My trip to France in the C55 with tom tom and comand!

[Alfie]

One of my trips to France before christmas was in the C55. As I had a Tom Tom (for use in the van) I took it with me and decided to use both to see how they compared to each other.

Putting aside the asthetics of trailing wires and separate screens, here is how they performed.

The comand calculated the 541 mile trip quicker. they both chose pretty much the same route except when deviated from the main Peage. It was at this point that I arrived at a T junction and one said go left, the other go right! I went with comand and the tom tom quickly recalculated to compensate after about 50 metres. What I did notice though was the Comand voice was nicer than the standard female Tom Tom voice. Both showed an ETA within a minute of each other. Both showed remaining distance within a couple of miles of each other. The comand had TMC which showed congestion the Tom Tom didnt. The Tom Tom alerted me to the presence of speed cameras the comand didnt/couldnt. The only glitch with either was the Tom Tom occasionally told me to turn around on a slip road!

So its a close call on Navigation. However, when I had an incoming phone call the comand went silent. The Tom Tom didnt and I had this person bleating on and on at me whilst I was talking!

For me, trailing leads and separate screens are a pain and unsightly. But the speed camera alerts were useful.

 

[jaymanek]

I bought a £150 tomtom for our trip.. (after finding out I could have used my mums which had europe for free).... Anyway, being a man I just took it out the box and used it..
So we started off from Calais going down some tiny little roads... huh, why is everyone else going a different way.... 20 miles later and I discovered it was set to "bicycle routes"!

It also didnt know about the new road around Reims and got v confused... but when i got back, I updated it (for free - latest map guarantee) and I think that will have sorted that.

Overall, if i had a car with comand, cool, otherwise I think the tomtom performed great and of course can be used in any car.

 

[Oli]

I'm more used to Tom Tom as the Sat Nav unit in my '03 Range Rover was useless, but I tried using Comand the other day and found it fine, the only thing I found a bit awkward was that unless you're turning off it displays a map instead of road layout so it can be harder to read sometimes if you're used to a Tom Tom other than that I found it pretty good for a 7 year old car Sat Nav.

 

[steve333]

I have a tom tom(for the van)& command in the cls,tom tom is good for fixed speed cameras(command doesn't pick them up)& tom tom takes full post codes(command doesn't)so for me tom tom has a slight edge although command is good.

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

So....leading question.. can COMAND be updated for speed cameras?

 

[312 Sprinter]

I've had Comand and fot the last few years I've had an Alpine touch screen head unit with the DVD navigation connected to it. I love the Alpine, the screen is bigger than the TomTom.

I prefer the Alpine, and Comand, to the TomTom. However the gap is now so small that it it questionable at best whether big fixed systems are really worth it. The thing that kills them is the software upgrade. The Alpine upgrade costs significantly more than a brand new TomTom. And you get speed cameras, easily programmable points of intrest. In essence a TomTom is just a small Linux box so it is easy to make it to extra tricks.

 

[BenzedUP]

Tell us about the car

 

[Alfie]

Tell us about the car

It was awesome on the French roads. Truely awesome. Effortless power whenever it was needed.

Totally unsuitable in the snow. Frustratingly bad in fact. Snow chains were on and off more times than a tarts drawers!

I need a 4x4. Given the liking I have for power it will need to have a big engine. Something like a 6.3 I reckon!

 

[Shude]

I'm more used to Tom Tom as the Sat Nav unit in my '03 Range Rover was useless, but I tried using Comand the other day and found it fine, the only thing I found a bit awkward was that unless you're turning off it displays a map instead of road layout so it can be harder to read sometimes if you're used to a Tom Tom other than that I found it pretty good for a 7 year old car Sat Nav.

You're not forced to look at a map, pick the option which looks like an arrow while navigating to switch the directions to ON all the time. You were using MIX mode.

 

[BTB 500]

Current Tom Toms have "HD Traffic", which is about as good as it gets. That's based on anonymous real-time handset speeds supplied by cellphone networks, trend data which factors in how speeds on each road historically change with time of day and day of week, and the normal TMC data on specific incidents and how long they are expected to last. Downside is that it's about £45 a year (data is supplied via a SIM built in to your TomTom unit ... hence the 'subscription') although that also includes fixed & Mobile Speed Cameras, Google Search, & local Weather.

