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

First impression - lovely size screen. Perfect for ease of use but not so big it dominated the dashboard.

I have used it to work every day, to London and will be using it to get to Bluewater tomorrow. I love I don't get lost anymore at all. I used to get lost in the most basic of journeys

The ease of use is fantastic. Very simple to use but still felt technologically advanced.

We found the Tom tom easy to set up and use. We've used it mostly on local journeys and haven't had too much trouble. Found it a bit puzzling that on the journey home from work one day it wanted to go a different route to the one it suggested to work. There were no obvious traffic warnings showing, so part from the odd choice of routes it's been fine to use. We'll spend a bit more time tweaking the settings to see what difference it makes. First impressions are good so far.

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?
When I first opened the box It was a little bit bigger than I expected but looked stylish and very sleek compared to the old TomTom which is bulky. The holder is great, and I love the idea of the TomTom being charged
whilst placed in the holder.
How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?
Super easy, I was surprised to open the box and find no instructions at all but after connecting the TomTom to the laptop it was all explained within minutes and updated. Plugging it into the car was simple and quick to start up and it founf my route pretty quickly, which is a good thing at 6am.
What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?
I have used it daily since receiving it, driving 30 miles to Nottingham every morning and finding the addresses and places I need to be during the day. It has got me a little confused in the mornings by offering me alternative routes and I have ended up on totally new roads which are not always the fastest routes for me. It has come at the right time as I'm working in a new city and don't know any roads or addresses at all.
I am also a big big fan of the voice control, it is ideal when driving in heavy traffic. This morning I needed a petrol station and had no clue where I was and with the voice control I was quickly diverted to the petrol station and back on track without even having to pull over.

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?

The first thing I thought was what? No case or plug to charge? I was also disappointed that there was no manual to speak of. I did go and find a PDF on TomToms website but really, some instructions need to be included. I ended up making a case and using the charging plug from my knackered Tomtom One to charge it. The instruction booklet online says not to charge from the USB on the laptop, but to use the car lighter instead. For THREE hours? This device really needs to come with a case (even a cheap little bag to save screen scratches), a plug and a manual.

I also find that the voice recognition is hopeless in NE Scotland. It can't understand my accent, nor the pronunciation of place/street names. When "Serena" reads them back, they are not pronounced as they should be and would be very confusing if you didn't know where you were.

I was a bit confused why the device would be manufactured that the mount for the windscreen covers the charging slot, but then put another slot into the mount itself. I find it impossible to connect up the cable while the mount is on my screen (which you would do if, like TOMTOM suggest, you want to use this device on your daily drive to help navigate jams etc). I have to take it off, put it on, take it off, put it on.....leaving a million ring marks on my windscreen.

I've also found myself inadvertently turning the device back on or off when taking it out the mount - the power button is located exactly where I want to put my hand and apply pressure!

Had i purchased this device, I may have exchanged it for a smaller screen....whilst the large screen is lovely to look at, it's a bad fit in my BMW 1 series with the pop up screen my car has for the iDrive/radio/computer system. I can only place the device low down as it's so large it would obscure my vision any higher up - but it's a tight fit with the iDrive screen and the dashboard pod.

The main menu button is too small to safely access whilst driving. As I cannot get the voice recognition to understand my scottish accent, I can't use the voice control to navigate. I have to manually search, and the little wee dot bottom left to pull up the search function is so hard to locate without having to really "look" and therefore taking my eyes off the road.

Yesterday, the traffic divert was working well as it put me down a small backroad to avoid stationary traffic caused by temporary lights. However, today, it did not warn me of a total road closure meant I had to take an unplanned and unknown route. It did eventually get me there, but had I seen the road block in my route planning I would have chosen a better route myself.

More positively, I do like the large screen even though it's a little large to comfortably fit in my car. The graphics are crystal clear and I like the ability to customise my colour scheme. I've not tested the night colours yet - they look too dark at an initial glance but assume they will work well on a night drive.

I love the James Aussie voice, but don't want to use him as he doesn't read the street names out like Serena does. I really like the reassurance of the road numbers/street names - it's so helpful when coming to junctions and roundabouts etc to know exactly which direction to take.

The GPS connects quickly - much quicker than my sadly departed Tomtom One and also my phone. It's very accurate for location and switches on really quite quickly.

I like seeing the roadworks/stationary traffic in the route bar - it even picked them up on B Class roads in a very rural area (with today being the exception, see above comments) which surprised me.

