XXL 540TM vs VIA 1505TM vs START 55TM

[gregk1239]

I am new to the world of Tom Tom and I am trying to find a fairly basic unit that provides traffic, fairly easy to use, lifetime map updates, and some of the newer map features (lane guidance, speaking the street names). I am not sure which of the three I listed is the best unit. The TomTom website is confusing, and I can't use their compare tool at all with the START unit, and I can't really see a difference between the XXL 540TM and the VIA, except that it says the VIA has a "Navigation Package", but then I can't find what that means.

The one thing that worries me about the VIA is some people complain that it lacks a lot of functionality (you couldn't update the maps or download the user updates, although the website said you could). However, those were older posts and from what I understood, those features would become functional in the future, so maybe they are now?

I only would be using the unit to get me from place A to place B, so I don't think I would need any fancy trip features (although if I can get it for the same price, I might as well?).

Any advice would be great.

Thanks!

 

[dhn]

Well, here's a link to a comparison chart to start you off .......

https://www.tomtomforums.com/t21826-tomtom-model-feature-reference-updated-11-2-2011-a.html

 

[gregk1239]

Thanks for the list. From that it seems the VIA is better than the XXL, but that is a few months old and doesn't list the US START unit (I am guessing that is a new unit?). Also, it says that the MapShare isn't available yet on the VIA. Has that been enabled yet? The website makes it look like it is available.

 

[dhn]

For a few models, mapshares are now enabled and the rest of the Nav3 devices should have them by the end of June.