Garmin or Tom Tom

[Autogasm]

I'm in the market for a new sat nav as my brilliant Road Angel is getting on! As they no longer produce their own system I'm forced to change. At the mo, I'm down to Garmins 3790T and the Tom Tom 750 live or 950! I'm somewhat concerned at all the reliability issues and lack of customer service that Tom Tom owners seem to be reporting.

Also, it seems updates are free with Garmin but there is a charge with Tom Tom. Whats the difference?

Many thanks in advance

[bigdods]

I have just upgraded from a tomtom 530 to a 550 Live. It came with a free 12 month subscription to the traffic service. It also has cameras but its rubbish so I subscribe to the pocketgsworld database instead.

Maps are not free , I have a 12 month subscription for them too.

Not had any experience of garmin but the tomtom is such a capable unit I didnt consider looking elsewhere.

[lescombes]

Go for Garmin........ TomTom are crap....mine is shameful...my pals Garmin is the dogs danglies and it isn't a top line one...get the TMC traffic

[nickwilcock]

Personally, I'd go for http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Nuvi1490T-Lifetime-... . Listed at £219.99 at amazon, it's some £35 cheaper than 3790T AND has lifetime European map upgrades included!

[NoNeed]

Garmin for me, had mine 12 months and it is excellent and so simple to use even the wife can do it

[uk_vette]

nickwilcock said:

Personally, I'd go for http://www.amazon.co.uk/Garmin-Nuvi1490T-Lifetime-... . Listed at £219.99 at amazon, it's some £35 cheaper than 3790T AND has lifetime European map upgrades included!

.
.
I bought the Garmin 1490t,
And now I will sell it and go back to my Trusty TomTom.
My Garmin is 3 weeks old.

'vette

[y2blade]

I have both...if I had to chose again I would buy just a TomTom

[thetapeworm]

TomTom but if you want full Europe mapping and the ability to update in the future make sure you get one with an SD card slot rather than the one I did that can no longer store the full map.

Lesson learnt, GO 1000 next for me I think.

[nickwilcock]

uk_vette said:

I bought the Garmin 1490t,
And now I will sell it and go back to my Trusty TomTom.
My Garmin is 3 weeks old.

'vette

Why?

The 1390T with lifetime map upgrade seems an even better deal.

Edited by nickwilcock on Sunday 12th September 22:33

[uk_vette]

nickwilcock said:

uk_vette said:

I bought the Garmin 1490t,
And now I will sell it and go back to my Trusty TomTom.
My Garmin is 3 weeks old.

'vette

Why?

The 1390T with lifetime map upgrade seems an even better deal.

Edited by nickwilcock on Sunday 12th September 22:33

.
I have used TT for a few years, and I just can't get used to the Garmin.
It also has the subscription, so you get all the traffic updates, and re-routing.

'vette

[bigdods]

lescombes said:

...get the TMC traffic

If you like being stuck in trafic jams. My Dad had this on his cheapo tomtom, needed a seperate aerial and was always out in both location and time. It is nothing like the proper HD traffic.

I personally wouldnt have anything less than a GO550 , the cheapo tomtoms are cheap for a reason. I tried my Dads XL which looks almost identical to the 550 but its quite poor. Its slower to move the map around, much sower to generate routing , doesnt have auto zoom, auto night mode etc. All useful stuff.

[lescombes]

Mate of mine is a specialist courier ......he drives up to 600 miles daily...Navman...he has used the others..but now it's Navman everytime......

[lescombes]

bigdods said:

lescombes said:

...get the TMC traffic

If you like being stuck in trafic jams. My Dad had this on his cheapo tomtom, needed a seperate aerial and was always out in both location and time. It is nothing like the proper HD traffic.

I personally wouldnt have anything less than a GO550 , the cheapo tomtoms are cheap for a reason. I tried my Dads XL which looks almost identical to the 550 but its quite poor. Its slower to move the map around, much sower to generate routing , doesnt have auto zoom, auto night mode etc. All useful stuff.

Nothing wrong with TMC....works fine for me....in the UK and the EU...especially as it's free beer

[waremark]

lescombes said:

TomTom are crap....mine is shameful

You have been saying this for years. You are about the only person I have ever heard say this - and I know many happy TT owners (personally I changed from Garmin to TT, preferred TT, and am now on my next TT, a 950). TT software may not always be right first time, but I have always found their support willing an helpful. What has been your relationship with TT to give you such hatred for them?

[rallycross]

I've had a few of these and prefer the TT.
The larger screen ones are really good to use.

+ any fool can use a Tom Tom what could be easier?

[Deva Link]

Autogasm said:

I'm somewhat concerned at all the reliability issues and lack of customer service that Tom Tom owners seem to be reporting.

I bought a Go530 for my daughter and it killed its internal memory at 18mths old. I thought it was guaranteed for 2yrs but turns out it wasn't. However, after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing by chat on their support site I got an RMA number. I fully expected to get an estimate for repair but 2 days after returning it (all post paid) they sent a refurb unit (which looks brand-new) FOC.

One thing I would say is that, if you have a place to put it, the Garmin weighted dash top mount is brilliant and would have been perfect for daughter's Colt - if I'd known that in advance I'd have gone for a Garmin. What put me off Garmin is there's no logic in their model numbers - you can't tell what's new and what's old, and there are loads of Garmin models that apparently do the same thing but vary a lot in price.

[OldSkoolRS]

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I'm looking for a new Sat Nav as my old Acer PDA won't charge up (connector has failed) so it won't work anymore. I generally tend to cover the same area with work, but it's handy having a Sat Nav for those (rare) occasions when I get sent to somewhere new. I fancy having the BluTooth part for my phone as I haven't got a built in handsfree anyway and get sick of having to pull over to see who's just called me. I also like the idea of the traffic updates for life deal, but I'm used to using the traffic memo recorder on my car radio anyway and RDS alerts, so not the be all for me.

I'm looking at the Garmin 1390T which is currently £130 at Ebuyer with free delivery...I might as well order before the VAT goes on, but as that's only £3 or so on this, maybe not worth rushing it I end up with a lemon. I guess this or a TomTom would be such an improvement over the old Acer PDA (especially now it's not working ) that I could probably just stick a pin in the page to choose a better one than I have.

[grimsmeister]

Deva Link said:

One thing I would say is that, if you have a place to put it, the Garmin weighted dash top mount is brilliant and would have been perfect for daughter's Colt - if I'd known that in advance I'd have gone for a Garmin.

Buy a weighted mount for the TomTom http://www.buybits.com/product/3109.aspx

[greggers]

Had both, Tom Tom then Garmin. Garmin has a less intuitive GUI and seems slower.

Both were circa £200 widescreen models.

When I lose/break the Garmin I'm going back to Tom Tom.

[Ribbs27]

Had a tomtom for years but just bought a Garmin 3790t. In my opinion the Garmin seems a nicer piece of kit with better routing but the tomtom is far more intuitive to use.

Its personal choice though, I'd be perfectly happy with either.