TomTom Go 5100

Poor product experience from star to finish – TomTom 5100 product was an expensive mistaken purchase , offered poor value in use from start to finish: 1. IN USE -slow to boot up (takes minutes) -mounting on windscreen insecure -map / traffic cameras update process poor -battery charge retention /lifetime is poor -no user serviceable way to replace battery -replacement battery is expensive… Read more

-using battery replacement kit is fraught (damage a real possibility if you DIY ) -voice control feature almost unusable -live traffic data feature via mobile (incl roaming) now obsolete as 2G networks in Australia and most of world now shutdown

As a general observation- in these times of digital and cloud driven smartphone apps that work seamlessly , fast - a specialised GPS navigation device like this is an anachronism .

I regret my decision to buy this product a few years back. I also do not think todays range of these products -whether Tomtom or Garmin or other brand- are worth the money they cost or have a long useful lifetime. Be warned.

A disaster – I paid a premium price in 2016 for one product feature: the Live Traffic updates. But what i didn't know was that this feature relied on the operation of the 2G phone network in Australia. There is no mention of this requirement anywhere in the manual or the packaging materials or the live promotions on TVSN. Why is this important?? Because… Read more

Telstra and Vodafone announced closure of their 2G services in 2014 and 2015 respectively (press releases from both companies are available on the internet), that is, 18 months and 6 months respectively before I purchased the unit. TomTom sold lifetime traffic services in 2016 in the full knowledge that the feature would not be available relatively soon after the sale. For TomTom to send out notices about closure in 2018 is ridiculous.

Tom initially offered me $100 as compensation, then 50% off a replacement unit and finally offered a totally free replacement. But what they are offering is not a replacement at all. The 5100 had it's own SIM card built in. The replacement requires me to use my phone's SIM and pay for data downloads. I bought the 5100 precisely to avoid this situation. I'm not happy at all.

The most expensive and the latest Tom Tom – This product it’s a waste of money, it’s a piece of rubbish. It is hard to use his touch screen needs a hammer instead fingers. You have to park your car to set it up. Do not set it up while you are driving. You will get involved to an accident for sure.

MY TOM TOM will no longer support live traffic because the 2 G network has shut down – I was fairly happy with my TomTom but just this week received an email from TomTom advising that because the unit runs on the 2G network it will no longer be able to provide live traffic as 2G has shut down. I was offered a $100 voucher to get another TomTom but they have removed all "Live traffic" models from the Australian website. They have… Read more

known fro over a year that 2G was shutting down, yet they continued to see affected units in Australia!!

NOT HAPPY

About to be made obsolete by Vodafone 2G network shutdown – Was a great GPS but come end of March 2018 the live traffic feature will cease to operate as Vodafone will shut down its 2G mobile network. The unit cannot be upgrade to 3G/4G services. Very disappointing from TomTom as they knew this was happening and continued to sell them.

Go 50 - a flop – This device has led me astray at least 30 times in 12 months - especially in Melbourne. The voice recognition software is absolutely terrible . It is erratic - sometimes it cannot even recognise "go to an address" despite repeated attempts to say the phase faster, slower etc - does not predict traffic at all well - never allows for traffic… Read more

snarls accurately - google maps is so massively superior there is just no comparison . This is about as bad a purchase as I have ever made -

Same fault on three of these – For some reason I have had three of these. Each one struggles right at the critical moment to recognise where you are and tries to get you back on the road as it assumes you are driving through parks, houses, or on another road. Therefore it will miss the critical turns to get you to your destination. You can turn it off then on to attempt to… Read more

reset it, but really? there must be an inherent problem with the algorithim Tom Tom uses.

Updating the thing or trying to get the free maps is a test of patience, they couldn't have made it more frustrating if they tried!

I wont be getting another.

Best GPS after 4 others over 14 years Update Post 2G shutdown – My first GPS was bought in 2003, an Italian made PDA with navigational software, whose name escapes me. This was followed by Navman PiN (2005), then an HP IPAQ (2007) with Tom Tom software, then a Garmin Nuvi 1350 (2010) and now a TomTom GO 5100LMT (2016). This unit is superior in every way to anything I have had before, obviously time improves… Read more

the technical capabilities but in terms of software design and implementation, it is powerful and easy to use. The windscreen mount is superior to any I have had or seen before.

