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

NoMoreDelays ah! Couldn't work out why tom tom was telling a the wrong exits on toundabouts (fortunately on routes we know) but that must be it!

I was quite shocked yesterday that Tom Tom told me to turn left at a junction that was a no left turn and I guess would want me to turn right at the next junction which I know is a no right turn

Mine is still doing OK-ish but the voice wakeup seems to have totally died. It works if I go to VR through the menu, but obviously that's not great while driving but "Hello TomTom" is no longer working at all and I've no idea why.

My main issue though is that I am a bit reluctant to trust it now after the one time it went totally daft on me and also a few other odd decisions on smaller bits of routes.

I would still like to try it on some longer drives, but haven't had much opportunity yet as it arrived just too late for the last one - might be going a bit further afield later this week though, so I'll have to try it then.

• What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500? Love the big screen. Windscreen attachment was good too.
• How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom? Simple, initially turn on an go then update and go. I found setting routes/adding my places quite tricky initially but getting there slowly!
• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom? Lots and lots of local journeys, 3 into Bristol, one TomTom the marvellous trip into central London at rush hour to collect DH when time was of the essence and also a trip across the bridge into Cardiff.

I found voice control is just a big no no if you have any sort of accent so we don't use it at all. The swipe across menu is not great, especially if you are trying to find an alternative whilst in stationary traffic. Traffic indicator whilst not in a planned route is great.

When do we do the next bit of review HQ?

I think I have settled on my final opinion.

Good for long trips to avoid delays etc (eg getting to airport/ferry on time) but personally I don't see the benefit of the live traffic in every day use. Decent satnav but wouldn't pay the price for it when for most usage a much cheaper one would do the job. The VR is pants. Which is a shame, because that would be one of the really brilliant features to be able to alter your needs safely while driving.

However I am grateful to have tried it and been introduced to the world of satnavs. I must admit that having a satnav when you have no idea where you are going is very useful indeed!

Mine got me to a carpark near the theatre in a city I didn't know at teh weekend. Directions were a little confusing at times but I think that it largely because the city is confusing. We made it in one piece anyway. The ability to select teh location and then show carparks on the map near it was very useful. Was then quite amusing when, from the top floor of a multistory carpark I told it to go home. Poor Serena didn't have a clue where I was going neither did I as I went round and down and round and down and round and down. She knew the instant we were at the exit on the ground floor though to tell me which was to turn so that was good.

Tomtom has been giving us wrong directions!
She said go left and the map was going right

A Suggestion ...

It would be really useful if you could choose which drive you want to download updates to on your computer as it appears to automatically download them to the C drive, which is almost full in our case. However, we do have other drives with sufficient space ...

I am constantly amazed at how brilliant the re-routing because of traffic is. I am totally in love with my TomTom. Voice recognition is working very well now and I cannot believe how many routes there are to work when previously I thought there was one.

My TomTom GO 5000 got it right ...

Last Thursday evening we were driving home from Aylesbury and it took us on a totally different route than we normally take. When it became apparent that we were heading for the M25 my initial reaction was not great and when we arrived at the M25 there were signs saying 'Long Delays J18 to J12' which made me think that I should have gone on the A404(M) like we usually do. Major delays were showing on my satnav and it quickly diverted us back off the M25 at the next junction and we appeared to be heading for Slough, so I assumed we would end up going on the M4. I was pleasantly surprised when we rejoined the M25 at the next junction only to find that traffic was moving well.

I now fully trust this satnav as the live traffic situation was spot on and we did get home 6 minutes quicker than on the route we normally take.

Love the live traffic updates and alternative routes function TomTom

I like that it asks you whether you want the alternative route. It assumes 'yes' if you're too slow. Then if you don't take it as you're too slow to work out what that is all about it doesn't badger you forever more with 'do a U-turn where possible'.

I have been tending to use my tomtom for longer journeys but today I wished I'd taken it as I found the end of a very long traffic jam at lunchtime :( there was another route I could have taken.

I might start bringing it along on more journeys, not just the long ones!

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

It looks good. Touch screen sensitive/works well. It fits in the car well and is easy to see while driving.

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

Very easy to set up. I just turned it on and went!

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

Lots!

I have been using the new tomtom locally (along routes I already know) and to help me find my way to places (all quite local) for work. It has always managed to take me to the right place on local journeys. I have noticed it seems to miss out some junctions and mini roundabouts as if they don't exist. Its not that these missing bits are new either - I have lived in the same place all my life and these particular mini islands have been around since before satnavs! Anyway, even though it has not spoken to me or acknowledged there is a junction there, it has been apparent which way it was taking me from the picture on the screen (which has always been straight on - it seems to think there is just a straight road with no roundabout).

