GPS - TomTom - BewareBeware

[Scott Shepherd]

Thought this might be of interest with black Friday looming and all the great deals out there. I have an older Garmin GPS that's outdated. Cost $75 to update it, and I decided just to get a new unit, as there were many on sale for $150 (from $250). I figured I'd rather put the $75 towards a new unit than upgrade the old one.

So I decided to give TomTom a try. I've had it for a few days now and problems are becoming very apparent that I've seen no one talk about, even in stores at sales pitches.

On the Garmin, no matter where you are, you can search for any place by name. Looking for a place to eat, it's all there. Looking for a store, it's all there. Very inclusive.

On the TomTom system, it doesn't have all that. For instance, I decided to let it take me to a camera store that's been there for 20 years or so. I type the name in and get nothing. I type in the word "Camera" and get nothing. I type in a commonly used word for companies in this area. Not a single name came up. Hummm.....something is wrong.

Next day, driving out at lunch, sitting at a stop light in front of a McDonalds and hit the "show restaurants near here" and it shows McDonalds, but many miles away. That store has been there for at least 30 years, yet it's not listed. Granted, it may have decided McDonalds wasn't a restaurant worthy of eating at, but that's another story.

So I contact them (all based in the UK), so it's all via email. I ask them how to get the stores and restaurants to come up. They tell me via email that there are two ways. One is to get the stores to register with them, and then they will be included, and the second is to manually input them all myself.

What? You are kidding, right? So I'm supposed to anticipate where I might want to stop along a route that I've never been on before and manually enter all those places? I'm supposed to anticipate when I might need to stop and have a flat fixed and enter possibly places? I'm supposed to anticipate where I'll need an automotive repair place and manually enter the info myself? I'm supposed to sit down with a phone book in my area and manually enter every business in the phone book that I might possibly use in the future?

I honestly don't get it. I was ready for a change from Garmin, but this isn't quite the change I was looking for. Fortunately, I have two weeks to return it for a full refund, which I will be doing this weekend.

So just a little heads up to anyone looking at the TomTom units- they don't have the information you'd think they should. They do offer restaurant and shopping downloads that are supposed to add to it, but it's only 20,000 shops nationwide, and with companies like Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts, etc. out there, that 20,000 isn't anything other than a handfull of chains.

If you are typing in an address, it appears to work fine, but if you only know the name of where you plan on going, then you're screwed.

Save your money folks.

[Jerry Clark]

Thanks for the "Heads-UP" I was really considering a Tom Tom- because the price- Now I will look at others!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

OnStar and Google and Yahoo and Mapquest all are entirely incapable of finding my home.

I wonder if Garmen is any better.

Every one places you about 5 miles down the road in another town.

[Scott Shepherd]

Cliff, it would probably be the same, as Google, Yahoo, MSN, all use the same mapping as Garmin and Magellen. There are two commonly used mapping systems, NavTeq and TeleAtlas. Garmin and Magellen use NavTeq which is said to be the best for the USA, and TomTom uses TeleAtlas which is said to be better in Europe.

Here's a link to the differences :

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2006/07/n..._which_one.php

[Bryan Rocker]

I purchased one of the Garmin® Nüvi® 200

before I went on a trip back east. It worked like a champ. While sitting in my hotel room I looked for eating places close and it came up with a ton of them. Is it perfect? No, the option of telling me vocally to turn on such and such street would be nice but other than that its good to go. It has yet to not find a place I was looking for. It may not be a top end but it is well worth the money. The route recalculation worked well. It has seen more service than I expected it to.....

Bryan

[Kevin L. Pauba]

I just saw yesterday that google has a new feature that lets you move their markers. I just did it to my residence and moved it from across the street to my front porch. If you move it more than some value (I think it was 100 meters), it won't show immediately but they have an administrator review it in a day or two.

[Jim Becker]

The issue isn't limited to Tom-Tom devices...listings for stores, restaurants, etc., are all by subscription. Businesses pay to be listed. Garmin and Magellan have the larger part of the market along with the units built into vehicles, so it's understandable that there are more POI listings.

There is also variability in the routing logic among various units and manufacturers. I won a Pioneer AVIC-51 about a year and a half ago in a raffle and thought, great, one for Professor Dr. SWMBO to use. Not! It couldn't even find our house despite inputing the correct zip code...it thought we lived about 150 miles away. Then I won a low-end Magellan in another raffle earlier this year. Better than the Pioneer, but nothing as good as the unit in my Toyota Highlander Hybrid. That unit (and it better considering the cost...) has very rarely failed to find an address. There have been some errors on POI, but in many cases, it's because something went out of business or moved since it was put in the database. But even with that premium device, there are a lot of POI not in the listings because those businesses didn't anti-up to be included.

[Tim A. Mitchell]

This comes down to the mapping company that they use. Garmin usis Navtec, and is signed on with them until 2015. Tom Tom uses Tele Atlas. Navetec has done a better job of mapping. They do actually drive the routes with multiple cameras to see the surrounding businesses.

In the GPS investment world, TA is though of to be a second rate mapping company, and the Navtec to be the better. This is partly why Garmin is the better of the manufactures. They also have the edge on the cell phone "GPS", as the cells do not use satalite, and are slower to recalculate a route than a dedicated unit.

Buy Garmin this season! (It will also help the stock price, and thus my investments.)

