TomTom Start 20 4.3" Sat Nav with UK and Ireland Maps

I've been somewhat cynical in the past about owning one preferring to stick with a paper map. I thought I should get with the times and having seen a more expensive unit when a friend came around for the weekend, I decided to opt for an entry level device. The price for this Tom-Tom did not seem overly expensive.

In the box is:

the Sat Nav itself
a car charger lead [which joins to...]
a USB cable [which joins the unit itself to the charger]
a paper quick start guide

This Sat Nav can sit on a dashboard beanbag [purchased separately] if you decide to go for this. It uses a sucker which with a simple twist locks the seal. Alternatively it will attach itself to the inside of the windscreen using the same method. Out of the box and into the car then, the Sat Nav found my home position quickly after powering it up. I set this and I was up and running in five minutes tops.

The first thing to do is to find your destination and you can do this easily using a postcode or a place of interest, once it has searched for the destination, highlight it, and the machine will do the maths for the journey showing you how long it will take and details of the destination. It can also show you parking options near where you are going or if you wanted to do a trial run of the journey, you also do this and watch the proposed route.

First I gave it a local test and it found Tescos about eight miles away very easily. The display giving me adequate time to adjust lane if necessary, giving the correct number of exits on a roundabout or giving me adequate time to turn. It was here I tested the Sat Nav's ability to adjust itself when I made a mistake. It recalculated a different route very quickly without fuss.

I discovered by playing with the unit whilst parked up that there are a number of voice options to try as well. There are a number of English female or male voices to choose from however, only one English female voice will tell you the name of the road you are turning into or approaching. The rest will just say "turn right" or "turn left" when you need to.

I took it on a more sophisticated journey to London NW5 at around 3pm on a Thursday and it coped well on the A40 into central London. This would have been normally a slightly fraught journey as I am unfamiliar with driving in the city, but I came through well particulary at junctions. This is because the display shows [with a quivering yellow arrow symbol] which lane to get into in good time, and I wasn't left with that awful feeling of other drivers staring me down because of my hesitation in choosing the correct place to be.

The unit will beep if you are within range of a speed camera. This is a distracting noise but can easily be turned off along with a number of other alerts by removing a tick from a list under the settings menu.

The journey back to my house in Hertfordshire from NW5 after midnight early Friday morning was quite simply executed. I switched the Sat Nav to night mode so the screen was illuminated more clearly, set the desination to Home and off I went. Initially, it did try to make me turn right where I couldn't, but I insisted and the journey was quickly rerouted towards the M1.

I rate this Sat Nav highly for someone who wants a simple starter unit.

Bought for my wife who is technophobic! This Tom Tom is intuitive and very easy to use and my wife has operated it without difficulty over 1500 miles in France this summer without having to look at an instruction manual. She does not use motorways or the major national routes and the Tom Tom has navigated her perfectly through the minor scenic routes that she prefers. It has several features that are excellent, the screen rotates so that the image and instructions are always the right way up, voice prompts are unambiguaous and detailed and the screem itself is very clear. The power cable is good with a usb charger built in and the same cable can be used to connect to your PC for updating maps and speed camera locations. A good product that works well.