I saved my daughters dance school as a location - I wondered why when I get to my "destination" does the map zoom out and it no longer shows me the close up detail of where I am? It seems a bit odd, as it would be helpful to look at the map closer up if it was an unknown place and I needed to see how to get out again.

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

It was horrible to set up! No manual included, no plug to charge and updates that took me over 6 hours to download and install. I had to fumble about and learn things for myself until I came across the PDF manual on Tomtoms website. The software to manage the device downloaded easily to my laptop but from there onwards I felt like pulling my hair out.

• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom

I've tried it on my usual drives to work and to my daughters after school activities. Mainly rural driving at the moment, but planning to take it into our nearest city at the weekend. Today, I was at a local country park and used it to navigate out the park and on to my nearest country store as I needed some horsey bits for my DD. It was most insistent that I turn off the entry road and head down roads that are farm tracks and clearly posted as Estate Traffic Only. I've lived in this area since I was 12, these tracks have NEVER been roads, ever, so I have no idea why the satnav thought I should drive down them. Again, those not local might have found themselves in a bit of trouble......

I'm impressed at the accuracy in my very rural area - my previous device had us driving through fields on some occasions! It missed a closed road today, but it did get me to my destination. I've also deliberately taken wrong turnings and it copes well, giving me a new route in seconds.

Sorry for the novel Tomtom!

In terms of your first impressions...

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

Smart and small enough to fit in my handbag!

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

Evasy and fast to just plug in and go - however I could have done with more instructions in the box though

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

I have done some journeys to Liverpool city centre, widnes and Cheshire country towns and it has been very accurate- the voice is not annoying and it is small enough to ignore. It quickly recalculates the route also!

It's my second day of using the TomTom we used it on the school run and my trip to work. I liked the way if I took a wrong turn it would reroute me back on track. Thought I had set my home location but seems I hadnt! I only had a instruction leaflet with it I wished it had more comprehensive instructions. Have found myself having a conversation with the voice control lady. I am enjoying getting used to it though. Can't wait for tomorrow for another adventure!

Apologies in advance for the essay

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?
I was surprised it did not come with a case.

I set up basics before updating which I think helped reduce updating time to a couple of hours.

Design of menu carousel neat. Like half shown icon at edges to indicate more content.

Touch screen sensitivity good, huge improvement on early TomToms.

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

Really easy, good user interface.

Would have preferred proper manual, to have for reference in the car.

What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?

• local trips (it's agreed with favoured routes, every time).
• commuting. Again used favoured routes but did show traffic hotspots so I chose other route. It didn't suggest one as don't think it would have saved time.
• Trips further afield (such as shopping centre) also were known - TomTom showed us a different route, albeit one of the times because it sent us off in the wrong direction due to poor lane indication.
• Long motorway journey (London to Sunderland) of unknown route. M25 M1 suggested, despite every other device we had telling us to go M40. Luckily, we ignored TomTom on this occasion because it turned out the road was closed. Disappointing that a device with Live Traffic couldn't manage to plot same route Google Nav, Google Maps & Waze were. Local radio were also reporting road closure .

Other feedback
Good:

• Display counting down how long average speed section is & showing average through the camera area.
• Position of icon relative to road.
• Lane exit display showing small symbols when you aren't turning off & screen take-over when you are.
• Built in SIM saves having to connect a device to get full services.

Not so good (or we are doing it wrong!):
POI

• Doesn't seem to have categories to access obvious POI classes directly e.g. motorway services? Had to rely on the search function. No ability as per previous first gen TomTom to search within categories 'along route'.
• POI database missing data. Quite a few m-way services not listed or shown in route detail e.g. Durham.

Menu
Settings only accessible from final page of the menu. Be useful if this was anchored to the first page for faster access

Voices
James the Aussie tells me to get my sunnies three times in the space of twenty metres before reaching destination!

Shame that we couldn't just have a voucher for the voice but I'm just being picky now

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?

The device was bigger and heavier than I had expected., it's a solid piece of kit! I was disappointed. That it didn't come with a case, I've had much cheaper satnavs in the past which came with a case to protect the screen. I like the packaging, it's eye catching.

I haven't got to grips with the voice recognition. It doesn't understand my Durham accent and pronunciation of place/street names is suspect at times. It pronounces Gateshead as 'Gat-esh-eed'! Serena does not seem familiar with many place names but that must be because lots of local names are pronounced in weird ways and the computer generated system would just default to how the places should/could be pronounced.
I do keep switching the device off when taking it off the mount, it is a difficult to handle and can be turned off by accident. I think the on/off button should maybe moved the next time the device is upgraded/remodelled.
The screen is a good size to see easily while I am driving, it may look a tad out of place in my little ford fiesta but I don't care about that! The graphics are excellent, I love the 3D effect and the fact that I can customise the colours, although I had a play with it then went back to the one it came with. I imagine that there are a lot of features which I haven't even discovered as yet and so it will get better with use and as I become more familiar with the device.

