Advice on C510/C710 buying advice?

Retty · Frequent Visitor Joined: Sep 07, 2006 Posts: 336

Could someone provide advice on the following questions? Any help would be appreciated.

I've been thinking of buying a TomTom 510 because of its software feature set but awful reviews of the car mount problems have put me off.

The Mio C510/C710 seems to offer incredible value for money and it has received very good reviews. But there are a few things I don't understand about the Mio.

Can the C510/C710 provide TMC information in the UK? I thought that TMC data in the UK was subscription only but unlike the Garmin Nuvi the Mio TMC add on doesn't seem to offer a subscription service. How does the TMC work in the UK if it does work? Does Mio offer a subscription service for the C510/C710?

I know this is a Mio forum but would anyone suggest that buying the C510/C710 over the TomTom 510 is a bad idea? I know that the Mio doesn't have quite as full a feature set as the TomTom but is the C510 a good alternative to the TomTom?

Does the C510 support SMS message delivery via bluetooth? I don't think it does.

Does the C510 support multiple via points? The online information suggests that it does but could someone confirm this?

Are the graphics comparable to TomTom?

I know that TomTom customer support has a very bad reputation. Is it true that Mitac customer support is just as bad?

For the money - under £220 in some places - the Mio C510 seems to be great value for money. Could anyone spell out a few bad points of the C510 for me?

Thanks for any help.

Gareth.

CeeJay

Hi Retty

Welcome to the asylum.

Sallyann · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 768

I have a C710 and am very pleased with it.
I agree with every point made by CeeJay.
If you can afford it, go for the C710 rather than the C510 because otherwise you will probably regret it later.

Sal

Peasemold · Regular Visitor Joined: Jul 03, 2006 Posts: 83

ernest_mio · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 24, 2006 Posts: 98

Sallyann · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 768

Retty · Frequent Visitor Joined: Sep 07, 2006 Posts: 336

Thanks CeeJay, Sallyann, Peasemold and ernest_mio - your comments are much appreciated.

The Nuvi 310/360 also looks very attractive but doesn't support multiple via points. The Mio seems to have the best combination of features for the price.

I think, after a silly amount of thinking about it, I'll go for either the C510 or the C710 - but not sure which yet! The charger, 2Gb card and soft case would be good but £110 difference between the 2 models seems to be only justified by the TMC.

I'm having a real problem understanding the Mio TMC. Could someone confirm whether or not my understanding is correct? Unlike Garmin TMC there's no subscription to Trafficmaster (or the AA service). Is the Mio TMC therefore using the very limited free TMC service available in the UK? The comments of ernest_mio suggest that it is. If so and if no subscription option is available then the TMC probably wouldn't be of much use for UK travelling. In the rest of Europe where TMC is mostly a free the service would probably be very good indeed.

Gareth.

Sallyann · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 768

Gareth, as I understand it there is a one-off subscription to Trafficmaster included in the purchase price. I stand to be corrected on this, but having looked at and used the traffic information provided on the Mio I cannot see what else could be provided that would be worth a continuing subscription. It uses the information from all the Trafficmaster sensors, shows the length of holdups and the reason for them. You can list the data by type or by the distance from your present position. On the maps, the blocked road is overlaid with a heavy blue line and the type of holdup (eg accident, roadworks) is shown with an icon. If anyone gets more information by paying a subscription, please tell us what it is!

Sal

Retty · Frequent Visitor Joined: Sep 07, 2006 Posts: 336

Thanks Sal.

But now I'm really confused. If the Mio provides this sort of information for UK roads then it does suggest that it is using the data from some sort of subscription service. But there's no mention of subscription on the Mitac website which only says that TMC is not free in the UK or France. The price of the TMC add on for the C510 also doesn't seem to include the cost of a subscription.

I've read posts from people who say that they can only get minimal information from Mio TMC in the UK which suggests that they are accessing the limited free service.

You receive details through TMC as to whether or not a delay is caused by an accident of another cause? Do you get traffic information on A roads as well as motorways?

These are relevant question for me when considering whether or not to go for the C710. But if the Mio does provide such a detailed TMC service it challenges everything I've previously understood about the limited UK free TMC service - although I'm probably wrong about the fact that Mio doesn't provide a subscription based TMC feed.

Still, I've concluded that despite its feature set TomTom 510/910 would be a silly buy because of fundamental design problems that render it useless. The Mio 510/710 seems to be an incredible buy - I don't understand why the mainstream reviews don't mention it more.

Gareth.

Sallyann · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 768

I'm in London at the moment and the first page of my Mio traffic events (there are currently 7 pages altogether) lists the following:

Brixton - stationary traffic for 2.5 mi
Thornton Heath - s t for 2 mi.
Clapham - queuing traffic for 2 mi
Wandsworth - s t for 1.5 mi
Tower Hamlets - accident

These are all main routes through London that are monitored by Trafficmaster.
The list doesn't specify the road number, but tapping 'Show' for any event takes you straight to the map display of that location with the blocked road highlighted.

At the moment the M6 looks busy with holdups at J12 Cannock and J37 Kendal, and J7 Great Bar closed.

I don't know what else you can expect to see?

Sal

CeeJay · Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:46 pm Post subject:

Hi Retty.
You'll just have to stop stressing about the TMC.
Take it from us, all I can say is it works very well in London, Surrey & parts of Sussex that I've been to.
And just to prove my point, Sallyann's message above came in while I was typing this.
This ain't no limited free service, this is the real deal.
I believe Sallyann is right about the one off subscription fee being included in the price of the unit. I'm sure I read that somewhere.
Now, if my memory serves me correctly, the TMC adaptors for the TT's and Garmins was somewhere in the region of £60 which included the lifetime subscription.
So do the sums, buy a C510 for £212, add the price of a TMC adaptors (£60 assuming they're approx. the same price) and you have a total of £272. That's only £40 short of the £311 for the C710 and you get the mains charger, case, all of Europe maps installed on the unit (not on SD card) on top of the TMC.
No brainer really. :D
By the way, be aware that sometimes you will get to a spot and the traffic that you've been warned about will be gone.
But that's down to RAC/Trafficmaster not updating regularly enough, not the Mio.
I'm sure this will improve with time.

So, if you do take the plunge we're here to help.

CeeJay

ernest_mio · Regular Visitor Joined: Aug 24, 2006 Posts: 98

Sallyann · Lifetime Member Joined: Jun 23, 2006 Posts: 768

The TMC instructions are in v3.2 of the user guide that was temporarily posted on the Mitac site but has been taken off again, presumably until the software update has been released.
But the TMC is so simple to operate that I never found the need to have any instructions. I agree with CJ that you are too stressed about this. The TMC works, full stop.

Sal

john88 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 09, 2006 Posts: 7

The MioMap v3.2 User Guide is on the mio-tech.be web site; it is just shown as the MioMap v3 manual.

john

nisak · Occasional Visitor Joined: Aug 28, 2006 Posts: 5

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