Garmin vs. Tom Tom GPS... my thoughts.

[Big Cuddly Bear]

I had a Garmin GPS for about 4 years before I dropped it, and broke it. I really liked it. At the time I bought it, it was not top of the line, but I would guess it was "up there". And for all those years, the only issue I ever had was when I took it to Disneyworld. I would set up the house we rented as "our home" location. And upon getting back to my real home, it was always hard to get it to recognize my real home. I would fight it, and eventually win, but it was a pain in the butt. But the one thing I loved was that it always seemed to pick the best way to go.

So now that I broke it, my mom got me one for Christmas last year - a Tom Tom.

I love this thing for all the cool little features it has, like indicating to me that I am exceeding the speed limit of the road I am on. It is very easy to see what is coming up.

But 2 things I don't like:

1. I noticed that it had a wrong route #. The real route # is 532, but the Tom Tom called it 352.

2. Even though I have it set up to use the most direct route, it wants to take me ways that I know take longer, and in some cases, make no sense at all. And one day my buddy came over and his Tom Tom wanted to take us a dumb way as well. Now, he actually didn't know how to use it, so his teenagers set it up for him. I asked him if I could check to see if it had the most direct route on, and it did.

So, I don't get why the Tom Tom seems to pick illogical ways to get somewhere. I could tell that we would have arrived at the proper destination, but it would have taken longer.

One other thing I liked with the Tom Tom is that it seemed to be more "dead on" when telling me how close we were to an exit, or to a destination than my Garmin.

So, anyway, I just thought I would put this out there. Maybe it can help somebody make a choice. Or maybe, somebody could tell me why my Tom Tom wants to go the long way, or weird ways.

 

[famofsix]

i dunno but my Tom-Tom does the same thing about going the long way around and my brother tells me his Garmin is far superior

 

[Fire14]

I don't know either but how funny this came up. My dad has a tom tom and was telling me about how it wanted to take him on scenic tour around Chicago area recently, and just for kicks I had him try my home addy as it's a unknown place to UPS/fedex 80% of time. It said address didn't exist LOL.
The next night I tried Coworkers Garmin and it pulled up my address no problem.

 

[sparklynails23]

We have the same problem in reverse. The new Garmin doesn't take us the shortest way to places. Tom-Tom was ok for us. Maybe it's regional. Maybe we should switch.

 

[AllisonK]

I have a Tom Tom. The last time I used it was to go to the mall here at school 2 weeks ago - it took me the longest route possible... on the way back i figured out I was close enough to Target and went back the way I know how to get back to campus...

Then when I was driving down to school in August I knew at one point I had to take one bridge instead of the other (it's quicker and takes about 15 minutes off the drive) and it didn't even say it was recalculating - just that I needed to "turn around when possible" - SCARY lol but it did eventually get back on track... (it only took 20 minutes, though - I was almost at school by then!)

And we took it the day after I bought it to the outlets that are about 40 minutes from my house... just to test the thing out... and when you get off the exit you have to go left... it told us to go right... and then to "turn around when possible." And my parents took it to New Hampshire with them back in August - it took them the wrong way, too... luckily they knew where they were going...

 

[RF536]

We don't have a Garmin, but our Tom Tom can be quite interesting to follow. When we went to Disney World a couple of years ago, we had it set to go to Fort Wilderness and it took us on a very senic route through Disney. Our favorite part was when it told us we had reached our destination, and we were in front of the sewage treatment plant.

The other glitch we have is it constantly tells us our route includes dirt roads and it we want to avoid them. Which would be fine except we live on a dirt road, so it is hard to avoid them.

 

[Ciao Mickey]

I had a Garmin GPS for about 4 years before I dropped it, and broke it. I really liked it. At the time I bought it, it was not top of the line, but I would guess it was "up there". And for all those years, the only issue I ever had was when I took it to Disneyworld. I would set up the house we rented as "our home" location. And upon getting back to my real home, it was always hard to get it to recognize my real home. I would fight it, and eventually win, but it was a pain in the butt. But the one thing I loved was that it always seemed to pick the best way to go.

So now that I broke it, my mom got me one for Christmas last year - a Tom Tom.

I love this thing for all the cool little features it has, like indicating to me that I am exceeding the speed limit of the road I am on. It is very easy to see what is coming up.

But 2 things I don't like:

1. I noticed that it had a wrong route #. The real route # is 532, but the Tom Tom called it 352.

2. Even though I have it set up to use the most direct route, it wants to take me ways that I know take longer, and in some cases, make no sense at all. And one day my buddy came over and his Tom Tom wanted to take us a dumb way as well. Now, he actually didn't know how to use it, so his teenagers set it up for him. I asked him if I could check to see if it had the most direct route on, and it did.

So, I don't get why the Tom Tom seems to pick illogical ways to get somewhere. I could tell that we would have arrived at the proper destination, but it would have taken longer.

One other thing I liked with the Tom Tom is that it seemed to be more "dead on" when telling me how close we were to an exit, or to a destination than my Garmin.

So, anyway, I just thought I would put this out there. Maybe it can help somebody make a choice. Or maybe, somebody could tell me why my Tom Tom wants to go the long way, or weird ways.

I have a Garmin and had the same problem. WHen we were going home from Yonkers (to NJ) it was sending us so out of the way (we were on the GWB and it told us to get off and go through NYC ) that I thought it was broken.

When I checked the settings it had *shortest route* set but it also had *no tolls roads* set and that was the problem.

Check all of the settings.

 

[tvguy]

My daughter has a Tom Tom, my son a Garmin.

Both seem to get easily confused, and both at times suggest bizarre routes.

 

[Cheshire Figment]

Those who know the New York City areas should enjoy this.

I was going from Virginia to a hotel near LaGuardia Airport. Tried three different programs.

First, and most logical, had me exit the NJ Turnpike at the Goethals Bridge, cross Staten Island and take the Bkoolyn Queens Expressway to Grand Central Parkwy.

Second, and also very logical, was to take the GW Bridge to the Major Deegan to the Triboro to Grand Central PArkway.

But the one that blew my mind was the one to take the Lincoln Tunnel and cross midtown Manhattan to the Midtown Tunnel to the BQE, etc.