TomTom GO 5000 feedback thread NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

This thread is for the MNers who've been trying out the TomTom GO 5000.

Below are some questions to get you started but please feel free to add other comments too.

In terms of your first impressions...

• What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?
• How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?
• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?

Please also note that TomTom may use your anonymous feedback comments on their website and social media channels, as well as elsewhere.

Thanks,
MNHQ

I did a trip down to Eastbourne. At one point there is a right turn that it failed to announce (older model does this too). And at two separate points it showed a too high speed limit.

Yesterday Tom Tom took me what it thought would be a quicker way, I can understand why it did it and thankfully it was quicker but when I realised where it was going to come out it could have potentially taken longer to get out of the junction as it wanted me to cross a dual carriageway type road the leads from the motorway to the city centre. I was lucky that at the time I got to the junction it was relatively clear but if not I was have been sensible and had to go a mile out of my way to get back on route

TomTom accurately got me out of a traffic jam the other day. First time I've had effective route re-planning rather than seemingly random decisions so that was good.

A criticism. I got 30 seconds down the road yesterday and TomTom said battery low and switched off. A battery indicator would be good so you can see how much charge there is. Or am I missing something?

So having used it over half term, I have come to the conclusion that

: once its en-route, its very good. Always flags up the traffic cameras (DH likes this) and quickly recalculates.
: voice recognition is more trouble than its worth. Massive fail for me.
: it hardly ever knows what I'm looking for if its not a standard street address. In fact even if it is (e.g. my work address) it doesn't always work. Sometimes that fact that you have not used capital letters is the difference between finding something and not finding it. Sometimes its just spelling (there should be a 'sounds like' function) Sometimes it knows the postcode but not the street that matches and vice versa. This is incredibly annoying.
: I would be gutted if I spent £250.
: it is pretty to look at and sticks to the windscreen way better than any other.

Update.

It recognised where I work now, I think it was a spelling error, so I think is is a one word raod but it splits it in two.

Voice control is hit and miss. I have to really shout which is a bit embarrassing. i think it is probably not helped that it is by the vents/speaker but not sure where else to put it.

Overall I do like it and am really pleased to have it after my old version. I do a lot of driving and it is reassuring to have it there.

We have used it lots over half term.
Generally we are really happy with it but still cant get voice recognition to work , it will sporadically, so have given up on that feature.

Seems that's a problem overall though so glad it's not just us and our thick Lancashire accents.
As others have said before a case would be useful to help protect it as I have been putting it in my bag and it has got a small mark on the back already.
Other than that very happy , still not sure it's worthy of the price tag though.

used mine today but it didn't recognise an address. it is good generally and i enjoy using it. haven't stuck it to windscreen as i don't want to leave a mark.

• What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?

It has a nice, big screen, slim and not too heavy.Didn't look too complicated to use, not too many buttons and everything is touchscreen. I was dissapointed that there was no instruction manual but DH liked that all the instructions were on the device.

• How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?

It was a breeze to set up but took well over 6-hours to update the maps.

• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?

Mostly we've made short local journeys to and from work, shops etc. We've made several journeys to unknown places for the kids and the TomTom was really easy to use.

It showed us the quickest route and rerouted when we got lost in no time. I particularly liked that it calculated an alternative route rather than saying take a u-turn as my old satnav would have. I preferred the manual search option. It was predictive, only needed to type in the first few letters to find a destination. We like the idea of the voice control option but found it didn't always recognise what we were saying. It was great for showing point of interest, petrol stations, great 3D mapping and zooming in and out. All in all very satisfied. This is a good quality device.

I've found a fair few roads now where the speed limit warning is wrong - and these aren't roads where the limit has recently changed. Perhaps tomtom should think about having a user function to send in changes to speed limits, much like they do for speed cameras?

Update...
I now have the petrol station finder thing, after following the advice from tomtom to make sure I was connected to services. I wasn't as I wasn't aware of it but I am now and it's working. I don't know about the traffic updates because I don't seem to have hit any traffic jams yet.

The voice control doesn't always recognise what I'm saying. Today I said go home but it started talking to me about all sorts of stuff so I gave up with it. Usually it's ok but to be honest I don't really know what to ask it so I only tell it to go home which is actually a very handy function.

I do like how it talks me through the directions for example it says 'at the end of the road turn right onto xxx then turn left' or 'follow xxx road for 2.4 miles' dhs sat nav just says 'turn left' at the turn.

I finally saw the 3D screen today at a junction on the dual carriageway I was very excited as I'd not seen it before. I wanted to keep looking at the screen but would have crashed the car...it showed me the lanes, what lane I should be in and where to turn off. It also told me the number of the junction I should turn off at which was good.
Dhs sat nav shows an actual real picture of the junction on half the screen which I like but I'm happy enough with the 3D feature of the tomtom 5000 and it got me where I needed to go in the dark, so I was very happy.

