Satnav recommendations?

My Tomtom GO700 has now failed for the third time in a year. I started it tonight to enter the last couple of waypoints for my holiday and it has lost all its maps. I leave for France in less than 48 hrs. I've emailed their customer support and I will be phoning them persistently tomorrow for an urgent replacement, but I'm not holding out any hope. They've had it back twice and can't fix it, and they don't make the 700 any more.

So, ye Wise Ones, what recommendations for a satnav? If Tomtom don't somehow come through with a new unit before I leave I shall be buying a new one (not a Tomtom, obviously) and seeking recompense from Tomtom under the Sale of Goods Act or some such. New nav needs to have street-level mapping for Europe and be useable straight out of the box if possible. Seamless mapping without swapping cards around would be good. Something more portable than the mini-TV size of the TT would be good too.

Any thoughts welcome.

TIA.

Reply to
Rich B
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I have a tomtom 700 it broke once .just wouldnt start up.sent it to a guy who advertised on the net and got it back in a week...sorted. its been fine since. I gather thier customer support is appalling.

When they are working they are great....I also have a built in one in my toyota and its appalling you need to go on a 3 month course to learn how to use it .

Good luck

Barry

Reply to
Barry

I use a Medion Mio 168 , it's a PDA with GPS onboard. It's now been superceeded by the A201 I think and probably even newer than that-- but I don't look as I'm happy with it and no need to keep up with the Jones's so to speak.

It has Medion Navigator on it which is available with the Maps of Europe - the basic kit comes with Major routes but extra maps are available. Only PITA is crossing borders from say France in to Spain having to pull up, swap maps and then select the destination again. But It's cheap, It does what it says on the tin and I've found the PDA far more useful as a shift worker to plan my life... much better than a Diary.

It isn't too clever around postcodes mind but it will do the prefix and then first digit I think. I have hacked my favorites to I can input map references manually.

Being a PDA it also allows the use of Memory map for greenlaning... and hill walking so you know at all times how far from the pub you are :-)

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

Ive had a TTone (old school) since it came out.

It wouldnt start up once, but a pin in the reset hole in the bottom sorted it.

The only other issue was the windscreen mount. Cause i leave it in the car all the time (not always on the window) the cold weather made the sucker brittle. I email them, and the sent a new one out next day.

I think like all companies, its just down to who you get to speak to.

Reply to
Mark Solesbury

Tomtom do seem to be particularly useless, my experience is like trying to get something useful out of ebay staff, you never get anything other than standard replies to questions you didn't ask.

As for a different GPS, I have a 910 which has been mostly fine, but am likely to go back to my Palm PDA-based system as I use my PDA a lot so always have it with me, this means it's not in the car for tea-leaves to knick and I can always do a route check and/or create new points of interest. It also means the PDA gets charged in the car. The only downside is the speaker's not so loud and the screen is not so bright. It might be worth the OP thinking about a PDA instead, or even a smart phone, a friend has a smart phone with GPS that runs tomtom and memory map, so he has OS maps and route navigation on his phone!

Reply to
Ian Rawlings

...

You can get a bad one of any make yoiu choose, high volume manufacturing is not perfect and will always produce a percentage of faulty units. I've recently had to return goods from several big names like Phillips, Zanussi etc. so none are immune.

I've had a Tom Tom One for a while now and it's performed faultlessly. Admittedly their web site has been unreliable and I was miffed that that it won't work with an O2 pay-as-you-go phone, but I understand that's the norm and down to O2 trying to get you on contract. Greg

Reply to
Greg

Friend has just bought a Garmin, I tried it and it's so easy to use and is a very good make and it felt/looked well made too.

Reply to
Bob Hobden

Cheers Lee - but not being a PDA owner and having no desire to get into compatibility issues, I am looking for an all-in-one, works-out-of-the-box solution.

Reply to
Rich B

No it's not. The unit has failed twice and been sent to the manufacturer for repair, and been returned with a guarantee. Now it has failed a third time - all within a year. That's not just some poor sod in a call centre.

