Which to buy? Garmin vs TomTom

DT, search tomtomforums.com for the comparison info that you're looking for. While I'm not sure which TomTom model is similar/equivalent to the NUVI 350, a TT One should do just fine for your wife. The TT One XL is the latest model out, but a TT One NE ($100 cheaper) will do just as well only with a smaller (3.5 inch) screen.

ML

Thanks ML, I will check out tomtomforums.com

GARMIN is # 1 if you got the money go with the best

I owned a Tom Tom before and i wood not buy one again , stick with a Garmin they are the best.

I think one of the easiest GPS units out there is by Garmin. One of the things I noticed is that most gps devices make you type out the city name instead of having a “search all” option like the Garmin GPS units. Of course it's just one of many things Garmins can do. Ease of use and time is everything. Especially if you live in New York .

Garmin is the number one. I used the 2 gps : TomTom and Garmin, and I prefer garmin whitout hesitancy! .
marie-Caroline

I have a Garmin c550 and love it. My friend saw mine and decided she needed a GPS as well and purchased the Tom Tom. After only one week of use in Suffolk County, NY, it went back to the store. She ponied up the extra money and now has a Garmin. No specifics on why, just to say that the TT was a gadget, but the Garmin is a useful tool.

Good luck, they are all fun to own!

my dad has a tom tom and i have a garmin . the garmin is more user friendly .

There is a reasosn Garmin has a 50% market share in the US.

I'll have to say Garmin as well. I have a garmin and my co-worker bought a TomTom. He stated that the navigational function worked well but the POI interface was not as user friendly. I had recommended for him to try a Garmin and the liked it much better.

garmin is the best for now tomtom is on third place on gps so you better buy garmin for you wife faster dowload fron wedside
dont think any more

Depends on where you need to go. Garmin is popular here in US but TomTom is more favorable in Europe. If you go to Europe often and need gps then Tomtom probably better since it has more coverage, particular in Europe. If you need the most map coverage around the world then Destinator will be the ticket but the interface sucks and I think it only for pda.

I used pda so Tomtom is preferable for me.

Jeff

I bought a TomTom 910 and returned it after 3 or so weeks. The tele-atlas maps were very erratic in my area and the routing was also pretty weird. There was also an issue w/ the TomTom Home program whereas unless you disconnected the unit from the pc just so you ended up having to do a master reset. When I owned the TomTom was the only time I had to carry a bent paper clip with me to do resets. I am not a big TomTom fan.

I had my One XL for about 2 weeks before I returned it for my Nuvi. I found the TomTom maps erratic as well. They had my street mislabeled so it never could find it's way back home, it was missing a street completely that I use every day and frequently left me a mile or so from POI's when announcing that I had reached my destination. It was not a major problem when I ended up a mile away from some place that I knew but I could have been out of luck if I was out of town and it pulled the same stunt. It's a shame because there were several features on the One XL that I miss on my Nuvi but if the directions are bad, all of the features in the world don't add up to much.

Like another poster said, if you are going to Europe, you may find TomTom's TeleAtlas maps very good. Here in the US, avoid them at all cost.

My father has TT, and I used it once, it took me a few minutes to figure out some stuff as well as weaving from lane to lane (I know, don't suppose to drive and play with a GPSr).

I figured out my Garmin way faster. But it seems that my father is more then satisfied with it, although he only uses the most basic of features.

Also, if you get another Garmin, you won't have to relearn a new GPSr.

During my research into GPSr the one comment I saw on line several times was that the Tom Tom's maps were wrong or out of date. I have no hands on experience with TT but this fact was my number one reason for my choice of Garmin,
Hope that helps
Regards
Tom

well, my reason was because i knew if i needed help, that everyone here had garmins and I would get a lot of input in my issue...lol.

Just watch the warranty length-I've seen refurbs in the past with 90 day warranty. Don't know if this is the case any more or not.

From all the comments here I think i will get her the NUVI.
My refurb Nuvi 350 has a full one year Garmin warranty

My wife got me a Nuvi 200W for father's day . . . she's borrowed it a couple times and really likes it. She's usually what you'd call "electronically challenged" but the Nuvi is pretty intuitive to use and she does't have a problem, at least with basic searches and navigation. No experience with any Tom tom units.

Had one for 1 week, got a C530 and now a 750. Will never go back to Tomtom. Had a hard time downloading POI's.

With the prices now, you could get a new one for under $200. By the way, I live on Long Island and my 750 never got me lost.

Wow I am a Garmin guy but I really did'nt know people felt so stong about there Garmins. Does anybody have a gps they would call a close second to Garmin. I'm talking about general car stuff not the portable hiker things.

One big point in Tom Tom's favor is that they have the ability to edit the maps to add a new road. There is also map-share, that lets you share maps with others and get these shared maps from the Tom Tom site. Also, Tom Tom owns their own maps and all in all if you do buy map updates you may be getting newer maps updates than with Garmin, who's "new" maps often are missing new roads that were built in the last couple of years or so.

Personally I got a low end Garmin and I can't justify the cost of the map updates, might as well buy a new GPS (obviously this may not apply if you are looking at units that cost many times what I paid for mine). When I do feel that I can justify a new GPS purchase it will likely be a Tom Tom so that I can keep maps current, without overpaying for map updates.

