TomTom or Garmin, who's owned both?

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Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
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I'm only familiar with the Garmin, have the Nuvi 205 model, seems to work
ok, so far...

Looking to see what the concensus is on those who've owned BOTH systems
and which would they go with after using them?

Thanks in advance!
G2
 
I have returned two tom tom GPS units, I now have a garmin thats about 3 months old.......wonderful.

Tom tom menus, and software are a pain IMO
 
Thanks, that helps, the Garmin seems to work ok, maybe need the next level up
to get the lane changing thing on there too, lots of travel in unfamiliar cities!
G2
 
I've not checked into those much, as the TomTom and Garmin seem to
be the two top names in the GPS game, one thing I do like on the Garmin
is the speed read out, shows my speed as well as the posted speed
on the TomTom I've read that you can set it so if you go above the limit
by so much, it'll turn red or give some kind of alarm, possibly a help if you're
prone to getting tickets ;)
Reason I'm looking at something else is I may leave this one at home for the
wife, on the rare possiblilty that she may need to drive out to college and
get our daughter while I'm away, so I'd need a replacement for my travels.

Also reading some reviews, the so called FREE map down loads come at a
disquised price, there are Spam ads on there that pop up for things like
restuarants and other things, probably to help pay for the FREE maps,
sounds like a bad thing to have pop up, could be at an inopportune moment too!

Thanks for the input, will give Magellan a closer look too before making any decision.
G2
 
Gary,

I have only owned a Tom Tom. The charge cord articulated with the monitor body, and eventually stopped charging or powering it. I have to admit that I did not mount it, since it is illegal to windshield mount in CA. It floated around, and I possibly killed it, but something to be aware about. I navigate with my laptop and mapquest or google maps now. I am wireless, so it works ok, just a little old school if I may use that expression.
 
Well, it boiled down to a Garmin, a few reasons, have one already so I have the software
loaded in that works with it and I'm use to using it and also this new one was on sale at
BestBuy for $189, and it has a nice size screen, easier for these old eyes to view and
work the touch screen to search by poking around too.

It's a Garmin Nuvi 1450LMT, so that price includes Lifetime Maps too, so it is actually less
than the 205 that I was using, after getting the map updates!

Here's a couple of photos taken while driving, using my Canon SD1400, a little tricky on
a rainy day, first one shows the overall setup, notice that the Mile's per hour and posted
speed limit are both black in colour, indicating I'm driving at or below the posted limit...

IMG_0956.jpg


and as I bumped the speed up a little down the road, you can see that my Mile's per hour
has now changed colour to Red, to ALERT me to the errors of my ways, my wife will like that feature! :)

IMG_0958.jpg


So far it seems to work as well or faster than the smaller unit I'm leaving with the family
just in case she has to travel to get my daughter at college if I'm away on business, as
I have been traveling more and more lately. Plus, a new cool gadget for me :)

I did look at the others but the above things swayed me to stay with Garmin,
G2

ps, as you notice, I use the 'bean bag' mounting system, works well on any car
as I'll use it in several makes and models as I travel and rent different cars, plus
it doesn't leave that tell tale circle spot on the windshield indicating you have
a GPS in the car, somewhere! :)
 
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Excellent review and beautiful pics as usual Gary! :)

Looks like you ended up doing most of the leg work (research) on this one, lol.

The screen size and map updates would really sway me as well.
 
i just bought a tom tom, was pretty much down to the same choices as you.... from what i read it really just comes down to preferences in the new models
 
Gary W. Graley said:
... and as I bumped the speed up a little down the road, you can see that my Mile's per hour has now changed colour to Red, to ALERT me to the errors of my ways, my wife will like that feature! :)

IMG_0958.jpg


. . . my wife would have that red burned out in 2 days with her driving . . . :)
Be safe.
Click to expand...
 
