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

TomTom

I am finding it very frustrating that you need to have the postcode for wherever you are going. It doesn't recognise places that have been here for a long time (over 10 years).

It's not showing much along the route here, it makes it look like I'm driving through fields when I'm actually driving in a city - most odd.

I keep thinking I'll get some time to myself to write a good review but I don't so hear are my (possibly random) thoughts so far.

My initial impression was that it was a nice clear screen. I had a TomTom about 5 years ago and the screen was a lot smaller. The touchscreen worked really well compared to my old one and it is miles easier to input addresses.

I've used it to drive back and forth across the north of England. On the way over I accidentally muted it but I mostly knew the way so it was ok. I found it easy to see where I needed to turn and was very grateful for it when navigating dark country roads. On my way home I got it all set up and speaking to me. When I was nearish to home it started to tell me to take strange turnings which I ignored. I shouldn't have, it was because my exit of the A1 was closed . I'm not sure how you're supposed to know that that us why it is suggesting a route, I didn't see or hear anything to indicate that it was a roadworks related detour.

I've skis used it to and from work and while it's not saved me any time, it helped me to decide that I would be too late to pick up my children and I was able to arrange for DH to pick them up. I think I would have chanced it without the TomTom but seeing an arrival time of 5.31 for a nursery that closes at 5.30 was very helpful and probably helped us avoid a fine.

I've not updated it on the computer yet so will work on that this week. Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

How strange, I haven't needed a postcode one time, Chipping.

We used it to try and go somewhere this morning that has been there for well over twenty years. It had no idea what we were talking about (tried VR and manually entering) so we had to find out the postcode. Which is fine, just thought it would know it!

Some places it knows, lots it doesn't!! Think it's just luck...

Just to stick my tuppence worth in again. When finding places have you checked you are on full map. I realised today I was on "near me" which only searches for 6 miles

Well I'm one week in and loving it, getting used to the quirky VC and how sometimes it understands every word and sometimes I have to shout like a deranged madwoman

Here are my basic questions and will probably be back later with some more details when I've had a chance to read the full thread...

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

Nice solid feeling piece of kit, easy to use instantly has become part of every car journey and didn't (still haven't) need to read any instructions.

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

I had a few goes at getting the software on the PC and it took an eternity to do the initial update but after that it was a breeze. Definately intuitive for the touch screen generation.

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

I've used it for the last week on the daily commute in and out of the city centre and it's been very helpful. There are three major routes home and TomTom has varied it's selection daily, when I've heard the traffic announcement as I've been driving its always been right and so has definitely saved me time. I also visited a friends new house in the country today and found the instructions very easy to follow ever when I didn't know where I was going.

I've had the 3D effect buildings appear for me when going into Leeds and also Manchester. Looks like it's only for in cities?

I like the fact that TomTom monitors and displays your average speed when you're in speed check areas. However it was out of date with the roadworks on the M1 - it thought there were roadworks at Sheffield when there weren't, and it thought the roadworks further South stopped sooner than they did. Messed up the journey time a bit, as we were stuck doing 50 when it thought we ought to be doing 70.

We had another occasion yesterday when "Go Via Supermarket" would have been a very useful option to have.

Stephen survived there and back again! He wasn't too annoying, but he dawdles over instructions given at 300 yards, which can be a bit frustrating if you're trying to work out which lane to be in.

He got very excited over joining the motorway and congratulated us on doing very well when we had a few turns/junctions/etc in quick succession. He also confessed to falling in love with me three times at the end of the journey. Once was enough, thanks! Especially when my husband is sitting next to me...

Stephen loved me three times in one car park today.

Blimey.

Also, the 3D effect was lovely in Bath!

hi,

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

Good liked the bigger screen and certainly better than older models

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

Pain in the neck to set up as we have had a TOmTOm before so computer kept trying to recognise the old one and no facility in set up to recognise two devices or update the device. Then took about 3+ hours to set up.

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

Been on two 50+ journeys but no particular traffic and took us the way I would have expected. Have a few journeys to new places this week so will see how that goes. Need to have another go at voice activation as couldn't get it to work very well.

posted this on the other thread so just reposting it.

