My .02 on the 920T/930T - federal agent

I have a TomTom GO 920t there are a few things that bother me. I have a 920t /currently running Navcore 8.01 and the newest north american maps.

My Background:
I work for an alphabet agency. I spend countless hours on surveillance and travelling to arrest badguys and take their contraband. I can say for the most part the 920 is great. However their are a few things that cause me concern and will prompt me to sell the TT and get a Garmin.

The 920 has all the Bells and whistles. I love the map share feature but the biggest problem I see right now is that TT is running off Tele Atlas. Tele Atlas maps are not as accurate as Navteq. I hear a lot of people saying their are limitations to both providers but I can tell you that in my experience that is not true. Tele Atlas is not as good on the West Coast.

It has been my experience that Navteq and Tele Atlas bring back similar results in established neighborhoods but in new places Tele Atlas has some problems. The address/block information is off. So if you search for an address that is not well established you could be 1/2 mile away from where you need to be.

Which is why the TT POI database

is filled with errors. I just got the new maps and attempted to put in new POI's "By address." Doing so places the POI about 1/2 mile away from the actual location. I conducted a search of POI's in the Database and learned that 7/10 poi's in that area were off by almost a 1/2 mile. (The POI's appeared to be in the middle of the dessert). It's not the device. It's Tele Atlas. Was easy to figure out. I used Yahoo maps (Navteq) and Google Maps (Tele Atlas) to search for the same address. They were off by almost 1/2 a mile.

Don't believe me try it yourself (758 S Watson rd, Buckeye, Arizona) type it in your TT or google you get sent to rattlesnake land. Type it in Yahoo maps / Garmin you get the right location.

I'm not bashing the TT. The device is great. The tele atlas maps the TT's are based on are off at least where I was trying to put these POI's in.

I will say this, the new maps and IQ routing makes a big difference on routing. Understand that I have a government issued Garmin Nuvii 205 that I compare the routes to on a daily basis. With IQ routing the TT's routes in my local area are very close to the routes I would drive on a daily basis. The Nuvii 205 routes are not as good as the TT with IQ but are better than the TT's without IQ. (I know quality of routes are subjective. This is just my opinion based on about 90-100 routes travelled).

So here is my summary. If TT finds the address. My experience has been that it will get you there using the best route. Again this is compared to a Nuvii 205 without traffic and without any advanced routing like what is found on the high end Nuvii's. I have always found the address using TT (100 or so trys) with one exception. I was searching for an address for a search warrant and put in the correct city and address. Unfortunately according to Tele Atlas I was not in the city of Goodyear I was in Buckeye. Well I didn't know that and I had no idea which city to search for because I'm not from that area. Caused me to have to get to the location with the assistance of another agent. Shoudn't ever have that problem when I have a GPS not a deal breaker though I just have to realize the limitations of the search engine. Didn't have the Garmin then so I couldn't compare.

The POI database is where the Garmin 205 is leaps and bounds ahead of the TT. I'm not certain how many POI's the 205 has preloaded. I can say this though I have never been driving in circles looking for a meet location since I picked up the Garmin it has always been spot on.

Two weeks ago a got the auto restart bug. Couldn't use the GPS until I came home and reloaded the OS, Maps and flashed the device. All is well now but I would have been PO'd if I needed to get to a meet or travelled out of town while it was bugging out like that.

Again I'm not down on the TT I'm just aware that there are some limitations. The mapshare function is absolutely awesome. There are a lot of things that make the TT a great device. I just think in a year or so when it's time to get a new device I'm going to test the waters with a high end Garmin.

And if this thing start bugging again Ebay and a new Garmin sooner than later. I can't afford to have an unreliable device.

Just my .02