I bought a Tomtom GPS a while back, and I have found it to be beyond
useless. It's so bad, it tells me to turn into corn fields in the
middle of freeways, and has gone so far as to lead me completely the
wrong way, or down roads that dead end after 10 miles of driving down
rural gravel roads. It's less than a year old, so it's not outdated.
I think the Tomtom is just plain garbage. This past weekend it nearly
went bonkers on me. I knew the route I was traveling, I just had the
Tomtom turned on to see if it lead me the right way. It was so poor
that I have decided to never use it again. I'm going to sell it at
our garage sale, and in all honesty I doubt I'll ever buy another GPS
after this horrible experience. But just for grins, I was told that
Garmin is much better. Is it?

Hi, have been using a Garmin now for a couple of years and have had
no complaints. It does a great job and the only adverse comment I
could make was the fault of the owner (me). Somehow a check mark
disappeared in the program settings and I ended up on a dirt road with a
MH and a tow car and no place to turn around. But again not the fault
of the GPS. Would I buy another one? Definitely yes!

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
I was told that
> Garmin is much better. Is it?

--
Lee (in Florida)US Army Retired
Georgie Boy Cruise Master
Logitech VidCam & Skype lee.g.bray

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 05:36:23 -0500, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> I knew the route I was traveling, I just had the Tomtom turned on to
> see if it lead me the right way. It was so poor that I have decided
> to never use it again. I'm going to sell it at our garage sale, and
> in all honesty I doubt I'll ever buy another GPS after this horrible
> experience. But just for grins, I was told that Garmin is much better.
> Is it?

Posting in a garmin group is likely to get biased answers, but I think
they are. Enough that I'm willing to pay the small amount more money
than I could spend on a feature-equivalent TomTom and miss out on
exciting things like being able to change the navigation voice to Darth
Vader or whetever it is this week. It does seem to be something of a
TomTom foible to be ... enthusiastic about declaring map features to be
roads.

--
"Doesn't everybody?" is a question that never expects an answer of "No."

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 06:32:33 -0500, Peter H. Coffin wrote:

> Posting in a garmin group is likely to get biased answers, but I think
> they are. Enough that I'm willing to pay the small amount more money
> than I could spend on a feature-equivalent TomTom and miss out on
> exciting things like being able to change the navigation voice to Darth
> Vader or whetever it is this week.

You can do that with a Garmin too :-)

http://developer.garmin.com/web-devi...toolkit/#voice

Google for Garmin Voice for all the new and wonderfully exciting voices
to spice up your end user driving experience. (removes tongue from cheek)

> It does seem to be something of a
> TomTom foible to be ... enthusiastic about declaring map features to be
> roads.



--
You cannot simply assume someone is honest
just because they are not an MP.

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 07:07:53 -0400, Lee <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Hi, have been using a Garmin now for a couple of years and have had
>no complaints. It does a great job and the only adverse comment I
>could make was the fault of the owner (me). Somehow a check mark
>disappeared in the program settings and I ended up on a dirt road with a
>MH and a tow car and no place to turn around. But again not the fault
>of the GPS. Would I buy another one? Definitely yes!

I don't remember you telling us this over on RORT Lee. LOL

--
The Universal Visionary

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 05:36:23 -0500, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>I bought a Tomtom GPS a while back, and I have found it to be beyond
>useless. It's so bad, it tells me to turn into corn fields in the
>middle of freeways, and has gone so far as to lead me completely the
>wrong way, or down roads that dead end after 10 miles of driving down
>rural gravel roads. It's less than a year old, so it's not outdated.
>I think the Tomtom is just plain garbage. This past weekend it nearly
>went bonkers on me. I knew the route I was traveling, I just had the
>Tomtom turned on to see if it lead me the right way. It was so poor
>that I have decided to never use it again. I'm going to sell it at
>our garage sale, and in all honesty I doubt I'll ever buy another GPS
>after this horrible experience. But just for grins, I was told that
>Garmin is much better. Is it?