Katz Sat 18-Oct-14 14:35:47
Tomtom has just saved us sitting on the M1 for 2 hours! Programmed in the trip we were about to take and it's said journey time 1.50min, journey should have been 25 mins max. Thank you tomtom!

I have tried with voice control, but it really isn't working for me. I'd say 2 out of 10 attempts to locate an address work (it does always recognise 'go home')

Just a few more comments to add.

I'm disappointed that TomTom hasn't recognised a few places we've searched for. They are established places, so I can't understand why we haven't been able to find them. This happened with 3 places we were trying to find on the weekend. Luckily Dh had a map and his phone.

Also, it's got some speed limits wrong. As I was driving at the time I couldn't correct them there and then, but there is the option to change them. (It said 30 for a 60 zone)

Lougle Really?!

From memory it hasn't been able to find -

2 local (big) Garden Centres (that have been there forever)
A local craft place which has shops, cafe etc (also been there at least 10 years)
A retail park (also long standing)
A well known, long standing, nature park - quite a way from here and it wanted to send me the same distance in the other direction. I'd have been well annoyed if I'd followed it there!

There were other places too but I can't think off of the top of my head.

Fortunately they are all places I knew where I was going and I found the street on the map and made it the destination, but if I hadn't, I'd have been stuffed!

I haven't done the updates - but surely I shouldn't need to for things that have been there over 10 years?

(and yes, CMP on full map, but thanks for the thought :) )

Hmmmm disappointed with the tomtom today. Took it out when DD and I needed to go a large-ish town that we drive to a million times every week. Over three days, its given me 3 different routes - only one of which is the ACTUAL route I'd use as the others are down fiddly little unclassified roads instead of the main A road which is much much faster. 3 different routes!

Twice, serena suddenly told me she was listening, when we hadn't said the wake up command. No radio on either.

She couldn't find the largest supermarket in the afore mentioned large town, she wanted me to miss the turning completely.

She also directed me down a little road which took me right back onto the larger road I was previously on, and because it's a main road I wasted time waiting at the flipping junction to get out! Cars that were infront of me sailed past me as I waited for someone to flash me out.

Grrr. Off to download Stephen now, not looking forward to this!

Oh, and the cable clip for the airvents doesn't fit my BMW 1 series, it's the wrong way round. And I've just had to go and haul the cable out to connect to the laptop - two cables would be mighty handy!

Me again, sorry Tomtom. oh dear, Stephen Fry. Don't like him, doubt I will be using it. I wanted John Cleese

@DoctorGilbertson

Hello,

Do you want to see where I got taken yesterday ...

road [[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6838635,-0.6516799,3a,75y,23.9h,87.8t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sdk6yEEgFXMVe0d1QZc0mig!2e0]]

yes, with this right turn at the end

it is a dual carriageway [[https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.6816193,-0.6557872,3a,75y,253.33h,90t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sPRVxRysuKyQN6gse5kBrEw!2e0]]

On the other hand it was very pretty and I kept in low gear and have good brakes on my car, I didn't meet anything coming the other way and it did get me to the right place, so not a disaster.

We like Antonio in Spanish, although DH laughs at his accent. We also like the "mind the seagulls don't steal your chips"

One thing would be for the voice to say "take the fifth exit from the roundabout, yes, this is back the way you came" because when it was taking me round a bit of a loop and I was meant to take the fifth exit at the roundabout I couldn't work out where this was meant to be.

I am not sure I will use it for my commute to work. This kind of needs local knowledge (i.e. this way is OK before 7am, but the turn is too busy after and you should take the other route) and I'm not sure a sat nav will ever help with this.

I also keep losing the cable and don't like being told what to do.

TomTom say:
"Hello DoctorGilbertson, the live traffic is most useful during traffic peak hours as it can tell you where the delays are, what is causing them and how long they will be. Thus the device can help you with planning your travel schedule and provide you alternative routes if they are available."

