TomTom satnavs

LarryG

Western Thunderer
The friendly car dealer set up my phone but he told me the dash cannot read my phone list, so my phone must be a bit oldie-worlde. Incidentally, whats happening in Leigh?

I joined TomTom website, downloaded something and my old satnav found a GPS signal. So far so good. I had to have another go to get correct time and date. Even went for a drive with a working SatNav , but next day it was searching for a GPS signal all over again. Time for the bin!

So I've had a friends TomTom on the windscreen all week. It has its foibles, but North Wales roads are too simple to give it a thorough testing. I need to test it on a 3-lane traffic-lighted roundabout near Chester to see if it indicates which lane I should be in for Oswestry.

My oldie had a 4" screen that was ideal on the windscreen. My pals is a 6" and takes up too much space. So I will opt for a 5" plus a dash cradle.
 

parky

Western Thunderer
At least you have a plan and the Chester bypass should test that out just fine. I was down their twice the other week

0 Scale Northwest 2019 is what is at Leigh on the 27th. Below is the listing of Traders, Demonstrators, Societies etc. It's a good show I have been for the last few years especially as it's local to us Northerners :thumbs:

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Oz7mm

Western Thunderer
John K beat me to recommending Waze . Last year on our little group outing to the SVR we heard radio reports of some traffic hold ups. We downloaded Waze and got there on time. The other car missed the train and met us at Bridgnorth. Waze seems very good at routing you round traffic but I am happy with the car's built in system even if it routes me some odd ways occasionally.

John
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
What ever happened to maps and turn right at the plough and pie pump and drive for 3 miles to the T junction lol.

I use my phone in the UK, Google maps but before that TomTom neither are perfect but then again I've never ever been lost, though I have ended up at a great many places I didn't intend to arrive at, but that doesn't make one lost ;)

To be fair it's kind of interesting not getting where I should be, I mean, would you have ever visited there otherwise and I've found ended up in some interesting and seen many interesting things that I'd of been poorer for not seeing.

I'm off to the US next week and TomTom still has the maps loaded from last year so it'll be interesting to see if it still works or how much data Google maps takes in the US
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
When one lives in Wales and hospital appointments are in Manchester, modern-day gadgets are mighty handy. I did the old maps for years though. Even a SatNav takes us to a fenced off lane, so I know where to ignore it. The thing is, having done it 'blind' last Friday, I think I could find the hospital now because I have a metal image of roundabouts and turns. Nevertheless, gimme a TomTom every time.

Yesterday, I went somewhere and afterwards set it for 'home' with predictable results....It wasn't my SatNav!
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
Here in Brazil in the cities navigation is needed but most have no idea about direction of one way streets. Going city to city is not bad as you tend to only have one road.
It's slightly off putting when you turn onto the main route, and the voice says turn left in 350 kilometres. You've forgotten by the time you get there. Out town mapping is rubbish too. Often just a blank screen as the road is of to the left or right on the machine.
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
I was told when we temporarily lived in West Somerset that advice is given (by whom I know not) to foreign truck drivers not to use Sat Nav. There was one narrow road that lead to a ford across a tributary of the River Tone. The ford did eventually cross the stream but actually followed it for about 200 meters. Old Land Rovers would be a good option, not much else. On Apple Maps they label it as Watery Lane. In Chipping Campden, which flooded badly in 2009(ish) the street now called Park Road used to be called Watery Lane. Now we know why they changed the name but it didn't stop the flood.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Well I did a little trial with Google maps today, you can download maps of areas of interest, in my case Los Angeles, Needles and Flagstaff, then you turn off your data and simply use it as a moving map. In an ideal world you'd set your route first in the motel with their free WiFi then turn off data.

What you don't get is live traffic and the such like, but given that several hundred miles of my route is on Route 66 and that's the only road then you've not much choice, besides, last year I drove near 50 miles and only saw one other car on the most isolate stretch.

Most of my driving will be exploring, in which case this set up is ideal and virtually free (well you have to buy a phone in the first place ;)) I tried it on the way home and it worked fine :thumbs:

I know what Peter means, when you leave Needles heading west there's a sign that says 'next service stop 186 miles' which is followed very quickly by a good long hard stare at the fuel gauge to make sure you have enough to cover the distance.
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
The more I search for TomTom satnavs, the more I realize the Amazon reviews are peppered over the entire range of TomToms so you read the same reviews. They are all a waste of money, good value, slow to boot up, an excellent gift and very disappointing.... :confused:
 
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LarryG

Western Thunderer
My old satnav has all the information along te bottom of the screen and displays road diagrams well ahead as well as being very clear. Also, a large arrow indicates which lane to be in...

WEB TomTom 1.jpg

Below a a current model and all the TomTom screens look to be alike regardless of price. The worst feature is the display box at the top of the screen. It hides distant road and roundabout information. When a roundabout is almost reached, the satnav does not indicate which lane to be in. I tried a TomTom START 62 today at a 3-lane roundabout near Chester when heading for Ruabon. Other useful info is also missing.

WEB TomTom 2.jpg

The odd one out looks to be the TomTom Via135M. In fact it closely resembles my old one in appearance and display....

WEB TomTom 3.jpg
 

Focalplane

Western Thunderer
Back in 2004 my wife and I decided to go to France. The night before we realized my wife's passport had expired. So we got up early and drove to the passport office in London, near Victoria Station, paid the fee and waited an hour or two. Then we had to find the Channel Tunnel. I had an old GPS, a serial port to Mac cable and an early version of Maps on my old Mac laptop G4. We set it up in the car and off we went, eventually getting on to the M20. When we crossed through the tunnel we looked for the B&B we had booked. The instructions gave autoroute exits but they didn't make any sense and before long we were far beyond in Boulogne. So out with the primeval Sat Nav after much driving around. The B&B turned out to be just down the hill we were parked on. Turned out the French had changed all the exit numbers.

It took me another 10 years to even think about buying a Sat Nav - now I think Sat Nav first, maps second, that is if the maps are even in the car.
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
To my great relief, the old satnav has been on charge all evening and is holding a GPS signal, so two days efforts on the TomTom website seem to have paid off after all. A friends brandnew shiny satnav directed me to turn left instead of right just outside Carrog today. I knew the route fortunately, but what if I didn't..?!!
 
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