I've been using the Garmin Nuvi 205w for 2 or 3 years now. Most of the extended family has Garmin's. There great for detouring around problem traffic or just plain having a digital speedometer on the dashboard and the arrival times.
Anybody have experience with the hiking models? I've got the Garmin eTrex Venture HC on my Christmas list doesn't look bad at about $111
 
oldschool45 said:
I've been using the Garmin Nuvi 205w for 2 or 3 years now. Most of the extended family has Garmin's. There great for detouring around problem traffic or just plain having a digital speedometer on the dashboard and the arrival times. Anybody have experience with the hiking models? I've got the Garmin eTrex Venture HC on my Christmas list doesn't look bad at about $111
Click to expand...

oldschool45, my wife also bought me a Garmin eTrex Legend HCx this year for Christmas, & I am forced to look at it everyday for about 23 more days +/- . . :) A friend of mine does a lot of geocaching & said this was about the top of the line for the money. I hope there's not an "accident" such as our lab getting into the boxes and tearing the wrapping off them . . . ;)
Garmin had a lot of top reviews on the sites I checked out for her, good luck with yours when you get it.
Be safe.
 
Thanks guys, I've also changed vechicle's to now be SpongBob Squarepants rowing in a boat ;)
My daughter just loves that character, but the wife said I can NOT download his voice
as she'd not drive with him laughing away, no worries, it's a $10 purchase and sounds
like after a few hundred miles, you'd go a little bonkers :)
G2
 
i'v had the Garmen nuvi 550 for about a year now and have yet to have a problem. i didn't even look at the tom tom's b/c they had such crappy reviews.

the nice thing about the 550 is that it's waterproof. i take it out on my boat and jeep all the time without any problems. the nuvi 500 and 550 are the same body and such, but the 550 comes with both Canada and US maps. same price but more pre loaded maps. also, you can get free topo maps for canada with the garmen GPS units. always a nice thing to have
 
That's a really nice unit, G2. I've never had a GPS in a car but I'm a stay at home kinda guy. For your travels it has to be great.

I do have a Garmin (60CSx) for hiking and use it in the Jeep for some off road navigation. I have a windshield mount for it.

Win
 
Yes Win, unfortunately it is a necessary toy :) and it also has traffic updates
but where I live, it'll never come on, BUT, where I go, I'm sure it will help sometimes
heading out to Sacramento on Monday and driving down to Stockton for the week.
G2
 
Gary, will the 1450LMT allow you to "pan" the map during a route and zoom in to any particular area you choose? The Garmin I purchased for my parents (forgot the model) won't allow you to pan the map (only zoom in/zoom out), but my 530HCx has that feature.

Did I understand correctly that you receive free City Navigator map upgrades for life with this model?

What is the best website you discovered for GPS reviews?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Well, haven't tried while enroute but I think that it does, as I know when I put
new maps on there, I lost my HOME that I had set and had to put it back while
I was at work and I panned/scrolled around the screen very easily and picked
almost the exact position of my house to select.

Not sure on Navigator maps? They called it Traffic updates and Free Maps so
it may be some more intense type of maps that didn't come with it?

GPS reviews, used Google and the Amazon site for most, of course you have
to take all reviews with a grain of salt as some may be posted by those with
ill intentions to either sway you to buy or the opposite, but a lot seem to be
spot on, so far this one has worked pretty well, at the airport now and will
see how it does out west. I know I was with a fellow service engineer out
in Tulsa and his TomTom didn't have the correct time, probably some setting
he neglected but you'd think that would be a given, as my small 205 Garmin
had the time showing correctly and I never had to change or set anything for
that to occurr...

G2
 
Tried panning around while enroute, but it of course wants to keep YOU in the middle
so I guess it won't do that unless you back up to view map and not course.

The lane thingy worked nicely, shadowed those lanes that you shouldn't take
and lighting up those that are ok to take, here in CA is handy as there are a LOT of lanes!!! :)

Power up and acquiring satellite was very quick, found itself much faster than my older one
also had correct time already too.

G2
 
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