TomTom Camper Sat Nav Problems Anyone?

Just curious has anyone else had a TomTom Camper sat nav die on them? Ours gave up the ghost for no apparent reason and disappointingly with not a lot of use... it kept shutting down then would just sit in a loop of rebooting. I connected it to my computer and reset it, and thought the issue was fixed, upon going to use it in the van it started rebooting again just like before! 

Looking online and on Twitter this seems to be a common complaint, it seems a firmware upgrade may have bought this issue on, have noticed after each new update previously the device has become much more buggy and unresponsive before it finally died! TomTom offered us a discount on a new unit but No Way would i buy another after this experience. 

I have since purchased the Garmin Camper sat nav, its vastly superior in its navigation, has a bigger and much brighter screen, really chuffed with it and it was considerably cheaper than TomTom’s

Glad you found the Garmin to be good. I have been having problems this trip with an ordinary Garmin while in France, keeps trying to send us up tracks and allies. Wife says ditch it when home and get a camper version.

So I have found your post very helpful, any other reviews would also be very welcome.
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Richard

I have an older version of Garmin Camper with only 6" screen and apart from the mapping now being 8 years old, it's never taken me up unsuitable roads, sometimes narrow but never totally unsuitable.

I had exactly the same problem as CC in March brought on during a drive into central Wales by me requesting a live weather report for the destination, fortunately Chris was driving and, with no phone signal, various map apps on my phone got us there.

I knew the device was 'out of life' and Tomtom did me the current wifi equivalent at a third off.

I'm absolutely delighted with the new one. It syncs seamlessly with the mydrive app and browser mydrive. Updates via any wifi I can connect too are so much easier. The live side of it is also super, warning us of and diverting us around traffic problems in real time and has saved much frustration during our current European trip. It even advises speed limit based on the weight of the van as well as the location.

We’ve had a problem with our Go Camper (not a built in one) since there was a critical update in April. TomTom have given us a generous 25% off a new one.

Nora

We use a Garmin Camper, now about 3 years old, and it has proved itself to be very reliable regarding suitable routes, etc. I must admit that when entering the motorhome’s statistics (length, height and so-on), I over-egged them so as to give some leeway with possible hazards......

Has anyone noticed that the "lifetime" updates and support with TomTom are getting shorter and shorter?  I stupidly thought originally that lifetime meant for as long as the satnav was "alive", or worked.  Now, it seems, they can declare a model "end-of-life" whenever it suits them and you're back at square one!

Hate to say it, but I now rely on Google Maps m ore often than not.  Not a lot of use unless you have a mobile data connection though.

Traficlady wrote:We’ve had a problem with our Go Camper (not a built in one) since there was a critical update in April. TomTom have given us a generous 25% off a new one.

Nora

With Peter and Nora both advising their TomTom Camper has failed this just reinstates the number of these devices that have failed, kind of ironic that TomTom offer a discount on a new model rather than address the huge failure rate problem out there, hence my reason for declining their not so generous offer especially when you think about the reality that it’s their updates that have stuffed these devices up... then rip off your existing customers for a small discount  thanks but no thanks TomTom! 

We’ve just come back from around Europe, the Garmin did a sterling job... Way better than the TomTom would have, it even warned us of broken down cars and even debris in the carriageway ahead and was accurate to these incidents, with both a visual warning and spoken instruction. Also traffic, speed cameras, etc are all free unlike the £60 a year TomTom demand for their live services which is rubbish in comparison!

If you want the Garmin Camper don’t opt for the caravan club affiliated Avtex unit, the only difference with that is the caravan club site database, otherwise the Garmin Camper 770 LMT-D is around £60 cheaper and that’s the only difference.

I will admit after many years of using TomTom the menu and settings options takes a little more patience to understand, but once you learn it there’s a lot more to dig into under the surface. Navigation is excellent, screen is absolutely brilliant, really vivid and bright with almost an edge to edge screen, no bulky surrounds, sound is slightly not quite as bass sounding and clear as TomTom but that’s about the only downside, lane guidance is really clear and accurate too!

As has been also pointed out lifetime updates mean nothing, it’s only for the life of the device and makers like TomTom just kill off a device when it suits them... or even more sinister knacker your device with updates that put it out of action then offer you a minuscule discount for a device that’s already overpriced to start with, and then actually get people to fall for this scam instead of questioning why recent updates have killed their device instead... We have had loads of TomTom’s between us, some years old TT Start & TT XL’s etc still going strong and had way more use than our TT Camper, TomTom know there’s a problem because when I said (along with others in the same position) about Trading standards and BBC Watchdog they completely clammed right up & never responded any more...

Expecting a new Avtex (Garmin) tourer 2 ,WIFI/Bluetooth, 7 inch screen etc etc, old Garmin (2014) is choked up with data ,unable to update as we don't have P.Cs
Boaby

The Garmin Camper will update over WiFi Boaby not sure if the Tourer does but probably will, it’s a palaver this day and age to have to manually connect a Sat Nag to a pc to instal updates when it can be done so easily over WiFi