Another Duff Sat Nav

[Guest peter2b2002]

after my garmin 2259 decided it didn't want to boot up just kept showing the garmin logo and not responding to soft or hard restarts the last one so hard the screen broke, I've just been up to pc world for a new version a Garmin drive smart 50 worked in the car on the way home but after I logged onto garmin ex press to register it and to down load up dates it has now decided to follow the systems that the last one did, kept my fingers off the soft/hard resets so it's gong back tommorow to exchange it for a tom tom

peter-2b

[Guest Tim Norman]

I wouldn't bother. Just use the Nav on your phone. It gets updated more ofter, for free and it tells you of traffic ahead for free.

[Bob Tucker]

Dont bother paying for TOMTOM lifetime map updates....they just wont update.

See many internet threads.

[speedtripledan]

I've done the opossite after 2 Tom Tom broke went to garmin. I now just Google maps on phone

[Grim]

i use a combination of google maps when i have phone signal, and OsmAnd when i don't (plus it has a lot of footpath data which is useful). OsmAnd is a free download - you also have to download the map files before you first use it, but then it works without any data signal.

Edited March 13, 2017 by Grim

[theduck]

I bought the TomTom mobile app around 6 years ago. At the time it was a lot cheaper than buying a good spec TomTom that had Europe maps and about the same as hiring a sat nav unit for a week with a hire car. As I was only buying it at the time to find my way around Germany it made sense to get the app as I had something i could use as and when needed back home. Also worth noting, 6 years ago, you couldnt do live nav on google maps etc.

 

Skip forward a few years and I am in a job doing 40k+ business miles a year and rely heavily on sat nav. I started paying for the tomtom traffic and it was ok but the rerouting left something to be desired. TomTom then dropped support for the old app, and so upgraded me to the newer TomTomGo app, free of charge, and provided a 3 year subscription free of charge too. The traffic and rerouting is now excellent and has saved me from being caught in traffic countless times, so much so that I even have it running now for routes I know like the back of my hand, just in case. Also gets regular map updates, so from my point of view, TomTom offer an excellent service.

 

EDIT: Knew I was forgetting something. It also stores the maps on my phone, so doesnt use data for navigation, although it does use a tiny amount of data for traffic. Checking my phone it has used 233mb in a year of heavy use.

Edited March 13, 2017 by theduck

[Guest peter2b2002]

just taken it back , got my money back, think I might try a tom tom as we're going on a road trip arround france in June

peter-2b

[alanrichey]

Can only repeat what Tim said. The various satnav apps available for iPhone and Android phones have world-wide coverage, are updated frequently and they are FREE. My favourite is NavMii ( http://navmii.com/ ) Works brilliantly and the mapping is all pre-loaded so does not need a data connection (except for traffic). Why spend money ?

Edited March 14, 2017 by alanrichey

[Guest Gargoil]

Co-pilot, cheaper than TomTom, does the same thing and has regular updates.

Also stores the maps on your phone so doesn't rely on an internet connection.

[theduck]

Out of interest, does anyone using the free software do so more than occasionally? As I said I do 40k business miles a year, generally at peak traffic hours and so find the accuracy of tomtoms traffic updates and re-routing invaluable. Just wondering if there is a free one I should consider when my subscription runs out.

[alanrichey]

Sorry, I use the free ones all the time for directions, but don't normally test out the traffic options so can't really help. Try running them side-by-side for a bit.

[Peter Bell]

I tried one on my old phone 'Waze' seems to work well, traffic is supposedly constantly updated by users and gets you around problem spots. A few other nice features too.

[geoff shep]

TomTom then dropped support for the old app, and so upgraded me to the newer TomTomGo app, free of charge, and provided a 3 year subscription free of charge too.

 

For info, they still support the older app, if you still have the app on your device it will still get updates. If you don't, you can re-load it from here: http://uk.support.tomtom.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22248/~/reinstalling-the-navigation-app-for-iphone

 

However, it sounds like you are happy with the new version. I haven't tried it recently, but had a go with it when it first appeared and didn't like it at all - the graphics were a bit 'My First Satnav' - but if the traffic works better it might be worth a look.

 

One of my biggest gripes with the older version and traffic, is that when you look at each traffic 'event' it shows the incident on a very small map, which you cannot zoom out to see where about it is.

[brumster]

Out of interest, does anyone using the free software do so more than occasionally? As I said I do 40k business miles a year, generally at peak traffic hours and so find the accuracy of tomtoms traffic updates and re-routing invaluable. Just wondering if there is a free one I should consider when my subscription runs out.

Not "free" as such, but the Business nav in the BMW is equally awesome. Redirects you as necessary. A few times I've ignored it thinking "Where the *bleep* are you taking me?! No thanks, I'll stick with what I know!" only to regret it 2 miles later and then sit on the M1 for 2 hours

 

Otherwise I have Google Maps but I find it doesn't pro-actively know about road closures and re-route you around. It will do stuff right at the start of the journey, when you lay the route in - so if there's a known traffic issue it will route you sensibly around it - but once you're underway I find it rarely advises me of delays. Maybe once or twice in the history of using it, but I don't feel like I can rely on it like I can the BMW system.

[theduck]

Good to know, especially as they just announced the new company car scheme and BMW is an option...