I just purchased this GPS for a trip to Boston after my old GPS was stolen. I was looking at price and this one was on sale. My old GPS was purchased for a similar price but it voiced the street names. In my opinion not telling you the name of the street to turn onto makes this GPS hard to use.
When I connected online to update the maps I was not offered a free update, but was offered 50% off to bring the two year old maps up to date. This service cost me an additional $40. Maybe I was scammed into paying for something that should have been free with the "30-day" map update guarantee...
The GPS itself is cool. I never had a problem getting a signal and the personalizing options are nice. I like the screen view, except that the street names are too small to read while driving and are not voiced. It did give accurate directions. However, it's frustrating to have two exits close together coming up and all the GPS says is "Turn right here" - Is it exit 13A or 13B? On more than one occasion I took the wrong right and had to be redirected by the GPS.
At least the GPS did not continually tell me, "turn around at your next opportunity." Instead it would calmly redirect me around the block. Overall, I like the TomTom. However, I did make a mistake in purchasing a GPS that does not voice street names. I would not buy this model again and recommend that you put high importance on voiced street names. TomTom ONE 130 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator (Box Version)
A very good solid GPS unit - and at a very good price here on amazon. Such a good price that it is less expensive to purchase a dedicated new one for the USA/Canada than to purchase the maps from [...] for my European unit. (Ridiculous!)
If you are considering the 130 think about spending a few more dollars to get the text to speech for street names in the 130-S TomTom ONE 130-S 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator. Even though the street names are pronounced in a weird way it is one more way of keeping your eyes safely on the road.
I find the menu structure very intuitive. It is very easy to input a desired address quickly and just get there. As mentioned in other reviews if you make a mistake or decide to take a different route it doesn't get angry at you but just recalculates a new route on the fly. The easyport mounting system is super and compact. You snap the suction cup onto the windshield and then turn the dial to increase the suction. It has never dropped off the windshield for me even going from high to low altitudes, freezing to balmy temperatures. If you choose the 130-S with text to speech you will want to stick with the default voice because it allows for street names to be synthesized/pronounced. But if you choose the 130 try out the voice of Kathy from Ireland. Outside of having an aphrodisiac effect she says things like "second exit off the roundabout" or "Take the motorway". Highly recommend these GPS units.
Ah yes, the only other thing you might consider is a protective carrying case sized for this unit for when you take the GPS out of the car into the house at night or for packing the unit for business travel. TomTom One Carrying Case and Strap for One 125, 130, 130s, 140 and 140s (Black) If you have not used the unit in a while you should plug it into your PC to charge it up the night before. Also to update the maps using the included software.
I have had 3 Garmins over the years, and thought I would try a TomTom this time (for my daughter). When I tried to update the system to the latest firmware and maps, it took me many hours and 2 calls to tech support to get things straightened out. The system appears to have had a flaky storage unit so when the updates tried to get installed, it would fail after 90-120 minutes. After several attempts, I contacted TomTom and was told to try running chkdsk against the unit. Errors and bad sectors were found and corrected. Attempted to install updates again, and after 100 minutes, the updates failed again. Called TechSupport back, was give more things to try (deleting files manually, etc) and after running chkdsk 2 more times, I was finally able to get the data to load.
My daughter tried using it for a few days, and said she would rather have her Garmin C330 back, because she did not like the way that the TomTom worked and the screen was too small, so I sent it back to Amazon and ordered a Garmin nuvi 260w for around the same price.
I'm talking about a different Tom Tom GPS than this model but here was my experience overall with this brand.
First, their so called GPS kept locking up on me frequently. I would have to wait until I got back home to hook the thing up to the computer and reset everything.
Second, their service was abysmal. They never fixed the problem. They just kept feeding me the same, pat, out of the manual answers.
Third, I took a chance and paid for advanced maps software thinking that maybe this would resolve the issue once and for all. Not only did the new software also freeze up frequently, Tom Tom never got it working once properly over the next three weeks of back and forth, almost daily correspondence. When I finally got fed up and asked for a refund (just for the new software), I was told it was past their two week policy of allowing refunds.
I gave them plenty of chances to fix their product and they screwed me over.
Completely unreliable product, one of the worst support experiences ever, and an unethical company to deal with.
I've since bought a Mio GPS (in Europe) and a Garmin GPS (in North America).
Both proved to be very reliable products.
Bought it at Walmart. Have had the TOMTOM One 3rd edition since 2008. Worked well all the time. Tried to update maps (free service) on TomTom site. After the update GPS screen froze. I spent 1/2 of one day on line with Tomtom tech service support. Reinstalled all files to no avail. Then told "Sorry, there is nothing more that we Tomtom can do". I find it interesting that the GPS unit was working until I tried to update it. After the update the unitwas frozen. So it is a software issue not a hardware issue. Tomtom just said sorry and offered me a $10.00 voucher for the purchase of a new unit. I believe that they screwed up my software and do not care that they did so.
Oh well, just go buy another one.
I suggest that if your TomTom is working do not connect to the TomTom site via your computer. Leave it alone. Do not mess with it.
This is a poor way to get more sales of TomTom units by TomTom screwing up your installed software
and then claiming that there is nothing more that they can do (ya right).
No offer made by TomTom to repair it.
Buyer be ware.
Drive on.
Robert Morrison - Tom Tom - Gps - Portable Gps - Tomtom One'
Detail Products
Detail Reviews
Click here for more information