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

Not the most straightforward experience, I am used to bog standard satnavs that are basically plug and go. It was time consuming and confusing but it does seem to have been worth it. Not sure how often I will bother with the updates/downloads as it does take along time. Now that it's working I will just use it as is. The booklet wasn't really enough, it could have done with a bigger manual with an idiots guide to how to use it. Not everyone who buys a satnav will be computer savvy. I love it now that it's up and running but I wouldn't want to go through the process too often. I would recommend it to people but would advise about the setting up process.

What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom

I've driven to and from work, out on appointments for work. To the shops, to a hotel I hadn't been to before..,,in the middle of a Newcastle and that is very brave of me because I never drive in the city!! It was great, very clear directions and information. I had a little wobble when I wasn't sure how quick to turn but I kept my composure and it was fine. I arrived cool, calm and collected. I'm taking the credit but I will admit that TomTom played a part!!

I'm going on some longer trips at the weekend and in the next few weeks so we will see how I get on with those. I do feel more 'empowered' to do them, I do doubt myself and hate driving in unfamiliar places but this TomTom does provide reassurance as well as practical information.......I'm aware that sounds weird but that's how I feel. I hope to become a more confident driver in the future and to branch out a bit more. I have friends down South who I love to see but at present I only visit them if my husband is driving. I'm going to go and visit them by myself in the New Year.

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?
Bigger, easy to read screen.
Prefer paper manuals

How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?
Easy to use, just plugged it into the laptop for the long updates and left for a while. Not difficult to navigate my way round the TomTom.

What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?
Work, town and a job interview where I wasn't entirely sure where I was going.

Ive not really read much of the threads, but yesterday and today suddenly it will pipe up with "Im listening" even though no-one has asked it to.

So far its certainly better than my last one (but that was bought 5 or so years ago for £120 and is so behind with the roads so wont take too much anyway)

I thought it was much bigger than old Tom Tom, but very sleek looking. Like new bracket a lot hasn't fallen off windscreen once yet. Touch screen v sensitive much better than old sat nav

It was easy to set up worked straight out of the box. When I first plugged it in to Tom Tom I was confused what to do, it told me to turn off or disconnect the device. I tried the next day and it was fine but was saying 4+ for updates. It did all the updates, but then looked like there were 4 remaining speed camera updates. When I clicked on these it just whirred away but nothing was happening. Device said updating do not disconnect but in the end I had to as it wasn't doing anything.

We used it on a 200 mile plus journey. We were not impressed with traffic function - we could go clockwise or anti clockwise round M25. sat nav said Dartford crossing was fastest route DH said from bitter experience the crossing was not a good idea rush hour Friday night. We did what sat nav said and were stuck in heavy traffic. Of course we don't know what the traffic would have been like in the other direction. But the annoying thing is it kept popping up with alternative routes to save e.g 1 min 20. Why would you change routes to save 1 minute? Possibly one you don't even know. We couldn't see what the suggested route was (liked how on old device you could read the route as text). We guessed that it was trying to send us thru black wall tunnel which DH said would be madness. Oh and it kept mishearing and changing to new route anyway when we said no.

We also had a v bad journey back near uttoxeter when at roundabouts it was getting the road number and exits muddled so we had no idea where to go. It does adjust the route v quickly if you go wrong but possibly too quickly as DH didn't realise he'd missed the turn we then missed the next turn arguing about the fact he hadn't taken the suggested route and ended up on a 3 mile cross country lane to get back where we should have been.

I drove the return journey on m40, traffic was heavy but it didn't suggest an alternative route at all (perhaps there aren't any). I liked the lane guidance that's what I'd wanted a newer sat nav for.

Oh and I turned it on in the morning and sound wasn't working turned it on then off x2 before it started to work again.

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500?
I like the slim design and the screen is very clear. Much improved on older models.

How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?
Nicely packaged and in theory easy to set up, but I put the device into the holder and then plugged in the cable, but then the laptop couldn't find it. I had to google to find out you had to plug the cable into the actual device.

What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?
Loads up and down the M1 and M40, also round the M25. I like the traffic alerts and the display showing where the holds up are and also the petrol stations is great. I can't get it to show me alternative routes but i'm sure there's a way.

