Ready to give up on TT One

[golferx]

After one week of trying out TT One 3rd edition, I am ready to return it and try a Magellan. In having it navigate me to 4 locations, one address was one mile away from where the TT took me to, and the other was .30 miles from where the TT took me to (after first trying to take me in a direction that I knew was completely wrong).

Whenever I've used a Hertz Never Lost (Magellan based) the locations and direction were always spot on.

Am I just having bad luck? I decided on TomTom because they were the only unit I could update using a Mac and I love the idea of the user based updates. I know it's not a very big sampling to go by, but a 50% failure rate right off the bat is not a good indication nor does it give me confidence when I take it on the road.

 

[Waylo]

After one week of trying out TT One 3rd edition, I am ready to return it and try a Magellan. In having it navigate me to 4 locations, one address was one mile away from where the TT took me to, and the other was .30 miles from where the TT took me to (after first trying to take me in a direction that I knew was completely wrong).

Whenever I've used a Hertz Never Lost (Magellan based) the locations and direction were always spot on.

Am I just having bad luck? I decided on TomTom because they were the only unit I could update using a Mac and I love the idea of the user based updates. I know it's not a very big sampling to go by, but a 50% failure rate right off the bat is not a good indication nor does it give me confidence when I take it on the road.

That does sound quite odd. What were you using to navigate to? An address? A city zipcode? Were the street names correct? (dr. vs. street vs. lane, etc). Sometimes the POI directory may be outdated.

What city are you navigating around?

 

[golferx]

in both cases I was navigating to an address.

in one case, i could sort of understand it because it was a frontage road which stopped and restarted about a mile away.

i knew where the second one was, and just had the TT on to see which route it would take me. it was pretty good, but when i was two blocks away, and i needed to turn right, it said to go straight. i started following the TT to see where it would take me, but it didn't look like it was going to make a correction anytime soon. so i turned on the next available road. it made a correction, but when i got to the destination, it said that the final destination was still .30 miles away.

 

[golferx]

ooops.

this was in san rafael, california north of san francisco

 

[flyer1024]

I find the exact same problem with mine in Canada and in northeastern US. Lots of addresses or POI's I go to are there, but sometimes as much as a kilometer away from where the tomtom indicates it is.

My sister's whole subdivision is about a kilometer down the road from the tomtom location for instance......MY son's home in Phillie 500 yards up the road....very poor maps IMHO. Last week drove to a school in Nova Scotia....200 yards further up the road was where the tomtom wanted me to go....it's a pretty common problem on my unit.

 

[golferx]

now batting under .500

Gave the TT one more try...a very simple route 5 miles from my house to my health club. All was going fine until about a half a mile away, it told me that i need to go straight for .7 miles. The destination was actually .5 miles to the right. Once I made the correct turn it recalculated and then it was ok...but if I hadn't known where I was going, who knows where it would have taken me had I followed it's original directions.

Makes me wonder if the unit is defective...

 

[itguy05]

Sounds like you may have a bum unit. My Tomtom One LE seems to be pretty much accurate on POIs and such around here. It's been off by a couple hundred feet (as is the built in Nav in my car) sometimes, but they generally get you close enough.

Heck, Google Maps, Mapquest, etc. all put my house's street address 3 houses down on the corner of the road (we are in the middle) and it's been there since the 60's...

The technology in these units is great and generally gets you where you need to go. Puzzling routes from the GPS are just par for the course with all units. The one in the car (Nissan's system which is regarded as one of the best) will take me a route that may not be the one I would have chose but it gets you there. Same with the Tomtom.

 

[flyer1024]

Puzzling routes from the GPS are just par for the course with all units.

I disagree. I have an old garmin gpsv which has none of the problems mentioned in my earlier post. clearly, my older garmin maps are still far more accurate and have much more detail. far more POI's which are exactly where the garmin unit says it is. the only time that old garmin missed was when a business was bankrupt....the building was still there.

last night I drove to two more POI's that turned out not to be where the tomtom says they are....my tomtom will take you city to city, but accurate door to door is not a reality. basically, if you're looking for a restaurant, pull over where it tells you to and get out the binoculars......

 

[wup]

I agree with Flyer1024! My 2 year Garmin navigated to the correct location. I put in my address in the tt1 and it wanted me to drive down the road 1.2 mi. Also the tt1 seems to only save your location or a poi if you are on a named road. It would not take my location when in a parking lot!

