How much improvement that Tomtom has for the last 3 years?

[jerryming]

Hi,
I am in the process of buying my next GPS unit. I have used Tomtom one XL for the last three years. Overall, I am happy with it, the only issue I have is its speed limits, It only has the speed limits on the major interstate highway, there is no speed data for the secondary highway, such as state highway. Quite often, the state highway has 70 m/h speed limits posted, but Tomtom only considers it as 35 mile/hour, so it calculates twice as long as it should be. Eventually it effects on the routing also. So every time when I am on the long trip with such road, I have to check google first, then compare it with Tomtom's, to make sure it pick the right route.

I know that my unit is three years old, but I just checked the Tomtom route planning software, it doesn't seem to have any improvement on it, except using 50(?) mile/hour as default speed limit, instead of 35 mile/hour. I know those road well, they are mostly 65-70 mile/hour.

Right now, I am really struggle on which one to go, Garmin or Tomtom? I am looking at the Garmin 765t or 855, but I really like the display of Tomtom (display tons of information), and large screen such as 540M, with lifetime map update.

I wonder if anybody can provide any information about it, so I can make the decision on which one to get?

Thanks,

Jerry.

 

[canderson]

The addition of IQRoutes has made a lot of difference in planning accuracy. Of course, you'd need something close to current maps to get that feature. You don't mention what map you're running - only that the unit is 3 years old. What map version and firmware are you running?

I find that planning accuracy is substantially improved over what we had 3 years back, and it's not all associated with major highways. Many smaller road sections are mapped for average speeds now.

 

[mvl]

I assume you have the 2007 ONE XL, and that models doesn't have IQroutes. You'll almost never get the situation where Tomtom mis-understands a road's speed with all the new IQroutes models.

With IQroutes, Tomtom routing is heads and shoulders above the competition, as it knows the time-of-day and day-of-week speeds on every road. This results in much much better results than google (or any other GPS) at both arrival times and routing.

Magellan 4700 and Garmin 3700 are the first competition models to attempt to imitate IQroutes, but comparison websites say the competitors quality isn't as good as a Tomtom yet.

If you're looking for customization and large screen, then XXL540 (or XXL535 if you don't need Mexico maps) are the best Tomtom models. They will have all the familiar options from the ONE XL, and more. M is for lifetime maps, T is for lifetime traffic. TM has them both.

You could always buy the M model for now, and buy the lifetime traffic later ($69.95 add on).

 

[jerryming]

Thanks everybody for the information, I decided to go for Tomtom 540TM.

Jerry

 

[eldorado]

I just thought I'd mention that I use the 07 TT OneXL and all my state highways will show the current speed limit of 55mph, which is in California or what ever the speed limit for the road I'm on is, I have the current map 850 upgrade and this speed control worked just fine with all the other updates, I do not have IQ routing but the One XL delivers directions damn good for what I use it for.............

 

[sab]

I've updated the map on my 07 XL a few times and have never been disappointed with it.

Purchased a new 540M recently but haven't really compared the routing diffrences yet. I do wish the 540 had a SD slot though. Unit comes pretty much maxed out on space even if I have removed the things I don't need such as other languages.