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

I was really impressed with how it looked, although I thought it looked huge it doesn't seem too big when in the car. I think the bracket is brilliant, I like the way it screws on so it doesn't fall off mid journey. My only criticism is the on/off switch - it is way too sensitive and would benefit from being on the front of the TomTom not on the top. I have managed to find a suitable pouch to put mine in but I quite often take it out of this and find it is already turned on. I am surprised it doesn't come with a case.

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

Really easy! I did find it hard to get out of the plastic in the box and managed to turn it on when wrestling it out! I found the instructions clear and simple and it was easy to plug in for the updates. I've found these threads on MN very useful as i've discovered more things the TomTom does from everyones experiences of playing around with it.

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

So far I have gone to the local train station and back, the first time I did the route suggested and the second time I ignored the suggestion and went a different way to see how quickly it recalculated (quickly!) I have also gone up the road to meet a friend, to a new supermarket in the next town and some short journeys. I am so looking forward to really making the most of it in half term when me and my son are out and about. I will feel far more confident with it in the car with us.

Hi MN/TomTom - just wondering, are you going to use the comments from the other thread too please? Not sure how much I should copy/paste over as I already commented quite a lot in there! But if that will be passed on too then I guess it's not necessary?

Anyway here goes with the first lot of feedback:

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

Looked quite smart, it switched on immediately and went straight into setup so I could get it going straight out of the box. It found our location immediately too. A case would have been nice though.

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

Getting the device set up and working was really quite straightforward, I did most of it without even needing to look at the instructions, although I do recommend looking at the online manual as well as there is some useful extra detail in there and instructions on how to do the more complex tasks.

I can't say the same of the updating process with the PC though. I managed to download MyDrive without issues, but it would just NOT recognise the TomTom for ages and the help available really didn't give many useful suggestions. When we eventually somehow got it to connect, the downloads kept failing every 3 minutes or so and I had to disconnect and reconnect it. Luckily it did at least seem to save what it had done so far, so we managed to download everything eventually in little chunks but it took a LONG time.

Putting the holder onto the windscreen was easy, but working out how to charge it in the car was less obvious, although it IS shown in the instruction leaflet. Getting the connector into the hole round the back is very fiddly though, how about having the hole on the front instead or just making the one on the TomTom accessible while on the holder?

• What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom

Mostly local-ish journeys so far, to work, school etc - it arrived just too late for our weekend away which it would have been useful for, but I hope to try it on some longer trips soon. I've been testing whether it could suggest faster routes to work, as there are a lot of different options and different ones are faster at different times - most times so far it has agreed with what I would have done anyway, but I'm still testing it. If/when I ever manage to get out of work anywhere near 5pm I'll be interested to see what it says, as we get big traffic jams near the office then!

Marking place.

Ok, a semi proper answer to questions as asked:

First impressions:

huge screen. Second impression - ok, it's not that big compared to some I have had with hire cars (not really fair to compare it to my ancient Garmin which is tiny) and it's very slim. I am clearly a bad a neglectful gadget owner as the lack of case never even occurred to me .

Set up:

Oops. Was I supposed to set it up? Is it feeling deprived now because I didn't do an update? I will try and read the leaflet and run it's update tomorrow - at the time I was in a tearing rush and not going anywhere for a while, so I realised that it was a bit peckish and plugged it in to a passing USB charger. There it stayed until yucky o'clock this morning, when it occurred to me that since I was driving 40 miles to the station it might as well come with me.

Actually, that's not quite all. I did try to enable the live traffic services, and it said it couldn't access the service. This didn't surprise me, since we have no mobile coverage at all at home, so I left it.

So, this morning, I tried plonking the holder on the grip strip in the car (bought because I got fed up with my window mount falling off all the time and my phone disappearing down the side of my seat). It didn't like that - kept toppling over and eventually shot off into the passenger footwell when I went round a corner.

So, on the way home, I enabled the live services with no problem, and stuck it to the windscreen where it dutifully stayed stuck. I love the average speed camera functionality, even if it didn't realise that the cameras in question (roadworks on the M5) were taken away a few days ago. In fact I love the whole awareness of speed limits. I didn't hit any traffic as it happens so I didn't get to see it's reaction. I have a few more trips over the next couple of weeks, as well as routine stuff (there is literally one road between home and school so I don't think it's going to do much interesting with that - "turn right out of drive, go 3.5 miles, you're there" ) so we will see. I will also play with voice control once I have one - I have entirely lost my voice at the moment so I would be gobsmacked if it could understand the squeaks which come out .

