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Well, sold my BMW branded Garmin 660 Sat Nav and for the grand sum of 4 pounds more got a brand new TT Rider Europe Pro. Smaller screen than the Garmin is the only disadvantage in my opinion, the TT is quicker more intuitive and far less complex to use on the move on two wheels. Just spent a happy 1/2 an hour fitting the RAM mount on the bike - which allows for a QD system for the head unit. Fully featured it's a delight. It will work as a stand alone system in the car - but if they think I'm going to pay them 80 quid for a specific mount they can bog off...
Last edited by: R.P. on Tue 11 Oct 11 at 18:15
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Doesn't your car have it's own built in voice controlled sat nav? Didn't know they still did them without that...How quaint...
:-))
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Tue 11 Oct 11 at 18:20
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>> Doesn't your car have it's own built in voice controlled sat nav? Didn't know they
>> still did them without that...How quaint...
>>
>> :-))
>>
Spoken like a man who didn't pay for it.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Tue 11 Oct 11 at 18:28
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>> >> Doesn't your car have it's own built in voice controlled sat nav? Didn't know
>> they
>> >> still did them without that...How quaint...
>> >>
>> >> :-))
>> >>
>>
>> Spoken like a man who didn't pay for it.
he's paying for it - every month he's paying for it.
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>> Doesn't your car have it's own built in voice controlled sat nav? Didn't know they
>> still did them without that...How quaint...
>>
>> :-))
>>
Err RP siad its for his bike... :-)
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>> Doesn't your car have it's own built in voice controlled sat nav? Didn't know they
>> still did them without that...How quaint...
>>
>> :-))
The lack of features, out of date one that you have to shout at in german you mean?
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...The lack of features, out of date one that you have to shout at in german you mean?...
Taxis I've been in you tell the driver where you want to go.
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Is that south of the river? pffffffffffffffttttttttttttt sucks in through teeth, no chance guv
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Oh I'll still keep my "chav nav" ( heh heh ) for when I hire cars abroad. Old thing, TT 700 but still very very good.
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I know I have my clunky old 700 for the odd trip - it still does work surprisingly well
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They do indeed. Must see if I can get the voice commands updated on mine sometime though. It's a bit disconcerting when it says "bear ye left at the turnpike"
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I think Tom Tom is better in practice. At the low end we've one of each - the Garmin has a traffic thing and some 'better' features, but is more likely to do silly routing - the favourite being sending you off at a motorway junction and back on again to reduce traffic delays!
The Tom Tom is more intuitive and fairly reliable. It also has a good 'limited speeed' feature. Setting that to 50 or 55 dissuades it from sending you miles out of your way to a motorway. Handy when towing and you can't make full use of the faster road to save time.
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I have a TomTom Go 740. I keep reading on threads like this that Tom Tom is the best maker of Sat Navs. Maybe they are, but if so then Lord Help Us!
My SatNav is almost lethal on certain routes, e.g Claydon in Bucks and Hyde Hall in Essex. In fact it seems a definite step backward from the older 5 series TomTom that I had. All the new one seems to be worried about are loads of gimmicks that I don't use, and marketing opportunities for Tom Tom.
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I have the same as you, Londoner. My main objection is the time it takes to find a GPS signal - by the time it gets going I can have set off in the wrong direction.
Anyone know if Garmins are any better?
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I have a TT 720, I only use it when "off my patch". I update it before use and with an up to date "quickgpsfix" from TT it locks on almost instantly.
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I use my Nokia 5800.. the Ovi map is great, and normally gets a satellite fix before I get out my drive.
Only downside is the size of the screen....
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I have a TT 720, it knocks every other sat nav into a cocked hat, and altho old, continues to do so.
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This 660 is close to the state of the art apparently, mapping lag on it is really frustrating, one of the plus points is the ability to programme your own routes on your laptop and download them into the device, a specialised task that in reality few are likely to bother with. But as an everyday device I found it slow compared to my 2005 TT700.
