Friday night I purchased the TomTom 510 .... today it started freaking out on me. I had it plugged into it's home base unit in another room as I was watching the World Cup game. I started hearing an English woman saying "turn right. turn right. turn right". Over and over and over again.

My TomTom went crazy and wouldn't shut up!!!

Brought it back to Circuit City and am waiting for my replacement unit, a Garmin C340, to arrive on Wednesday.

If I wanted someone who wouldn't shut up in the car, I know plenty of backseat drivers! :-D

OK, this is kinda funny really - a woman who won't shut up - and an electronic one at that! Just think if you had been IN the car with her screaming at you - and no way to shut her up besides flinging the whole thing out the window!
Good luck with your replacement - hopefully SHE will be NICER.

Wouldn't it be funny to hack one of those things?
"Honey, there's a yard sale. Let's pull over and look."
"Why don't you pull into the gas station and ask for directions."
"I don't remember how to get there, I thought you were listening."
"I didn't want to go there anyway. They are your stupid friends."
"Pull over. I have to pee."
:-D

Hmmmm,

I think I've had one of those for just over 32 years !




Dom

Hmmmm, I think I've had one of those for just over 32 years !

Dom

Uhhh...my wife's been riding around with you for thirty-two years and I'm just now finding out about it!? :-o

1737

Wow, that's a first for TomTom that I've heard.

I think I'm still going with the Garmin Nuvi 360 when it comes out, though...

I hadn't heard of a TomTom doing that and I've been reading the TomTom forums for months.

I got my TTG510 last week and it is working great. Can't wait for Wednesday to get it out on the open road. :)

My TomTom has never done such a thing either.:confused:

Brought it back to Circuit City and am waiting for my replacement unit, a Garmin C340, to arrive on Wednesday.

We have a C320 with 2gb sd card, and it works great! I'm sure you'll like the C340...Nice. :)

I bought a hagstroms map. It doesn't talk but gets me where I need to go, but then again I never go anywhere...:???:

I picked up one of these at Wally World for five bucks. It has never talked back....

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/directories-books/rand-mcnally-road-atlas-pic.jpg

Hey, for you map buyin' supieriority complex folks, good for you, you saved yourself some money. The rest of us electronic havin', gizmo needin', money "wastin'" folks are happy, AND we know where every resturaunt, gas station, state park, hospital, car wash, and Coffee House within a 50 mile radius is, so WAH!

I picked up one of these at Wally World for five bucks. It has never talked back....

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/directories-books/rand-mcnally-road-atlas-pic.jpg

I suppose since this is the Mobile ELECTRONICS forum that the paper map people don't have a place to post!!! Maybe we need a Mobile PAPER forum??:)

Hey, for you map buyin' supieriority complex folks, good for you, you saved yourself some money. The rest of us electronic havin', gizmo needin', money "wastin'" folks are happy, AND we know where every resturaunt, gas station, state park, hospital, car wash, and Coffee House within a 50 mile radius is, so WAH!
Umm I also know "where every restaurant, gas station, state park, hospital, car wash, and Coffee House within a 50 mile radius is" - at least for where I live. Oh I am sure I have missed a few car washes and probably some restaurants too but at the rate they open and go out of business here I cannot imagine a NAV system being correct for more than a day either. And as for software - I'll stick with brain power - at least for local stuff. MY "software" knows exactly which places I want to take visitors too and which to avoid.
I think NAV is useless for normal trips around town. I already KNOW that stuff and I also have the advantage of knowing where traffic always backs up at rush hour and where the construction zones are.
For travel it can be very useful - IF you go someplace new - our road trips are invariably to see family and again - very familiar territory. Our other trips are not drive trips - we fly in and rent a car.
Putting a NAV system in our vehicles would be a waste of $$ right now. I love em and they are really cool but just not an even minimally justified use of $500.

Yeah, I've got maps ... but when I'm driving somewhere new, which is lots lately since I moved to a new state, I don't want to pull over and look at a map. I want to tell my GPS where I want to go and then I want my GPS to tell me how to get there! Plus, I can afford it.

As far as the TomTom goes .... I'd done a fair amount of research before buying it and didn't read anything that made me nervous about making this purchase. I supposed I could have stuck with the TomTom to see if I had any other issues, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Circuit City has a 14 day window of hasslefree returns and I will be gone for the majority of that 14 day period. So I wanted to bring it back, go with the Garmin, and not look back. I hope the TomTom users have fantastic experiences with their TomToms, I hope the map readers don't get papercuts flipping through their mapbooks, and I hope my new Garmin doesn't give me any backtalk!

I've had a TomTom Go 300 for about 6 months and it's works flawlessly 99% of the time. The remaining 1% is for the two times it tried to send me through an old road.

It's taken me from Rhode Island to Florida, up to Atlanta, and back home without issue. It's POI database has brought me to a small campground in the middle of New Hampshire just fine. TomTom is an excellent nav unit, in my opinion.

However, I can probably guess why it was freaking out. You had it turned on and set to navigate a route while inside your house. Which means the signal was probably very weak and it was confused. As it's location jumped around while trying to find a lock, it kept recalculating the directions based on where it thought it was.

To fix the problem, you could have:

a) shut it off or taken it outside - where it was meant to be used, or
b) cleared the route so it stopped trying to navigate, or
c) turned the volume down

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, if I do. But I don't want people thinking TomTom's are crap. Mine's worked great since I got it. But with all gadgets, they can take a little getting used to.

I would agree with Rocky Top that a Rand McNally is still the way to go.

Although if you need electronics-Sprint-Nextel offers phones (both PCS and Nextel networks) that can do the turn by turn for you. Google Telenav or check Sprints website for more info.

Umm I also know "where every restaurant, gas station, state park, hospital, car wash, and Coffee House within a 50 mile radius is" - at least for where I live. Oh I am sure I have missed a few car washes and probably some restaurants too but at the rate they open and go out of business here I cannot imagine a NAV system being correct for more than a day either. And as for software - I'll stick with brain power - at least for local stuff

We travel on a monthly basis, and it's much easier to bring someone along who knows all of the back roads. Besides, a travel guide costs much more...


At home? Nah, no need, but maps and poi's can be updated, and it's much easier than traveling down to the local gas station. I can do it here, in my comfy chair.

However, I can probably guess why it was freaking out. You had it turned on and set to navigate a route while inside your house. Which means the signal was probably very weak and it was confused. As it's location jumped around while trying to find a lock, it kept recalculating the directions based on where it thought it was.

To fix the problem, you could have:

a) shut it off or taken it outside - where it was meant to be used, or
b) cleared the route so it stopped trying to navigate, or
c) turned the volume down

I don't mean to sound like a jerk, if I do. But I don't want people thinking TomTom's are crap. Mine's worked great since I got it. But with all gadgets, they can take a little getting used to.

No. The TomTom was most certainly powered off and there was no route planned. It powered itself on and it started saying "Turn Right". I don't think TomTom GPS units are junk, I just felt more comfortable going in a different direction. It's not exactly an inexpensive item so I'd rather put my money behind something I feel good about.