Tom Tom map Zones

[vmx1200]

Hi All, not really a forum person but TomTom have got me so wound up! Considering their amount of advertising in ABR I thought this may be a good place to grumble.

I have a two and a half year old XXL Classic sat-nav and I've just been trying to get all the maps sorted for a trip this summer to Nesselwang in Germany just north of The Alps. From there we are touring out most days to take in some of the Alpine scenery.

TomToms maps are now apparently so large they can often only be available as three MapZones for Western Europe. I can store two of the three zones on the sat-nav, but am only allowed to use one zone at a time.

Here is the problem, Germany is in the Northern Zone, The UK is in the Western Zone and Austria, Switzerland and Italy are in the Southern Zone. You cannot use the inbuilt software to plan your route to anywhere in Germany from the UK, similarly from Germany you cannot plan a route to Austria/Switzerland/Italy. Bit unfortunate really as Nesselwang is only a few miles inside Germany but cannot link to anything over the border and don't think you can plan a route between France, (western zone), and Germany! :blink:

Phoned the TomTom help line and all I got was confirmation of the above and very little interest certainly no solution other than to carry a laptop on the bike or use an internet cafe to plan routes.

So all I can conclude is buy a Garmin, or go back to the trusty paper variety of navigation.
Unless someone can tell me different

[vRSG60]

I fell foul of something similar last year. I had Western Europe maps but apparently Germany, Austria & Switzerland aren't in Western Europe so half my routes were rendered useless. A kind soul from a place not far from this very forum uploaded the full European maps for me to download. No help to you I know but since then I've bought a Garmin.

[BobH]

Just before you dash out and spend well earned money on a Garmin, I have just had a reply from their technical people on an issue I have to say that my device (a Garmin Zumo 590LM) is not suitable for Motorbikes and I should consider one from a link. The link was of course to a Garmin 590LM!!! technical support staff not really flooding me with confidence. Still it only cost 400 GBP!!!!

Long and short, its an OK unit but after 4 months (used 3 times!!!) has no battery life when away from the bike charger. So you have to do your planning on the bike with it running...... I know the final answer will be to return the unit rather than send a new battery, this I will not be able to do as off on a trip next week. Still Have always used the Analogue GPS (maps) in the past so will continue.

Sorry, low tolerance today

[JJay51]

Hi All, not really a forum person but TomTom have got me so wound up! Considering their amount of advertising in ABR I thought this may be a good place to grumble.

I have a two and a half year old XXL Classic sat-nav and I've just been trying to get all the maps sorted for a trip this summer to Nesselwang in Germany just north of The Alps. From there we are touring out most days to take in some of the Alpine scenery.

TomToms maps are now apparently so large they can often only be available as three MapZones for Western Europe. I can store two of the three zones on the sat-nav, but am only allowed to use one zone at a time.

Here is the problem, Germany is in the Northern Zone, The UK is in the Western Zone and Austria, Switzerland and Italy are in the Southern Zone. You cannot use the inbuilt software to plan your route to anywhere in Germany from the UK, similarly from Germany you cannot plan a route to Austria/Switzerland/Italy. Bit unfortunate really as Nesselwang is only a few miles inside Germany but cannot link to anything over the border and don't think you can plan a route between France, (western zone), and Germany! :blink:

Phoned the TomTom help line and all I got was confirmation of the above and very little interest certainly no solution other than to carry a laptop on the bike or use an internet cafe to plan routes.

So all I can conclude is buy a Garmin, or go back to the trusty paper variety of navigation.
Unless someone can tell me different

Have you thought that maybe that CAR nav model wasnt spec'd as such and that you should maybe buy a model that is suitable for your needs?

[misterlaffer]

I had the same problem a few years back, but seem to remember it was an issue when I crossed the border into Italy from Austria to ride the Stelvio. All of my loaded routes were fine through UK, France, Belgium, Germany and Austria but not Italy which is slightly different than yours. I plotted the routes on Tyre and downloaded to the TomTom fine but it never occurred to me to check that all countries were included in my TomTom Urban Rider Europe !!!

I also purchase USA maps for the Rider then discovered you have to switch maps via the PC beforehand so driving to Heathrow in the car meant I couldn't use my TomTom to get me to the overnight hotel near the Airport as I had already loaded the USA maps back home. A real PITA.

Apart from that I had few issues with the TomTom until last year when the charge mount died .. They wanted 60 quid for, the maps needed updating another 40 quid and to top it off while in Spain it kept forcing me along motorways despite selecting avoid motorways. Therefore I lost confidence in TomTom Rider despite finding the interface intuitive and easy.

Im now a Garmin convert ... a 390LM all for 260 quid and so far very pleased with it. Full Europe and I believe USA maps can be purchased on SD card and loaded from there without losing the European maps from the device. Not to mention lifetime updates too. Took me a little while to learn the interface, but worth investing the time. There's one feature it does have I really like and that is the ability to customise and announce waypoints to my liking e.g. Coffee stop here, which the TomTom couldn't do.

I looked at the Rider 400 but didn't want to chance my arm on it when I knew the Garmin would be fine for me.

[Tourider]

This happened to me last year, they updated their mapping and my machine could only store one area instead of the All Europe capacity it had. Only answer was to sell it and buy the new 400 which came with lifetime full Europe mapping. I wonder how long that will last?

[JJay51]

This happened to me last year, they updated their mapping and my machine could only store one area instead of the All Europe capacity it had. Only answer was to sell it and buy the new 400 which came with lifetime full Europe mapping. I wonder how long that will last?

You have the option of the memory card to store routes and maps on as well as the inbuilt memory.
Apparently if you factory reset the rider 400 it dumps the stored mapshare files giving you more room as we all know mapshare is simply updates to the factpry maps but between the TomTom factory map update schedules

[vmx1200]

Hi All,

Thanks for your comments/advice. Thing to bear in mind is that the sat-nav works fine it's the software/mapping management that's a problem. How can TomTom think that not being able to plan a route between France & Germany, for instance, is acceptable in a Western Europe sat-nav!

In the UK the device works fine on the bike, at approx 25% of the cost of a TomTom Rider, can't be certain of it's exact cost as it was a pressie from the kids, with waterproof case, mind.

TomTom via phone and online say there is no fix other than buying a more expensive product from them. They have offered a discount on a new sat-nav, (not enough, however), but my thoughts are that in a very short time it will be rendered obsolete yet again, despite having an SD slot & lifetime maps.

We'll see where it all goes, thanks again for the comments & suggestions

[Selous]

Err I must be lucky!
I have a number of zones, on my tt rider 2 when we went to Austria from hook via germany & returnd via the smaller countrys then into belgum & back to hook for the crossing I had the same maps no problem at all.

[simonw]

...TomToms maps are now apparently so large they can often only be available as three MapZones for Western Europe. I can store two of the three zones on the sat-nav, but am only allowed to use one zone at a time...

Have you thought that maybe that CAR nav model wasnt spec'd as such and that you should maybe buy a model that is suitable for your needs?

That makes no sense, in the context of the problem, since if his TomTom wasn't mounted in a car he'd still have the same issue.