Reply to
Rich B

Mine is all in one... and worked out of the box, came with the software already installed and the GPS is part of the body. Whats not to be compatible? :-)

Lee

Reply to
Lee_D

To be fair, the guy I spoke to this morning was very helpful, but could only talk me through formatting the drive and what files to put where - which I am doing at this very moment. But generally the CS is remote - leave an email, they respond with automated answers to things you never asked, the whole 21st Century customer service nightmare. Apparently, a third failure warrants a return to the Netherlands rather than their Scottish base, where they have a team of "experts". If they can replicate your problem and can't fix it, they will replace the unit. Of course, what's the betting they will "fix" it one more time - and it will be OK for a few weeks, then fall over again.

I don't want to go down the PDA route. I don't use one or need one - I just want a simple navigator, like my simple phone and simple brain.

Reply to
Rich B

If you had a Zanussi that failed to work and needed to be returned to the makers three times in a year, you might feel that this argument is no help whatsoever.

Big difference is that the TTOne has a solid state memory, whereas the GO700 and above have a HDD. Reading between the lines of what a Tomtom guy said to me (but couldn't say, IYKWIM), the HDDs are where all the problems are. TTs with SD storage never go wrong, apparently, which I can believe. Which is fine, but as the customer it's no help to me to know that I have the least reliable of the lot.

Reply to
Rich B

*Ding*. I have been looking at a Streetpilot to replace the TT. I have used Garmin marine nav kit for years and I trust it totally. And my Garmin 12 handheld has never gone wrong either, come to think.
Reply to
Rich B

Well, I can vouch for that, I've never had any problems with my GO500 with SD storage. Can you not chuck it back at them as 'not of merchantable quality' and strike a deal over one of the later smaller ones which are also suitable for motorcycle use? (i.e. water and vibration resistant)

Martin

Reply to
Oily

Same as I've got, Mitac Mio Digiwalker 168 (Navman Pin badged) ... and works brillliantly with Memory Map and Tom Tom Navigator. ;)

All I want for it now is a 'proper' holder for it instead of leaving the tell-tale suction marks on the windscreen.

Have a look at GPSDash ... I've had it for a while but only just bought the licence ... absolutely the bollocks for hill walking etc.

Reply to
Paul - xxx

I'm thinking of the days when you got a PDA, bought some software and a GPS thingummy, and then spent a week getting them to work together and another year working out why the GPS fell over when you set an alarm on the PDA, and vice versa. Times have obviously moved on!

I MIGHT have fixed it. When I looked at the files on the TT via the laptop, one of them was corrupt. It has two map folders - Western Europe and The Canary Islands (FFS). The Canary Islands folder was unreadable and couldn't even be deleted. I copied everything BUT the Canaries to a laptop temp folder, formatted the TT, then copied the files back. Bingo - a working Tomtom again. I guess I won't be able to navigate around the Canaries this summer, but that won't be too much of a hardship. We'll see how long this lasts.

Off to France in the morning, so signing off. Thanks Lee and everyone else for the words of wisdom.

Reply to
Rich B

That's the plan. I may well have got a temporary fix (see other post), but I think I shall try for a new replacement or refund under the Sale of Goods Act. They have had every chance to get it right and have not done so.

Unfortunately, the bike nav to have is the Garmin Zumo, and that's half a grand. Mind you, working GO700s are making about £100-150 on eBay ...

I feel an excuse for a new toy coming on.

Reply to
Rich B

Nor my 12xl but I did manage to break the mini usb connector on the I3, a known fault apparently, luckily I knew a young man that's a whizz with a soldering iron, very small connections and some of the circuit board had pulled away with the connector.

AJH

Reply to
AJH

Must admit bought the new garmin fow work (6000 or something like) and was very impressed by it as a Sat Nav but also as a blue tooth hands free two birds one brick as the saying goes.

Reply to
JD

Rich B uttered summat worrerz funny about:

Have fun Dude!

Lee

Reply to
Lee_D

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