Tomtom Go 910

[Wildman63]

I'm close to buying a new car (Honda Civic). I'd love to have a more sophisticated GPS than my Map 60CS. It works fine, but the voice stuff is really intriguing.

 

The new Honda Civic offers an integrated GPS that also lets the driver control the stereo, but the car also has buttons on the steering wheel that do the same thing. Honda adds Bluetooth and a couple of other features. The navigation system costs about $1500 and a car so equipped is very hard to find.

 

Tomtom just introduced a new model (Go 910) that does most of the same features for half the price. The Tomtom also lets the user to update the GPS with a home computer and has a 20GB hard drive inside. It also has Bluetooth, but needs to be recharged with an included cable to do that. The downside is that the thing is easy to take from the car (stolen). The upside is it can be removed from the car to be used in another car (my other vehicle). The Tomtom solution costs half as much as the Honda solution. The touch screen is 4" while the Honda screen is 6".

 

Any opinions?

[Stan_TheGunNut]

I just purchased a Garmin Street Pilot 2720. I chose it for the reason that it is portable. I own several different cars, though I drive my Toyota Corrolla or the Jetta TDI on trips most frequently, due to the good fuel milage; or put it in my truck and go offroading. Basically, I felt that I could get a really good portable GPS unit for much less than what would be an installed option in a new car purchase. If you're worried about theft, get a gym bag and take it with you. It's not heavy, and it's small. The screen size is about 2x3.25 (4inch diagonal), and is big enough.

 

Thus far I like it. THe only problem I've found it that it doesn't have some of the newer roads and subdivisions preinstalled. I guess I'll eventually be able to download those, but I'm going to wait till I have a fast internet connection. It worked really well for me in Atlanta this weekend out of the box.

[+Alan2]

How long does the Street pilot take to re-calculate a new route after you make a wrong turn?

 

Can you enter caching waypoints? How?

[kb9nvh]

If its anything like my new 60csx it has the next turn ready for you in just a second or two. I think the 2710 is as fast or faster.

 

 

How long does the Street pilot take to re-calculate a new route after you make a wrong turn?

 

Can you enter caching waypoints? How?

[robertlipe]

When was the last time you really thought a factory stereo was worth the price in a car? Now take a piece of technology that changes as quickly as a GPS and ask yourself if you think it's really any more likely to impress you...

 

I have yet to see a factory unit that impresses me. If you have a 60CS, you'll find a Garmin dashtop like a StreetPilot will be very familiar to you. You're free to consider that a good thing or a bad thing; I rather *like* that the user interface is so similar and that you can use the second unlock code that comes with most of them on a handheld, allowing you to upgrade both units at the same time for the same price.

 

Stan, map upgrades are not downloadable, but are available annually or so on DVD for about $75 on the StreetPilots.

 

Alan2, modern StreetPilots - especially at the higher end - recalculate amazingly fast, faster than a handheld. The power budget on a dashtop is higher so you can use faster processors in them. You can enter caching points by hand, via Mapsource and on most StreetPilots, via GSAK. The remainder will come soon.

[Alphawolf]

I wouldn't even consider a built in unit. The technology is changing way, way to fast to spend that kind of money on something that will be obsolete in 2 years. Get a good dash mount portable. Then, you have spent only half the money, you can move it from car to car, and it will do the same exact job as a built in, if not even better.

And personally speaking, I wouldn't go with Tom Tom over Garmin...It's all about track record of a world leader company, vs. a relatively new "start-up" cmpany. No one even heard of Tom Tom before last summer's media blitz...

[robertlipe]

In fairness to TomTom (and I haven't used their products, so I won't comment on them) their entry to the U.S. is relatively recent, they're more prevalent in Europe where TomTom dominates the market. Reference:

 

http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2006/mft06031...m?ref=foolwatch

 

Signed,

Market Analyst for GPSBabel Industries.

[Stan_TheGunNut]

The streetpilot recalculates pretty quickly, within a second or two has been my experience. I don't think you can cache waypoints, or if you can, I don't know how. I made a quick perusal of the manual and nothing jumped out at me. If I find out it can, I'll let you know.

 

Edited: And another question from me? Why in the world is the WAAS not enabled by default? If this is something that is supposed to enhance accuracy, why not use it? I just discovered mine wasn't on, so I guess the unit is accurate enough, but more accuracy is better...right.

 

Thanks

Edited April 23, 2006 by Stan_TheGunNut

[robertlipe]

This _really_ should be in a separate thread. A thread titled "tomtom" is probably not a good place for Garmin questions, so if you have continued questions, please create another.

 

There are lots of models called "Streetpilot SOMETHING". You can enter waypoints from a computer (such as geocache waypoints) on everything from i2 through 500 and as far back as StreetPilot III - I reall don't know about before that. Relatively few of that line has the "compass" screen as they aren't meant to be handhelds. They're lovely for getting your car parked at a geocache, but you'll still want a handheld to find that geocache.

 

WAAS isn't on by default in any Garmin that I know of. Read these forums for a while and observe some of the zaniness of Garmin's WAAS and you're free to speculate why it's not the default. :-)