After 4 months use I have no complaints and any concerns about features or functions that I hoped for but was unable to find have been quickly answered by carefully reading the manual - it does it all!

Of particular interest to me was whether or not the traffic function was operational in Perth as I could find nothing conclusive on-line. It does work. It is exceptionally accurate and helpful. It is a huge bonus. It works from its own built in SIM card and does not require a phone connection.

Around Perth and the South West I have found the maps to be very good with occasional speed limit errors but there is a way of reporting the correct speed limit back to TomTom.

Updating using TomTom MyDrive Connect has proven to be easy and quick.

I paid $253 from HN on special, and consider it one of my best purchases.

UPDATE: 3 weeks in Tasmania in March showed some weaknesses in maps for Tassie - exclusively in terms of indicated speed limits and estimated travel times. On some sections of most minor roads the speed limits indicated were different from speeds posted, and travel times were underestimated whereas around WA the travel times are exceptionally accurate.

Update: 12 months now. No problems have emerged. Still think this is the best GPS I've seen.

Update August 2018.

As others have mentioned TomTom indeed closed down the traffic reporting when 2G was no longer available. Apparently everyone should have been notified but I missed out on that and had to do a lot of research to find that they were offering a 50% discount voucher for anyone who wanted to upgrade.

I didn't think that that was good enough as some more research showed that they would have known the end date for 2G when they sold me the Go 5100 with a "lifetime traffic updates" promise. .

Consequently I kept at them, asking them to escalate my request for action and basically suggesting that the ACCC would be interested to follow the case through. Eventually they issued me with a certificate for $350 which allowed me to buy a new Go 620 on their website.

I am very happy with this model which now operates through my Android phone data and only uses <10MB per month approx. which is very little and no trouble at all - it connects automatically as soon as I switch TomTom on in the car - no messing around once installed according to instructions.

Hope this helps

Rubbish – I bought this device because i was tired to drain out my phone battery with Google map, but this thing is rubbish! I'm writing this review while stuck in a HUGE jam that, for my tomtom simply doesn't exist!! Lot of times it finds shortcuts that ends in closed roads, or, and this is great, it shows me, in blue, a faster way, i take it and it… Read more

disappear the original and the shortcut and this crap start to calculate for minutes... While you're wandering whit no idea where to go.

I could go on with the flaws of this scum device for an hour (as im still in queue) but i need my old Google maps on my phone to try to go home before night...

Im going to put it on sale tonight, and i dont wanna see a TomTom evermore!

AVOIDIT!

Waste of life time and a terrible disappointment to mother earth for the waste of natural resources – While the device was working the it was fantastic, as a matter of fact, it was a life saver. It diverted you around accidents and general heavy traffic. I truly though at one point I might have had a little crush on this machine. Then along came our one year anniversary. Now I know everyone says that the honey moon period can’t last forever.… Read more

But you truly believe that maybe they just hadn’t found the right one, that they might of settled for second best or had been hasty during the dating period. Not at one point do you actually believe when entering in to this wonderful relationship of less traffic and speed camera warnings that it would all end in such a shameful drinking session full of tears and heart break.

There was a moment when I had the hammer in my hand that I truly though that I might have gone over the edge. Then I came to my senses and realised that the TomTom 5100 Go was not only the worst mistake of my life and that it had wasted hours of life time that I will never get back trying to update the maps in hope that we could bring back the glory days and allow me to desperately cling to what I though was a match made in heaven. I finally thought to myself that I would get the worst mistake of my life framed so I (or my children and their children when I pass it down) will never ever make the terrible mistake of buying a TomTom again.

The TomTom 5100 GO is a terrible waste of natural resources that were cruelly ripped out of the earth to make the shameful device. Thank you, TomTom, for your help.

Not a bad GPS, but there are better ones – Purchased from Harvey Norman, 8 Jun 2016 This is my third Tom Tom. I purchased this one to upgrade my old ones, as their batteries are dead, and I wanted a GPS for driving in Australia, the USA, EU, and Asia. The Tom Tom 5100 promised to provide lifetime world maps and lifetime speed camera updates. Having used the 5100 in Australia and USA, I… Read more

rate it as just OK and not as good as earlier Tom Toms or other GPS Maps. The maps are generally accurate, but lack details, especially in USA, and the speed and red light updates are only for Australia!