Dear FS,

I have a Garmin but the idea of editing the maps intrigues me. Does this Tom Tom ability extend to setting the direction of a street? There are streets where I live that used to be two-way and have been changed to one-way.

david

I bought a nuvi before I realized that this key difference might make a Tom Tom a better choice for someone like me who lives in an area of growth and does not intend to ever buy map updates (not that 2 year out of date updates would help much). So I'm not certain of the answer, will leave it for others. I do plan to one way or another get to try out same hands on driving time with a Tom Tom before I ever buy another GPS. It seems like a better choice for me, but experience with one will help make a better decision.

I have TomTom OneXL for a year now. I got it in a special sale from Best Buy with a great bargain. Now I am looking at thw internet to get NorthAmerican content/maps and finding a lot of the new content/maps are for Europe. It does the main task of driving directions quite ok for me though.

We ordered a Tom Tom One XL from QVC. They were offering a pretty good price, so we bought it.

After about three days of being disappointed, we decided to check out the Garmin at a local store. HUGE difference. We promptly returned the Tom Tom and bought a Nuvi 350. We are very happy with this unit.

I have a garmin (765t) and have compared it with friends TomTom. Every one of them was impressed with the garmin and was sorry they did not go with it. of course different model lines make the comparison a litter harder. I for one am very happy with the 765t

Perfect answer. I had the option this Christmas - GARMIN got my money!

I use a Garmin 265WT and am very happy with it. Few month's ago I bought a set of tires and got a TomTom 130S as a promo gift. Not as flexible as the 265 wt I have, but a nice unit never the less. I gave it to one of my sons and bought another unit for the other son.

I did like the fact that when you exceed posted speed limit by 5+ mph, it would alert you.

I currently own both and I prefer the garmin. It is easier to use and more accurite in my local area than the tomtom. I have had to deal with customer service for each of the units and found the Garmin people to be much more responsive. I hope this helps you a bit.

Yes, you make a street one-way, two-way or block it off completely.

I was originally led to believe that you could add a road (such as due to new construction) to the TomTom. And that you could even share that info with others or download fixes others had made. But a friend got a TomTom (fortunately, not due to any recommendation by me) and it turns out that you can NOT add a street. You can close a street, or make a street one way in either direction. That actually would be handy for me in one case near my house; the Garmin maps have a road that isn't really there and goes right through someone's home. It would be nice to be able to close that bogus road so that the routing logic doesn't try to use it. But not being able to add a road kills what I thought was the big advantage to mapshare. Without it I would not buy a TomTom over a Garmin.

I'm not sure that I would buy another Gsrmin either, I'm very interested in what is going to happen with the Android platform and Google's free GPS software and free map updates for it. Fortunately, my GPS is only a year old and has life remaining in it. I expect the questions will get answered about Google and Android long before I'm back in the market, but since an Andriod device has lots of other capability (even without cell phone service) I may change to Android long before my nuvi reaches the end of its service life.

I agree totally with this user's statement. Garmin has better map source.

I love the garmin better than tomtom

I'd say garmin too.

Most people I talk to will say that the Garmin is more user friendly than the Tom Tom, I've used my friend's Garmin Nuvi in Europe with the european maps preloaded on the SD card and had no issues with the road databases in Italy and the UK.

As our users mentioned in other posts about the maps used by both makers, Garmin uses Navteq which focuses more on North America, in other hand TomTom owns TeleAtlas which is better for Europe as per my reading. Even posts in this thread user can use Europe Map on a SD card on a NuVi didn't have problem.

To me, I am a Garmin fan. I own C330, Nuvi 255W & Nuvi 265WT. I also own Mio & Navigon. My best taste is Garmin. Simple to use.

I do trust Garmin reputation in GPS field.

Your best bet, read consumer ratings & feedbacks on specific item before you purchase. Good Luck.

Buy USA or Bye Bye USA...............opps! Garmin is made in Tiawan!

I want to buy a new GPS for my bisuiness it needs to have multipul routing that allows me to go from one location to the next closest location instead of the way i enter then in to the GPS I would also like it to have voice recognition. I have beeen looking at the NUVI 855 but would like to know if there are other makes and models tha would better suit my needs I can get the NUVI today in the box not refurbished for $214.00 CAN YOU HELP!!!

garmin

Raises hand to add another vote for Garmin

I have had both and prefer the Garmin by Far. Just replaced my Garmin 765 with Garmin 1490 today. Looks good with 5" screen and got a killer price of $250.

You can submit a mapshare for a new (or unmapped) road. I have done so several times. However, you will not see the new road on your map. This is different from changing the speed limit, direction etc., which you will see on your map right away.

You should know that when you make map changes to the tomtom, they are not reflected on your maps until you upload them to mapshare and tomtom approves them and then sends them back to you (and everyone else). I have made many fixes to their maps and after almost 2 years, I haven't seen tomtom update anything through mapshare. Some of the fixes were speed limit changes, streets that didn't exist, streets in the wrong place, and improper street names. The list goes on but you get the idea. By the way, my new garmin has all that info correct except for some of the speed limits.

I have three Garmins and now my nephew wants to buy a GPS. The last one I purchased was a Nuvi 250W but that isn't available anymore. What is the model that replaced the 250W?

Bob

255W would be closest model to 250W. You might also want to look at the 1200 & 1300 series.

I love my Nuvi 660.. A bit old school but works great!

The nuvi 250w was replaced by the nuvi 255w. If you want to get a pretty good GPS, garmin and Bestbuy teamed together to make a 255wt which has everything the 255 has along with free traffic.

Yes, here in the US in 2007, Garmin had market share (47%) vs Tom-Tom with 19%, but in Europe, it's the opposite: Tom-Tom had 38% vs Garmin's 19%.

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2008/05/gps_brands_market_share_d... .