Tom Tom vs Garmin Nuvi

A few months back I had my TomTom Go Sat-Nav nicked from my car. TomTom had become part of my everyday existence, but after it was stolen it lead me to look around for a replacement. Originally I had my heart set on one of the new Tom Tom 910 models, after being seduced by the text to speech road name announcements and Bluetooth capabilities. However after looking around I discovered the Garmin range. Garmin in the UK is nowhere near as high profile as Tom Tom, and the company hasn’t helped themselves my making everything very US centric. With more research the Nuvi 360 started to appeal. It has a smaller size than the Tom Tom, which is important to me as I will no longer be leaving it in the car to be nicked again. This is pocket size. It also has the text-to-speech street names and bluetooth. So all in all it appealed in a big way. But my attachment to my old TomTom continued to hold me back from taking that purchasing step, until finally I was pushed with the discovery that the Garmin maps (NAVTEQ) are generally accepted as more reliable than TomTom (Tele Atlas). I was forced to confront some of the issues I had encountered with my old TomTom. The maps. Regularly I would find roads which had been built some 4 years or more ago were not on the TomTom, and even after buying a map update they still weren’t there. With this in mind I took the plunge and went for the Nuvi 360.

I’ve had the Nuvi about a week now so have given it the briefest of tests, but here’s my initial opinions anyway.

The maps - vast improvement on the TomTom (from a UK point of view). Much more accurate and up to date with more detail.

Sat-Signal - faster acquisition of satellites and more reliable (I havent lost signal once yet in my travels (TomTom used to regularly lose signal)

Size - I was never bothered about size originally but the Nuvi being so small is a real bonus. It looks very neat in my car and is easy to remove and slip in a back pocket. In its provided case it looks like you’re carrying a wallet.

I also really like the bar across the top of the map screen. It constantly tells you where you are and where you’re heading. It has the instructions before, during and after the speech and if you miss the announcement (when you have your ‘The Feeling’ CD too loud) you’ve got it right there in front of you. When you’re not in navigation mode, it also tells you of upcoming roads. The text to speech is also excellent, seamlessly reading out road names - and even reads the name of your favourite when you arrive i.e. “Arrive at Mum and Dad’s on the left”. All very nice!

Any downsides compared with the old TomTom? Well for some reason I still have a hankering for Tom. Something about the way the maps are displayed graphically on the TomTom appeals to me more, with the Garmins looking more child-like. The lack of UK focus in some of the features too is frustrating. The audio books etc have distinct US leaning with the included leaflets stating prices in dollars etc, which is frustrating. The Garmin UK website too is very basic. But, these are all superficial things, because when it comes down to it, the Garmin does a better job at what its supposed to be doing - satellite navigation. It gets me from A to B without losing signal, with clear instructions always on screen, and even tells me the side of the road when I arrive. I miss the friendliness of the TomTom but based on reliability the Nuvi is a winner. It’s my new travelling companion.