TomTom 730 Traffic vs TomTom 740 Live

amir_j · Occasional Visitor Joined: Dec 17, 2008 Posts: 1

Dilemma! Orderded a 730T from Amazon today at £215, but then a mate who works for a retailer advised has a staff offer on the new Lives for 35% so could get me a 740 Live for ~210.

Dont want to pay for Live (as have mobile internet for google etc and the traffic wouldnt be worthwhile for the price), also according to TomTom site, the 740 does not have a FM transmitter, or the free RDS service so now confused.

Comes with the free fuel voucher so makes sense to take the new one but shame as FM transmitter and RDS would be useful confused Been advised cant sell on as they are being strict or would have bought and flogged on ebay then bought the 730!!

mikealder · Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:10 pm Post subject:

If you don't want/ need the Live services then stick with the 730T its just as capable, although recent software updates have disabled the ability to play the Navigation instructions via FM Tx you can still use the mp3 player and squirt that audio to the radio with a 730T - forget doing this with the 740, it doesn't even have the mp3 player.

Should you decide to opt for the 740 you will also have to purchase a traffic receiver and a mount that can accept such a connection which will cost far more than your fuel voucher is worth - your choice, but my money would be on the 730T - Mike

MrT · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 8:25 am Post subject:

The supplied 740 mount will take the current mini-USB TMC receiver. The TMC receiver can be bought for as little as £20 (upto £50 in some expensive places).

I have tried the TMC with a 940 and the traffic information is basic compared to the HD traffic. It also gives the delays in KM rather than miles.

I bought a 530T for my wife as I did not want to go the expense of Live Services on a 540 but soon found the the TMC traffic was unreliable, it was often difficult to get a signal, the data when received was not accurate and I ended up getting her a TT GPRS Traffic subscription on which GPRS data costs will also arise.

With hindsight I would have bought her the 540 and paid for the live services.
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Drivelux

BristleBob · Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 10:15 am Post subject:

I nearly bought the 730T, but I read on another forum that if you have a heat reflective windscreen, it will cut down the signal strength to the TMC receiver. I had a similar problem when I bought my first 510, positioned it towards the bottom centre of the windscreen, and could not pick up any satellites. I was on my 2nd 510 still without a signal until I found someone with the same car as me and sat nav, who positioned his in the quater lite window on the driver's side. I copied this and my 510 started to work straight away. Thats why I went for the 540.

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