TomTom, portable GPS car navigation systems

 

[Sp!ke]

I prefer to have a standalone navigation unit so that I can use it wherever I am and whichever vehicle I'm in.

I use mine in Europe and in the US when using a rental as its much cheaper to have your own than get one with the rental car.

Its also useful to be able to plan your route in advance from the comfort of your living room rather than having to sit in the car.

I notice Garmin are marketing OBD2 dongles for use with their Nuvi range which looks like an interesting option.

 

[jaymanek]

I dont think any RWD Mercedes is going to be particularly good in a ski resort... I broke my snow chains on my first attempt at using them.... So we gave up, parked the car in the car park and carried out luggage to the chalet.

 

[jeffwebb]

Whenever we discuss Sat Navs, the question of Comand and cameras comes up. Isn't it about time Comand went down this road (excuse the pun)? Everyone else seems to provide fixed camera info, why not Comand?
Regards, Jeff.

 

[Burger]

One of the major problems with providing camera database capability on built-in navigation devices could well be the great variance in international, European law I suspect. For example, isn't it Switzerland where you will have your sat nav seized and destroyed if it contains a camera database?

 

[Burger]

I prefer to have a standalone navigation unit so that I can use it wherever I am and whichever vehicle I'm in.

I use mine in Europe and in the US when using a rental as its much cheaper to have your own than get one with the rental car.

Its also useful to be able to plan your route in advance from the comfort of your living room rather than having to sit in the car.

I notice Garmin are marketing OBD2 dongles for use with their Nuvi range which looks like an interesting option.

I like it

I wonder if they will do something similar for the Zumo range as I have one for the bike.

 

[Tan]

One of the major problems with providing camera database capability on built-in navigation devices could well be the great variance in international, European law I suspect. For example, isn't it Switzerland where you will have your sat nav seized and destroyed if it contains a camera database?

Wouldn't it just be a case of only supplying the camera database if it is legal to use one in that country, i.e. supply the UK database but not the Swiss one.

 

[Burger]

Wouldn't it just be a case of only supplying the camera database if it is legal to use one in that country, i.e. supply the UK database but not the Swiss one.

I'm not entirely sure. I've just read a number of times now, mostly on bike forums, of people having their sat navs seized and destroyed at the Swiss border because they contained camera databases. I'll have a search and see if it turns up anything.

Regards,

 

[Burger]

The document linked from the following page would appear to explain the Swiss stance on camera databases very well...

ASTRA - Press releases

I've also read there are similar laws now in Germany with other European countries following suit.

Clearly for the Swiss they only care about camera databases covering Switzerland, but I wouldn't fancy trying to convince a Swiss border control officer or policeman that while my GPS had camera warnings for other countries it didn't include them for Switzerland. This could be quite hard to prove (at the side of the road) on many devices.

Like I said, I just suspect that this and similar laws are why car manufacturers are unlikely to include such capabilities. There'd be nothing to stop someone coming up with a third party solution. I use such a database on my Garmin Zumo on my bike and it's paid for itself more than once

Regards,

 

[BTB 500]

TomTom simply don't provide speed camera locations for Switzerland - nothing to stop car makers doing the same with their satnavs.

The main issue is probably ease of update ... speed camera data needs to be current to be of much use. TomTom issue files for fixed cameras every week.

 

[Burger]

I believe Garmin also don't include Switzerland or Germany in their official database, but there are plenty of after market database subscriptions available that do include them for both Garmin and TomTom.

As I understand it the law in Germany has a bit of a loophole in that it specifically restricts speed camera locations being displayed on a map but fails to mention audible warnings. Consequently a lot of people are making transparent icons for the POI's and as a double safeguard, renaming the camera files.

However, I still suspect it is because of such uncertainty that we're unlikely to see a manufacturer include such capability. I also suspect it's because of how we see POI's on customisable devices being used in such ways, that we won't see that any too soon either.

Would love to be wrong.

Regards,