56 replies to this topic

[Sutol]

Strangely enough I had exactly the same experience in Bruge. Just ended up going round in circles until we risked going down a one way street.

[coldel]

Strangely enough I had exactly the same experience in Bruge. Just ended up going round in circles until we risked going down a one way street.

 

 Annoyingly, I got into it eventually but overshot the hotel car park entrance. Which was on a ring road. Took me 40 minutes to go all the way around and back again...we were so close, yet so far!

[techieboy]

If you'd been driving the VX you'd have been thanking it for diverting you away from Bruges and the Pavé. Driving the VX after a Spa trackday into the heart of Bruges was not one of it's finest moments. It's still rattling now.

 

Seem to recall whatever satnav I was using at the time had a brain fart trying to get me out of there, even after I'd braved the exit of the hotels underground car park.

[coldel]

I was in my 350z fortunately! Even then it was a bit 'offroad' 

[smiley]

The man bought a new garmin 10 months ago.

This whole thread revival is about an email from tomtom

[Sutol]

Don't complain Smiley, this place has a low enough foot fall as it is!

[coldel]

I'm hanging in there, we need something to grasp before we all die of a cold!

[Madmitch]

or Coronavirus! 

 

Seriously though, I acknowledge that I am fossilised and that the day is inevitably coming when I will have to buy a smart phone in order to unlock the car, use the washing machine, check in for flights etc etc, in fact my wife has been muttering about it for some time.  As I commented earlier, this forum is an amaziing place to gain knowledge freely given and this thread has informed me hugely on the topic, for which I thank you all, really very much appreciated.  When I do get round to actually doing something about buying one I will revive this thread and pick your brains ruthlessly! 

[Madmitch]

Just to revive my very old thread, in early 2019 my trusty Tom Tom stopped working because TT had not programmed some of their Sat Navs to deal with the WNRO reset which happens every 21 years or whatever.  I was really wild about that as it was just a cynical ploy to sell more new Sat Navs, I vowed never to touch anything from TT again despite the fact that they blitzed me with not-so-special offers for months after.

 

In May 2019 I bought a new Garmin which I really haven't got to like much, it's clunky and difficult to read - however, it has got me to wherever I wanted to go.  Yesterday I got into the car and noticed it didn't light up, I pulled the power plug and replaced it in the socket and hey presto, it worked again!  This morning it didn't light up again so thought it was probably just the cable but no, everything I have connected it to has failed to make it work.  This sat nav is as dead as the proverbial parrot except our real parrot managed 21 years and this has only managed 21 months, not good.  What is it about Sat Navs that makes them so unreliable?  My old Samsung mobile went on the road in 2007 and it's still running like a top on it's original battery!  

[smiley]

Poor luck by the sounds of it.

When i bought my speedster 10 years ago, it came with a garmin, hardwired into the stereo, so i could actually hear to go left or right, and have been snugged with it ever since.

Very outdated though, but have not been able to find something simple to replace it with. (ie working with the stereo, and normal gps without relying on a data plan)

 

[FLD]

I have a very old TT one that must be 12+ years old.  Still works OK, is the problem model specific?

[Madmitch]

My understanding is that as we got nearer to the WNRO time they started programming their sat navs to deal with the change but older units were left out so they would inevitably fail.  I bought my TT, a One XL Europe, in 2014 and it was still working perfectly until it fell over.  I don't know if it was model specific but it certainly sounds that way.  The Garmin came with a two year warranty according to the invoice although the book says only one year, I shall find out very soon which is correct!! 

[Sutol]

just use google maps and wife now, given up with money grabbing TT a while back.

[FLD]

I bought another TT and got a via with world maps.  When I bought this I looked at all the reviews as you do.  It seems that TT has issues with initial satellite connection (I can confirm this) and the reviews for Garmin say that periodically they just fall over.  From what I read they can be resurrected but it's tricky.  My thought was that I'd rather have a slow to connect than an outright fail.  This issue seems a bit crappy of TT though.

[Madmitch]

just use google maps and wife now, given up with money grabbing TT a while back.

 

Wouldn't work here I'm afraid.  My wife, bless her cotton socks, has a left / right problem so bad that when she took her driving test nearly 60 years ago her father tied a length of pink ribbon round her right wrist to remind her that when the examiner said 'right' it was that way.  I did wonder about doing the same thing but then I would have to tie a different colour around her left wrist otherwise we would just go round in circles - and anyway I might forget which colour went with which way.  

[oblomov]

 

just use google maps and wife now, given up with money grabbing TT a while back.

 

Wouldn't work here I'm afraid.  My wife, bless her cotton socks, has a left / right problem so bad that when she took her driving test nearly 60 years ago her father tied a length of pink ribbon round her right wrist to remind her that when the examiner said 'right' it was that way.  I did wonder about doing the same thing but then I would have to tie a different colour around her left wrist otherwise we would just go round in circles - and anyway I might forget which colour went with which way.  

 

I sympathise with your wife.  I didn't know the difference between left and right until I was about 12 years old - I mean I couldn't help being a bit slow.  Perhaps it was because I'm left handed, I don't know.  Even now I sometimes have to think about it.  It was murder in the forces.  When they said left or right turn I had to think about it by which time everyone but me had turned and I looked like a right prat.

[oblomov]

I meant to add, I can't really complain about my Garmin - bought it ten years or more ago with Europe lifetime map updates and the only problem now is it's running short of memory for updates so I've had to start deleting all the other languages and non essential stuff. Before that I had a top of the range Mio and they never once updated the maps which really annoyed me so I wouldn't buy one of those again.  I do tend to use Google maps on a tablet now when I'm driving abroad as well as the Garmin. This reminds me I must update the Garmin.