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Garmin v. TomTom satnavs

tones

Tones deaf
I wonder what are the experiences of other folk.

I'm a long-time TomTom user, and have always found them OK. My major gripe was that, although it went dark at night, it wouldn't go dark in tunnels, of which Switzerland has rather many. This meant that I couldn't mount it on top of the dashboard in the line of sight, but on the air vents, where it was much less distracting, but was also more difficult to read.

Out of curiosity, I thought I'd try a Garmin satnav, and found it rather better - it does go dark in tunnels. It also tells you the names of places - well it tries, and some of the pronunciations of the German names are hilarious, but at least you usually know what they mean. I also find the Garmin colours better and I like the address bar across the top.

I have the impression that Garmin is not quite so up-to-date map-wise as is TomTom. For example, the narrow-gauge railway in our valley is being regauged from 75cm to metre-gauge, and the entire valley is one huge construction site. One cannot expect miracles, of course - I'll arrive on my bike to find that what had been a two-way road the previous day had temporarily become a one-way road in the opposite sense to where I wanted to go, and I was forced into a circuitous route to get to my office. No satnav can cope with that, but TomTom seems to be rather better at it.

The other thing I miss is Niamh ("Neeve") my Irish TomTom voice. Garmin doesn't seem to haave the same variety of voices (I believe that TomTom has John Cleese being rude to you).
 
FWIW my parent-in-laws got sick of their Garmin having issues

They ended up buying a cheap Samsung 5G handset and using Google Maps and Waze and haven't had any issues at all

Really easy to use and they can dial in their routes for their motorhome on their Mac and send them to the phone, or just save it to Google Maps on their Mac etc...
 
Can’t speak for modern Garmin, but my old one had a habit of taking me on weird and wonderful excursions like taking me off a motorway junction, through villages and industrial estates only to rejoin the same motorway at the next junction.

Use Tom Tom or Waze now
 
Used both over the years, but eventually gave up on Garmin when it kept trying to take me the wrong way up one-way streets. (with up to date software!)
 
I've had both and much preferred Tom Tom. I think my Tom does go dark in tunnels but there aren't that many here in Scotland so I'm not 100% sure.
 
People mostly get wedded to one brand - I have used TomTom for 99% of my motoring and hated Garmin the couple of times that I used it.

I have regularly run my TomTom alongside in-car sat nav's and also various phone app's. The TomTom was by far and away the better of all of them, the worst and commonest problem being the app's and in-car giving far too late instructions at junctions.

My Megane has in-car and I would not use it even if you paid me. Even from the outset, most (all?) in-car units have a lunatic method to enter addresses etc.
 
TomTom fan but only for the USA. I have had in car in the UK, BMW and now Tesla that work extremely well. I do agree with Vinny that the in car address selection is horrid but I have used my iPhone to send addresses directly from Google maps to the car forever and even do that sitting in the car as well.

BMW in car is still the best Sat Nav I have ever used but you do need the regular updates etc which makes it quite expensive.
 
Why would anyone use a TomTom or Garmin and not an app on their smart phone - such as Waze, Google Maps, Here, Apple Maps, etc? Serious question!

See my comment above. The app's that I have compared, side-by-side to my TomTom, are total pants.
 
Why would anyone use a TomTom or Garmin and not an app on their smart phone - such as Waze, Google Maps, Here, Apple Maps, etc? Serious question!

Screens are small in comparison, multifunction device and not as easy to use on the move IME. Built in car sat navs are the best, love my Tesla map its huge
 
TomTom fan but only for the USA. I have had in car in the UK, BMW and now Tesla that work extremely well. I do agree with Vinny that the in car address selection is horrid but I have used my iPhone to send addresses directly from Google maps to the car forever and even do that sitting in the car as well.

BMW in car is still the best Sat Nav I have ever used but you do need the regular updates etc which makes it quite expensive.

Must admit the sat nav in my previous F01 730D was superb; more so after I updated it to the latest 2022 maps via USB

I still find Google Maps to be excellent, I've got CoPilot on my Android phone also and that is very good I have to admit
 
The other plus of stand-alone units is position.
I have always used mine low down to my right - visually just above my right hand on the wheel. WAY safer IMO, than anywhere else, not least down in the dash somewhere. TVs that can be on while driving are illegal in the dash, but not sat' nav's.................odd.
 
Why would anyone use a TomTom or Garmin and not an app on their smart phone - such as Waze, Google Maps, Here, Apple Maps, etc? Serious question!
Yes, use Tom Tom on phone and also Waze via CarPlay. Colours on Waze can be a bit confusing where there are lots of roads of different colours. Tom Tom cost small amount (£20??) but much better laid out. Waze a bit better on predicting traffic jams, problems etc
 


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