I got this when it was up a few weeks ago. Very pleased... overall.
Locates your location in a manner of seconds. Easy enough UI. Tomtom's ability to have human recorded voices and custom icons and splash screens are nice too.

Had a problem out of the box with the internal sim card throwing error messages. It devolved to the point where live services won't work at all (or they take an hour to connect)

BUT

Tomtom has great CS and are replacing my unit Rickytick.

Go, buy. Then go.

Previous woot also $54.99 with video and comments there;
http://tech.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5187494

bye

Bought this last time.

Honestly had a problem with the SIM card saying it was bad when trying to use the LIVE services, but I literally just threw it against the wall and it started working, no problems since.

I would actually recommend it for the price it's at and what you get.

I have owned one for over a year. I use it daily and I am pretty rough with it. It is fast to map, after arriving at destination it will keep your map highlighted so you can find your way out,

::continued::
gives miles and time to destination, gives speed limit, quick to recalculate,

Live services don't work on mine either. Buy it only if you want to spend days fussing with customer service to get one that works. Amazing that so many of these are shipped without working live services. Live is the whole point of buying this unit. Bad form, woot.

nyccolef wrote:Live services don't work on mine either. Buy it only if you want to spend days fussing with customer service to get one that works. Amazing that so many of these are shipped without working live services. Live is the whole point of buying this unit. Bad form, woot.

Live Services worked great for me

Planning on replacing a 5 year old Garmin....cheaper to buy this new unit than pay $100 to update Garmin maps. What is Live Service"?

mrn1 wrote:Planning on replacing a 5 year old Garmin....cheaper to buy this new unit than pay $100 to update Garmin maps. What is Live Service"?

Wow...if I had read the product description before I posted this ? I would have answered my own question.
Based on posts, hitting the button!

meh - I have a TomTom XXL, and it works fine, but honestly folks, unless you get the lifetime map updates, save your money. By the time I had had the device for 6 months, it was getting roads wrong, and the speed limit information is often missing or out of date, and the cost to update your map once will exceed the cost of the unit!

peteshaw wrote:meh - I have a TomTom XXL, and it works fine, but honestly folks, unless you get the lifetime map updates, save your money. By the time I had had the device for 6 months, it was getting roads wrong, and the speed limit information is often missing or out of date, and the cost to update your map once will exceed the cost of the unit!

I totally agree. Lifetime maps are a must with these GPS units.

Live service does not work for me either, says SIM card bad. Lovely. now I get to figure out who to call and sit on the phone with.

I order two last week. One works GREAT! The other one came broken... Not very happy.

peteshaw wrote:meh - I have a TomTom XXL, and it works fine, but honestly folks, unless you get the lifetime map updates, save your money. By the time I had had the device for 6 months, it was getting roads wrong, and the speed limit information is often missing or out of date, and the cost to update your map once will exceed the cost of the unit!

You must live in a very fast-growing area! I've never felt the need to upgrade maps more than every 2 years, and while lifetime map upgrades would be great, for this price just buy another GPS in a year or two (or use the future new, functional Apple Maps!)

I own this GPS and it's terrible. Tom Tom's Dutch, I think, and they can NOT pronounce Spanish place names, a huge problem in California. You'd think they could get "San Francisco" right, but I swear the pronunciation is unrecognizable and I'd sound foolish trying to imitate it for you. Second is that the map updates are $75, so it's more economical to throw it away and buy another rather than upgrade the maps so they're current. But if you're going to throw it away why buy it? Buy one you can upgrade.

poondoggy wrote:Live Services worked great for me

I bought it a couple weeks back as well. After updating everything that could be updated (GPS software, Maps, Map Correction, etc. etc) it is doing a very good job, and Live services connect about 50% of the time, but I don't really need them.

pnkaufman wrote:You must live in a very fast-growing area! I've never felt the need to upgrade maps more than every 2 years, and while lifetime map upgrades would be great, for this price just buy another GPS in a year or two (or use the future new, functional Apple Maps!)

I'm about to throw mine away because the maps are out of date and the upgrade is $75. I travel a lot so the GPS is constantly being tested in different areas, some of which may be growing, I don't know. What I do know is that it's ridiculous to be sent miles out of your way because the map is old. These are the same wonderful people who did Apple's maps for them... and that's NOT a recommendation.

Bought this the last time it was up. Used the free update to the current map and the GPS wouldn't recognize it had a map. Tried multiple times without luck, eventually installed the original map from backup and that worked, but now it lets me know occasionally that I have a free map update available. *Very* frustrating.

I bought this to replace a stolen Garmin and while this finds its position much faster than my 2 year old Garmin, everything about the User Interface is worse.
For instance, if I am in GPS mode and I want to see the local map I have to click on the 3D map, then scroll to the second page of icons, then select view map, then then click on overhead map, then zoom way in because it defaults to showing me most of the state. On the Garmin I click on the 3D map and it shows the top-down map of the local streets.
Everything seems to take more clicks than it should, a very poor design for a device used in a car. If i want to save a recent destination I can't do it from the list of recent destinations. I have to nav to the second screen of icons, then to address book, then to recent destinations, *then* I can save a destination.

