TomTom 300? 500? 700?

[Mike Fishcake]

I've got TomTom 3 for my PDA. Will be getting version 5 for my birthday in a couple of weeks

However, my mum is interested in buying TT for her car, because she's always getting lost. I've advised her to get an all-in-one unit because the a PDA with it's "fiddly" OS and seperate GPS unit will just confuse her.

However, I'm confused as to the different versions.

I've been on the TomTom site, but can't work out whether TT300 has up to date maps (ie, M6 toll) on it. 500 and 700 are newer, so they will have the newer maps on, but i'm wondering whether it's worth getting 500 (probably not 700) or if 300 will suffice. The M6 toll thing is probably *quite* important because she does live in the midlands.

Suggestions anyone?

(oh, and she also doesn't have a cigarette lighter in her car to plug it in to, so is it possible to wire it to the car's electrics?)

[herulach]

Yes it is possible to wire it into the electrics, or indeed wire in a cigarrete lighter, like into the glovebox, which is what id do.

The 300 and 500 are essentially the same unit. The maps should all be identical, the newness factor is simply because tomtom couldnt fill demand for the 300 at launch.

The only reason to get the 500 is if she wants the handsfree, otherwise its completely pointless.

[Tarffie]

They were released at the same time (pretty much), so the maps are all the same age. The 300 only maps the UK, 500 maps UK and Europe (but only the major European motorways) and the 700 maps UK and Europe (but at streetlevel). You can update the maps anyway, with the 300 and 500 it's via the memory card and in the 700 you download them to it's built in harddrive.

[Howard]

It's not up to TomTom when the maps are updated, it's up to their provider TeleAtlas. And they weren't updated much (if at all?) when TomTom 5 arrived so.....

[Mike Fishcake]

It's not up to TomTom when the maps are updated, it's up to their provider TeleAtlas. And they weren't updated much (if at all?) when TomTom 5 arrived so.....

I know that - but I've actually eventually managed to find the info on the tomtom site, which says all the maps on the 300, 500 and 700 are up to date.

FWIW, the maps were updated from TT3 to TT5, the M6 toll road (and all the surrounding changes) added for example, and loads of others that I can't remember right now.