GPS Unit for my car

[gman (Grant)]

Just bought a GPS for the car. It is a Tom Tom Go 720.

From the little time I have used it, it seems very easy to use and navigate but then again, I have not used any others

Does anyone own one of these and have there been any issues?

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

We got a TomTom OneXL for Christmas and the main problem I found was over the long weekend when we went to Castlemaine, a number of the roads are not entered accurately, this is probably in the database where they all get there co-ordinates, and we often found ourselves "driving through a paddock" according to the GPS and it would keep telling us to turn left, right, turn around... Also some of the roads were not on the system, and not just new ones either. But when we came home, we couldn't even find the road on WhereIs either.

I use it a lot for public viewings, going to schools I have never been to in my life, and coming home late at night in a strange area....best couple of hundred bucks I have ever spent!

[taminga16 (Greg)]

Grant,
How did you find you way around before the purchase of your GPS?

Regards,

Greg.

P.S. Have you investigated the cost of upgrading the software come the next financial year?, because once you initital time is up they turn off the service.

[gman (Grant)]

I bought the unit for 2 reasons
1. My wife dosen't cope well with the Melways
2. When picking up my son at midnite from a mates place in these damned estates that have curved streets running everywhere, I couldn't be bothered looking at the Melways either.

As far as I have been told, purchasing new mapping should be done every 2 years unless you want every updated street and that they are around the same $ as they are based on the same data. (Navman etc)

[matt]

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

We got a TomTom OneXL for Christmas and the main problem I found was over the long weekend when we went to Castlemaine, a number of the roads are not entered accurately, this is probably in the database where they all get there co-ordinates, and we often found ourselves "driving through a paddock" according to the GPS and it would keep telling us to turn left, right, turn around... Also some of the roads were not on the system, and not just new ones either. But when we came home, we couldn't even find the road on WhereIs either.

I use it a lot for public viewings, going to schools I have never been to in my life, and coming home late at night in a strange area....best couple of hundred bucks I have ever spent!

Same unit as mine, Trevor, and overall I'm quite happy with it.

I've had the same experience as you with the unit getting a little 'confused' on a few occasions, but no major dramas.

One thing I don't like is not being able to zoom in and out on the screen and have the screen stay at that setting. It always automatically zooms out after about 10-15 seconds.

This wasn't the case with my old TomTom.

Also, I seem to get some changed settings and things going missing sometimes when I connect the unit to TomTom Home on the internet. It seems to do odd things after I've hooked up to the homesite to get the latest updates.

Apart from that, it is great value for money

[OneOfOne (Trevor)]

One of the guys at work has an inbuilt GPS in his Beemer and he enquired about updating the mapping info, I think his is about 3 or 4 years old, and they said it would be something like $300-$400...needless to say he told them where to put the update. He said he could buy a brand new one for less that would have all the latest bells and whistles!

Interesting that mine had Eastlink already in it, and when driving down to Frankston it would tell us to stay right (and not drive through the concrete barricade), but it doesn't have the extension to South Road and it always goes nuts when we continue across the intersection!

I always think it is an oversight by the software developers that they can't have it realise that you are not actually driving through a paddock, and instead it should read in the data as you are driving and enter a new road into it's little brain. That way it would automatically update itself with any new roads you happen to drive on. As a programmer myself, I can't see that it could be THAT hard!

[madtuna (Steve)]

After going 40 miles the wrong way in Florida then having to back track 40 miles I went to the nearest WallMart and bought a TomTom.

Briliant little device I couldn't have done without...didn't get lost again!
The only thing I found is they don't cope well with road works and road closures lol but if you make a wrong turn they redirect you back on track

[TrevorW]

No I've got the cheapest and best positioning device had it for the last 30 odd years of driving, it's called a UBD road map this and a good sense of direction. No new fangled devices for me, it takes away the mystery and arguments with the wife. Live on the edge

[Jen]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

No I've got the cheapest and best positioning device had it for the last 30 odd years of driving, it's called a UBD road map this and a good sense of direction. No new fangled devices for me, it takes away the mystery and arguments with the wife. Live on the edge

i agree with you i love the excitement of getting lost, unless i have to be somewhere at a certain time then being lost is not fun i get lost everytime i go to Melbourne i just laugh my way out
Yes i cant read those stupid melways either i have to read them upside down as if im looking at the stars

[okiscopey (Mike)]

Originally Posted by matt

One thing I don't like is not being able to zoom in and out on the screen and have the screen stay at that setting. It always automatically zooms out after about 10-15 seconds.

You can go to the 'Browse map' display and put your current position in the centre of the map (look at the icons, can't remember which one at the moment). Zooming in or out stays at the magnification you want. The map stays put while your position moves on the map ... just tap[ the (top right?) icon to re-centre the map on your position. Not sure if the go-to voice directions keep working in this mode .. they probably do.

This mode is brilliant for walking ... might be a bit fiddly when driving.Try it.

