groupd

Hi,

I'm part of a research group at a university. We are studying the GPS market and are interested in the competition between TomTom and Garmin. We would appreciate any feedback or information you have on either of the brands, most importantly, why you feel one brand is better than the other.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

dav

Neither is "better than the other".

They are selling similar products in a fiercely competitive marketplace.

TomToms come from Europe, so have traditionally had less market presence than Garmin, which has been in the US marketplace for many years.

Each offers updates and new products on practically a daily basis. What you choose as superiod today may be obsolete tomorrow.

Now if you wanted to include Magellan in your research, and you were willing to have Technical Support as one of the criteria...

dav

I answered in your post in the TomTom section.

ninja279

Hope I'm not to late my input.

Garmin units (including the Nuvi 600 series) are very jerky when shifting the map. I found that the Mobile XT was also out by something like 40 feet.

TomTom is the smoothest of all the units I have played with (probably because of the simplicity of their maps) and also puts me at the junction when stopped not 40 feet back from it. I also find that because of it's inaccuracy Garmin is poor when looking for a turn on roads with a number of close spaced intersections.

Max

Did the phone that you used Mobile XT on have a Sirf receiver?

I have heard that TomTom makes a better client for the Smartphones but haven't yet tried that one.

I was asking about the Sirf above because using Garmin hardware I've never encountered what you described above on any consistent nature and I've owned 3 nuvi's. I have experienced drifts here and there with other non-sirf units, but with SiRF units its dead nuts accurate unless im super strong signal reflection (and had Waas off).


Interesting what you said about the jerkiness factor . I used a 360 and I thought it was jerky, but the 660 was better and a bit 'smoother'. Now I have a 680 and it seems way smoother than the prior two. The 680 also has different glass I noticed...not sure how that would affect things unless display refresh also changed with the new screen(?).


Thanks for your input though, I might have to check out the TomTom mobile version at some point once Im done testing this:

Motorola Motorola T815

dav

It also helps to know that the nüvis have 5 levels of detail. This will affect how quickly the map can be drawn.

If traveling on a highway you might try reducing the detail. It scrolls much differently.

I always leave mine on the highest level of detail. I guess I just was never bothered by the display. Seems fine to me. But then, I don't watch it while I'm driving, either. Maybe that is the difference.

jvanhengel

I Will Never Buy Another Product From TomTom.
I believe they make a good product, but their support is the most unresponsive I have ever had to deal with.
I bought a Go 720 because I liked the feature list, even though I live about 5 miles from Garmin. I wanted to use it with my phone for weather and traffic.
I have a Palm Treo 700p with Sprint which is not on their list. However I found a how to guide on how to set it up and patch the phone for tethered modem access. TomTom would not sell me a subscription for US traffic but they did give me 3 mo. free trial. About halfway through the trial my traffic quit. I believe it was the phone glitched from the tether patch. So I reinstall the phone software and had sprint add the actual phone as modem plan to my phone.
I reconnected with the 720 and everything was working except the traffic.
I can get weather, download voices, download gpsfixes, etc.
But when I access traffice I get a red screen with error 1506.
Searching the web indicates that this is a problem with TomTom's website and my subscription.
They had me hard boot my 720 and reinstall everything.
It went back to the way it was, everything works but the error on traffic.
Traffic did work originally.
They said that since my phone is not on there list they will not help me troubleshoot the issue. I spoke to a supervisor who was very rude.
"Your phone is not on our compatibility list. We have no obligation to help you make it work with our equipment"
My wife was going to get a TomTom for her car on her birthday.
TomTom does not seem to want the business in the United States.
I have made 4 calls to TomTom since I bought it. I had one good experience and 3 really poor ones by people who must be reading from a script because the don't seem to know squat about the units.
"Hi I'm here to offer you super excellent service" "May I put you on hold for 2 to 3 mins while I lookup how to turn it on?"
I realize I am venting here. When you spent this kind of money on a product you expect the support to be helpful. If my cable service or cell phone service was this bad I would have switched in a heartbeat.
Garmin and TomTom appear to have roughly the same features. My Garmin Fishfinder was top notch, but I had to go for the TomTom because I thought I would like it better. I never had to deal with Garmin's support so I can't say if it is better.
But TomTom has told me in very straight language that they do not want to help me and they do not want my business.
I am somewhat knocked back as I have never had a company so clearly say that they don't care about me as a customer.
Oh well, I have said my piece.
Now I have to build an ebay ad to sell this one and buy a Garmin Nuvi.

dav

At least you reached a living person at TomTom who apparently spoke your language.

Try Magellan next time. You might want to revise your "TomTom is the worst ever" evaluation...

jvanhengel

Actually I feel much better now.
A member on a different forum responded and pointed out that the Traffic is always wrong and that I should not rely on it anyway. He said that in his experience it is never up to date and often gets the locations wrong.

Another person indicated that many people lost Traffic when they updated the software to V8.01. Which makes sense as that is about when my traffic quit working.