TomTom on a CA/NV Road Trip! (Results)

Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
1,232
Location
Canada
TomTom Model(s)
ONE v2
Alrighty, so I got to test my TT1 on its very first road trip to a foreign place (I've never been to Cali before).

I forgot to ask this forum whether the 650 or 665 maps were better before I left. I went with 660 and it faired well. There was only one glitch where it took me off the expressway then back on immediately. Oh and Lexus of Newport was at Tustin Lexus. Other than that, it had almost all the POIs I was looking for on my trip. It navigated me flawlessly to all my destinations from SF to LV to LA to SD and back to SF via the PCH. I even tried TT Traffic on morning to get around LA rush hour traffic and it worked well! (I've never seen so many traffic icons when I browsed the traffic map around LA!)

There were lots of "keep left then stay in the left lane" on the highway as many of the exit ramps were multi-laned and because of their design, TomTom thinks that they are forks in the road rather than an off ramp. Also, it was VERY useful in seeing the curves in the road up ahead during night driving along the PCH and Yosemite. If it wasn't for TT, I would've been doing 20-30mph along the PCH (speed limit I think is 55 in some places...45 in others IIRC). With TomTom and my friend helping me out (stupid CA doesn't allow anything stuck to the windshield), I was able to navigate the PCH as if I've driven through it a thousand times and not hold anybody up behind me.

It also saved a lot of time and fuel looking for food stops along the way (as well as exit ramps that we can pull over and switch drivers since some exits were junctions and led to another freeway). I didn't like the fact that Navcore 7 limited your search results to 4 pages only (that's 24 results) versus the 50 that were available before.

An interesting point to note is a trip from SF to LV. Google Maps said 8? hours (no traffic). TT said 10? hours. That's a 2 hour difference. We got there in 9? hours including a lunch stop (~1 hour) plus certain unmentionable sustained speeds. Given that, I'd say TT was probably closer than Google Maps.

My friend was so impressed with TT that he's even thinking of getting one.
 
Wow, I'm new to CA and I didn't know that. It's the law that nothing can be stuck to your windshield?
apparently so (even though I have seen a few people mount their navigation on their windshield anyway).

At the back of the TT manual, it also states that you can't mount it on the windshield in CA.

I ended up sticking it to the driver's side window but had to remember to dismount it before opening it (e.g. drive-thru or toll booth)
 
apparently so (even though I have seen a few people mount their navigation on their windshield anyway).

At the back of the TT manual, it also states that you can't mount it on the windshield in CA.

I ended up sticking it to the driver's side window but had to remember to dismount it before opening it (e.g. drive-thru or toll booth)

Ha well look at me now - I'm a criminal and proved my dad right! :D
 
I drove from BC through Washington, Oregon and finally California with my TT1. Never steered us wrong and a life saver in downtown LA. I drove the whole state of California with the TT stuck to the windshield. I figured the highway patrol had better things to do.
 
Happy to hear your TT navigated well through CA.
Both Map versions work well in L.A.
I like the POI data file from the NA 650. It is more complete than the 665, especially when it comes to attractions and restaurants.
 
ahh.. good to know.

Yeah some of the POIs are weird. For example the San Diego Zoo. Yes, it's under the Zoo category but the name of the POI is "San diego zoo marketing dept"

Or Mann's Chinese Theatre is called "Mann's chinese 6" which I suppose makes sense once I figured out the theatre was no. 6.

It did find Carmel Beach but Laguna Seca is weird. I don't know why TomTom has two names for stadiums. e.g. The Rose Bowl will show two results with the same name with nearly identical distances (one will probably be 100 metres further than the other).

For Laguna Seca, it showed "Mazda laguna seca raceway" and "Laguna seca raceway".. ok... The second one was closer by a few hundred metres so we chose that. Went we got there, it told us to make a u-turn and the actual destination was in the middle of nowhere. We ignored it and the found the entrance to the raceway further up.
 

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