[gary]

Originally Posted by gman

Just bought a GPS for the car. It is a Tom Tom Go 720.

From the little time I have used it, it seems very easy to use and navigate but then again, I have not used any others

Does anyone own one of these and have there been any issues?

Hi Grant,

To the best of my knowledge, most of the Satnav systems on the Australian
market, including TomTom, use mapping information supplied by Sensis for Australia.
TomTom currently sell the v7.20 map of Australia for AUD149.95.
By comparison, a map of entire Northern America, including the USA, Canada, Alaska,
Hawaii and Puerto Rico is only AUD89.95 and a map of all of Western & Central
Europe is only A$119.95. However, map of New Zealand is AUD149.95.

I've used a TomTom 920 extensively in several Australian states and though
the mapping data, like all Satnav systems, does have the occasional error,
it is mind-boggling how complete the data often is. For example, you can
navigate down to the street level in somewhere like Birdsville. What is also
impressive is the amount of Point Of Interest (POI) data. For example, the other
day I was in a part of the city I was not very familiar with and needed to find
a hardware store. A quick search for 'Bunnings' provided a dozen stores
sorted in order of distance. When returning a rental car to the airport, it is
also nice to command it to "take me to the airport" and then say, "show me
petrol stations near destination" and then "navigate me back via this petrol
station". I also very much appreciate the Estimated Arrival Time shown on
the display. It can help alleviate the "I wonder if I am going to be late for
this cross town appointment" or "am I going to get to the airport on time"
anxiety.

I used a Garmin system in California last year. Arriving very late at night
by air into Ontario airport in California, it was impressive to be able to
navigate to my destination quite some distance away despite road blocks
due to late night road works. Having driven several times before in LA
with a street directory between my knees (LA street directories are
so large compared to their Sydney and Melbourne counterparts, that the
roads are just drawn as thin lines in order to condense the map), there is
no way I would drive there again without a Satnav. One of the impressive
things about this particular unit was that it had live traffic reporting, would
accurately warn me of congestion and roadworks and on several occasions
divert me around it where possible. The TomTom also supports live traffic
data but this facility is not yet available for Australian users to the best of
my knowledge. I think you will find your TomTom a useful tool.

Best Regards

Gary

[hogly52 (Graeme)]

Hi,

I bought a Garmin nuvi 760 just over a week ago, and thus far I'm very impressed with it. In the brief time I've owned it, I've taken it to Melbourne and found that it guided me very succesfully around the northern and southern suburbs, and to and from the airport. I have another trip to the Queensland east coast this week-end and have already programmed it with the required routes and destinations.

It operates with a "Whereis" based application which is 2008 series. I did find it missing some streets, and some house numbers, in some of the locations I visited, but I was still able to reach the required destination. I have one free update available to me, next month I think, and then pay for subsquent updates.

If you don't follow the directions precisely, it recalculates and tries to put you back on course. Some of the u-turn points it identified on the Hume Freeway were suspect, as they were emergency vehicle use only. Overall, and even though I'm very comfortable with the Melways, I was impressed and will continue to use it as much as possible. I also like the bluetooth link with my mobile.

Cheers,

Graeme

[marki]

Originally Posted by OneOfOne

We got a TomTom OneXL for Christmas ..best couple of hundred bucks I have ever spent!

I got one last Christmas as well. Have had no problems so far and it delivers me to the front door every time. The battery life is too short though and you have to keep it plugged into a power source. I put John Cleese on mine to make the directions a little less tedious . The software that comes with the GPS allows you to modify the maps if they are incorrect which is also pretty handy. You can also bluetooth it to a mobile and it will direct you around traffic congestion. Love it and threw my old ubd in the bin.

Cheers

Marki

[Zuts]

Originally Posted by marki

Love it and threw my old ubd in the bin.
Marki

I have a GPS phone, and when i need it it is very very usefull. Good for getting the lat/long for setup at a new site as well.

Still, batteries being batteries I threw my UBD under the back seat and not in the bin

Paul

[marki]

Originally Posted by Zuts

I have a GPS phone, and when i need it it is very very usefull. Good for getting the lat/long for setup at a new site as well.

Still, batteries being batteries I threw my UBD under the back seat and not in the bin

Paul

Paul you are a wise man

: D

[I.C.D (Ian)]

G'Day All


Got MIO C520 last Christmas beats trying to drive and look at a book or even worse have the navigator telling you to turn left when you should have turn right because the book is upside down .The thing I like is the split screen which lets you know
1 How fast you are going
2 Distant travelled and distant left
3 Time for the trip will take
Warns you when you go over the speed limit, red light camera’s area’s also voice and visual turn instruction at you finger tip All in all very happy with mind especially with the touch screen also finding ATM and service station and all the other P.O.I .You are right about keep the batteries on charge while you are driving and if you are going to use them as a hand device make sure the batteries fully charged before leaving.
But remember one thing with all these device it is only as good as the information that you put in to it, do a half hearted job and you will only get a half hearted result