I did try it to see how it would cope to get me to my local McDonald's which you get to via a one way system but it didn't cope very well. rather than direct me round the one way system it told me to make a u turn in the middle of the road. but apart from that it has been good at directions.

I've tried a few voices but have gone back to Serena as she says the road names which I like.

All in all I'm very happy with it. I've not experienced the live traffic yet but I'm going out at rush hour next week so I'll see what happens. I feel much more confident about driving to places knowing it will get me there and back home.
I'm still not sure I'd actually pay £250 for it but it is better than dhs sat nav.

Bit concerned I sound very negative about the 5000! I actually love it it's a great sat nav with great features, it finds routes instantly and the spoken directions are fab much better than I expected. And I do really like the way I can say go home and it just finds my route home.
All in all I'm very pleased with it!

We used TomTom over half term for a long drive down M6 and M5 then around Cornwall.

Really liked the updates on traffic jams etc, and they seemed to be accurate (apart from recently developed queues which it hadn't picked up on yet).

Around Cornwall - which we know well, and have our routes everywhere - it really surprised us by constantly taking us down little lanes we had never been down before. Totally different route from ours to visit Granny. I am not sure it really saved any time as they were such narrow lanes although it might have been quicker on paper than the A roads, once you have crawled through at 20mph through the mist I am not sure that it is!

Had some issues using the search function. TomTom simply hadn't heard of a particular hamlet, even though it is signposted from the road and on entering it so definitely exists by that name (to the highway agency anyway!). Luckily we knew the way anyway. I also would like to be able to search for certain facilities in a "find me the nearest x" way - we were able to find the nearest big supermarket as we figured it would have a petrol station so searched by garage, but would have liked to be able to simply search by supermarket. Similarly on the way home we wanted to stop off at the nearest Pizza Express and knew there would be one in the town we were near, so I had to use my phone to search for the postcode to enter into TomTom. I'm sure the technology is there to be able to do that directly with TomTom?

Overall though we really like it and it is an improvement on our previous system of maps, and Google Maps on my iPhone.

I've just got back from a drive where a road was blocked Tom Tom told me there was traffic and gave me an alternative route that I'd need to sit in traffic til I could get to that junction but I decided to head of athe next junction and ignored being told to turn around! Eventually it picked up an alternative route but I'm guessing it thought that sitting in the traffic til we could come off at the junction would be the quickest route where I wanted to go the clearest route which was only 5 mins slower but we had a nice drive through the New Forest. Voice recognition doesn't seem to want to work when I say Hello Tom Tom but is fine when I go to voice controls on the menu

-What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?

It is bigger than I was expecting. I like the design of it. DS was very impressed.

• How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?

Very easy, we just used it straight out of the box.

• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?

To work and back, also out when I have been doing house calls.
We have been on a few days out this week and last weekend took a trip up to Aberdeen to visit some friends, the tomtom was very helpful on the latter.

DP likes the tomtom but he was disappointed that there wasn't a copy of the full manual with it, I had to go to the faff of downloading it and putting it in the iBooks on his iPad so that he could read it (he loves reading the manuals)

The other gripe he has is that although the tomtom is mostly good with my accent, which is pretty general and 'just proper English' as DP calls it, whereas he has more of and accent and the tomtom often struggles to understand him.

But other than that he really likes it, we all do.

I have used the Tom Tom today. I find it very good once it gets going but sometimes it seems unable to find an address and it doesn't seem to work with voice recognition. For example I tried to go to my mum's house which has been there since the 70's but despite having the postcode etc it couldn't find it.

also it doesn't hold any information. i wish it had a favourites so you could mark your regular places and addresses. Is there such a thing?

alemci ,you can save your regular places in the 'my places' section and then when you use VR you say 'display my places ' and it comes up with the list and you pick a number .

I'd like to add to the first review I left on Oct 17th.

We went to Spain over half-term and hired a car at Murcia airport. TomTom guided us effortlessly from the rental depot to our resort an hour away and worked brilliantly for the whole week's visits to remote coves and busy towns. Serena kept us giggling with her valiant attempts at pronouncing Spanish place names and we did not get lost once.

Thanks so much for choosing us to review and keep the TomTom. I really wouldn't like to be without it now.

So glad we were picked for this trial. I had never used a sat nab before but have found the TomTom 5000 easy to set up I have taken my time using it. I think 5 mins to set it up before your journey really helps so you are not rushing. As I have said in earlier feedback I am learning new things everyday, today noticed the 3d map which the kids loved. Also the alarm when approaching speed cameras was really useful. Also like the fact that it gives you an estimated journey time even if you get stuck in traffic stops you know panicking how long it would take to get through. We have loved using it and talking with Serena. Love just saying "go home" and it finds the route. Have already recommended it to friends who go to football matches and dancing competitions all over the country.

I'm really liking my TomTom so far. Warned me of some roadworks on the m25 today and showed the extra time it would take in total to get home and also where the roadworks are. It didn't offer me an alternative route though? I don't know if it was because the extra travel time wasn't that long.
Haven't used the voice control yet, I need to sit down and look at it properly!