You also need to download the world maps on to a memory card, which you need to buy separately, and you need to be careful, as the 5100 does not accept all memory cards. In my case, it would not accept a 64 GB card, and I had to buy a smaller 16 GB to download the world maps.

In addition, the 5100 world maps are limited to some countries only, and many places in Africa and Asia are not supplied, or are inadequate. It would be more accurate to describe the 5100 as developed world maps, not the overstated claim of world maps, which Google and others provide.

It also does not provide connectivity for phones, as other GPSs do, which would be handy when driving. On the plus side, the screen is bigger than older models and its features are quite good. It is easy to fit onto windscreens, but accessing the website for updates tends to be erratic and at times is not available.

Overall, I rate the Tom Tom 5100 a 3 out of 5 star GPS, and there are better products for the money.

Excellent Upgrade – I recently upgraded from a TomTom 730 and have been wowed by my new 5100. The first surprise was a 25% discount on the new price because I am an existing customer. Just ring TomTom and order by phone. I didn't want a bigger screen as I'm in a car, not a truck so the 5100 fits in better. I use my GPS overseas as well as in Australia and also use… Read more

Speed Camera alerts, so the cost of my 5100 is much the same as I paid for all the annual software updates I would load to my old unit. The 5100 for me is effectively free!

What else do I love? The extremely stable mount, ease of removal/insertion to the mount, great screen clarity, better speech recognition that actually works, sleep mode that wakes the 5100 up every time I start the ignition instead of having to manually switch it on every time, spoken street name instructions, faster across the board, more intuitive mapping and POI's.

What's not to like? My old 730 used a mini USB connection and I had this hard wired into my car. The 5100 uses a micro USB connection so an expensive rewiring was on the cards until I managed to get a mini USB - micro USB adapter from eBay. TomTom would do well to include one of these plugs in the packaging.

Otherwise a great improvement over my old unit and well worth the money.

Being critical because of wrong maps – This is my third TomTom product - somehow the map is often found with wrong information in NSW (I had previously only used it in Western Australia and it was brilliant). Wrong POI, wrong off-turns, direct U-turn on hway - you name it. I have been religiously submitting such wrong information on TomTom's MapShare and am interested to see how quickly the manufacturer is able to update their maps.

After extensive use in France - TT 5100 was terrific! – After some major initial issues - like Europe maps would not load - in actual use in France the device was pretty good. The in car mount is just fantastic. Really easy to un-clip, do some searches, re-clip, engage guidance. The ability to create a route on a laptop, research desired way points using Google Maps, separately update the TT… Read more

route and way points, and then transfer route to the TT via USB also worked well. However at times the GO 5100 refused to connect to the laptop. Windows 7 would then decide the USB port had malfunctioned and refuse to connect. This usually happened when we were in a hurry. Lots of rebooting. There were some tricks here as if say a city X was selected as a way point, then indeed the TT would direct us to the town square or the city hall. Not so useful if all we wanted was to go via city X, not actually into it.

Guidance was usually really good, especially the voice guidance that would say "Roundabout, third exit, Route D123 to city Y". Indicating the "Route D123" part was really helpful.

Some issues arose with little cobblestone roads that TT thought would be good to go down when in fact they were really pedestrian only or in some cases stairs. There were some issues where the guidance would chose the most direct route even if this was through a track in a farmers field. There was an overall problem identifying the actual usable size of French roads.

We had "Europe speed cameras map" but in France this only indicates "danger zones" which can be for some km. Still very useful and good warnings.

Overall we were really happy with the device. It was way better than the in car navigation which funnily enough was powered by TT.

Gets me to places most of the time – This is my first GPS navigator, hence I am not comparing it with other brands (except perhaps Google map). I bought this device from Harvey Norman after having read good reviews about it on a GPS review website. Spent 3 weeks trying to get TomTom Services (Traffic, Speed Camera warning and MyDrive) to work, only to have eventually found out… Read more

that the sim card requires activation with TomTom. Customer service personnel was excellent and efficient in troubleshooting my device.

