Avoid Via Michelin

Nidge · Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2005 7:42 pm Post subject: Avoid Via Michelin

This Sat nav is a waste of time, I've never had such a garbage piece of software, it takes you the long way round, it misses turn offs etc etc. When you try and Email tech support it takes them a month to get back in touch with you, they come back with the same message all the time sorry were are getting a large amount of Emails please go to our website and download the patch. I'd download the patch if there was one to download.

Steer clear of this 2nd rate sat nav.
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martike · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 194

I've also found using ViaMichelin to be a generally disappointing experience, but your criticism sounds more like a rant, letting off steam, rather than a considered criticism.

Let's separate the support from the product.

Support is awful. Many reports and requests for technical assistance just never get any response at all, so if you even got a message telling you how busy they are, then you were lucky. Documentation is incomplete or non-existent, and what there is seems to have been written by techies for techies. The forum on this site is a much better source of information than Michelin.

On the other hand the product is really not all that bad at all. Not wonderful by any means, but not as bad as you say. That is until the latest release came along. They've tried to make the menus more sexy and only succeeded in making them difficult and tedious to use. I've been told that it's an attempt to emulate Tom Tom, and if that's the case then I hope Tom Tom did a better job. And along the way they managed to lose some very useful functions. Reverting to the previous version (2.5) seems like a good idea.

However, once it's up and running and you're on the road, there's not much to complain about. Of course there are some things I don't like, but they really aren't all that significant, and probably all similar products have their minor problems.

It's never taken me the long way around, and never missed turn-offs.

So I tend to agree with you, but I think you're being much too harsh. If you've never seen "such a garbage piece of software" then I think you probably haven't been around software for very long.

Blazexx1100 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 8

I purchased the HP RZ1710 with the michelin bundle, I mainly bought it coz of the excellent Kirrio cradle (what a mistake that turned out to be)

Within 1 week of buying it I realised that the Michelin Software was such a waste of time that I purchased TTNAV5. Big Problem.....The Kirrio cradle only works correctly with the Michelin software.

Spoke with Michelin who were most unhelpful.......Tomtom tried their hardest to help me out but with no success.........Kirrio......Well suprise suprise they are patr of michelin.

The Kirrio cradle will never work correctly with tomtom..Its basically locked to the michelin software (mind you i'm sure someone on this forum could write a patch for it so it would work!)

So, I purchased a tomtom in car kit from ebay -£13.50 and now use my old tomtom wired gps with it! Result - not quite as good looking but at least I can get to places I want to go!

What do I dislike about the Michelin software? Read on -

you cannot avoid part of a route, you cannot stipulate a point to go via, you cannot just have the map up on the screen so you can see where you are, you have no preferences for avoiding types or road, you cannot do anything other than put in a start point - put in a destination and then hope for the best. You just have absolutely no control over it what so ever.

Just after I bought it I decided that I would use it for a trip from cambridge to tiverton in devon. having plenty of time to do the journey and deciding i would test the software out i followed it implicitly! I ended up going through london, not around it but through it! What a pain! Everytime I deviated and tried to go a different route it wouldnt recalculate another route, it would just direct me back to the original route!

I wouldnt class my post as a rant; I would probably call my correspondence with Michelin a rant after wasting 5 days trying to get some sense out of them.

So....Best avoided, Tomtom rocks! Michelin unfortunately sucks!

If you wanna upgrade your software to something that is more useful than a blindfold and a 1950's road map....Dont under any circumstances buy the HPRZ1710 Michelin bundle with the really cool kirrio cradle. You will live to regret it unfotunately......I know I did.! Evil or Very Mad

martike · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 194

Blazexx1100 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 8

Alread been there, the patches dont adress any of the afore said problems unfortunately! Crying or Very sad

alistairwat50n · Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 6:08 pm Post subject: Via Michelin

We used Via Michelin route planning from the internet in the Spring for a trip from Nice to Luberon. There was a major error at one of the Autoroute junctions. We concluded that if they cant get it right in France they were not worth having.

stuey99 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 26, 2005 Posts: 3

eclipse91 · Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 3:46 pm Post subject:

I am a complete novice with computers and stuff. I am a service engineer who is driving 800+ miles a week. I bought the hp iPAQ 1710 bundle which came with viamichelin. I have been using it for a month.I have never had or used any other type of sat nav. I don't find it that bad. I am going to on average 10 customers a day. I have got lost once, which was my fault because I had not put in the correct address and only had one road that the software could not find which was a private road in Coventry which was not shown in an A-Z that I looked at in a garage.
It took a bit of getting use to but now I find viamichelin good. I have downloaded the speed scamera stuff onto to it ( which is brilliant ) and if you set up the speed setting on the roads correctly it DOES NOT send you the long way round. I went from Birmingham to Dover last week and the route it took me was spot on.
After a couple of days of buying viamichelin I went on to their website to try and get the speed scamera stuff on to it. I couldn't work out how to do as I am a novice with pc's. I e-mailed them and within 24 hours they replied saying that they could not provide me with this servive but if I could download the database from somewhere I could then add the sites on using POI manager. They then went on about how to do this. So my experience with their customer service was faultless.
I do wish that you could plan more than one journey though. it would really help with the planning of my working days. ie plan 10 calls with the longest call first ending with the nearist to home.
I bought a PDA with software bundle because I find using the tools on the PDA really usefull. I can put in appointments / dates etc into the calendar which flashes up during the day. Bonus.
As I said before, I have never used any other type of sat nav. Can not compare. I have found viamichelin a very good investment with the type of work I am in.

