TomTom & Garmin GPS

Funny picture. A MBenz with Nav that needs a Tom-Tom. Slightly redundant.

My thoughts exactly!

That just tells you the quality of the onboard nav. It sucks like every other one.

That’s so true! Every Benz Nav I’ve seen so far…

Any experience with TomTom? Is it better than a Garmin? I’m not wild about my Garmin.

This picture is worth the price of admission. I hope Woot is behind this picture because if this is Garmin’s doing they need to fire their advertising agency.

I had the 6" TomTom with traffic, I have to commute into Miami everyday, which is sort of like driving through Mad Max land. Like overturned tractor trailers, etc… Once, a plane crashed onto the highway! It’s nuts. That TomTom saved my butt. Really easy to read the display, good rerouting when there’s a slowdown (here that’s every day). I even thought the GPS voice was sexy :wink: Then some jerk broke into my car and that was the only thing they stole. I’m a grad student, I can’t afford to go buy GPS units very often. A friend gave me a Garmin she never used. I should be grateful, but I just miss my TomTom. The Garmnin is all cold and sterile, business-like. I’m sad I can’t pick one up now at this price. Sigh. I miss you TomTom.

I feel Garmin’s the best. And you just can’t beat their customer service, all in America, they’ll go to every end to help you! That, in my mind, makes them best.

I’m in for one.

OOPS! Wait a minute… Does this unit have the “breadcrumbs” feature, where you can see where you’ve been? I don’t see it in the specs.

And, BTW, this is a “discontinued” device

Anyone know if ‘North America’ includes Canada?

I have the TomTom 1605TM. I love the size of the screen, the routing is generally quite good, and the map updating is excellent. However, I ran into what sounds to be a relatively common issue- “ghost tapping” or “phantom touches”. The screen would suddenly start flashing from the map to various menu screens in rapid succession, as if someone were rapidly touching the screen. This happened right after the warranty expired. I tried various remedies recommended online, such as removing the screen protector, or running a credit card under and around the bezel, to no avail. Finally, having nothing to lose since the warranty expired, I took a sharp knife and ran it around under the bezel, and I haven’t had a problem since. Now I love it again! It’s too bad that TomTom has not officially recognized the problem as it appears to be a design flaw, and relatively common.

With regard to TomTom, yes, it includes Canada.

well, i thought finally woots moving up in the ladder and start selling Mbenz hoorray!

We can haz class?

I got old Garmin in my crv, love it. Thinking about getting a new to replace it.

For the other cheapo’s out there, I plugged my TomTom into our PC and updated it (it never had been after a few years). It got much better. I would recommend trying that first unless you really need some newer features.

As a result of repeated window smashing incidents, I have had experience with several brands. I have had Navigon (won it for free), Garmin and TomTom. Personally, I prefer the TomTom. I find the menus more intuitive, and the directions have more closely matched the way I would normally go when I use it in areas I am familiar with. And with the Garmin sometimes I would get “WTF” directions where it would tell me to do something really crazy, like turn onto the boardwalk at Coney Island and drive down that for a ways. Despite the small detail of the Coney Island boardwalk not ever being open for motor vehicle traffic.

About the Square Trade warranty: Do the two years start after the manufacturer’s warranty, or is the first year concurrent?

compare the 2 tom toms here: http://www.pcmag.com/products/compare/25188?ids=298930,256944

the GO came out in 2010 but has bluetooth to make phone calls. Also the touch screen has great reviews because it’s a glass screen rather than plastic.

the VIA has a bigger better screen but no ability for hands free phone.

I’ve got an old tom tom from 2008 that i’m not going to upgrade, still works great.

Hope this helps.