any opinions on tomtom i am buying today ? (1 Viewer)

autoswan

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I plan on buying a TomTom XXL Classic UK ROI and Europe Sat Nav £ 89.99 from halfords today after a brief read up on a few, is anyone familiar with it or have advice/opinion on it ?
I know its a cheapy one to start with but knowing knowt about them i thought try it unless anyone can tell me of a better, easy to use with features not on this one which i may need,want,not know about pref under £200. any knowledge on the subject appreciated .:thumb:
 

DP+JAY

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I quite liked the look of that one but no bluetooth which is why I went for the Via125 instead.
 

scotjimland

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I have it's predecessor, the TT 1 XL Europe.. bought in 2007 and still works well.. used it extensively all over Europe and I like it very much, no bells or whistles, does what it says on the tin..
Only fault is the battery is now knackered, not an issue while in use, but it dies when stored unplugged in the glove box and takes ages to re boot.. maybe 10 mins or so. I would certainly buy another.

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Jaws

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Your lucky Jim.. Both the TomToms I have had came with stupidly small battery power from new.. Average time available on battery less than 10 minutes.
When I eventually got through to a techy they said 'its a car unit sir, it is not supposed to run off internal batteries' So not exactly handy then !!!
 

Jaws

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I plan on buying a TomTom XXL Classic UK ROI and Europe Sat Nav £ 89.99 from halfords today after a brief read up on a few, is anyone familiar with it or have advice/opinion on it ?
I know its a cheapy one to start with but knowing knowt about them i thought try it unless anyone can tell me of a better, easy to use with features not on this one which i may need,want,not know about pref under £200. any knowledge on the subject appreciated .:thumb:

We have the XXL at the moment..
Be aware it does NOT have Europe, only the western part of it..
There is also the odd issue ( as mentioned by me elsewhere ) of toll roads.

Bare with me as this is hard to explain..

You want to get to point x

You start at point u

You enter 'no toll roads'

MaryMary,* as it is known by us does an excellent job, gets you to point X without using toll roads

But

You want to get to point X

You start at point U

Unfortunately point U is actually on a toll road

Mary tells you the starting point is on a toll road.. Ok, fair enough..

But because the starting point is on a toll road it believes it is fine to carry on using toll roads and will not get you off it and on to a 'normal' road asap, as other, non Tomtom units will

To further illustrate how much of a pain this is, I will describe the exact scenario we find our selves in every year on the way back up from Spain.


To get right up from the southern tip to the French border we do a bit of motorway bashing.. Tolls are really sensibly priced and the route means, with a good push, we can get almost right to the border in a ( lonnngggg ) day.

But when we get to France we do not want to use the toll roads as they are too expensive and oddly, no quicker than taking national routes.

So we cross the border and try to reset Mary to avoid toll roads.
Nope.. No chance
Even though we have left the last toll road behind by a considerable distance SHE says we are still on a toll road.
Now we know, from past, very costly, experience that she will not then leave the toll road.
And believe me,, we have sat for ages in a lorry park trying to get things sorted..

So nowadays, every time we get in that situation, we have to drag out the old ( OLD ) Garmin.. Enter no toll roads and at the first opportunity it gets us off and on an N route

Once clear of the toll road and on an N route we can switch back to MaryMary.

Whilst I personally like the Tomtom display, I dislike the way the firmware works, dislike the way it handles POI's compared to a Garmin ( and indeed a Snooper thing which is always on the go to !** ) and dislike the amazingly slow speed it works out a route ( a long route can take several minutes )


*
Why MaryMary ? Because the darned thing is so contrary !!!


**
Yes, I am a bit of a GPS nut.. In fact we usually carry four different units at all times
 
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autoswan

autoswan

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Thanks guys

The ones with blue tooth is that for hands free phone use or other uses ? I`ll check out the via125 on line in a bit whats the best things about it compared to the tomtom ?

Can the batteries be got at to put better longer lasting ones in to use walking ?

Whats the best one in you`re oppinion for under £200 and iff for a bit more money makes a big difference which one ?

Thanks.

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scotjimland

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S.Jim.L.- Can the batteries be got at to put better longer lasting ones in to use walking ?


Thanks.

yes, from eBay .. £5.40 Link Removed


When mine was new the battery lasted about two hours, I used it when out cycling in France.. it steadily went downhill after a couple of years use.. haven't bothered replacing yet..
 
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autoswan

autoswan

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Cheers Jim any ideas with regards to my other questions too mate ?:Smile:
 

scotjimland

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Cheers Jim any ideas with regards to my other questions too mate ?:Smile:

not really.. I only ever had the TT One XL so can't compare with Garmin or other TT models..
I'm firmly in the KISS camp.. I don't need or want bells and whistles.. and my TT did the job .. had no problems with tolls or loading with POIs, and I had many loaded while touring abroad.. including French Aires and Low Bridges .. cant say fairer than that.. and why I would buy another.

John (jaws) has had different experiences with TT .. but no less valid..

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Jaws

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To be fair to TT, I may well buy one of theirs again in the future..
They need to sort out customer service and DEF. need to sort out the firmware issues, but physically they seem well constructed and so far mine have been reliable

If I had a wish list I could present to Tomtom I would ask for more ram, better processing speed, and the ability to tell it to get off a toll road ! :Doh: :winky::thumb:
 

Carol

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The one comment I would make, is the back up service we have had from Tom Tom themselves has been excellent, we recently updated ours and the guidance over the phone was faultless. Also just done 1500 in Europe with our Tom-tom and found it excellent. So which ever model is best you choose, you should be alright.
 
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autoswan

autoswan

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Thanks for the help

Tomtom it is then :thumb:
Just out of curiosity can the ones that only say uk be updated to europe maps ?

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Carol

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Not sure on that one, but if you are planning to go into Europe I would get the one with European mapping in.
 

scotjimland

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You can buy the Europe maps but will be much cheaper having them installed from new..
from what I've heard (hearsay) unless you have high speed broadband, the map downloads can take for ages and don't always install trouble free... so I agree with Carol..

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autoswan

autoswan

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Great

that was worth the tenner joining fee i paid this morning on its own :thumb:
many thanks again to you all ::bigsmile:.
 

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