picking up my multi 1260s tomorrow. been looking at sat navs. which is best? the tom tom 550 is considerably cheaper than the 595lm. Am i missing something or is it inferior?
Horses for courses... If you like turnkey dumbed down navigation then TomTom is probably your best bet. Yes, you can do detailed planning on your PC and transfer it across but Garmin arguably does this better though maybe with more of a learning curve to get the best out of it. This is a debate that could go on and on depending on the point of view of whoever is spouting forth... If you ride/tour regularly with others then buy the one that your buddies use, will save lots of arguments over beers in the evening of which is best and why theirs buggered up the route you rode that day. If you look at adventure riders see which ones use Garmin and which use TomTom, I think you'll find very few of the latter...
BMW, KTM, Honda, Yamaha... whatever... Though the TT550 might be the answer to everyone's prayers, who really knows without trying it. My opinions were formed a long time ago when Garmin customer support was real people, who knew the product, in their office in the UK. At that time TomTom had made a complete cock up of designing the cradle for the original rider which regularly broke yet they were in a state of denial about the problem. Their support at the time was outside the UK and was next to useless. I accept that things have changed over the years and Garmin now also have call centre type support. However, I invested time in learning the product and have owned a few over the years (none died though I learnt to replace internal batteries and screens in that time as well as fix an issue or two). I have a decent work-flow for my route planning that has yet to seriously fail me on the road other than my attention not being on the ball at the decisive moment.
I have to admit I am not as accomplished as yourself with any navigation device, so went with Ride magazine's recommendation of the TomTom over the Garmin unit. Their article came to the conclusion that the Garmin although slightly better in certain aspects over the TomTom, but those aspects did not justify the vast increase in price. But they also said the TomTom screen is easier to see in bright sunlight, over the Garmin, which it does, the TomTom recalculates routes quicker than the Garmin, which it does as compared to both my mates Garmin's, but both makes still cause arguments over which route is the best, even with both my mates who both have Garmins ?
I have a 595LM. I bought it over the 395LM as it had a few extra features and it was on offer which didn’t make it that much more than the 395. Would I have paid the full retail on it? Probably not. I was watching the price go up and down on it for months before finally buying it. It’s also pretty tough. Fell off my Blackbird at a good speed (my fault as didn’t put it in the cradle properly!) and only minor scuffs. I’ve used it abroad and it’s worked really well, routing around accidents and road closures and lots of POI already in it.
I did quite a lot of digging around a few weeks ago. My TomTom is now unsupported and I will replace it as it pisses me off. Conclusion that I came to was that satnavs and their software are reasonably sophisticated and both Garmin and TomTom require a good investment of time to use properly. A consequence of this sophistication is that most of the reviews that I found were factually inaccurate - presumably because the journo was too pressurised for copy and didn't give each device the time that it deserved. One of the key issues with my TomTom compared to a mate's Garmin is that the Garmin can put the information line at the top of the screen whereas on mine it is at the bottom. I can have it along the side but the most important bit of information is the next turn. This is at the bottom of the bar rather than the top. Never seen this issue ever mentioned. Personally, if I was buying now, I would probably compare screens quite intensively. I use a dark visor on bright days and the TomTom screen is invisible. Dunno about Garmin but at least it has the most important part of the screen at the top. Other issue is that if you do a left turn, say from main road to side road but the main road turns 90 degrees to the right and the side road is straight on but you are turning off the main road, then my TomTom does not consider this a junction and gives no directions. Therefore if you stay on the main road in the absence of instructions, you will miss the turning. This was an issue when I tried to rely solely on spoken instructions because the screen was difficult to see. I know that a mate's Garmin did see this as a left turn. Dunno if current TomToms have stopped being so stupid but again, never seen this feature mentioned. If current TomsToms still do this then I would definitely not buy one. Just had a quick look on Amazon and it seems that TomToms would also (as mine does) consider a left hand bend, say a 90 degree one as a left hand turn - even though you stay on the main road that happens to have a bend in it. To my simple mind, this is an unforgivable error, It is not a turn or anything that you need to be instructed upon if you are staying on the main road. So I would definitely not buy a TomTom.
