DO NOT BUY TOMTOM 5.

[Conor]

So there I was on Tuesday. TomTom 5 had just arrived and I instantly went to put it on my PDA. Installed TT5 OK then went to install the maps. 30 minutes of transferring GB_PLUS and I got "Cannot Read Disk" error. OK, tried again, same error different point. Got so fed up in the end I went and bought a memory card reader, installed to directory on PC and copied across.

BEING USED AS BETA TESTERS. THEY CAN'T EVEN GET THE INSTALLER RIGHT.

OK, so we're up and running. Had a play around, happy with what I saw, apart from being able to customise speeds. Lets try the 7 digit postcode search. So off I go, pop in 7 digit postcode and...IT DOESN'T BLOODY WORK! OK, maybe I installed the wrong map so I install the normal GB one..still no go. Hunts around online and eventually find I have to manually add an empty folder called TOMTOM. WHAT THE HELL? THIS IS A BUG THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN FOUND IN BETA TESTING!!!! 8O 8O 8O

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO THE ROUTE PLANNING? (1)

So yesterday I finally got to use it in anger on a four drop run from Hull. First drop in Ince at Jewsons it finds no problem. Second drop, far side of Wigan on Victoria St at Jewsons. All I have to do is head into Wigan, round Wigan Pier then out on the A587 and turn right. . OH DEAR. Wants to route me through town centre. I can't go through there so I go round the inner ring road. It reroutes me sending me off on a right wild goose chase. Eventually join the A587 heading back into Wigan. Can't turn left up Victoria St because it is too tight. Continue on. Now I've got a BIG roundabout in front of me. What does TT5 do? Wants to route me on a ONE AND A HALF MILE ROUND TRIP. 8O 8O 8O Halfway round the roundabout it finally figures out that yes, it can route me the way I intended to go.


NOW ONTO THE COMPLETELY USELESS 7 DIGIT POSTCODE LOOKUP.

Why useless? Because it actually isn't a true 7 digit lookup. Read on...

Onto the third drop at Jewsons, Lyons Lane in Chorley. Pops in postcode and away I go. Wants to route me through Wigan town centre AGAIN but I ignore it using the faster inner ring road. Gets to Lyons lane in Chorley, no sign of Jewsons. Goes up and down it, still no sign. Pops into electrical supplies and it turns out I'm not on Lyons Lane but Lyons Lane South with Lyons Lane being 1/4 mile further up the road off a right turn at a roudabout on the main dualcarriageway through Chorley. If you look at this link http://tinyurl.com/866yn where TT5 said I wanted to be was the south most DC stretch of the A6. The postcode actually is on the B6228 - Lyons Lane. I fired up TT3 at this point, stuck in the Postcode on the ukpostcodes addon and it showed it on the map smack outside Jewsons on the B6228, Lyons Lane.

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO THE ROUTE PLANNING? (2)

So, onto my final drop at Jewsons, Preston down Raglan St. Pops in the address and it works out the route. Now bear in mind I'm 50 yards away from a dual carriageway which runs right through Chorley to the M61. Where does it send me? Across the roundabout, instead of turning right onto the A6, and down a pokey B road that runs parallel. 8O 8O 8O

WHERES MY ROAD GONE?

So, running a little tight on time, I stick in the name of the road my depot is on to get a rough idea of journeytime. Except I can't. Somewhere inbetween TomTom3 and TomTom 5, Littlefair Road in Hull has ceased to exist. It is on the map because it routed me out of it at the start of the day. Oh dear.


Summary

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? I can't believe the installer bug for a start. I have to trust this software yet I can't trust its route planning and before you start, its nothing to do with the fact I'm in a lorry...this thing just plainl y DOES NOT WORK. God help you if you miss a turn...it'll reroute you round the north pole! THE SEVEN DIGIT POSTCODE LOOKUP IS A LIE. It is NOT seven digits. If it were, it'd have placed me in the right spot. I think at best it's 5 or 6. As long as it gets a road name, that appears to be enough.

Good points:
Like the built in POI warning. Like being able to still add TT3 compatible POIs. Like the updating over the internet. Like the display showing street names on the map.

Bad points:

IT CANNOT PLAN ROUTES
YOU CANNOT ALTER THE SPEEDS
THE SPEEDS FOR THE TYPES OF ROADS ARE SO OUT THAT IT SENDS YOU DOWN POKEY LOCAL ROADS INSTEAD OF THE LARGE DUAL CARRIAGEWAY.
THE SEVEN DIGIT POSTCODE IS A LIE. It doesn't work as the Digitools one does, i.e PROPERLY.

DO NOT BUY TOMTOM5. IT IS AT BEST BETA. IT DOES NOT DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE TIN. STICK WITH TT3 OR GET SOMETHING ELSE

[RichXDA2]

Can't say I agree with you there, in my experience of TT5 (after upgrading from TT3) the software works perfectly.

Route planning is more often than not spot on, with the odd glitch which was the same in TT3.
Speeds seem to be OK for the way I drive.
TT3 quite often sent you down "pokey" local roads instead of dual carriageways so no difference there.
Seven digit postcodes are fairly accurate for the ones I've tried, at least as accurate as the addon for TT3.

At the end of the day any Sat Nav system is an aid, driver intuition is always required regardless of the software package you use.

And one last thing, the software installed perfectly, in fact very painlessly compard to TT3! As for having to add the Tom Tom folder manually, well thats no great hardship is it, it takes all of 30 seconds!

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