Travel Technology - Anyone have a TomTom One yet?

I've been looking at car GPS systems for the last month or so. I primarily became interested for geocaching, but it would be nice to use it for work too. I do field service so am on the road a lot.

I have only used a car GPS once, it was a Garmin unit, probablt a c340, that I got with an Enterprise car rental out of ORD. From using it there were many things I found that I did not like. When I wanted to go somewhere it asked for the full address, not just the street. If I did not have a number it wasn't happy. I also want to be able to enter a latitude and longitude and have it take me somewhere close.

The TomTom One seems to solve most of what I want and also adds some other things that I tossed out for my fantasy list of features. When I was playing with this unit I see I could navigate to a city center, an intersection or even just a point on the map. I can also go to a lat/long location. It also allows me to eliminate steps from the route so if I don't want to take a certain road I can eliminate it.

Plus it can be had online for around $420, not too bad of a price.

Overall this unit seems to meet what I want to do. How has your experience been so far? Have you used the poi loader software? What do you dislike about this unit?

I like the part about avoiding certain parts of the planned route. I've always wanted something that allowed that.

I've been looking at the Nuvi 350 but don't really need the translator or MP3 player, and the price is pretty hefty. I hadn't even heard of the TomTom One until I saw this post and I am so ready to order one now. Amazon.com has it for $446.99, has anyone found a better price?

Looking at pricegrabber.com the best prices out there are at FuturePowerPC.com and chumbo.com they come in at about $428 with ground shipping. FuturePower is showing stock. I have not used either of these companies.

I'm really tempted to pick one up too, but I hate to part with money.
:D I was pretty impressed with the one I played with at Fry's I just wish I could have taken it out in my car for an hour or two.

ScottC is a fan of TomTom units, if I recall correctly, so he might know of a good source for you.

I have had a couple of TT units and for my purposes found them to be inferior to Garmin units. The current versions offered by Garmin do all of the things requested, aside from going to a street without a street number and having complete control over each segment in the route. On the other hand, their traffic antenna works great and they're capable of routing around traffic and construction backups.

I hate TomTom units. The unit I had did not know many streets and the time on it was always wrong. The TomTom would tell me a 2hr15min trip would take 4.5 hours. Or maybe a 5hr trip it would say 45min. I thought it was defective but the replacement model did the same thing. It was also not easily portable which was a pain for traveling with it.

I much prefer Garmin. I was advised by a friend to buy a portable unit rather than an in-car unit and am extremely happy. I can easily take the unit with me when I travel, go hiking (i.e., geocaching), and even on the lake.

I'd recommend the Garmin GPSMAP 60c or the 60cx. Tigergps.com is where I bought mine. The 60c is now only $260! Keep in mind that with these portable units you still have to buy the map software that you want to run on it. I have a 60cs as well and I don't think the extra few bucks for the 60cs version is worth it over the 60c.

ScottC is a fan of TomTom units, if I recall correctly, so he might know of a good source for you.ScottC, IIRC you mentioned you liked TomTom when we were at Berghoffs; is that still the case? What are its advantages over the others?

I tried a Garmin a couple weeks ago, not sure which model number, (rental car unit), found the menus awkward; is the TomTom easier to work with?

What about the Nuvi? Looking to get one for Mrs. Gargoyle's car, I want one that is quick to program and easy to use while driving, not distracting.

TIA,

I used a TomTom in Englad and it was a doddle, very intuitive menus. In the UK it is the most oft chosen brand, I don't know if that is because UK map coverage is better. I would love to hear any first hand reports on the TomTom One.

ScottC, IIRC you mentioned you liked TomTom when we were at Berghoffs; is that still the case? What are its advantages over the others?

I tried a Garmin a couple weeks ago, not sure which model number, (rental car unit), found the menus awkward; is the TomTom easier to work with?

What about the Nuvi? Looking to get one for Mrs. Gargoyle's car, I want one that is quick to program and easy to use while driving, not distracting.

TIA,

Yes, I still love TomTom. I suspect you had an older Garmin, their old streetpilot units were terrible to operate, and nothing like they make now.

