Sat nav for car. Garmin or TomTom?

how do you use the satnav? you know the route you want beforehand or are you asking for destinations on the fly when you reach a town say?

“There is no way of changing priorities on it and so Garmin gets the thumbs down from me”

There is on the standalone unit i have .your car manufacturer just spec’d a shit one i guess

I want to be able to say “start at point A, go to point B via point C and keep me on the right track while en route ” – simple really. Traffic alerts and suggestions for diversions essential

Just got a TomTom 5100 and it’s pretty good compared to my old Garmin It is a bit stripped down in terms of options or customisation but the lifetime world maps, traffic & speed cameras is a really good selling point. Speed limits on the mapping can be a bit out of date despite regular map updates but I have only had it a couple of months so that may improve. Got mine via Tesco points rather than keep getting restaurant vouchers for a change! Updating is very easy Via TomTom web interface and you can plan routes on TomTom Mydrive and send over GPRS to the unit as it has a built in data sim card. Live traffic is brilliant and very accurate, giving delay time, distance and offering alternative routes.

Got an old tomtom and it’s awful. Really slow interface – you could complete most journey’s before getting an address into it.

I’ll probably try a garmin next.

Partner has new Garmin Nuvi – prefers to tomtom and I like the interface. Worked reasonably well in Spain too. Lifetime upgrades and all Europe.

I’d say Garmin

My car ( a scooby legacy) has it built in. Really got used to that.
I do use Google Maps for live traffic though on an iphone

I have a 8 or 9 year old Tom Tom, it was a fairly basic one at the time, for A to B routing it works great. A friend has a much newer fancier Garmin sat nav and says he prefers my old Tom Tom. The maps are better to look at and understand when driving and says the routing is more intelligent even though mine is older.

I have a older Tom tom and a newer Garmin and I prefer the tom tom. Its not as nice to use as the Garmin but I trust it much more than the Garmin. The Garmin (as mentioned) seems to have really questionable route choices where as the TomTom seems to keep it simpler and its much easier to read at junctions than the Garmin, which I find pretty hard to read at roundabouts etc.