TomTom Live Services

[andy2407]

I'm looking at getting a new TomTom device, and just wondering whether its worth factoring Live Services into the equation.

In particular, is the HD Traffic feature worth the £7.99 month that they want for the services package? Does anyone use it, and do you find it useful? Does it help to reduce journey times?

I'll probably be back later with some questions on which model to buy, but answering the above will help me narrow down my choices. The GO 550 Live or XL LIVE IQ Routes Europe are favourites at the moment.

[fluffmeister]

I'm looking at getting a new TomTom device, and just wondering whether its worth factoring Live Services into the equation.

In particular, is the HD Traffic feature worth the £7.99 month that they want for the services package? Does anyone use it, and do you find it useful? Does it help to reduce journey times?

I'll probably be back later with some questions on which model to buy, but answering the above will help me narrow down my choices. The GO 550 Live or XL LIVE IQ Routes Europe are favourites at the moment.

Andy

I used it and imho it was worth it, a couple of times it saved me hours sitting in traffic. Read the terms and conditions though, if you want to get out of the deal, you still hav e to pay them another month up front before they cancel it.

TomTom have been taking £7.99 a month from my credit card 3 months after I sold mine and I can't get any sense out of the crazy dutch ********

It's a worthwhile service if you do the mileage to justify it, but the customer service they follow on with is dire. As an added bonus though, you can now use it in europe foc as well .... which is nice.

I do miss mine, and as the MFD in the Superb is as much use as a tight well trimmed vagina is to George Michael, I may look to get another one

[andy2407]

Thanks Fluff - eloquently put as ever.

Have you any experience with the Garmin systems. They seem to offer subscription free traffic updates on a number of their devices but I don't know how well their system works compared with TomTom's.

[fluffmeister]

Thanks Fluff - eloquently put as ever.

Have you any experience with the Garmin systems. They seem to offer subscription free traffic updates on a number of their devices but I don't know how well their system works compared with TomTom's.

No mate, but the TomTom live does work extremely well with a bit of common sense applied. One neat feature is that it will tell you with a voice prompt if traffic conditions change and it gives you the option to re-route. It also tells you how far ahead in your journey traffic hold ups are so you can decide wether to stick with your regular route hoping the jam has cleared by the time you get there or take up miss TomTom on her offer of a new route.

Satellite lock's where really quick and it maintained the connection to live almost faultlessly, all joking apart the HD I had is the best satnav I have used and I should never have sold it, it's really dire using the mfd after having had the TomTom, even with the latest update disk.

[Wardy]

Check with Lady E as well Andy. Think she's quite a fan of this functionality

Steve

[Lady Elanore]

I’ve had the 940 live for about a year now and can safely say in my experience it is peerless. The live traffic updates are astonishingly accurate, much more so than the TMC ones even. The Road Angel data base is very good too and the built in sim card means live camera and traffic updates are only a moment away. The google search is a very neat feature too, all done from the unit and it’s sim card. The accelerometer and compass seem to give it pretty good dead reckoning and it can lock on to the sats very quickly, it even works flawlessly in cars with anothermic glass of built in heating elements, a la Ford. It is very customisable too and the bluetooth hands free is pretty good considering. It connects in seconds and even has an FM transmitter for jukebox playing off it’s SD card. If you do load the SD card up with pictures and music, you must do it though the TomTom programme as it doesn’t seem to recognise tracks that are dragged and dropped. One other very pleasing thing about the unit is it’s estimated journey times. they are very accurate and I trust it’s route finding 99% as even routes I know well have been shown to be at least no quicker than the TomTom alternative and sometimes slightly slower. I'd recommend the 940 or 950 over the other models for it's slightly better spec and features that help it's accuracy.I give it 10/10 and a 100% recommendation

[Wardy]

So you quite like it then?

[Lady Elanore]

So you quite like it then?

It will do for now

[Wardy]

Praise indeed

[fluffy01016]

I bought a GO720T and it had the TMC traffic antenna. It automatically diverts around traffic and it has saved me alot of time in my 5hr a day commute. Not sure how it compares to the live system though.

[sms]

well after getting a live hd device the other weekend i must be the only person disappointed with it, speed cameras missing, others that have been gone months are still on the database, only 2 mobile sites appear on the database too considering i live near to quite a lot. Its been updated and has a 6 months subscription on it too (£36 off of amazon) but at the moment i wont be paying for 12 months. The only two things i can say i like is the eco routes take you on routes just as fast but away from the rat race and traffic reports excellent. I keep reporting mobiles that are missing which 2 hours later when you pass the same spot appear on screen, but the following day when you drive by its not warning you again and this includes the one at the top of my road which i submit every morning.

Maybe its a location thing where they havent got round to updating oxfordshire and surrounding, but even so it says on the box they have teamed up with road angel who i regard as one of the best, but geez if thats the case they have dropped from an awful height in the past couple of years.

[Octygone]

Something to keep an eye on is that at the moment tom tom won't update through an O2 mobile phone......be warned

[sms]

i did what tomtom said and it came to the stage where it would crash on the road, instead ive copied all the files back onto it that it originally came with (took a copy before it could update) and then did the update again and its working fine.