[Rick Gibson]

I've had the tom tom for about 6 months and am very happy with it. We have 4 small restaurants in a town of 900 and on a good day 2 of them will only seat 15 people, they are all listed. I guess it depends on where you are. I mainly use it for directions when I go to the city and it has always got me where I wanted to go. It has turn by turn voice directions. The one thing it doesn't have I would have liked is MP3 playback.

Maybe the Brits are still upset with you guys about the Boston tea party
and it's their subtle way of getting even.

[Jon Lanier]

I really don't travel outside of Ohio... thus I don't need one. I think it is safer that way.

[Scott Shepherd]

Just a couple more points here. I have an old Garmin Street Pilot 2310 that cost about $1K when I bought it. It virtually has the entire yellow pages on it. I'm positive all those people didn't pay to be listed, as I know some small business owners who are listed and they were never contacted. So at some point, no one paid to be listed on the Garmin. Not sure if that changed or not.

I have had a couple of conversations with TomTom now and the unit is heading back for a refund today. Glad the guy mentioned "If you don't like it, we'll give you a full refund" before we walked out the door.

On TomTom's website, it lists a downloadable package of 20,000 stores. They consist of these stores :

• Best Buy US
• Best Buy Canada
• BJ's Wholesale
• Brookstone
• Circuit City
• Costco
• Fry's
• Future Shops
• Office Depot
• Office Max
• Pep Boys
• Radio Shack
• Sam's Club
• Sharper Image
• Staples
• Target
• Tweeter
• Wal-Mart

Hardly an all inclusive list. Last email I got from them was that I could contact a 3rd party Point of Interest Provider and get more POI's. I went to the site, and here's a couple of random bits of information. They have, for the USA, 15 Pizza Huts across the entire USA, 1 Vet, 29 Targets, 64 Home Depots, 0 Lowes, 0 Hardware Stores, 10 coffee shops, 1 campsite. All those listed are free downloads by a 3rd party POI provider.

I guess it all depends how you use your GPS. If you put in addresses and go there, then you'd be fine with the TomTom. However, if you are like me, and often know the name of the place you want to go, not the address, then you'd probably stuggle a lot with the TomTom.

I also looked at a Magellan Maestro and it was said to have the same issues. The higher end Magellan units have over 4 million points of interest, yet the lower end models only have 750,000 nationwide. So there is a lot of info left off. The Garmin Nuvi's seem to have close to 6 million Points of Interest.

They actually posted a guide some time yesterday. Maybe they saw my post It's called "Don't buy the wrong GPS on Black Friday". It's also a killer site with a load of information and reviews.

http://www.gpsmagazine.com/2007/11/d...ps_on_blac.php

[Dave Lehnert]

purchased a TomTom one 3rd edition GPS. (To get me to the saw mill) Reg $250. on sale for $229. had a 10% off coupon. = $206.10. $100 rebate takes it to $106.10. Then the store offered a $50 gift certificate good on anything in the store with purchase. (it's a one stop shopping store so I can get grocery) So $56.10 for a GPS ROCKS!!!!
I like the tom tom a lot. Guess you have to weigh what you need it for vs. cost. For what I paid I got a great deal. In the new Tom Tom you can make corrections and share them with other users on line.
My Tom Tom even list a little bar and grill near my house. People pass it everyday and still don’t know it’s there. Point is with ANY system you will find mistakes. It will be impossible for them to list everything
If looking for a GPS I sure would give the Tom Tom a look.

The link above is a great GPS info page. It list 13 models of garmins to avoid but only two Tom Tom’s ( all older models)

[Scott Shepherd]

Dave, that's the same unit I bought. I think you're over selling it by a long shot. Yes, you can enter stores yourself. Now, explain how i'm supposed to travel with it? If I'm traveling to Chicago, do I need to get a phone book and map out and manually enter all the places I might like to eat on the route I might take?

Trust me, if you've not used one that has all that info on it, then you don't know what you're missing. Some people may use it differently than I do, you may be one of them. If you're the type of person who will be driving along and say "show me where the nearest Arby's is", then you'll be out of luck with the TomTom. At least mine doesn't list any Arby's.

On the other hand, the Garmin lists them all, along with sorting by food type.

Also, you mentioned it was mostly Garmin units listed to avoid and only two TomTom. You might want to read why they were units to avoid. Not because they were crappy models or their maps were bad, or because the points of interest were poor, but because they are older units and the technology in them has come up several levels and they didn't want you to get stuck with a brand new unit that still uses the older technology (which still works better than the TomTom on POI's). It's the lack of the SiRF chipset (which helps it cover better in areas with tall buildings, etc.) in all those models that's made them be on the list. Garmin would naturally have more on the list, since they have a ton more models that have been out for years before TomTom ever hit the states. Naturally they will have more legacy products, just based on the number of models they offer and have offered over the years.

If you look at the Top Rated items, Garmin has 4 out of the 5 and TomTom didn't make the top 6 or 7 listed.

[Bob Genovesi]

Thanks for the heads up!

I just bought the Garmin Nuvi 650.

[Rick Gibson]

"show me where the nearest Arby's is", then you'll be out of luck with the TomTom. At least mine doesn't list any Arby's.

Scott I have the Tom Tom one and just out of curiosity I took your example punched in Chicago and under points of interest I looked for Arby's. It listed 24 of them. Don't know why yours doesn't list any. This thing of mine even lists the 4 small restaurants in Bothwell pop. (900) and I can be sure none of these people paid to be listed.

Mine works for me, I'll keep it.