Garmin was pretty late into the true consumer market but is catching up nicely with TomTom. Pricewise they are still insane though. A Garmin unit comparable to the TomTom go 910 is a whopping $400 more. A Garmin unit comparable to the TomTom One is almost $300 more. It is hard to justify price differences that big. Personally I still think the TomTom is the best choice, even the top of the line Garmin only has US or Europe where the TomTom 910 has USA, Canada AND Europe all in one device.

OTOH; if you are looking for a really (and I mean REALLY) simple unit then Garmin has the market covered, their little streetpilot devices can be found for as little as $200, but to be honest I'd then rather spend $100 more and get something with a touchscreen like a Magellan.

Personally I still think the TomTom is the best choice, even the top of the line Garmin only has US or Europe where the TomTom 910 has USA, Canada AND Europe all in one device.

I really like the sound of that. Is that the only one with all three on the market at present?

And how do you keep the maps up-to-date? Can you do it online? That's a lot of roads to change, rename, change one way systems on etc etc

I really like the sound of that. Is that the only one with all three on the market at present?

And how do you keep the maps up-to-date? Can you do it online? That's a lot of roads to change, rename, change one way systems on etc etc

Buying Europe, Australia or any of the other covered areas on the Garmin is possible at an additional cost -- the limiting factor on how much area you can have loaded at once is the size of your SD card.

Most of the GPS companies sell updates on DVD. At Garmin, the updates are at least $75 per year per region.

Personally I still think the TomTom is the best choice, even the top of the line Garmin only has US or Europe where the TomTom 910 has USA, Canada AND Europe all in one device. I might go with the 510, price point is right. It doesn't look like it includes the Canada and Europe maps; those might be useful.

I read some online reviews (cnet and others) for the 510 and the 910, it seems a lot of people had problems with buggy units which they had to exchange (so I'll consider getting one of those overpriced extended warrantees from a big box store). Also, some people had problems with the dash mount- did you find either of those things to be an issue?

It's possible the buggy problems could be solved with the reset button, it seems a lot of people might have returned or exchanged the unit without trying that.

It has been about a month and a half since the last response so I thought I would bring this back up. Anyone have or at least tried the TomTom One yet? I see the online prices are still floating around $400. Thanks.

I've been looking at the Tom Tom One and the Garmin Nuvi but finally bought the Garmin GPSmap 60CSx last week and have been delighted with it. I wanted a unit I could use in the car and hiking, and the 60CSx fits the bill perfectly. It uses a microSD memory chip, so I have a 1GB card with almost all of City Navigator North America installed. It's got a 20 hour battery life and I've been impressed with the very fast satellite acquisition and almost instantaneous rerouting directions when I get off course. Reception in the car and inside near a window is great. The unit gets excellent reviews on Amazon.com where it's currently selling for $349 after a $50 rebate.

My friend just bought the TomTom One and he's thrilled with it. Can't go wrong, he said.

I just bought a portable nav a couple of days ago for use in rental cars. I had planned to pick up a TomTom but after looking at all the options I went with a dark horse: a Mio C310x. Why? More portable (fits in a pocket), much higher-quality map display with bird's-eye view and street names in 3D mode, and the POI database seemed to be much more comprehensive. I did a test of looking for laundromats, BBQ places, and the quickness of finding a street without being sure what city it was in. The kicker was the ~$330 price tag and included MP3 player. So far I am thrilled with it - great directions, clear voice, easy UI for my fat fingers, and simple to put in/take out of the car.

I saw last night that they have introduced the same thing without the MP3 capability for around $300.

We have now owned our TomTom One V2 for two months and love it to bits. We live in the UK and the maps have all been spot on so far. I really appreciate the flexibility to choose routes via specific roads or towns, or to avoid specific roads. Signal acquisition is very very fast, and unlike older TomToms, this version re-calculates new routes fast, instead of telling you to turn around. It also holds the signal better than older models. These attributes in a smaller unit at a lower price have made us very happy indeed :D

Am driving to niagara falls soon, and was pleasantly amazed by this GPS unit in the cab i took today;

to my surprise this is relativly inexpensive (299+); wanted some opinions before i get it.

:D

I just spent three days in another persons' car in the UK with a TomTom. It was astounding.