Tomtom GO 910

[Jim Dick]

Has anyone had any experience with the Tomtom GO 910 navigation system? I saw one this weekend and it looks like it has everything and more that Street Pilot has but doesn't cost as much. I also was told that map upgrades are free except for shipping the disk!!! This one covers the U.S., Canada, and Europe! The GO 510 is less expensive and covers the U.S. and canada. It, too, is supposed to have free upgrades.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Dunno about that one, but I got so disgusted with the routings of my Street Pilot 2620 that I sold it. There are lots of competitors on the market now and no reason to put up with Street Pilot's idosyncracies.  I was going to try the Iway 500 but the new coach has a Magellan 700 system integrated with the Trip Tek computer & colro back-p camera, so will see how that works first.

I hear about other folks using Tom Tom products and they seem to be happy with them.

 

[Bob Buchanan]

There are lots of competitors on the market now and no reason to put up with Street Pilot's idosyncracies.?

What are some of those idosyncrasies, Gary? I just bought a refurbished 2610 and am very pleased so far. But OTOH, I am not experienced enough to know better. The only thing I have noticed so far is if I take a different route than it calculates, it tries very hard to bring me back to what it wanted vs. recalculating based on the new routing I have chosen. It asks to do "U" turns up and over exit points until the "fastest route" is no longer what it wanted vs. what I want. It then "does" recalculate using my current location w/the same destination. So that is probably a feature vs. an anomaly.

Another thing I learned over my Holiday trek to San Jose was the use of a manual recalculate. I find that if I have strayed from a route and am now in a parking lot about to continue -- a quick manual recalculation gets the unit back on track faster than if it tries to figure out what I've done on its' own.

These factory refurbished units can be had for a lot less than the original price, have a 1 year warranty from Garmin, include V8 SW, and are hard to tell from brand new. It appeared that most everything in the factory sealed box "is" new (cables, documentation, etc.) other than the refurbished 2610. And the 2610 and screen were spotless. A 2gb compact flash card is selling at Fry's today for $9.99 after rebate (only $36.00 w/o the rebate) so that made the 10 more attractive to me than the 20. My brother just bought a 2610 as well and paid $349.00 whereas I got mine for $375.

One reason I went in this direction was because of the positive reports from others on this forum about the 2610 -- so am surprised to hear of your dissatisfaction to the point of selling your 2620. The additional features on newer units such as MP3 player ability would be useless to me -- as would paying a premium price for the blue tooth stuff.

 

[Jim Dick]

Gary,

I, too, get frustrated at times with the way SPIII wants to route me or can't because the info is missing even though I have loaded all the maps. I'm not quite ready to upgrade yet but saw the Tomtom GO 910 on Thanksgiving. I see they also make one for a motorcycle that can ascertain if you are on the bike or in the car! It doesn't seem to have all the maps the 910 offers but I certainly don't need Europe! It'll be interesting to see if anyone has actual experience with this unit.

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Bob,

I have set SPIII for no u-turns and she still tries occasionally to get me to make a u-turn. I haven't updated the maps since I got mine because I refuse to pay the unlock code again. That's why the Tomtom unit sounds like a pretty good deal.

 

[Bob Buchanan]

Hi Bob,

I have set SPIII for no u-turns and she still tries occasionally to get me to make a u-turn. I haven't updated the maps since I got mine because I refuse to pay the unlock code again. That's why the Tomtom unit sounds like a pretty good deal.

Oh -- I wasn't aware there was such a setting. is that under Preferences somewhere? RTFM, Bob! But why would you turn it off it a U-turn might be the right thing to do to get you back on track?

Not sure I understand why spending $650 for a GO 910 (one price I saw on the net) would be better then spending $75 for a map upgrade every 2 years. ???

I looked at the specs on the 910 and others -- and see they are adding everything under the sun above the basic functions in order to make one brand more attractive to the buyer. The trend to put everything in one box continues.  One day, we will be buying just "a box". Fry's will sell boxes, Best Buys, and so forth. The more expensive "boxes" will contain a computer, cell, gps, mp3 player, video, wireless access to everything that transmits anything, and any new hand held device function that will every be invented.

But for now tho, I just wanted a GPS to keep me from getting lost, while I listen to my iPod . . . 

Will miss seeing you at QZ this year, Jim.

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Bob,

Yes, that option is somewhere under the intial settings menu. I'll try to look it up if you don't find it. I have no desire to make a u-turn with a 40' coach and toad! Usually it's in a very inconvenient location.

The last price I saw for an upgrade was $150!! That's what I paid initially. If everything worked perfectly I would probably do it but the changes don't keep up with what's going on in the real world and I'd still be behind. Yes, I know none of them will keep up. ;D

Manufacturers have to keep improving what they are offering or nobody will continue to buy from them. You are correct that we'll be buying boxes someday with everything inside. If you look at their ad you'll see a menu that says "what's in the box". I do like the idea of having a hands free kit included but my phone isn't blue tooth so it won't do me any good at the moment. I don't expect I'll be changing yet but wanted to get some insight from those that might be using the unit.

We'll miss not seeing you as well, Bob. Love those fireside chats about Navy and Photography.

 

[Ned]

We have U turns set off but our 2620 will still try to get us to make one when we go off the calculated route.  We also have the preferences set for Truck, and that helps somewhat in the routing.

The upgrade price was dropped to $75 last year.

Our new phones, Nokia 6315i, has an MP3 player, camera, video recorder, web browser, SMS messaging, and a GPS that will actually navigate for you, and it still makes phone calls   Of course, everything costs extra.

 

[caltex]

Jim, I'm not sure how this relates, but I toured about 1,000 miles this week using the Garmin on the dash and the Tahoe's in dash mapper (I think it is a Panasonic).  So far I much prefer the Garmin. The big negative for the Panasonic is that it won't give turn by turn directions on the smaller roads, even though it shows the roads and their name on the map.

