TomTom ONE v3 Satellite Navigation System with Great Britain Mapping (Electronics)

just watch what happens after the guarantee runs out! Like many others, I too, thought the Tom Tom was great, Initially. Then recently I noticed that the screen would suddenly go dead. The battery was fully charged, etc, but the machine would just switch off. I would then have to TRY to switch it on, tap at the button, bang it on the dashboard, turn it upside down, (Yes, terrible, whilst driving), then it would just decide to come on when it wanted. 2 mins later, it would switch off just when I thought we were going places. So I very much have to sadly throw this expensive toy,that my darling dearest got me, in the bin (the one that says recycled satnavs of course, any of you green peace, global warming my arse supporters out there). Happy driving.

Exactly what this thing can and cannot do I have now owned the Tomtom v3 for three weeks and put it to use with around a thousand miles worth of travel. On the whole, considering you are buying a small device for only £100 which guides you everywhere in the UK, its a bargain, as are all the other brands. To start with, the pros of this product: It is very easy to use and has many nice features, such as clear guidance voices and downloadable voices as well as choices of screen presentation styles and colours. I was very impressed with the additional features from guidance to POIs (Places of Interest) such as airports and the nearest petrol station in case of a low fuel emergency, to step by step instructions for resuscitating people at the side of the road and various emergency telephone numbers. While driving you are given speeds camera warnings, a display of your current speed, the current time, the estimated arrival time, the road you are on, how far till your next turning, what road you will turn onto and even a compass. I don't think I've missed anything. These are mostly optional. The speed readout does catch my eye a lot out of interest comparing it to my in-car speedometer and so has been turned off on mine to prevent me from crashing! Now to the cons that I have found so far: This product has some very annoying map and software issues that are worth being aware of. First, be aware that turning the password function on may well lock you out of your Tomtom if you do not have a computer nearby. Let me explain. I set a password on mine to prevent the saved contact addresses from getting into the wrong hands which is a good feature. However, many times now the system has refused my password!! The only way to get back into the Tomtom is to connect it to the Tomtom Home software just to disconnect it again as a sort of kick up the bum to get it to think straight. After this it usually works again for a while. If your not near a PC and this happens, quite simply you do not have a sat-nav and you best have an emergency paper map in your boot!! I have turned that function off again now. The free map update available after purchase is not very up to date, with virtually all the out of town speed limits incorrect (which across England have been reduced to 50mph around 9months ago), which means in many cases it tells me to do 60mph past a speed camera in a 50mph zone. It gets many in town speeds wrong as well. ALWAYS IGNORE ITS SPEED LIMIT WARNINGS AND USE THE ROAD SIGNS!!! It is not aware of MANY new(ish) roads. It gets some speed camera types wrong sometimes (i.e. warns of a red light camera when a speed camera is there), though at least you know something is there. It has tried to send me the wrong way down a 'one way' street (not the biggest issue ever really, excusable). It is worth being aware that the Tomtom reads the map's road junctions by the angles at which the roads connect rather than knowing which road is the give-way, this means that in a situation where a road has a 90 degree corner, and another road joins it on that corner making a 'T' shape on the map, the Tomtom will see a 'T' junction instead of what is actually there. So if you are on the road connecting to the 90 degree corner of the main road the sat-nav will give you no warning as it sees you to be continuing on a straight road. If you are traveling on the main road which undergoes the 90 degree bend the sat-nav will tell you to turn left (or right) onto the next road. I hope that makes sense. Once you are aware of this it is not really an issue, at least you still went in the right direction. The Tomtom v3 also has no memory expansion slot for extra maps and only has programmes to cover car routes, bike routes and walking routes. Do not use it for large vehicles and when towing as it cannot eliminate inappropriate roads. As your position is communicated via satellite there is a delay between where you are on the road and where the sat-nav sees you to be on the map, so for example if your going round a roundabout with numerous exits in quick succession you need to slow down for the sat-nav system to have a chance of warning you to take the exit in time. I have missed exits a few times due to this and even taken the exit after by mistake because by the time it tells you to take the exit, you've past it and assume it means the next one. That is slightly annoying but again once your aware of it you can compensate for that and I would assume that all GPS systems have the same issue. I also had one experience where I was attending a wedding reception on a farm, I used the farm's post code to guide me there with the sat-nav, but as the farm drive was very long and the farm building itself was nearer another road, the sat-nav sent me to that road instead where I could see the building but where there was no entrance. Again I would think that as the driveway is not a listed road, all sat-navs would make the same mistake. All in all it is a good product but I reckon that the Garmin products may be better as they apparently have a better mapping programme and are generally cheaper. However, all products of such complex programming have their little problems and if you get a Tomtom you would not be disappointed. It does what it says on the tin and I think that mine is great, it just takes a little while to learn its limits as with any sat-nav and be able to interpret some of its readouts rather than take them literally. I couldn't drive without it now as it does get me straight to the destination generally hassle free and leaves me free to enjoy the drive. I only gave it 3 stars because of the very annoying password trouble which has left me without a usable sat-nav a couple of times. I hope that my experiences have helped. Happy shopping

