TomTom are taking a bit of a battering from some of their staunchest supporters (including me!) at the moment for some poor marketing decisions (a classic example of the bean-counters ignoring the advice of the engineers as far as I can tell...).
Basically the two big issues at the moment are
1. the "dumbing down" of the recent cheaper models.
The bean-counters say it makes them easier to use and puts "clear blue sky" between the low and high-end models. Everyone else says it is disastrous to REMOVE features that people have got used to. They are also pushing the Live services as much as they can, so some models are only available with that included now.
2. The bean counters have saved a few pennies by taking the expansion card slots off the cheaper models and also been stingy with the amount of internal memory they have as well. Consequently, it has been harder and harder to fit each new map release onto them. It all came to a head this month when they had to split the entire "Europe" map up into "zones" to get it to fit onto the cheap models.
But, maybe I'm too close to it all....
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Your choice is really between Garmin and TomTom, they are the market leaders for a reason.
The latest top of the range Garmins have all the extra features that TomTom used to have but have dropped from latest models (such as the mp3 player, FM transmitter, Bluetooth audio and multi-drop itinerary planning).
But the TomTom's are still more intuitive to my mind, and the cheaper ones are definitely better than Garmin's cheap ones.
If you want a big screen, forget the "ONE" models.
That leaves you with the "XL" models and the "Go" models with a 4.3" screen or the "XXL" which is basically an XL but with a 5" screen.
Personally, I would AVOID the XL "edition²" (it has a very small and easily missed "2" after the word "edition" in the full name) - that one has the simplified/dumbed down menus and that means no warnings for things like speed cameras from third-parties and no itinerary planning.
But maybe that doesn't matter to your Dad?
IQ routes are on ALL the current models - it understands rush hours etc. so will suggest different routes at different times of the day rather then just the "fastest" or "shortest"
"LIVE" models give you HD Traffic which is pretty good now, but is a subscription service after the first free year, but you say you don't really need that.
It also gives "Navigate to a Google search" which can be very handy and almost makes the POIs (Points of interest) obsolete. You want your nearest B&Q or Chinese Take away? Just Google it.
The "Go" models have text to speech voices - less natural sounding, but can speak the road names, so they say "in 200 yards, turn right, High street" instead of "in 200 yards, turn right". To be honest I leave it off as I prefer the sound of the "real" voices.
The "Go" ranges have always been referred to by a shorthand "x30", "x40", "x50", where "x" is what maps the device has from new.
5 for a UK only map,
7 for UK and Europe, or
9 for UK, Europe and America
The "30","40" and "50" just refer to the development progression, only the x50 models are available to buy new now, but TomTom's own on-line 'Outlet store' has some VERY good deals on the older x30 models ("refurbished" but indistinguishable from new), which actually have better features than the current range.
The XL has "Regional" in it's full name for the UK/Ireland model or "Europe" for the Europe maps.
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So, enough waffling...
Your choice of TomTom should be:
XL IQ Routes™ Europe if you can still find one (it has been replaced by XL IQ Routes™ edition² Europe)
XL LIVE IQ Routes™ Europe - 12 months £199.99
XXL IQ Routes™ edition Europe £179.99
GO 750 LIVE - 12 months £249.99
GO 730 Refurbished from the Outlet store £149.99
I would have recommended you try for the Go730, but unfortunately they only sell them when they have them, and they only seem to have stocks of the
GO 530 Refurbished at the moment (at £119.99) if you can live with only UK maps for a while. you can always buy a Europe map later, but it's quite a bit cheaper to get it when you buy the unit itself.
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Oh and there's always the completely new model coming out at the end of the summer, with a much brighter screen faster processor and incredibly fast routing (but still no extras like mp3 player).
I can't tell you much about that yet, but it's very thin and quite sexy.
It's already being advertised in some places:
Tomtom Go Live 1000 UK & Europe £299.99
http://www.pentagongps.co.uk/tomtom-...pe-i16888.html
Satnav recommendations please
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