Car GPS: Garmin vs. Tomtom?
I have a friend who uses a Tomtom One gps and sometimes it takes a while for it to find signal...but he also doesnt mount it on the dashboard, he holds it in his hand =/
But I know two other people with a Garmin gps, mounted on dashboard and it works great. Plus I've heard Garmin is the best.
So my question is, should I buy a Tomtom GPS for $100? It's on sale, usually $180. Or should I buy a Garmin (and maybe wait til it goes on sale).
Why one vs. the other? I want the most reliable one.
Thanks.
I have owned a Tom Tom One for a few years and just love it. My brother has a Garmin and he likes it as well but hasn't used my Tom Tom. What I like about the TomTom is the ability to change the maps when the roads change from construction or road name changes. You can change it on the unit and then send the change to the Head Office so that others can use the change as well. It's called Map Share. Tom Tom has official map updates every 3 months but you could download other peoples changes every week if you wanted to. (more than 33,000 at last count). When you get updates you also get the new positions of the satelites so that reduces the startup time alot.
I find that mine will get a signal and start up very quickly if I turn it on when the car starts. If I have it turned off and then travel a fair distance and then turn it on (once I'm lost) then it takes longer to find your position. Mine has no trouble if it mounted on the windshield or held in you hand, it has the same signal level. I even have a signal when I bring it in the house close to a window, when I update it.
Since I have owned my TomTom One they have made software improvements like Help Me which shows the location of where you are and how far to the nearest Hospital, Pharmacy, Police, Car Repair shop and so on...
My wife now uses our TomTom One and I have bought the model 720 with a larger screen. I has other features that I don't use like playing MP3, view JPEG pix and FM radio broadcast. I do use the voice spoken street names. I have also downloaded famous voices like Mr T and John Cleese. They are funny. I have also download Points of Interest list like my favorite gas station locations that even shows their symbol on the map when I am close to it.
I would say that $100 is a great price for One, if the wide screen XL One wasn't much more I would pick that one just from personal experience.
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