TomTom maps in rurual Ireland

Buffer

Hi all,

I have a TomTom 510 that I've been using when living in the USA, where I found it to be great.

I'm planning on buying the Western Europe maps for it now, and I see that they now claim 99% coverage for Ireland, despite reservations people on this forum have expressed for the TomTom maps.

I am wondering how good the coverage is of rural areas, including "townlands" which are not actually in any town. I know there used to be a link on TomTom to check coverage, but I can't find it.

To get a sense for the map coverage, I was using Google maps since they use TeleAtlas data, and comparing that to Yahoo maps (Teleatlas + Navteq data). In the Galway area at least, Yahoo shows far more townlands and road names.

How does the TomTom work in rural areas, anyway? When entering an address, you are prompted for a "city" first. If I'm looking for a place around such as Caltragh, Headford, Co Galway, is Headford or Galway the City?

Any insight appreciated ...
Buffer.

dingding

Got a TOMTOM GO 910, and the maps are very accurate and detailed in the Sligo area.

All the individual streets and house numbers in the local estates can be found with it.

I would not have used it to find townlands though, so I can't comment on it's accuracy there.

I got mine for the bluetooth car kit and the US maps for holidays, the car that it is in would be our second car and not do much traveling outside Sligo.

If you want to give me a townland I could do a search for it and report back.

You can PM me with the townland.

Jip

Buffer wrote:

How does the TomTom work in rural areas, anyway? When entering an address, you are prompted for a "city" first. If I'm looking for a place around such as Caltragh, Headford, Co Galway, is Headford or Galway the City?

Can't answer you on TomTom but on Garmin/Navteq when I'm searching for Townlands the townland itself is the city so Caltragh will be the city. Maybe TomTom uses the same solution ?

Buffer

Hi DingDing and Jip,

Since one of you has a TomTom and the other has a Garmin, could you both try:

From: Caltragh, Headford, Galway
To: Strandhill, Sligo

These are just more or less randomly chosen places in the Wesht (I picked Strandhill because DingDing mentioned the Sligo area, and Caltragh because there's a bunch of places with that name).

Incidentally, Yahoo Maps (using Navteq & Teleatlas) can find Caltragh in Headford but Google Maps (Teleatlas) can't; it finds another Caltragh in Roscommon.

I appreciate the help. I'm keen to figure this out because I've to choose between spending €100 on new maps for the TomTom or putting that towards the price of buying a new Garmin ...

Buffer.

dingding

The tomtom 910 found Caltra, and I know from driving it has all the housing estates in strandhill, most of them to house no.

Caltra is 123 Km from Sligo journey time 1.42, looking at the route overview it is between athlone and galway, about half way, if not a bit nearer athlone.

My map is Western_and_Central_Europe v660.1219

Hope this helps.

Cheers

You could sell the 510 and buy the 910 on komplett, I think they have it for 400 delivered.

You would have the US maps when you return to the states as the 910 has us and europe maps

Buffer

Thanks for that, DingDing.

Caltra is 123 Km from Sligo journey time 1.42, looking at the route overview it is between athlone and galway, about half way, if not a bit nearer athlone.

Sounds like your TomTom found a different Caltragh -- the one in Roscommon that I mentioned is about half way between Galway and Athlone. As I mentioned, I picked Caltragh as a test location because there are several places with this name, including in Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, and I was curious to see whether it would have them all and would allow you to disambiguate.

You could sell the 510 and buy the 910 on komplett, I think they have it for 400 delivered.

Perhaps, but I'd probably just buy the European maps for the 510 for €100 on the TomTom site. I know the 910 has text-to-speech, but otherwise the functionality of the 510 seems the same, apart from pre-in stalled maps. I'd still be able to keep my US maps, obviously.

If I was going to sell the 510, it would be to buy a Garmin, as I'm still not convinced that the TomTom's coverage is as good as the Garmin's.

Thanks again,
Buffer.

dingding

I was just looking at the overall map on the route overview.

I put in headford as the town and Caltra was one of the "streets"

The POI's are very good in Dublin, however only limited in SLigo.

All petrol stations, most hotels and parking are on it, while Dublin seems to have the US level of POI.

Buffer

Thanks a lot for that, DingDing. From what you report, I'm happy that coverage is good enough, so I'll buy the European maps.

Buffer.