@IAmAPaleontologist

I can't get the voice recognition to work. If I select it from the menu then it works in that I can tell it to display places and select one or I can say "drive home" but once it is driving somewhere then it stops listening to me again so I can't do anything else. I can't just hop in the car and use "Hello TomTom" and tell it where to go. Doesn't work. If anyone can help me out with that then that would be great. I don't turn it off, just sleep mode and all that gubbins.

TomTon have said: "Hello IAmAPaleontologist, what you are describing is an unusual occurrence that we would like to look into further. Please send us an email on [email protected] so we can investigate. In the email include the serial number of your device that you can find in the “System” menu of your “Settings”. It is the number that begins with QE."

@VeryStressedMum

My first impression of the TomTom 5000 is that it looked sleek and the screen was a good size. I would have liked a case included especially considering the price of the TomTom (you can buy a suitable case from Amazon for little over a fiver so it wouldn't be that dear to include it), no plug to charge it in the house but you can charge it in the car whilst it's in use so it won't run out of battery power mid journey.

Set up was very easy. When you switch the Sat nav on it takes you through a set up which was very straight forward.
An instruction booklet would have been handy but from the bit of paper with the drawings I gathered that I should connect the Sat nav to my computer. The computer recognised the device straightaway and it set up within a few minutes although on the computer I tried to create a new account not realising I had already created an account on the actual device when setting it up.

The updates took ages, the time flicked from 2 hours to 8 hours to 12 hours...but in the end it updated in just over 3 hours. I went out and left it updating so it was fine.

The touch control buttons are easy to use and its quite clear what they are for. I set 'home' to my home address and its great when using the voice control that I can just say 'go home' and it will direct me to my house.

I have used it on my usual journeys to school, the shops, to friends houses etc and it does what it says on the tin and directs me to where I want to go.
I'm not sure how the live traffic feature is supposed to work but it didn't seem to notice the traffic I hit and didn't offer an alternate route.
The petrol station feature is good and will be very handy when I am somewhere I am not familiar with.
However I don't seem to have anything on the screen that is in 3D which I'm quite disappointed about as I was looking forward to seeing it. Not sure if it only works in big cities like London or if it should work anywhere...I had sort of hoped it would it would show in 3D my exact surroundings, but it probably doesn't work like that.

Also I was under the impression it should tell me what lane I should be in which it doesn't, even when I was on a 3 lane road. It did tell me to turn right so maybe it assumed I should know I should be in the right lane.

The holder however is fab, it stays on the window and I love how the charger goes into the back of the holder rather than the device itself So it can be left in there and you just need to click the device in and out (I didn't realise this initially and thought it was a massive design flaw and it wouldn't charge whilst in the holder..).

I'm need to take one of the children somewhere I have never been before this week and I'm glad I have the TomTom but I'm nervous and I hope that it gets me there. I have never driven somewhere unfamiliar using only the directions of a Sat nav. I hope I can get the lane recognition feature working as that's one of the things I get most nervous about, that I'm not in the right lane.

It's a great little Sat nav but, apart from the voice control, none of the special features seem to work, so at the moment I can't see how it justifies the price or why I should buy this one over one that is half the price, but hopefully I can sort those niggles out.

TomTom say:

"Hello VeryStressedMum, you can check whether you are connected to traffic on your device by selecting Connected Services in the main menu. Offline means that your device is not connected to TomTom. If you are connected please ensure that you activated traffic. Traffic can be activated in the Traffic and Speed Cameras menu, select “Activate Now” then “Yes” when prompted to send information to TomTom. You can read more on how the information is safe guarded and used here: www.tomtom.com/en_gb/safeguarding-your-data/. Then login to your TomTom account. Regarding the petrol stations, you have to prompt the device to show them on your route if you wish for that to occur. It is quite easy, once you have your route planned, open the main menu and select petrol station, the GO will show you all the stations in your route. "

@Sparklingbrook

I am old fashioned. A proper volume control button would be great.

TomTom have said:

"Hello, you can adjust the volume by clicking the menu button and then sliding it to your desired loudness. Additionally, it can be adjusted through voice control with the commands “Volume Up, “Volume down” and “Volume 70 %”( for example)."