Have you tried using a legal visor, as this may cure your visual problems. I have no problem with the info at the bottom of my screen.
In terms of cost; admittedly my Zumo 590 was £125 off a mate who changes bikes as often as his underwear. He bought a GS with all the toys and no longer needed the Zumo that he'd bought less than a year earlier... My lucky day, he wanted £100 to start with but I felt guilty As to GPSs seeing corners as junctions, my Garmins have always done this if there's a road junction, no matter how minor (only needs to be a track, so long as on the mapping data) that's on that corner. Not ideal but now I know this behaviour it's not really an issue.
Apologies for hijacking the thread but I am interested to clarify before forking out. This is the route to the Owls Nest at Llandovery and I am travelling from right to left along King's road. I need to turn left to travel along Broad Street. Obviously, I do not have priority and need to give way irrespective of direction. Despite going from the A40 on to the A4069, my TomTom does not see this as a junction. Therefore no instruction - either verbal or on screen - will be issued. My mate said that his Garmin did tell him to turn but I am not 100% sure he understood what I meant. Obviously the on-screen map will show you going straight on to the A4069 but not showing any constructions to negotiate a junction. Alternatively, if you were not going to the Cafe but continuing along the A40, you would get an instruction to turn right - although that just happens to be the way you go to follow the A40 and so, in my book, no instruction is needed - whereas in the first case, one most certainly is required - unless you want to sail across a busy junction without giving way to anybody. I think that this is a dangerous and fundamental fault (although I seem to be the only one!). You are saying that a Garmin will do this?
PerryL, going by your map travelling in the direction you have given, the only priority you have to give I see is to pedestrians surely, at that junction. My TomTom sometimes does tell me on the route it has plotted, that even though it is the major road I am following, if it has a bend in it (to the left or right) sometimes it tells me to turn right or left which I find puzzling but it doesn't bother me that much.
This is on my Garmin Zumo 590, approaching that junction note the arrow on the route and the turn left in 100yd, this will be announced. Getting closer to the junction sorry, cropped the instruction off in this shot but as you can just see it's saying 30yd to go and turn left onto A4069, this would also be announced as any turn with a white arrow will be.
FWIW, bought a 500 TomTom earlier this year. Got it as the other lads had them and made sense for a European trip to all have the same. Planning and usage during the trip worked well. However, on coming home mine packed up, quick look and appears the wiring in the mount is broken. So that’s just over a week use and broken - not happy at that. Then not offered a replacement (admittedly 2 months had passed) and had to do this under the warranty. TomTom customer support so far has been truly awful and took nearly 3 weeks for them to get me the dpd postage sticker for it to be sent off to be analysed and repaired - Romania if I recall correctly. Should take about ten days they say. Price and functionality are clearly important considerations but at these prices quality and customer service should be high on your list as you’ll likely own it for a good while and waiting for what will be over a month in my case may not work for you if you depend on your for regular use.
Weigh that against Garmin's service exchange scheme for GPSs that are out of warranty... You can send in your old unit and pay a fee to exchange it for a good as new white-box factory refurbed unit. Currently for my 590 that's something like £150. it varies from model to model and tends to get cheaper as they age. Doesn't matter why/how they've failed, or you've broken it, just as long as you send the old one back.
@Bumpkin That sounds like a good deal. I bought one of my TomTom's at Argos but had no need to use it for many months. Then when I did come to use it that's all I could get was searching for a signal, anyway went back to Argos and complained they said I had to send it off to TomTom, i told them I had bought it off them not TomTom, eventually they saw the light and replaced it with a new one. But other than that I haven't had any other problems. But as pointed out by @Pete1950 it seems Garmin's lifetime maps are far longer supported than TomTom.
No it is a junction and you do not have priority to traffic on the A40. The A40 is the main road and the A4069 is a turning - although my TomTom disagrees So you would indicate left - although you are going straight on in direction.
Thanks. That is correct as the Garmin correctly shows this as a left turn. That is why I would not buy a TomTom. To me, this illustrates a fundamental flaw with the TomTom - unless they have now changed this idiocy. This has never been mentioned in any review that I have read. This shows me that reviews are not great because the reviewer does not spend enough time with each device.
