I bought an earlier TomTom truck sat-nav a few years ago. I returned that one. I am going to do the same with this.
The user interface is still dog-slow. There’s still a lag of about three seconds between pressing a button on the screen and anything happening. It’s the same when you activate the voice control system (which, by the way, is a lot more limited than Garmin’s). This is not down to the “limitations of the technology”. This is bad programming on TomTom’s part.
Phone connectivity is a bit better than on my Garmin but it appears to lack any way of dialling a number on the screen. Try dialling with your voice and it mishears even if you speak very clearly in a quiet room. There seems to be no access to call history through voice control, and it took several seconds between my phone starting to ring and the “answer” button appearing on my screen (without an obvious reject button).
Directions are also misleading (same problem with the last one I had). It frequently gets the route number wrong when directing you off a motorway: for example, telling you to turn off the M4 onto the M4 at junction 4 (Heathrow/Uxbridge) when the route number on the sign is A408. It did things like this three times in one 150 mile run. On another occasion it tried to direct me the wrong way up a dual carriageway (the A322 at Bagshot) and back down again.
I had some difficulty finding out whether you could store multiple traffic profiles on this device, as you have been able to on at least the last two Garmin models. You can’t. Nor is there any obvious way to use both metric and imperial units when specifying the weight, height etc. of your truck. So, unless you’re lucky enough to always drive the same truck and you don’t have the perennial British problem of having to deal with both all the time, this unit is going to cause you a lot of frustration.
TomTom have also changed the mount to a funky new magnetic one. This does make it quick to put up, but makes it incompatible with a lot of accessories, including things like dash and vent mounts. The compatible vent mount for this costs nearly £35.
In short: don’t be deceived by TomTom’s household name status. This is not a good product, and its poor user interface makes it less than useful for cars; its limited functionality does the same for truck drivers; the navigational errors mean it should be avoided whichever vehicle you drive. I’d give it two stars if it were half this price; at nearly £400 it should be avoided like the plague.
That is what all makes of truck satnavs are from the branded satnavs, just weight and height restrictions are added in, not a great basis to charge the earth for. CoPilot truck is better but If I was to get a different sat nav, I would go with Garmin or Snooper as the only contenders.
Isn’t it more the case we all have our own preferences, I have the Tom tom 6000 and find it to be absolutely fine. Used with Google maps it gets me where I need to be every time.
wrighty1:
Isn’t it more the case we all have our own preferences, I have the Tom tom 6000 and find it to be absolutely fine. Used with Google maps it gets me where I need to be every time.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Certainly is the case, some swear by the £30 ebay ones.
wrighty1:
Isn’t it more the case we all have our own preferences, I have the Tom tom 6000 and find it to be absolutely fine. Used with Google maps it gets me where I need to be every time.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Certainly is the case, some swear by the £30 ebay ones.
Had the £30 ebay jobbie.And used it in Europe to.And was perfectly adequate.I splashed out £70 on the one i have now.Another ebay one from an english guy called Chris.And its a good cheap sat nav.Screen glare lets it down.But hell.We dont have that much sun here anyway
trevorking1964:
I tried co pilot after seeing it recommended on this forum.
Hated it.
Dreadful.
What did you settle on?
I have a tablet running tomtom live app. £15 annually for live traffic which is amazing, so accurate. However it’s the car version of tomtom.
I run it alongside a cheap £20 sat nav I’ve had for years. That’s running igo primo truck and I have height, weight and dimensions setup on that.
I was trying to combine the two best attributes, the truck setup and the live traffic updates when I tried co pilot.
I begrudge the silly prices for tomtom truck navs that are even more ludicrous when you take into account the traffic is about £80 a year instead of £15!
trevorking1964:
I tried co pilot after seeing it recommended on this forum.
Hated it.
Dreadful.
What did you settle on?
I have a tablet running tomtom live app. £15 annually for live traffic which is amazing, so accurate. However it’s the car version of tomtom.
I run it alongside a cheap £20 sat nav I’ve had for years. That’s running igo primo truck and I have height, weight and dimensions setup on that.
I was trying to combine the two best attributes, the truck setup and the live traffic updates when I tried co pilot.
I begrudge the silly prices for tomtom truck navs that are even more ludicrous when you take into account the traffic is about £80 a year instead of £15!
TomTom traffic is the best traffic of all satnavs in my opinion but drastically let down by the satnav itself.
I have the cheap ebay one. Xgody I think it is. It Does the job I want it to do. I was speaking to another driver at work bigging up his £400 sat nav. Saw him the next day sat there looking on his phone because it had froze and wouldn’t reset…
Am I missing something in my comments about the TomTom’s feature set? Can you actually dial a number from the screen, because I found no way of doing it other than voice dial, and it misheard despite my speaking slowly and there being no major noise.
trevorking1964:
I tried co pilot after seeing it recommended on this forum.
Hated it.
Dreadful.
What did you settle on?
I have a tablet running tomtom live app. £15 annually for live traffic which is amazing, so accurate. However it’s the car version of tomtom.
I run it alongside a cheap £20 sat nav I’ve had for years. That’s running igo primo truck and I have height, weight and dimensions setup on that.
I was trying to combine the two best attributes, the truck setup and the live traffic updates when I tried co pilot.
I begrudge the silly prices for tomtom truck navs that are even more ludicrous when you take into account the traffic is about £80 a year instead of £15!
TomTom traffic is the best traffic of all satnavs in my opinion but drastically let down by the satnav itself.
Nothing that reflects in its price tag. Your phone can connect via bluetooth which is really quite annoying as you cannot hear or hold a conversation very well at all on it. It has a completely useless average speed between speed cameras, you can look at your speedo for the same info. The processor is slightly faster than the previous models but still slow in comparison to other makes. Not a great satnav to be honest, I wouldn’t buy a TomTom.
I have a Snooper that is so old that it still shows the roundabouts on the A1 in Lincolnshire. Also when I pass Bedford on the 421 toward Milton Keynes it thinks I’m driving in a field. Does the job though, I haven’t got lost or hit any bridges…