But the *BIGGEST* problem is the TomTom does *not* turn on/off with the car, unlike the Garmin. So when I get where I am going I have to remember to shut it off or it stays on and lit up in my car until the battery runs out.

I'm going to keep using it, because I can't afford to buy *another* GPS, but as soon as I can afford even the most basic Garmin I'm getting that, and I'm ditching this thing.

Shame too, because the design of the windshield mount is great, but the UI & such is so bad it completely overshadows the mount & fast satellite locating.

"Live" Service doesn't work on mine either, it throws up a SIM card error - but everything else has been satisfactory...

Except in my driveway, it doesn't recognize it as the correct address, so I never actually make it to my "home" destination. Nitpicky, i know.

Is there such a thing as a GPS & radar dector in one unit?

I've owned all three big brands - Garmin, Magellan, and TomTom. My most recent GPS is the TomTom, so my experiences with it are freshest - 2 yrs old.

TomTom is BY FAR the worst of the three brands. It regularly places houses on the wrong side of the street.

I tried to use it to navigate to a friend's apt. It couldn't find her street, so I asked her for a nearby business, and followed her directions from there. Sitting outside her apartment, it was still unable to find her street (claimed the street didn't exist) - EVEN THOUGH it correctly displayed the street name in the current location. Huh? (The address had been there for at least 15 years, BTW, so it's not a map update issue.)

My TomTom regularly tells me to stay in the wrong lane. It usually tells me to turn a block too early (this is its default - it warns you just when it's risky to make the current turn, so your heart jumps until you realize you haven't missed it yet).

Thankfully, I have a GPS on my phone. I only use the TomTom when the phone is out of juice.

improbcat wrote:But the *BIGGEST* problem is the TomTom does *not* turn on/off with the car, unlike the Garmin. So when I get where I am going I have to remember to shut it off or it stays on and lit up in my car until the battery runs out.

Oh, yeah! I forgot about that. HORRIBLE idea - the system is designed to run the battery dead every night, UNLESS you remember to manually turn it off.

Another problem: the UI is backwards. On every other mapping software, tapping right on the horizontal zoom arrows zooms you in; TomTom zooms out. But even dumber: when the arrows are vertical, tapping down zooms in. Wakko Talks Faboo!? Do they have to screw it up just to prove they wrote their own software? What is their problem?

I got the Go 740 Live with 1 year of live service. TomTom only gave me 3 months of service and refuses to extend it to the 1 year. So much for customer service. This was my 2nd TomTom, and my LAST!

If it doesn't come with lifetime map updates, don't buy. They fleece you for updating maps.

[quote postid="5201608" user="peteshaw"]...unless you get the lifetime map updates, save your money... quote]

Totally agree - will not buy another GPS regardless of brand, without lietime maps. Buying updates really stinks.

What happens when the LIVE subscription runs out? If I don't resubscribe, will the device still function fine as a GPS(except, of course the google searching and gas prices type stuff)?

Anyone get their device, plug it in to home, and get a message saying, "Latest Map Guarantee no longer valid - Sorry, it's been longer than 90 days since you first used your device..." ? I'll be calling TomTom later today to make sure I get my map. Either the device was not cleared from their database when it was refurbished, or when I unregistered my old 710 and linked the new device, it still kept the date from my five-year old TomTom.

PemberDucky wrote:hmm. sounds like you're following the right channels.

keep us posted & let us know if we can be of any assistance along the way!

Thank you...

I rang their support number today to discuss this, as the Live Service was also showing as expired (and TomTom Live was not a service that was available, at least not in its current form, when I Wooted my 710, so I don't think that was a carryover from my old TomTom account). I ended up buying a year of map updates anyway (they were offering it half-off for $30) so I was no longer concerned with the Map Guarantee, however the helpful chap on the other end of the line said my Live service should be working in the next two or three days. Kinda looking forward to that, because otherwise this newer device seems to be somewhat less functional than the ancient GPS its replaced (I loved, for example, how the 710 had an ambient light sensor and would automatically switch between day and night modes when the sun went down. I'll miss that. But even more I will miss the built-in handsfree calling. Maybe next time y'all can help us out by Wooting a 2535 )

djames42 wrote:Anyone get their device, plug it in to home, and get a message saying, "Latest Map Guarantee no longer valid - Sorry, it's been longer than 90 days since you first used your device..." ? I'll be calling TomTom later today to make sure I get my map. Either the device was not cleared from their database when it was refurbished, or when I unregistered my old 710 and linked the new device, it still kept the date from my five-year old TomTom.

Same thing here. I also unregistered my old TomTom One and linked this new one with TomTom Home, so maybe that has something to do with it. Were they willing to honor the Latest Map Gaurantee on this refurb?

whiskeywreck wrote:Same thing here. I also unregistered my old TomTom One and linked this new one with TomTom Home, so maybe that has something to do with it. Were they willing to honor the Latest Map Gaurantee on this refurb?

I believe they would have done, yes. They did activate my Live Services. I didn't ask about the map guarantee, however, because I added a year of updates because of the sale which negated the need for the free single map update.

Honestly, they were very helpful on the phone. I would call them and give it a shot!

Now then, the Live Services is a disappointment. Not so much the services (I love the live traffic and gas prices), but the fact that I only seem to be able to connect about 20% of the time.