Also to add that I found it easy to set up, only took about 15 minutes from what I remember to update. And I love the look of it and how it's quite fat and not light and slim, feels more reassuring to hold haha!

In a horrible traffic jam on Thursday night and was successfully redirected, which I probably couldn't have done myself. I didn't believe one of the routes it took me though, and had to unplug it as it kept telling me to go the other way. On checking though, apparently you can go this way. Hmm. I will try it next time and see.

Then today, quite good on a long journey. I am moderately converted, although I am not sure that I do like being told where to go, without knowing myself.

It did also take me on a bit of an odd route through a traffic jam instead of through the city, but not too much of a delay, so probably it had just calculated it as faster.

Rubbish traffic on M6 and M40 yesterday. No other route would have proved faster and it's nice to know that you are in the quickest place when stuck in traffic. We also really liked the way that the live traffic feed tells you how much longer the heavy traffic goes on for. Very useful.

However, as I've said in a previous post, many motorway service stations are missing! None of the ones we spotted as missing were new and it isn't as if the M6 or the M40 are minor roads! It would have been extremely useful for us to have know when the next services when trying to deal with a small child and mummy who needed the toilet.

As ever, smart phones came to the rescue.

A few more thoughts
I really don't like that is shows your speed, as it is lower than my cars speedo and I would trust that first, so irritating!
My old TomTom Go had a POI feature that marked all the restaurants/museums/public places along our route which was fab if you fancied a break or people needed a toilet. With the new one it appears you need to search for a specific name ie Mcdonalds/Asda rather than a generic supermarket/restaurant chain, and there is no way to find independent shops/cafes/etc if you are in an unfamiliar area and don't know names or postcodes, that I can see.
There needs to be a report roadworks feature like there is for speed cameras and speed limits, there is a big chuck of the A1 between Morpeth and Alnwick marked as roadworks, but the actual roadworks are only about 1/2 a mile right at the end and this has been the case since i got it.

• What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?

It had a lovely big clear screen.

• How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?

It turned itself on as I took it out of the box - not sure if this was by accident or by design but it made the whole process very simple! I had no PC at the time, so didn't bother updating it, and I saw somewhere that it was up-to-date as of June 2014 so that's fine for me - I don't think I'd bother updating it until the maps started seeming out of date. Entering a location was easy, and the only things that needed a bit or trial and error for were things like add "via" locations and saving routes (still haven't entirely figured that out). Usually once I've had an initial play around with a device and figured out how all the basics work I would then sit and read the manual, so it's a shames there's no manual. It was also a shame that it doesn't have a mains charger, as I would have liked to sit and work it all out at home rather than in my car.

• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?

I've used it on my usual home/work/school/nursery trips almost every day, as I was keen to see it pick up any delays or traffic jams! I've also used it on two longer journeys (2.5 hours and 3.5 hours). The directions are very clear and easy to follow, and I like the lane guidance when coming off motorways. I found the 3D images more distracting than helpful (and I've only seen the 3D feature in use once, when I drove through the centre of Leeds). It did have a pretty good 3D image of Leeds Town Hall though

It's slightly hit and miss on the traffic jam detection / re-routing. Sometimes it's definitely saved me time by re-routing, and other times I've ignored my better judgement and followed TomTom directions only to wait in a long queue for traffic lights that I could easily have predicted at rush hour. Maybe it's only for A roads upwards that the system works? I've no idea how it detects traffic jams, so not sure if this is possible!

My mum saw it 'in action' when I visited her over half term and is very impressed and thinks it's great value. She has an older model TomTom but is seriously considering upgrading now!

I've found the voice activated feature of limited use, mainly because TomTom cannot understand any of the addresses I say! I have a fairly nondescript home counties accent so I'm guessing lots of people must have the same problem (or maybe my kids are just noisier in the background than others!). However it can usually understand "Hey TomTom" after a few attempts, and then "Volume 60" (or whatever) which is useful.

Overall I would recommend it so far, for ease of set-up and use, and occasionally the live traffic has been useful.

Snowplop - our Serena came on holiday to the same place as yours! We too loved her pronunciation of Spanish names.

What was weird was the way e.g. we would be told to take the 5th exit at a roundabout when in fact it was the 3rd exit and Serena was counting the exit and entry of each road just because there was an island between them.

We loved the fact that the speed limit was clearly displayed on the screen, very useful in a foreign country. We left it displayed in miles as we were only away for a few days but presumably it is possible to change it to km on future longer trips.

On the way back to the airport we needed a McDonalds (I know!) and Serena swiftly found one for us.

In the UK while commuting I love the way that traffic jams are anticipated and an indication given as to how long they are. I do find it hard to decide whether to take an alternative route while driving and unable to scrutinise the screen as much as I would like to. Today in a strange town, Serena guided me out efficiently and clearly.

I am becoming quite attached to the old girl!

Thanks Floralnomad DH will be most pleased