Advice for TomTom user considering a change to Nuvi 660

Steel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 21, 2004 Posts: 21

I've been a TomTom user for a few years now having used Navigator and more recently the Go 500. I'm not 100% happy with TomTom and have decided to try something different. The Nuvi 660 caught my eye and I'm wondering if someone can help me with the following questions;
Does the handsfree calling work well?
Are maps of South Africa available and approx cost?
Is there anything that the TomTom does better?
Is the traffic information really free?
Are there any other units I should be considering?

Thanks in advance

Andy

Eldar · Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 2:08 pm Post subject:

I think Nuvi and GO are the best units available. GOs definitely have a better interface and more options (for instance for re-routing and POIs), but Nuvis allow third party (both commercial and free) maps and they are much more compact units. I don't use traffic info because I consider it to be unreliable (it is the same for Garmin or TT RDS-TMC receivers, and it is not free - you are paying for a receiver, but there are no running costs). cannot say anything about handsfree - neither my 910 nor 360 work with either of my phones :-).
Maps for South Africa: http://www.garmin.com/cartography/mapSource/cityselectSAFRICA.jsp

colheath · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 29, 2006 Posts: 2

I have a nuvi 310 and am delighted with it.

The interface is simple, the maps are clear, the calculations are quick.

The handsfree works great with my Nokia N70, although I can't access the address book.

You should rely on the traffic info about as much as you would the traffic broadcasts on the radio, but it is handy to be able to route around the bad bits.

The customer service from Garmin is also top notch in my experience.

C.

swing

Eldar

swing · Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:58 am Post subject:

To be fair, there are quite a few other TMC units you can buy. This webpage gives you a fairly comprehensive list of options available. However, if you want widescreen, you are pretty much limited to the TomTom Go x10 and Garmin Nuvi 660 units.

Steel · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 21, 2004 Posts: 21

Thanks for your replies.
I had a look at a unit in Halfords yesterday coincidentally the Garmin rep was showing the 660 to the staff at the time.
I was impressed with the look of the unit. Wasn't too keen on the way the unit fitted into the car (with the aerial etc) - I'm looking for a unit that I can semi-permanently install. The South Africa maps are a plus but I'm in the UK and it appears the Garmin on-line store is only for US residents.
I've read some reviews which highlight a couple of issues - the voice quality not being brilliant and jerky map scrolling. I think I'll leave it for a bit longer before I 'jump ship'.

swing · Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:01 pm Post subject:

I've heard similar issues with the TTS offered with the latest Go x10 models - but both have had software updates to their TTS systems, so early reviews aren't always the best guides to these things.

Yes, the map is not as smooth as a TomTom - if you really really value a smooth scrolling map, then you are tied into TomTom, who seem to be ahead of everyone else (at the moment).

kierno · Posted: Tue Nov 14, 2006 3:59 pm Post subject:

I am very, very happy with my Garmin 660.

I was going to get a TomTom 910 until I read the post all over the web about poor quality customer service.

The traffic information works without issue in Germany, I have full coverage of Europe (including all of Ireland - which I need).

The traffic antenna is rather unsightly however, but I am sure that it could be rerouted and lengthened pretty easily.

I am very happy with the voice quality. When the English voices speak German streetnames, there are some errors of pronunciation, but that is due to the difference in the languages themselves. When a German voice speaks the German streetnames, they are correct.

Volume levels are fine too, in fact at the higher levels they can be too loud.

To sum it up, TomTom's apparent atrocious lack of customer service really ended any doubt over which GPS to buy.

One issue I had was that the Garmin Safety Camera database does not cover Germany, only Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and France. I was very annoyed about that until I found a third party database that shows all the cameras and speed limits here. (This cost Euros 9.95 for 1 year).

Go with the Garmin...

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