In car navigation

[Greg]

Hi

Interested in the tomtom go in car satnav. Could someone tell me what are the basic difference between the 300 & 500. Looked on the tomtom website but it doesn't make it too clear.

Is Tomtomgo a good product? or is there a cheaper and just as good alternative?

Thanks
Greg

[crocodile]

At the price, Tom Tom is a good product let down by abysmal support & disappointlingly out of date maps. The "latest" maps seem to be accurate to Q1 2003.

The difference between the 300 & the 500 is that the 500 doubles as a handsfree device via blutooth.

Specific "Go" forum here but be aware the site owners seem to be unhealthily close to Tom Tom....

[Greg]

Thanks for the reply, are there any better alternatives?

[crocodile]

I don't have much experience of other products. I guess the first thing you need to decide is whether you want a dedicated unit that only does GPS or a PDA based solution. Then decide exactly what you want from the system & settle down for a long, hard study of the Pocket GPS site. Some of the considerations are:

Would you be able to make use of the extra facilities offered by a PDA?
Will you use it only in the car or also on foot?
Do you only need UK coverage or Europe wide?
Do you need to plan multiple destinations?

It may well be a case of buying something used to see what they can do. Hopefully you could then sell on for close to what you paid if it's unsuitable.

[woody67]

The 300 is UK only and the 500 has European maps too. The 700 has some additional phone dial features.

It is a good product and if you have never used sat nav then it will be great to use. All the equivalent products from other manufacturers work fine, but just do things slightly differently. I would not say that there are 'better' alternatives, but perhaps 'different' or just a different feature that may be better for you.

The maps should be upto mid 2004, I know some of the new roads (completed last summer) around by me are on there - but I am using TT 5 on a PDA, but it should be the same.

Check out the forums and review sections at www.pocketgps.co.uk.

And if you do buy one, don't forget to downloada the POI (points of interest) databases from the above site - especially the speedcam databases.

A cheaper alternative may be a PDA set up - typically a Mitac or similar unit for around the £200- 230 mark. Software may not be as good but still works fine. Then install TT software if you want to.

I agree with all comments on here. Maps are out of date and support appalling but I still wouldn't be without my GO 300.

If you stay mainly in the UK and do not have a bluetooth phone then stick with the 300 as that is the only difference with the 500.

[Greg]

Thanks for the replies. Looks like I have some research to do!

Cheers
Greg

[Artie Fufkin]

Sorry to butt in on this thread, but I have another SatNav question. I haven't yet decided on what I'm buying yet, mainly because we're off to Florida later this year and I haven't been able to find info on US maps. Since I will be buying satnav anyway, I thought I may as well get something suitable for this trip too. Any help?

[crocodile]

USA maps will be an additional cost whatever you buy, eg somewhere around £150 for the Tom Tom Go. For a single trip it would probably be more economical to try to specify a hire car with SatNav.

[Artie Fufkin]

Thanks for that, croc.

[lynx]

Originally Posted by GregHook

Thanks for the reply, are there any better alternatives?

Navman iCN610..http://www.navman-mobile.com/product...hp?id=AA005700
£234 including VAT and 2 year warranty from Costco.
If required US maps are very reasonable...http://www.sparco.com/cgi-bin/wfind2?spn=A49F024