I live in the midlands and have used it to travel north to Blackpool. It had a bit of an 'episode' on the motorway on the way. It found different routes then all of a sudden said there was no route possible! (I was on the M6 not in the middle of nowhere.) Then it came back with a route saying it would take 12 hours (it is only about 2 hours from home and I was already about half way when it did this). There were no traffic problems the whole way there, so it wasn't down to that. My passenger turned the tomtom completely of then on again - then it seemed to work normally. It took be to the hotel without any further issues after that.

I used it to drive to London and a few places outside of London. I found it very good on this trip. Took me where I needed to go. Found a new route which managed to avoid a big clog up on the M25.

I used it to go to Manchester. Was good to get there, directed me to the hotel. However then we went to legoland discovery centre. I used the search function and tried typing in the place rather than post code, and it seemed to find it really easily. Part way through typing it came up with the option 'legoland discovery centre, Trafford centre etc- so I thought it had it. Started to drive and then got suspicious after a short while (because I knew the hotel was only a couple of miles away from it yet the Tomtom was taking us further). I followed it anyway and it took me to a random road about 4 miles out of my way. I then put it in by postcode and it took us to the correct place straight away. I have to say I usually put postcode in for satnavs - just thought I'd try searching it by address and it did appear like it had located it.

I do like the way it highlights the correct lane to be in on the motorway when it splits off into slip roads/different motorways - when the picture comes up with arrows for correct lane choices.

I did have a go with voice control but didn't get on with it as it often came up with the wrong address. I don't kneed it anyway, can type it in before leaving. The only voice control function i have used which is useful is when it says "new route found do you want to take it?" then I can just say yes instead of fiddling round with it when driving.

In terms of your first impressions...

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

Very good - big! It was easy to set up, although I'm sure I'm not getting the best of it yet as I think I need to actually read the instructions.

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

It was good. Updating it worked fine, although it worked straight out of the box. I was impressed that the battery had some charge in so I could play with it straight away rather than having to plug it in overnight :o

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

We've taken it to Chessington, Legoland, Chatham, and various local places. Funnily enough it's struggled most on the very local journeys - I used to to "navigate" to a church hall less than 10 minutes walk from home as I was carting boxes around, I searched for St Patrick's church and it must have been searching the whole map, because the first one it offered me was in Northern Ireland, I live in London :o but even when searching for the church and name of town, it couldn't find anything, even as a POI. That's happened a couple of times - I've ended up using my phone to search for the full address so I can put a postcode in.

We've spent the last couple of weeks using the TomTom AND Waze (the free iphone app we've used previously) and genuinely can't decide which is better. DH likes the scale of the map on Waze, but if you scroll out 5 or 6 times you get the same view on the TomTom - it'd be nice if it could remember the zoom level you set it at though so you didn't have to do it every time you turn it on.

The mount is definitely better on the TomTom, the iphone gets stuck down with blutac :o I'm actually quite impressed with that, I like the way the power lead goes directly into the mount and not the satnav, makes it much easier to attach and the wire doesn't get in the way.

Can't get to grips with the voice controls on either of them, this has been very frustrating, and have given up.

Really like the way the TomTom deals with junctions on motorways etc, with arrows for each lane and the one you need to take lit up. Very easy to understand. We did manage to fox it though, in Chatham - went through a tunnel and it turned out we needed to take the exit immediately the other side of it, the GPS signal or whatever makes it work didn't pick up quickly enough and we missed the turn. It was good at getting us back where we were meant to be, though.

I found the predicted arrival times very accurate on the whole, and very useful to have a realistic idea of whether we needed to stop to feed the kids or could wait till our destination to eat.

DH had some feedback too, so I'll ask him and come back after the weekend.

When and how do we leave a review of the TomTom?

i used the Tom Tom for an unknown location and she did very well. I also had some printed directions to go another route due to roadworks but the Tom Tom is excellent when you are unsure of your bearings and I am so glad to have been given the chance to try it out.

Used GO5000 to guide us through the dark to Stansted Airport. It did wonderful. Hubby was quite impressed when GO 5000 informed him about the junction closure on the M11 and took us on a different route with NO hassle. He Said he is not going to drive anywhere without it.

=> Where to see the remaining battery level? Am I missing something on the front ?screen?
=> We would like to see the total hours left for the journey rather than seeing the estimated arrival time.

Used TomTom over the half-term with varying degrees of success...

Set off from Rotherham to London (via Leicester to collect a random eBay purchase)...

The first leg of the journey was brilliant, took us straight to the that ess. It then took us to within a couple of miles of the hotel (using the street address) however we had to stop and look up the postcode to get us the rest of the way.

We used it to get to Chessington World of Adventures from the hotel (we forgot it for Legoland, although the Google map app on our Android phones worked equally as well as we were early enough to not encounter any traffic) and all was good!

