Tomtom Traffic Info - does it work?

Hi

Looking to buy our first in-car sat nav. Have been looking at the go 520 /
720 T (traffic) models which has the free traffic info for life. What
exactly is this, does it alert you to coming up congestion problems? How
accurate is it?

Thanks

It can be of use, but it'll give you loads of false alarms and won't
tell you of all congestion problems, it relies on issues being
reported by various agencies and they don't always keep things up to
date. It saved me from one or two long waits some time ago but has
also not flagged up some jams on the A303 or has flagged up jams that
were no longer present. I don't have it any more and don't really
miss it. Don't make any purchasing decisions based on whether it's
there or not, it's an interesting addition but not a make-or-break
item in my experience. Note though that the accuracy and usefulness
of it can change depending on the area you live in, some areas might
get much better reports than others.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!

Thanks for replying. Have seen the Go 720 (non traffic version) for £225
inc postage. The traffic version costs approx £40 more. Is it worth the
difference?

Ah, I suspect that the "traffic info" version is the TMC receiver, in
which case no it's not worth it, I had one for my Go 910 and sent it
back as not fit for purpose, I drove all over the south west of
England and never picked up a single update from it, reception is
absolutely dire. If you want traffic info then you're better off
getting one that can pick it up via a mobile phone, the data charges
are insignificant and there's a small subscription charge payable to
tomtom.

When I tried the TMC receiver, traffic info was only transmitted on
Classic FM, but the software still tried every single radio station
starting with local ones, and basically never tried classic FM, the
only one in this country that actually transmitted the stuff. I don't
know if that's still the case but without strong reception of Classic
FM and better software in the tomtom unit, I'd steer clear of it.
There was no effective way of restricting it to the right station, and
I tried all the tricks being posted in the forums at the time from
others who were having the exact same problems. It seemed that few
people had any luck with it.

--
Blast off and strike the evil Bydo empire!

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:30:30 +0000, in uk.rec.gps, Ian Rawlings wrote:

Don't all TomToms do this?


the data charges
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