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"..one of the plus points is the ability to programme your own routes on your laptop and download them into the device..."
All Garmins have had that facility using the Mapsource program interface for many years.
Just used my 1390 on round trip from Spain to Italy and only detected one error with a new section of road in the Basque country.
Found the "lane assist" and photorealistic motorway junctions' views excellent for getting in the right lanes.
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I too have a TomTom 720 and it still works great. Won't get used much in the UK now I have sat nav in the car. But one feature I paid for when I did enough miles to justify - TomTom Traffic. Worked well. Not sure how poor the TMC facility on the VW sat nav will be - probably pretty poor.
The RAC app on my Android is good for quickly checking problems before setting out. And the Traffic Eye is quite good too - real images from highways agency cameras.
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My friend bought a Garmin sat nav last year which does not show Distance To Go (only shows estimated time of arrival).
If a sat nav can't show most basic feature, then I'd clear away from that brand.
Of course there may be better models for Garmin.
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It might be worth your friend trying this - press the "time to go" readout, and select "distance to go" on the screen it brings up. Works on mine.
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Or as a last resort, how about reading the instructions. :-)
A few folk who hang around here seem to have a problem with reading.
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I've only used a mate's TT, and to be fair it was very easy to use.
I did however buy a Garmin 1490t, one reason being the oversize screen which is useful in a truck as i have the nav on a non slip unfixed mount often fairly far away on a suitable surface, not as i use it anymore on the new job, nights and regular runs.
Garmin's t models come with free traffic for life, well until the system is superceeded anyway, TT's subscriptions i wasn't prepared to pay.
Once you've used the Garmin for a while it becomes very easy to use, far simpler than most new mobile phones.
You can set the screen to give a very large almost full screen digital speed display with virtually nothing else, useful in vehicles with silly and useless coloured dash lighting, yes some trucks have gone down the form over function route too.
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"My friend bought a Garmin sat nav last year which does not show Distance To Go (only shows estimated time of arrival)"
See Garmin nuvi (one of the cheaper ones) screenshot:
flic.kr/p/avdcBd
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Like Zero, I have a TT 720 and, even at 5 years old but with updates, it does the Biz. TT Customer support is excellent and they charge £10 a year for all European speed camers whereas Garmin charge £20 per country, I think.
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Just fired up TT Home to register the new device and download updates - I can't have more than one device registered on the same account, slightly potty.
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RP its been like that for years. You'll have to use another of your email accounts.
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I looked at both makes but what put me off Garmin was a massive range of very similar models - but with no obvious model range structure, and you couldn't which were new models and which were a bit long in the tooth.
It was all so much simpler with TomTom. Ours failed after 18mths and they replaced it with little hassle. I did think it had a 2yr warranty, but apparently not on all models.
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Went out for a blast today, took the TT for a spin as well. The graphics are friendlier on the TT - the mapping is more consistent and doesn't need to re-load like the Garmin did - the screen is smaller but I can live with that. Altogether a better package. I need a power lead for the bike as battery power seems a bit light on it. Another flaw is that the well regarded RAM mount (which is part of the standard TT package for bikes) isn't a solid enough mount for a bike like mine as all those boxer vibes tend to effect it at certain speeds. Touratech is the way to go but hideously expensive new, have to wait for a second hand one to appear !
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So where did you get to RP?
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A55 to Llandegai - A5 to Pentrefoelas - and across the moors to Denbigh and home via the coast road. 104 miles, 2 hours 18 minutes and an average speed of 47mph according to the TT's summary screen - not counting one coffee, 2 teas and a bacon butty..! I passed an 11 plate black E class estate on the A5 - not you was it ?
Last edited by: R.P. on Sat 15 Oct 11 at 20:16
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No not me, I was scudding around Cheshire yesterday in between grass cutting. I mean grass cutting in mid October? Sheesh !
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Tom Tom vs Garmin. - Runfer D'Hills