I bought the Start 25 EU as a replacement for a 3 year old Garmin 255W, which died on me soon after a map update. Was initially tempted by the XXL as the price of those have come down now TomTom has updated their range. However the XXL has only 2GB worth of memory and therefore any updates to the European maps will not fit (so one has to choose what part of Europe one wants to install- not great if you want to go to Italy e.g.).
The good:
- The Start 25 EU has 4GB memory.
- Excellent screen. Great detail, which gives you a good idea of the road system around where you are travelling. In case you want to
get off your choosen route e.g when motorway signs tell you there are delays up ahead.
- Also better size: 5 inches is easier to see especially when mounted further away on the windscreen
- '3D' view is excellent.
- There are many ways you can adapt the screen and alerts to your own taste. E.g. how the map looks, how many instructions you want to
hear, even down to what sound, if any, for various types of speed camera's!(Garmin sound was either on or off)
- An other little trick: when you go somewhere you can choose to be directed to a parking area near by.
- Great route planning tool.
- Plenty of 'Points Of Interest' installed
- Perfect timing for turnings, not too early, not too late (My old Garmin often just spoke a little too early - many times I choose
the wrong turn when 2 were close by).
- Despite what you find on TomTom's website, this one needs the MyTomTom software (not TomTom Home) installed on your PC (follow
instructions in the box). Very easy to use. MyTomTom instantly showed me an update for the Navigator software. Installed without a
hitch.
- Very prompt reply from customer service to e-mails (within 24 hours).
The not so good:
- No HD traffic, however, unless your job is travelling (e.g taxi, sales rep. etc.) I do not see the need as, after the first year,
this cost around £50/yr as part of the Live services package; e.g. in the more expensive Via Live 125 EU (which cost around £50 more,
so one pays for it anyway).
- Can't see the unit as a drive on ones PC. The reason is: the new generation of TomToms are using the Linux based file system instead of FAT/FAT32 as before. This was changed sue to Microsoft successfully sueing Tomtom for using the Microsoft FAT and FAT32 file system on a Linux platform. Microsoft claimed this was an infringement. Therefore Tomtom were forced to use another file system other than a Windows based one. TomToms have always run on Linux anyway, so the choice to use Linux file system was an obvious one.
- MyTomTom states my map is up-to-date, which is 8.65. However, the latest according to TomTom's website is 8.70. In other words:
'latest map guarantee' does not work. Also 'Map Share' funtion does not work and there is no facility to back up the device.
- On MyTomTom it initialy appeared that I needed an Activation Card for the 'latest Map Guarantee'. However no such card in the box.
Even after repeated questions regarding this to customer services, I still do not know if I need one. Somehow the Customer Service
staff ignore this question of me.
- Customer services has now passed me to a technical engineer, as they don't know why I cannot update the map. Been e-mailing
to and fro for about a week now, without resolve. (maybe I do need that card??)
- Customer Services don't seem to know the difference in software as I was advised by the first person to use 'TomTom Home'. Should be
'MyTomTom'
- Their website needs updating, e.g. The tomtom.com/getstarted website does not mention the Start 20/25 as sat navs requiring this
software.
- Reading the TomTom forums, these issues have dogged MyTomTom at least since February this year. Summer holidays are coming up and
still no resolve; not good to say the least. One would expect different from TomTom, being the Apple in sat nav land.
However: overal I think it is a great sat nav, let down by the update software of MyTomTom. Hopefully the TomTom folk get this sorted very soon! Together they would take some beating!

Update: It has been 2 weeks since I bought the device. It works fantastic. Advance Lane Guidance is a great help and screen is responsive. However still no resolve re the map update. I have tried suggestions from TomTom Forums like using a different PC with 32bit (instead of 64bit) of the Windows OS and different browsers, tried all the suggestions from the TomTom Team, incl. turning off the Norton Internet Security Suite temporarily whilst updating device, being 'hardwired' to internet and using the PC's rear USB connection. From their end they got my map download to work, however it appears I was assigned the wrong map (error as it was done manually) and hence I was unable to install it. My TomTom account was then rebuild by them. And now I am back to square one, as MyTomTom states once more there is no map update. Insane really.

Update 2: Now been 4 weeks. Been on holiday and sat nav worked a treat. Recalculating a route is superfast. Easy to read & follow instructions. So much better then my previous Garmin. However: TomTom finally admitted that unit might be faulty and I was able to get device replaced. Halfords will only do this once TomTom gives them an authorisation code, without it one cannot change the device nor get a refund. The new Start 25 has exactly the same problems: I can update the Navigator software, but not the maps. This one is going back as well. Already sent an e-mail to TomTom!

Update 3: RESOLVED. Five weeks in and now on my third device (silly maybe, but I really like this sat nav - so have been persistent). This time MyTomTom offered the map, downloaded fine, but again installation failed. On the phone to them almost on a daily basis. Apparently appears that the device thinks it is out of memory (which it is not), so no space for the new map. Finally someone at TomTom took 'drastic' action and with a small download wiped the old map of the sat nav. New map downloaded in around 25 min (20MB cable connection) and installed on the device in around 30 minutes. Checked map version: 8.70. Result! TomTom support staff have confirmed that I should not have these issues again in the future. The Support Staff have been very patient and very friendly throughout. I have asked them though, when these issues occur with someone else, to take the 'drastic' measure straight away. Will solve quite a few headaches for all parties involved.

Update 4 (Final): Have now also been able to download the August 2011 map update(Version 8.75). Download and installation went without problems. Looks like TomTom finally got this sorted (and that is the same thought of people placing messages on the TomTom forums).