!

One last comment, though both units have lane guidance, the TT rarely showed a junction view, whereas the Garmin seems to be loaded with them (at least here in the DFW area).

Interestingly, neither unit came with a carying case. The Garmin 265WT does come with a case!

So there you go, two great units. Which one will you choose? Both will work great!

PD. These are my personal comments based on my experience using both units over a 2 week period. Thanks to Sam's Club return policy, I was able to purchase both units, and test them for 2 weeks. Their customer satisfaction policy allowed me to return the TT without any penalties.

Just order a Tomtom 720. The primary reason I buy it is because of price and with firmware update and map, it is a 730.

I bought it, used it for two days, and took back to the store. the display quality is horrible and the processor is slowwwwwww.

As compared to what?

Any of the Garmin products. I understand your dilemma with the updated software and maps, however, the screen resolution, data quality and processor speed takes priority..

I am a happy owner of a Garmin 765T. I recently purchased a very inexpensive TomTom ONE 130s for my daughter and used both simultaneously for over 1 week.

IMHO, there is a lot of good to say for that little ONE!

It syncs with satellites within a few seconds from my Garmin, screen maps have lots of resolution, like when driving to work, I go through an avenue where the lanes are separated by a big median with trees. On the Garmin they show as one road, on the TomTom they appear as 2 individal roads side by side, showing all the areas where they join (to allow turning to side streets. The screen redraws are fast, so are route calculations.

I like my Garmin, but I have to give it to TomTom, that is a very nice PND for $79.

Remember... for that price there is no live traffic (though you can buy a cable to get that service), no weather, no bluetooth, no power mount.

Is there any good reason to get traffic update? Please let me know your experience.

Thanks!

It would not help me where I live, and I don't think it is worth the price for the few trips per year I take where it would be helpful. However, from posts I've read of people who do have it and use it, most seem to find it helpful.

I have found over the past couple of years, that the MSN traffic reports are very good and very bad. Let me explain. In the Bay Area and in the Phoenix area where I have used it the most (areas with very bad traffic), the MSN traffic is very good at identifying nearly every incident. HOWEVER, it gives an estimate of delay times that are VERY INACCURATE. A delay of 3 minutes can vary from no delay at all to 30-40 minutes. There seems to be no correlation between listed delay times and the actual delay.

In the case of my 765, this causes the unit to automatically reroute (if the traffic avoidance is set) when it may not be necessary. Recently in Montreal, I was rerouted for about 15 miles through busy city streets at rush hour to avoid a supposed 'extreme traffic delay.' This detour took a very long time and I have no idea if I would have been better off just staying on the highway, even though it showed many 'red' stretches.

So if you can guess the severity of the traffic delay, MSN traffic is great. I have not tried the free 'lifetime' traffic that came with the 765T.

The only cable/mount available for my Piaggio MP3 scooter was for the Tom Tom Rider 1. It's out dated and was hard to find but didn't really have a choice. Use Garman for all other vehicles.

My TT One 3rd broke down. I wanted to buy GArmin 265WT or 765T. But After trying friends Garmin, and also iGO8 based GPS, I am thinking to get TomTom again. The biggest difference I find is "Speed Limits" and associated "Speeding Warning" (You can upload a voice e.g. "SlowDown.ogg" and replace the "ding"). Garmin and iGO8 does not show speed limits of most of the road. They show speed limit of only Highways and very-major road. TomTom shows for almost all roads (except for residential). I have seen speed limits shown on those roads as well.

Many Garmin owners do not even realize what they are missing. Many TomTom users do not realize (or use) this advantage. But for me it was enough to bring me back to TT.

Now someone please help me choose between 130S ($49) 330 XL and 720. What is the difference between three. Thanks

Edit: I picked up couple of refurb 720s and I am very happ.

i choose it because it's one of the best GPs application out there... also i am using tomtom on an iphone so, it's probably the best software.

I just did a side by side comparison of a TomTom xl 330 and Garmin 255w. These are the biggest plus and minues that I came across. First, The TomTom showed the names of the roads on the map while in normal mode, the Garmin did not. The Garmin would sporadically show the names. If there was an east and west for a road, it would only show one of them. This is important to me since I'm in the business of responding to emergency calls. I think a lot of Garmin owners don't know what they are missing, especially at night! The garmin had a brighter screen and better graphics. However, it showed fingerprints badly while the TomTom didn't. With the Garmin, I loved the ability to search for a road name without having to enter a city. The TomTom makes you enter the city first. With the Garmin, you can browse the map and pick a VIA point if you didn't like the route the unit picked. I was unable to do this with the TomTom. The TomTom's POI list was fantastic, it blow away the Garmin's. It listed just about every restaurant, gas station, and police station in my home town. Lastly, The Garmin has several map errors; roads that didn't exist. I was using the latest update. Now, I understand why people love the TomTom. I believe the TomTom has more pluses than the Garmin.

... it chose me. One of my co-workers gave me an XL-310. She was not using it. The only investment I have in it is for a Ram mount for my Harley. Works just fine. Sure, it's a little outdated, but it suits my needs just fine. Hasn't failed to point me home yet. I don't need it for any other reason. When I'm out ridin', I'm not necessarily looking for a particular destination. Just point me in the general direction of home when I start getting tired.

--

it's the dog's fault

Back in 2005 the smartphones were in their Infancy, and I Used my IPAQ a LOT. The TomTom Navigator 5 added a GPS to the same hardware I already had on hand. It was not cheap but it was worth it. I also fell in love with the POI's and the fact the I could create some of my own (my own customers!!)
I'll stick with TomTom until the bitter end!!!
LOL

A Fuego!!

Because of MapShare.

well for starters, i had mine given to me as a hand me down

mine is a TomTom One Version 3

for me i like that i can make Custom poi files and put them on my TT as well as submit them to TT to share the TT community and to upload my POI files here as well

i also like that i can add my own car cursors,warning sounds, Start up and Shut down images, voices & etc.....

for those that dont know how to create their own TT poi files please contact me at rush_studios@ymail.com and i will either help you make them or i can make them and send them to you

seemed like good price for a unit with lifetime maps / 5 inch screen (old)/wanted to try one of the other game players in gps.
mike