TomTom or Garmin

philstoke

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I have had a look through previous posts about satnavs but couldn't find an answer, before I treat myself to a new one
Which has the best route calculation TomTom, Garmin or are there any other makes, my Tomtom will sometimes insist of taking me through housing estates etc to short cut an A road junction coming up ahead when I have fastest route selected.
I'm sure they could plan routes to stay on an "A" or "B" road without wandering off into side roads
 
Garmin has the top few slots in the Which Mag. I have Garmin and have been very please with it but I think they all do that stupid detour of going down a one horse track to cut 20 yards off a corner
 
Both Garmin and Tomtom have their annoyances and their plus points. I've now had 5 Garmin to 3 Tomtom. :) Neither seem to route perfectly.
 
I have previously used a Tom Tom and found it to be excellent but have just replaced it with a Garmin because I found a one available at a good price. I have to say that I am disappointed with the Garmin. The maps and directions don't seem to be that clear and the pronouncement of road names is laughable at times. I often travel along a road near me and I get an instruction to turn left in approx. 1/2 mile but it doesn't tell me which way to turn at a T junction before I reach the left hand turn. The map on the screen distorts the road positions so that the T junction looks as if it is a straight road with a slight kink.
I have also found errors with the speed warnings and have been on a 40mph road that was indicated as 30 on Garmin and even worse was on a 30mph road known for having mobile speed cameras and Garmin was telling me it was a 40 limit.
Just this morning I was travelling along a route I know and was using the Garmin for speed warnings and it wanted to take me through a busy housing estate rather than staying on a main road.
A lot of these problems are only a nuisance and I thought the price seemed good value considering it had lifetime map and traffic updates but if buying again I would definitely go for TomTom.
 
I've got both, the TomTom for about three years and I bought the Garmin three months ago. I've travelled through England, France and Spain having them runniNY in tandem to compare. They both seem to follow the same route and the place names are equally distorted, but the Garmin won't accept POI's but reads the traffic far further ahead than the TomTom. I think I prefer the TomTom map, but that is probably because I'm used to it.
 
For me it would be tom tom but that is because i have only ever had tom tom's,but as posted above some of the newer tom tom don't seem to take outside poi's which would make them us for wild camping,as for me the best thing i ever did was get the poi's on the sat nav,as it makes finding places in the middle of the night so much easier
 
antiquesam said:
I've got both, the TomTom for about three years and I bought the Garmin three months ago. I've travelled through England, France and Spain having them runniNY in tandem to compare. They both seem to follow the same route and the place names are equally distorted, but the Garmin won't accept POI's but reads the traffic far further ahead than the TomTom. I think I prefer the TomTom map, but that is probably because I'm used to it.
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I think that is a good point. They all seem to have their faults but when using them for a while you accept them and possibly forget about them. When you move to a different manufacturer you notice the different problems and you may feel initially that it is not as good as your other one. At the end of the day they both do a reasonable job and I suppose it is down to cost.
 
I think they all have there quirks but overall do a great job i use mine every day with my job and find they take the stress out of driving,but you can't take everything they do as gospel and you have to use a bit of the old grey matter with them, if it asks you to turn left down a track that you can clearly see you cant fit down then you just ignore and drive past,or you could end up like these https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=s...=X&ei=FAqHVOjmPIHtUringcgB&sqi=2&ved=0CCgQsAQ
 
I think there's a forum member called fairytooth that dose satnavs and is very highly regarded,
could be worth a pm before purchasing..
 
it seems there are pros and cons for each make, if the routing is just as iffy on each, what about the processing speed when driving, does it vary with each make and which model you get, with my tom tom via 130 I can be round the roundabout before the map catches up sometimes.
 
antiquesam said:
I've got both, the TomTom for about three years and I bought the Garmin three months ago. I've travelled through England, France and Spain having them runniNY in tandem to compare. They both seem to follow the same route and the place names are equally distorted, but the Garmin won't accept POI's but reads the traffic far further ahead than the TomTom. I think I prefer the TomTom map, but that is probably because I'm used to it.
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What model of Garmin are you using? I thought all Garmins accepted POIs, unlike the later tomtom models.
 
I've used tomtom satnavs whilst travelling in other people's cars, and they have always failed to impress me, and some later models don't even accept POIs!

I've owned various Garmin models during the past 17 years or so. They are not without faults, but that applies to all makes. What sets Garmin apart from tomtom is their excellent free BaseCamp program which, as well as allowing you to view your installed maps (and switching to Google Earth view) on your PC screen, it can also be used to create your own custom POIs (but it's not a simple process!).

To upload POIs to a Garmin you'll need the free POI Loader.
 
Steve121 said:
What model of Garmin are you using? I thought all Garmins accepted POIs, unlike the later tomtom models.
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Nuvi 2595. I bought it for the European mapping and free maps and live traffic updates. The downside of the Garmin is the vast amount of wiring needed to pick up live traffic, but it does work better than TomTom Live.
 
Hmmm

Had both, Prefer Tom Tom With out a doubt, no trouble loading pois. follow ad-mins loading advice, or tom tom start or tom tom go will load them with ease
Depending which model you have

Its just a matter of choice really, tom toms seem to have more functionality than Garmin
Really impressed with this Tom-Tom Start 22 I just purchased. £69.99 from Argoose :banana:+ Although I noticed they have just raised them up a Tenner

Full UK,and N Ireland, Full Europe..44 Countries, speed camera's and life time updates. x 4.
Take a look see which suits you
 
Garmin Nuvi 2595 DOES accept Custom POIs

antiquesam said:
I've got both, the TomTom for about three years and I bought the Garmin three months ago. I've travelled through England, France and Spain having them runniNY in tandem to compare. They both seem to follow the same route and the place names are equally distorted, but the Garmin won't accept POI's but reads the traffic far further ahead than the TomTom. I think I prefer the TomTom map, but that is probably because I'm used to it.
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See page 73 of your Owner's Manual, "You can create or download custom POI lists and install them on your device using POI Loader software"
 
antiquesam said:
Nuvi 2595. I bought it for the European mapping and free maps and live traffic updates. The downside of the Garmin is the vast amount of wiring needed to pick up live traffic, but it does work better than TomTom Live.
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I have a Nuvi 55 and all I need to pick up the traffic updates is the charger cable from the vehicles 12v output and the sat nav
 
Borderland said:
I have a Nuvi 55 and all I need to pick up the traffic updates is the charger cable from the vehicles 12v output and the sat nav
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You are right, but it is thick and long so that it can spread over the dash, compared to the TomTom it is cumbersome, especially if you use the booster wire that sticks to the windscreen, but as I say it picks up traffic a long way off whereas TomTom only extends to 40 miles.
 
antiquesam said:
You are right, but it is thick and long so that it can spread over the dash, compared to the TomTom it is cumbersome, especially if you use the booster wire that sticks to the windscreen, but as I say it picks up traffic a long way off whereas TomTom only extends to 40 miles.
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Yes I thought it seemed quite stiff but just thought it was because it was new.
 
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