13 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Very good and affordable, but not perfect
Date of Review: Aug 25, 2009
The Bottom Line: A great product for the price, but expect some map/routing errors. Always have a real map handy.
If you are looking for a basic point-to-point GPS device, this is quite good. I purchased the refurbished unit but was able to get a free map update whereas others weren't able to. It's a roll of the dice for the refurbished ones, unfortunately.
The routing is pretty accurate. Not as good as you would get from someone knowing the roads and ways around traffic lights, but it will get you there.
The biggest drawback I have found with the TomTom units are the underlying maps. They're not very accurate for side streets in the United States. They are based off TeleAtlas data whereas Garmin is based off NavTeq. In the USA, I have found NavTeq to be much more accurate. Many roads showing on the TomTom for my neighborhood have not existed for well over 20 years, if ever. I have submitted map corrections through their MapShare as well as online, but after several months, they still haven't made their way into the base map. What that means is that it will sometimes try to route you down a road that doesn't exist. This usually happens at the end of your route, which can be frustrating since you likely don't know where you should be going or you wouldn't need the GPS unit.
For the price, this is a great little unit. But if you live in the US, have a bit more to spend and don't mind more expensive map updates, Garmin devices will give you more accurate routes.
You have the option of making map corrections on the device. When you do, it would seem logical that the device would then honor that change but it doesn't. Currently, it is nothing more than a feedback mechanism to report map errors which I have not yet seen incorporated into the underlying maps. So if you mark a street on the TomTom that doesn't exist in reality, the device will not keep from routing you to drive on it.
The annual map updates are very reasonable at $40. Others are multiples of that, but they are more accurate.