TOMTOM R.I.P. Bought this unit for driving to geocaches using coordinates. Worked absolutely brilliantly and got to some pretty remote spots with ease. Beautifully clear displays and nicely layout menus. So why only two stars, I hear you say. Very simple. My Tomtom One died just out of warranty. Symptoms :- wouldn't come one, even after reset, and with power applied to the unit. Fortunately the unit didn't die in the middle of nowhere. Normally I'd shrug my shoulders and say "Well these things happen". But then I surfed for "Tomtom faults" on Google. And guess what, there are legion owners of Tomtoms that have died the same way. For me, until this long standing design fault has been ironed out by Tomtom, I'm going with a Garmin Nuvi. Whilst the Garmin Nuvi isn't a patch on the Tomtom, at least (I hope) it won't be costing me an extra £2 a week in motoring costs. TomTom ONE v3 Europe Satellite Navigation System (Without Bluetooth)

Good Unit, Shame about the Company Brilliant unit, does exactly what it says on the box, and so easily too! But, the LORD help you should you get a problem. The Web site is a veritable maze unless you want to buy something. My first problem was when I purchased a year's subscription for speed camera updates - they would not install on my unit. Having (eventually) found the support page on the web site I asked for assistance to get my purchase installed - TomTom never answered! Once the guarantee had expired, the unit suddenly started to reset, losing all my favourite locations and my home address! This usually happened as I switched the unit off, but sometimes happened in mid-journey! TomTom this time responded to my plea for help and sent me a box to return my unit for repair. They opened an RMA for me on th web site which acts a bit like a bulletin board, creating a communication thread for me to talk to TomTom support. My unit was returned and TomTom (via the RMA) said they would repair it for £56. I paid, TomTom replaced the speaker and returned the unit to me. The fault, however, was not cured! I advised TomTom (via the RMA)about this problem, and they said they were truly sorry and opened another RMA. Once the unit was returned TomTom said that the unit needed to be replaced at a cost of £116 (more than a new one!) I resonded that I considered that the previous week's repair was not fit for purpose and asked for my £56 to be refunded. TomTom responded by closing the RMA threads other than the payment link. The web site contains no GB address or telephone number that I can find and the repair address is a third party. I shall buy a Garmin!

Clear, concise and packed with features I like my TomTom - it's a neatly-designed unit, finds a signal quickly, the maps and display are very clear and maps can be corrected and updated. The directions are precise with clear indications of which lane to be in at tricky junctions and, very useful for me, it has a speed warning which indicates if I am exceeding the speed limit for the road I'm on. However, I've possibly been unlucky with mine because my first unit would switch itself on at random when not in use and when in use would freeze at the start-up screen although I could operate it using my PC (not that this is any help because I don't need a sat-nav when sitting in my office!). It was returned exchanged as faulty and ... hey-presto, the replacement unit also switches itself on occasionally when not in use. It hasn't yet frozen at the start-up screen in the month that I've been using it, but I'm clinging onto my proof of purchase just incase. Apart from that, it's just what I hoped for with more features than I anticipated. But, if you're planning to use it overseas, be warned. There is no SD slot to install additional maps and only 512mb memory.