No They are just different. Be sure to set the fastest route in the
setup or the thing will send you through back yards, cow paths, and
god knows were else. Look at the satellite maps on Google or MapQuest.
You will be surprised at the number of roads that were never built or
closed so long the grass has grown over them.

Most of the GPS units use map data from Navteq. So they all make the
same stupid mistakes. Even Streets and Trips makes the same mistakes.
I like TomTom's status line best but Garmin has a whole page of info
you can display instead of the map.

Get an up to date map.There has been a lot of construction in some
areas.

Well it was a little embarrassing don't you know!

U V wrote:
> I don't remember you telling us this over on RORT Lee. LOL

--
Lee (in Florida)US Army Retired
Georgie Boy Cruise Master
Logitech VidCam & Skype lee.g.bray

On 10/7/2010 12:43 PM EDT, Jimbo wrote:

>
> Most of the GPS units use map data from Navteq. ...

Aren't TomTom maps from Tele Atlas while Garmin maps are sourced by NAVTEQ?

On Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:43:43 -0400, Jimbo <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>No They are just different. Be sure to set the fastest route in the
>setup or the thing will send you through back yards, cow paths, and
>god knows were else. Look at the satellite maps on Google or MapQuest.
>You will be surprised at the number of roads that were never built or
>closed so long the grass has grown over them.
>
> Most of the GPS units use map data from Navteq. So they all make the
>same stupid mistakes. Even Streets and Trips makes the same mistakes.
>I like TomTom's status line best but Garmin has a whole page of info
>you can display instead of the map.
>
>Get an up to date map.There has been a lot of construction in some
>areas.

While I agree about the construction areas, I was on a road that's
been the same for many years. I had almost 40 miles to drive on this
particular straight road before getting to my destination. the Tomtom
told me the following severe errors.

1. One mile after getting on this road, it told me to turn into the
parking lot of a factory, and make an immediate right.

2. To make two additional turns along this route (for no reason at
all)

3. After crossing a major intersection, it told me to turn right, then
make an immediate right. This was the parking lot for a gas station.

4. Two miles before my destination it told me (THREE TIMES) to make a
left where there were no roads at all, just corn fields.

Since I knew where I was going, I just ignored these instructions, but
if I was really needing help, this kind of information is worthless.
A plain old fashioned paper map is far more useful. I dont care if my
GPS talks like Darth Vader or Bozo the clown. Those features are just
useless toys. I want ACCURATE directions.

This Tomtom is less than a year old, and I was not on a new highway.
This is not acceptable at all. I will never use it again. It either
gets sold at the next garage sale, or will get stuffed in the closet.
It's worthless and was a waste of money. I bought it to save gas and
travel time. It has worked the opposite. My reason for posting this
to this Garmin newsgroup is because I might buy a Garmin if it
actually works correctly. Otherwise I'll just save my money and use
the old fashioned paper maps that I have used for the past 40 years of
driving. I often drive alone, and it's hard to read maps without
pulling over on the shoulder of the road. I have many times gotten
myself lost and wasted gas and time. But since I got this Tomtom, I
have wasted MORE gas an time. That's why I turned it on during this 6
hour (240 mile) trip in which I knew the directions, and this proved
just how poorly this Tomtom really gives directions.

just added the x-post to TT

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>I bought a Tomtom GPS a while back, and I have found it to be beyond
> useless. It's so bad, it tells me to turn into corn fields in the
> middle of freeways, and has gone so far as to lead me completely the
> wrong way, or down roads that dead end after 10 miles of driving down
> rural gravel roads. It's less than a year old, so it's not outdated.
> I think the Tomtom is just plain garbage. This past weekend it nearly
> went bonkers on me. I knew the route I was traveling, I just had the
> Tomtom turned on to see if it lead me the right way. It was so poor
> that I have decided to never use it again. I'm going to sell it at
> our garage sale, and in all honesty I doubt I'll ever buy another GPS
> after this horrible experience. But just for grins, I was told that
> Garmin is much better. Is it?
>