 

[flyer1024]

This week I have to travel to a school in New Brunswick. Been doing that for five years with my old garmin. Tonight I looked for that school on the Tomtom.

guess what? NOT there!

gonna have to punch in the co-ordinates from the garmin....might be better to just re-install my garmin mount.

seriously folks, the tomtom maps are lagging far behind. I see it every day.

seen the new bridge ribbon cutting ad for the tomtom? my wife and I have a good laugh every time we see it. about as misleading as advertising can get!

 

[golferx]

Thanks for all the feedback. Now I know that this wasn't a bum unit or an anomaly.

So now the question is Magellan or Garmin?

From what I can gather, Magellans are hard to interface with your computer (I have a Win machine, but would rather use Mac) and Garmin's are charging an arm and a leg for "updated" maps.

 

[wup]

If you didn't update a Garmin map for years it will still be better than the TT. Several times today the TT had the wrong name for a street and the two year old Garmin with outdated maps was right on. If you are looking for the best map detail and accurancy go with Garmin.

 

[kenbard]

Gave the TT one more try...a very simple route 5 miles from my house to my health club. All was going fine until about a half a mile away, it told me that i need to go straight for .7 miles. The destination was actually .5 miles to the right. Once I made the correct turn it recalculated and then it was ok...but if I hadn't known where I was going, who knows where it would have taken me had I followed it's original directions.

Makes me wonder if the unit is defective...

GolferX: I know what you mean. I am a newbie to the TomTom (have a 920). I work with hospital equipment as a consultant and often drive to some place I have never been. Well this stuff is far from perfect.... I had been using Street Atlas by Delorme and their maps are much older than the Tomtom is. I had posted on their forum how disappointed I was, and one guy responded with the comment that "it is an aid" which really made me rethink how I approach the mistakes.
I will tell you, I was on a road trip last week with the 920 and it guided me through the city very well.. but had a problem finding the hospital in a town off IH45 that I was going to, but it was within about 1/2 mile. So I posted info to the Mapshare when I was in the parking lot which I hope will become a valuable asset to everyone using the Tomtom.
I am still in the "show me" mode, and still may take it back. But finding this forum has renewed my confidence in using the device.
I would look to see if other devices have a forum like the Tomtom does... this particular space.... and I am very optomistic that the Mapshare will benefit us all, if Tomtom and Tele Atlas will take advantage of the information.

 

[jimhallhdg]

The issue of the schools or colleges not being in the POI is one I have talked to TT about and I'd like more people to complain about it. Thanks Jim

 

[jzerocsk]

I have also found the hit-or-miss POIs.

After a few fiascos, I learned that if I'm going someplace where I am totally clueless, I reality check the addresses and POIs in Google Maps and drop custom POIs as needed in TomTom. My friend has a Garmin and he has had similar problems. No POI database is going to be 100% perfect.

 

[golferx]

after researching some other devices, i'm still willing to give this another go with TT, albeit with a different unit. i just ordered a TT One LE and unlike with the last unit, will make sure to get the 7.10 map, although there is another thread that says being able to get 7.10 update from TT is a hit or miss proposition.

it seems like support for any gps brand is universally terrible and there are love it or hate it reviews for any unit out there.

What sold me on TT is MapShare, Mac support and ease of using TT Home to alter/update.

 

[meltdex]

Do You Guys Own Stock in Garmin or What?

Your experiences are your experiences, and I'll say upfront, I've never owned a Garmin, but my TT One New Edition with Navcor 7 and the 710 maps are accurate 99% of the time (POI's included). My navigating areas in the past year: Northeastern N.C., Southeastern & Western Va., W. Va., and Northern California. In MY experience TomTom One is STILL the best GPS (for the money) and that is from my personal experiences as well as everything I have heard or read ANYWHERE. I have now purchased two more One's as gifts and the recipients LOVE them. My two cents worth....

 

[Smokiewolf]

Ditto!

I second that motion!

 

[golferx]

well, like i said, there are always love it or hate it posts/reviews on any gps unit no matter what the make

i'm giving it another shot with a TT One LE, maybe somehow it will work out better this time

https://www.tomtomforums.com/showthread.php?t=4956

hopefully it doesn't end up like a girl that you want to love, but somehow she always ends up disappointing you

 

[meltdex]

I'm with you on that- and good luck....