@VeryStressedMum

It's supposed to have 3 maps and I should see (according to the tomtom website) buildings and landmarks in 'stunning' 3D. There's a picture on the back of the box which shows buildings around you in 3D. Mine doesn't do this. It does show the arrow moving along the route but the surroundings are just flat like a map..no 3D buildings.

It's supposed to have advanced lane guidance where it should clearly show in 'realistic' 3D which lane to take at key junctions. Mine hasn't done thus but maybe I haven't been at a key junction.

A long my routes it doesn't show me any points of interest either. Ok there's not a great deal of interest along my route but it doesn't even tell me where the petrol stations are, which it is supposed to I think...

TomTom say:

"Hello again, it is possible that you have the GO on 2D mode. To change it and default to 3D, go to the “Appearance Menu” in the settings and select switch map view so that your device will automatically switch to the appropriate view based on what you are doing i.e. 2D when looking for alternative routes and 3D when navigating. The advanced lane guidance might not be appearing because you have 2D mode only. If it continues not to provide lane guidance after changing the view, go into the “Appearance” menu in the setting and ensure that “Show previews of motorway exits is “On” "

@asuwere

- What was your initial impression of the TomTom GO 500? Looks nice; large screen and very clear. Not a lot in the box though for the money - like others have said, I expected a case to be included.

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

Initially, I set it up without the computer and it was very easy. Quite straight forward when switching it on the first time and it just walked me through it - liked that there was a quick tutorial as well. I'm not used to using a touch screen but it is quite intuitive and very simple for even me to use!

Unfortunately, not quite so impressed with the simplicity when I tried to to connect it to computer! I attached it to my netbook at first - to be fair, my netbook is a little old and very slow. Had a problem downloading the drivers at first as it was so slow so I tried on DH's PC. Drivers installed easily and had MyDrive set up but PC could not recognise that the TomTom was plugged in. Tried several USB ports, restarting, uninstalling drivers etc. Followed all the help sections but it wouldn't work. Eventually, after several google searches, DH discovered that it won't work as he has 64 bit Windows and it will only work with 32 bit Windows (not 100% sure what this means but basically, it his PC using something which TomTom doesn't like!)
So, went back to my netbook, finally got drivers installed, have MyDrive set up but again, will not recognise when I plug in the TomTom - have followed all the guidance, checked everything and cannot get it to work. The USB is working as the TomTom is charging but MyDrive keeps asking me to connect the device. And now every time I put my Netbook on, it again pops up and asks me to connect a device which is slightly annoying.

So, I have not been able to update the device properly and sadly, I can't download Stephen Fry - although I did purchase him and the process for purchasing was very straight forward.

TomTom say:

"Hello asuwere, the GO 5000 is compatible with 64 bit Windows. We would like to help you update the device and the best way to achieve that would be for you to provide us with your contact details (phone and/or email) on [email protected] so that we can get an experienced agent to reach out to you and help with setting up everything properly. "

@ChippingInLatteLover

TomTom

I am finding it very frustrating that you need to have the postcode for wherever you are going. It doesn't recognise places that have been here for a long time (over 10 years).

It's not showing much along the route here, it makes it look like I'm driving through fields when I'm actually driving in a city - most odd.

TomTom say:

"Hello ChippingInLatteLover, what you have described is a strange occurrence. Can you please ensure that your device is set to search the “Whole Map” (top right in the “Search” menu)? We would also be interested to find out how you have been entering your destinations on the search bar. Additionally, an example of the places you have searched but could not find unless using post code would be helpful for us to look into the matter then we can provide you with tips on how best to get results. Lastly, be aware that when you search for an address or a place the GO will give you suggestions of those on the left and on the right Points of Interest while you are typing in the values. You can put away the keyboard by pressing the button with 3 lines on the bottom right of the search menu so that you can see the rest of the suggestions."

@CMP69

Just to stick my tuppence worth in again. When finding places have you checked you are on full map. I realised today I was on "near me" which only searches for 6 miles

TomTom say:

"Hello CMP69, you are correct that you can change the parameter of your search on the top right of the “Search” menu, however, when you are using the “Near me” search parameter, the radius is 50 miles not 6 miles."