Blazexx1100 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 8

I think the problem with michelin is; if you have used other navigation software such as tomtom, you will never be happy with it!

ViaMichelin is so limited in what you can do with ot compared to tomtom there is just no comparison between them.

If you were tinking of buying the Ipaq bundle with Via Michelin I would seriously consider getting something else and installing tomtom.

You can get the Mitac Mio and equivalents to it and they will all run tomtom.!

The ipaq bundle seemed like a good idea at a time but i seriously regret that decision now!

After all if you want to go from a to b, you want to go a sensible route! The michelin directed me through london city to get to devon from norfolk! I couldnt change the way it sent me as everytime i went off route it sent me back on to it! Giving me no control whatsoever.

Tomtom rules! ViaMichelin sucks.....end of story (IMHO)

GrayT · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 6

I certainly won't dispute whether Tom Tom is better than ViaMichelin (it almost certainly is), however, I recently bought a brand new Tungsten E2 and picked up a used but mint condition Navigation Companion with ViaMichelin software and the lot came in at under £200.

If I needed Sat Nav as an essential part of my everyday work I would have gone for Tom Tom, but I'm more than happy with what I've got. The navigation companion is well designed with only one wire which charges the unit (bracket with integral receiver and speaker) and the PDA - very easy to set up and remove from the car.

I've been testing the system over the past few days. Some minor issues over lane choice at junctions exiting dual carriageways, but I've resolved any other matters that arose. I have found actually found the route planning to be spot on. I even tested some complicated routes around Camden Town in London, which has a very complex one way system. I have a thorough knowledge of the area having been based as an ambulance driver there in the distant past. ViaMichelin made the ideal choice of route - one which would be the envy of any taxi driver doing 'the knowledge'.

I have deliberately gone off route to test its re-routing and it has done so without fail (once you get to a point that is where it doesn't make sense to turn around that is). I too wonder if you had set your road speeds up right in the settings function as your routing through London seems very odd. Being London based I set my local road speeds to 25 mph (the lowest speed you can set), if you set motorways at 70 and major roads at 50 it should avoid sending you through towns and cities where practical.

Finally I agree that the free speed camera database does work well in the program after having to search on here for how to get ViaMichelin to accept it. Tom Tom is better and of course has more functions but I don't find ViaMichelin that bad for my purposes and some of your experiences don't equate to own testing.

eclipse91 · Posted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 12:45 am Post subject:

when I am going on long journeys I always look at the route in the ' plan your journey ' setting. This shows quite clearly which roads / route your journey will take. If someone has gone from Norfolk to Dover through London city they have almost certainly got the speed settings on ' muppet mode ' Laughing

Blazexx1100 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 8

UNfortunately the speeds werent set in "muppet mode" The speeds were actually set to realistic speeds for all types of road!

I have now come to terms with the fact that until someone does a work around for the cradle; that it will never be used again!

The ViaMichelin software is consigned to the back of a drawer. Never to darken my GPS experience again!
Crying or Very sad

eclipse91 · Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:58 pm Post subject:

There I was, driving around quite happy with my viamichelin and then I found this website ( for the quite brilliant scamera database). I AM using my sat nav as an essential part of my working day. Tom Tom sounds pretty amazing after some of theses posts. If I get the Tom Tom software for my 1710 what cradle will I need to buy? How much? I agree the Kirrio looks the biz. There must be way to get it working with Tom Tom.

Blazexx1100 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Oct 22, 2005 Posts: 8

At the end of the day Stu its all down to personal preference! I happened to have an old Tomtom Gps Reciever that I used to use with my XDA, I managed to find a tomtom cradle on ebay for £13 which I just plugged my old gps reciever into.

If you look around you should be able to find something to do the job for you for about £50. it all depends on how much time you have to cruise around the net and find something that suits your requirements!

I can guarantee one thing though, you would never look back!

Unfortunately there is no way of making the Kirrio cradle work with tomtom what so ever! Which is rather disappointing!

martike · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 02, 2005 Posts: 194

If you want to plot a specific route, going through certain places and avoiding others, then you need way-points, which is a big failure of ViaMichelin.

However, you can control the parameters for road type, and you can plot the fastest or the shortest route, although it does tend to “forget” these settings when it re-calculates. Despite that, I can’t imagine it being so wrong as to send you through central London on a journey from Norfolk to Devon.

I tried it. I tried several different Norfolk locations and several different Devon locations, and I tried all sorts of different settings (even Muppet ones), but I couldn’t get ViaMichelin to go any other way than around the M25.

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