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

Seemed to be a good quality sat nav, looks smart and felt sturdy. Hoped the holder to clip it to the windscreen would be easy to work.

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

Very easy, had a quick look at the limited instructions that came with it, turned it on and registered via the sat nav rather than the website. Plugged it into the laptop and it tried to download some software which failed half way through. Logged into the website and it picked up four updates, which I agreed to download. It did three of them within 40 minutes or so and then for some reason it didn't pick up the fourth one so tried that one again which it did in ten minutes. Then it was ready to go.

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

Just a trip away last weekend. Came up with a good alternative route to get around a recurring traffic jam but then sent us back into the end of the this traffic and didn't come up with any alternative routes. We turned round and took a back route that I have used before and it then diverted us around several traffic jams at the end of this route. So a mixed experience so far in respect of offering alternative routes.

Screen quality is good and it's very easy to navigate around the screen and menu. Also it seems really easy to stick to the windscreen which is good for me as I nearly broke the holder with our last sat nav. It didn't recognise the name of where we going for the weekend but found it when we put in the postcode. The traffic info can be a bit slow to load when its first switched on but comes on once we got going.

Haven't been anywhere else yet other than five minute drives to and from school but off to work tomorrow which is about 50 minutes away so will be using it then in the hope it will help me avoid the rush hour traffic.

Oh yes, I liked the destination input. No faffing around deciding what sort of destination you are looking for - I just typed in the name of the station this morning, and the postcode coming home, and it found both fine (well, the postcode left me 0.5 miles away, but all sat navs do that as that is where the centre of our postcode is - delivery drivers wonder why we know exactly where they are when they call for directions )

Been thinking about the free voice - why would a product test start out by annoying the majority of testers? More than three times the number of people who voted for Smug Stephen voted for someone else. Very odd decision not to just let us choose. It would have been better to just not have given away a free premium voice rather than annoy people.

Ok, my maths os out, but more than twice is what I should have said!

What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 5000?
I like the clarity of the graphics and the shape. Was surprised that there was no case. Was impressed that it started talking as soon as it was opened. I found out things like how to activate the voice control from the other thread. The kids and I have had a lot of fun trying out different voices and yelling 'Hey TomTom' at it!

How easy did you find it to set up your TomTom?
Initially it seemed like it was good to go so I used it as was for the first couple of days. Then I read the other thread and saw that it needed updating. That took bloody ages and now I keep getting things pop up on my computer saying there are updates which is really irritating me.

What journeys have you made so far with your TomTom?
As yet I haven't driven in cities, just around rural areas. So far the maps seem a bit dodgy as it tried to send me to the delivery entrance of Tescos, a pub instead of the school and into my neighbours' garden! It also hasn't been able to work out when roads change versus when they bear sharply to one direction.It couldn't find places by name which was annoying as I don't tend to know restaurant or take away postcodes. Will be trying it out in towns and cities over the rest of the week so will update after that.

Marking my place. Will be back.

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

Nice compact packaging of product.

Thought it was quite heavy and a bit clunky in terms of transferring to / from vehicles. Also a case of some sort would be nice.
Liked some of the voices on it - we had an aussie guy for a week and that made us smile.

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

Easy to set up. Updated quickly. Nice big screen, especially liked the touchscreen (very responsive) and the simple night and day button. Voice activation - a bit hit and miss, not sure if accent affects this.

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

I have used it regularly for work and it has helped me avoid some bad traffic on M25 and A3. Locally, for the school run it the suggested slowest route and plotted the school on the opposite side to where is sits.

I have to travel approx. 300 miles soon to a family event - will be interesting to see if it intercepts any traffic issues on that journey.

Seems fine on postcodes, worse on finding locations by name. Even a large university.

When I get more time I am going to look at the online manual and see what other functions I have missed - will feed back again.

Markign my place for tomorrow, when hopefully Tom will divert me around the traffic instead of leaving it too late.

ChippingInLatteLover
TomTom are there any settings we can adjust wrt the voice control? Many of us are struggling with the fact that you have to shout at it to activate it. Even sitting here, with it in my hand I am having to shout.

"Hi ChippingInLatteLover, there are certain settings you can adjust via voice control e.g. volume, colours, 2D and 3D view among others. You can learn more on all the ways you can use voice recognition here: bit.ly/1CgkODD on page 68-71.

Completely missing the point! I am fed up of having to shout at it.

anne maybe they are only 'making' one of those voices and we got to choose? Not sure otherwise.