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Original poster

garmin or tomtom satnav?

12 replies

ChopsTheDuck · 27/07/2008 08:46

really can't decide which, they seem to have such different features. We need Europe maps and ideally America too. Looking to spend no more than £250. We use a mio at the moment which has just about died and frankly, is crap.

OP posts:

Blandmum · 27/07/2008 08:59

I have a tomtom and it is wonderful. We have the UK and Europe maps and you can buy in the American ones if you want them.

It is idiot proof and dead easy to use. I've just used it for a week in Scotland and it took all the stresses out of driving in unfamilier places

RubySlippers · 27/07/2008 09:01

tomtom is great - am on my second!

as MB says they are very easy to use

TheMadHouse · 27/07/2008 09:01

Second vote for the tomtom. I have one and it is cool, got us through Paris last year, including when the motorway was closed due to an accident

Blandmum · 27/07/2008 09:03

That is one of the thigs that I love most Madhouse, it is so easy to get it to calculate a diversion for you

LynetteScavo · 27/07/2008 09:09

I'm really happy with my Garmin, but couldn't manage to get it to calculate a diversion for me recently. (I probably should have read the instruction book first though )

Original poster

ChopsTheDuck · 27/07/2008 10:06

hmm def tomtom so far. Biggest worry for me with tomtom is that reviewers have said the os is less stable, and it is more prone to crashing or freezing. Anyone had problems with this?

Great that it is good for diversions. Our mio will divert for about 50 m then keeps trying to return to the original route.

Going to town later to have a play with both of them.

OP posts:

DontNeedAnything · 27/07/2008 10:32

We have had a Tom tom on a PDA. We now have a Garmin.

The tom tom was far better - but mostly because it had more functions - like being able to reject the first route it offers you if you don't like it; being able to put in road blocks (accidents etc) and it will calculate around them....

But that may be because the tom tom was a high spec tom tom and the Garmin is a low spec Garmin IYSWIM.

OTOH Garmin tends to cover more of Europ (i.e. not just Western Europe on hte tom tom) - although you do have to be a little cautious because when you go outside o fWestern Europe the coverage decreases in that only the Main roads are covered in some countries.

If I had £250 to spend it would be the Tom Tom for me.

DontNeedAnything · 27/07/2008 10:54

Oh and Argos have the best prices for Tom tom ATM I think....

EyeballsintheSky · 27/07/2008 11:06

Tomtom here too. Love it, very simple to use and don't know how I managed without it.

Elk · 27/07/2008 11:21

Tom Tom great. No probs with ours so far although its route choice is sometimes interesting. It was very good at avoiding the congestion charge zone yesterday.

Original poster

ChopsTheDuck · 28/07/2008 07:39

Thanks everyone but i must confess we we ended up getting the garmin just hope I don't end up regretting it!

Agree that the routing options are def better on the tomtom but we went for the garmin for two reasons in the end. The garmin was so much better at finding points of interest - which we need for hols. Also the guy in halfords said that they did have a lot of issues which the tomtom crashing and the company service was bad when things do go wrong. Garmin rarely have problems and if they do halfords can just give out a new one. Plus it was a bargain!

Elk, you do know congestion doesn't apply on Saturdays?

OP posts:

LynetteScavo · 30/07/2008 21:39

I only realised the diversion thingy is realy easy to use today. Have had the thing for a year!

I don't think you'll be sorry with your choice, Chops.

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