A couple of miles from my house, it tells me that it will not be able to give any further directions and that I should use the compass and head in the direction of the waypoint (which is also shown on the map!). I don't know why this is set up this way. Of course the Garmin just keeps routing me right to the house.

A second negative, which I hadn't considered, is that I can easily see and read the Garmin on the dash without taking my eyes off the road.  Although the in dash unit is at least twice as large (screen), it's location requires a much longer look to see what is going on.  This has nothing to do with one brand vs. the other but has convinced me that a top of the dash unit is preferred to a lower mounted in dash unit.

The cost of the updates is a negative for the Garmin, but other than that I am very happy with it.

 

[Jim Dick]

Ned,

Since I haven't bothered to upgrade I didn't realize they had dropped the price. Still a lot more than the Tomtom. I have the option for navigation on the phone as well but sure would hate to try with that small screen. ;D

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Robert,

The Garmin has been OK but there have been many times when it refused to route me on a road that was shown on the maps. One such instance is the bypass around Ft. Wayne, IN. I can see the track on the screen but it still keeps routing me onto side roads. I admit Garmin is ahead of many of them but wanted some feedback on the Tomtom. As with any of them one must be able to navigate on their own when all else fails. That's why the Naval Academy still teaches navigation by the stars! ;D ;D

 

[Jeff]

Hi Robert,

The Garmin has been OK but there have been many times when it refused to route me on a road that was shown on the maps. One such instance is the bypass around Ft. Wayne, IN. I can see the track on the screen but it still keeps routing me onto side roads. I admit Garmin is ahead of many of them but wanted some feedback on the Tomtom. As with any of them one must be able to navigate on their own when all else fails. That's why the Naval Academy still teaches navigation by the stars! ;D ;D

Jim:

We have a 2720 and in September drove US 30 from Chicago through Ft Wayne to Van Wert OH and the GPS routed me around the north side of FT Wayne on I469???

I do have the Garmin set up for trucks when it is in the m/h which usually keeps us on major roads and bypasses.

 

[Jim Dick]

Hi Jeff,

Sounds like they fixed whatever the problem was in SPIII. It's just strange the maps show the road but won't utilize it. I have mine set for bus I think.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

I had the 2620 set for "bus" and it didn't have any effect that I could see. Neither did "truck".  The lady in the box still wanted to take every goat track she could find, take short cuts through cities rather than staying on truck routes or major highways, make U turns on two lane roads and sundry other improbably feats.  On more than one occasion this has led me to suggest anatomically infeasible acts to her!

I have an City Navigator V7 update disk for a 2620 if anybody is interested.

 

[Smoky]

I have my 2620 set for truck and it makes a huge difference compared to car/motorcycle.

I do NOT like having to pay for upgrade maps, especially considering the rapid change of technology in the base units and the declining prices.  That is my only complaint with Garmin.

Likely my next one will be a Tom Tom.  Free upgrades would save a lot of money combined with the less expensive base price.

 

[Bob Buchanan]

I have my 2620 set for truck and it makes a huge difference compared to car/motorcycle.

That's good info -- as others have mentioned, tho it didn't seem to work for Gary. Will find that setting and make sure my 2610 is set to Truck. Do you then set it back to auto when you use it in your Toad -- or do you need it there?

That is my only complaint with Garmin.

Likely my next one will be a Tom Tom.  Free upgrades would save a lot of money combined with the less expensive base price.

Smoky, am having trouble understanding how spending $650 for a TomTom would be less expensive than $75. for upgrades every two years with the Garmin that you say you have no other complaints with ??? ???

 

[Jeff]

That's good info -- as others have mentioned, tho it didn't seem to work for Gary. Will find that setting and make sure my 2610 is set to Truck. Do you then set it back to auto when you use it in your Toad -- or do you need it there?

Bob:

Yes, I set it back to auto when we are in the toad or the Garmin will take the long way around when running around town.


Gary:


The Garmin and S&T seem to agree 98% or more of the time when I plan longer trips on S&T and then start driving with both units running. If we get a chance it would be interresting to campare setup on the two units and then type in a few destinations. Probably won't get a chance to do that before you sell it but perhaps Bob and I will have a chance to do so at QZ.

 

[Smoky]

Bob:

I agree with Jeff, and set it back and forth depending on which vehicle I am driving.  75% of the time they will indeed agree, but the 25% time they differ might get your coach around a bad spot.

If you are going to make that comparison with the Garmin, add in the roughly $1,000 base price for an upgrade.  None of these units can last very long because they stop supporting them after a few years, especially the Garmins.

 

[Jim Dick]

I had the 2620 set for "bus" and it didn't have any effect that I could see. Neither did "truck".  The lady in the box still wanted to take every goat track she could find, take short cuts through cities rather than staying on truck routes or major highways, make U turns on two lane roads and sundry other improbably feats.  On more than one occasion this has led me to suggest anatomically infeasible acts to her!

I have an City Navigator V7 update disk for a 2620 if anybody is interested.

Gary,

You must have the same navigator. She does the same things to me!!!

 

[Tom]

Haven't seen the TomTom but have heard/read numerous good reports of it from users.

When we decided to replace the Garmin SPIII we went to a store that had lots of different (working) makes and models on display. I encouraged Chris to play with them all several times and she kept coming back to the iWay 500C. At the time it was half the price of the equivalent Garmin, so we were both happy campers. The user interface was the key factor in the decision, although the iWay has some additional neat features, including dedicated menus such as ones for RVers.

I've compared the iWay alongside the Garmin, DeLorme and S&T on various trips, but have yet to see anywhere the iWay was inferior or incorrect. Map updates cost about the same as Garmin.