TT experience so far - extremely underwhelming
Several years back I bought a used Garmin Quest from a co-worker and absolutely loved it. It wasn't exactly feature packed, but it worked flawlessly. The one issue that became increasingly unbearable to me was the fact that it had very limited memory and I had to load different maps whenever I went on a trip. With my wife and I making 2-3 trips a month for business, it became extremely burdensome to keep switching maps.
I bought a TT XL for my father in law this past Christmas and was immediately impressed by the large display, touch screen interface, and pre-loaded maps. I did my research and ponied up the $$$ for a refurb TT730 which I picked up for $230 on buy.com. The 730 seemed to have a wealth of features for a price far below the closest competition.
Disclaimer - I am extremely tech savvy and have no problem tinkering with the inner workings of my computer, blackberry, and other gadgets. That being said - almost every advanced feature of my 730 has been a struggle. TT Home is a buggy, glitch ridden train wreck. It bricked my TT the first time I updated and I had to reload everything. TTS has never worked for me (constant stuttering). Making playlists for the jukebox is a convoluted mess requiring a MP3 ripper and playlist creator. The speakerphone feature is iffy at best (I much prefer my Blueant visor unit). The TT sometimes resets for no reason, sometimes in the middle of a route or while on a call. I had to edit my contact list in a text file on my PC because the phone import didn't work correctly. The FM transmitter is weak and will drop out while on a call. I can't get a weather report for Albany, NY (only the freakin Capital of New York!) The Itinerary/Waypoint function is idiotic and virtually useless. And I think my TT is possessed, some times it comes on for no reason whatsoever. Did I forget to mention periodic "updates" that make the TT worse rather than better?
The basic navigation and POI features are pretty good, and traffic actually works pretty well with my T-Mobile Blackberry Curve (even though I don't think an average consumer could manage to set this up properly), but everything else has been a mess for me. If I were an everyday consumer who dropped $400+ on this unit in a retail store and had to go through this I would be livid. The next time I am in the market for a GPS, I think I will be going back to Garmin. I would advise anyone shopping for TT to stick to the most basic models - the advanced features require a tremendous amount of effort (and considerable technical know-how) to get working and just aren't worth the premium.
Wow - now that this is all in writing I can't imaging that I actually bought this thing! TT should be ashamed.