No problem with free maps and traffic updates via computer. I have only used this device in Victoria hence I have no comments about its performance beyond the Australian shore. GPS signal is as strong as Google map, even in rural places. Two events are worth highlighting here though. 1. No traffic camera warnings were activated when I drove along the infamous Alexander Parade in the direction away from the city (this road has at least 5 traffic cameras placed strategically at almost each traffic intersection along an approximately 2km stretch). 2. Device screen displayed a LEFT turn whereas Voice prompted me to turn RIGHT when I was exiting a freeway towards my intended destination, this only happened once.

I really want to give this device a 4 stars rating because everything else about it is pretty good (especially speeding warning), but considering the fact that I have encountered some issues already within a short two-month period, I am going to give it a 3 instead. If I were given a chance to test it out prior to purchase, I would most probably have contented myself with Google map.

Update October 2018

I have ditched TomTom for Waze since the deactivation of 2G network. It has everything I need (even reporting traffic police location) and the interface is so much more user friendly than TomTom. Best thing, it's free...

Very good value with traffic - warnings and free [lifetime] world maps – If you aren't going to travel around, then the world maps are of little use to you. So don't buy it! ***** The good: Free world lifetime maps (excellent value). The sim card is very effective at downloading traffic information (at least every 2 minutes). The sim card also acts as a port from your phone (can be anywhere) system using TT… Read more ·  1

my drive - instant download of my places - pre planned routes etc. You don't have to use the GPS's menu if you don't want to.

Spoken instructions are much better at pronouncing street names.

Map pinches, scrolls and flicks easily.

Screen is better designed with the info bar at the right (for ETA, traffic etc).

5" screen is optimum, the 6" one is too big except in a truck.

Sleep on power off.

Snap out of holder is easy, power can go to the screen mount so is easily reconnected without worrying about connecting fiddly connector.

Keyboard input is fantastic - type the address, not command driven like older models.

Software interface is MUCH better - icons can be re ordered.

***** The bad:

You have to download maps onto a SD memory that you buy yourself (I already had a 32gb from an old phone) Maps by continent at 6 to 7 gb each (not by smaller region)

POI system needs getting used to

Voice recognition is a bit limited in listening to an address or destination. Works for simple commands like zoom, volume, 3d / 2d, recent list, night day etc

No hands free bluetooth phone interface

Got it from TT: - Should have purchased it online from a retailer like HN - $70 cheaper - @ $279 :(

At $279 this a bargain (at $349 - it is good value).

Not bad for the money – Having used Garmin nuovi and now discarding because of the expensive map updates, I ventured to the Tomtom GO510 and was pleasantly surprised. The registration had a hitch (don't have unit plugged into computer at the beginning) but now hunky dory. The screen is big, easy to read and switching between options is easy. The touch screen feature… Read more

works well and the speed camera warning is accurate albeit it close to the fixed revenue raisers.

Instructions are clear and accurate with a couple of strange pronunciation examples (no more than the Garmin).

The windscreen fixture that holds the device works well and the recharge is easy too.

The world maps are a little limited to a few countries available (who would drive in Nth Africa) whereas nothing for Thailand, and Vietnam.

For me it does what it says it will do and the click and collect worked well as did the e-bay -10%.

Give the 6100 another thought – The 5100 had the lifetime maps, speed cameras etc, sim with free data, and a large screen so it ticked the boxes I thought I needed ticked. I was wrong. The unit I had for the last 4 years has more features, more poi's, the poi's are customisable and it's user friendly.but the battery was dying and i needed to purchase a map update so the math… Read more

of it said I need to upgrade. I figured the 5100 would be the same but with the sim, data for traffic and updates, with the bigger high res screen etc. It turned out to have none of the old features and lost the user friendliness that set it apart from its competitors.

The screen is not high res like the 6100, and from my research the 6100 has some of the customisation features the 5100 lacks. If I had my time over I'd look more closely at other brands, just buy a newer unit the same as my old one or if I HAD to upgrade and stay with TomTom I would spend the extra $50 and get the 6100.