After leaving Chessington we tried to navigate to a McDonald's, we picked the closest but ended up in the middle of a housing estate (and drove past one on opposite side of dual carriageway, which turned out to be the one that was second on the list).

Driving home TomTom told us about traffic on the M25, dh ignored the alternative route as he decided it would be longer, yeah right TomTom:1 DH:0 it was fairly easily rectified by just getting off and back on the same junction as the traffic was being caused by people nosing at an incident (which by now was all on the hard shoulder) just after the junction. Although TomTom didn't tell us to do that.

I do like that you can set it to show 'rest areas' so the services show upon the motorway. It allows you to assess wether you need to get off and find a tree for 6 yr ds old to pee against or whether actually he's just being a little so and so you'll make it to the toilets in time!

It would be really useful if the VR could be used to navigate to a POI or postcode, or am I missing something? For instance I don't know the street address for Chessington so would be good if I could say "go to Chessington..." or even being able to use VR to navigate to a town without the need for a street address.

I had an interesting jaunt through the countryside along single track roads coming home from uni yesterday! To be fair to TomTom I think it did avoid a fair bit of traffic.

I think my issue is the not knowing what route it is trying to take me on. Of course when going to an unknown location I am just grateful that it knows where we are going but on my normal commute I can't hack being taken different routes each and every time.

Broadly speaking there are 3 main routes home from uni. I know I could plot routes and choose them rather than just telling it to go home but then you don't get the suggestion that the A19 might be quicker than the A1 today etc.

But yesterday it was showing 2 offerings on one direction, I know one takes in the toll road (Tyne tunnel) but the other doesn't but I couldn't tell which one as the map zooms out too far and it wasn't warning me (previously it has warned me there were tolls so I chose another route). So I went the other way and let it choose between the directions that way. It recalculated about 4 times in 10 minutes, I chose "yes" each time but I have absolutely no idea what the recalculations were which is very confusing and very distracting. YOu are dricing in heavy traffic in a built up area and every 2 minutes your device asks you a question that involves you studying a map to answer. Slight safety issue there I think. I think a little audio summary would be good.

Tomtom knew a local road was closed because of roadworks before I did a couple of days ago. Thumbs up!

Bah, went to update my tomtom in preparation for a long journey tomorrow and forgot my password to log in. I clicked the link for "forgotten password", and the email came through. Slight hitch though - it asked me to click the link to reset my password but there was no clicky link at all! Just lines of internet gobblydegook. With a bit of sleuthing, I managed to figure out which bits of the nonsense to highlight, copy and paste, but then I'm reasonably tech-savvy. No use if you're expecting a link as normal. What happened tomtom?

Mine tried to take me down a closed road today. Luckily we could just turn back round and go the way I knew (TomTom was taking me on a previously unknown route to a known location). So I didn't end up using it on the way home because I didn't want to end up the other side of the closure and not knowing where I was going.

I still can't get any live updates. When I go to the website I get illegal parameters messages when trying to get an answer. It appears that as I don't have a smartphone there is no way to get the live traffic info. Not impressed!

Hi

Have we had any further instructions on feedback, other than this thread?

Hi, it's been a while since my last update.

It still isn't finding places it should be. Major POIs, villages etc, but I can't keep listing each and every one. It's annoying because without using a smart phone to find the address you're stuffed, but it's mad to need to do that.

I was in the Cotswolds the other weekend, I know the area quite well, but was trying to use it as much as possible for the reviews. It said 20 minutes from Bourton in the water to batsford arboretum, which sounded about right, but I decided to go via upper & lower slaughters, it said 40 mins, which I thought was a bit mad, it should have only added a few minutes, certainly no more than 10. Anyway I went with it and it was taking me on roads I'd never been on, fair enough, but then it all seemed very different, I didn't recognise any of the littles places...then it said 'You have reached your destination'. Yeah, really? A barn in the middle of nowhere!! I had to reset it all and I was 35 minutes in the wrong direction entirely! Towards Banbury?? God alone knows what it did.

I've been caught out a few times when just following the map. It would be better to have the arrow a bit further 'back' as I've been right at a few intersections before you get the directions. I have used the zoom, but with little improvement.

It has been nice to do a few impromptu outings to new places without having to study the google map & make a few quick notes which is what I'd have done before and I nearly fell off my chair when it found winkworth arboretum!

And yes... 'Go home' is lovely :)

I feel like I'm being really negative, but feedback was asked for so there's not much point in just saying 'It's lovely, thank you very much' is there?! However, I do really appreciate being given it and the pros outweigh the cons, but I would have been very annoyed if I'd bought it at the retail price.

Oh and as others have said, I would like to be able to see more detail on the map for the routes, it's hard to know which route to pick when you can't really see the detail.