TomTom - VIA 1515M 5" GPS with Lifetime Map Updates - Black/Gray

I was using a Garmin Nuvi 42Lm. But I would get turned around so much in Minneapolis or Chicago when you need clearly spoken directions and map directions which were so confusing and all I would see is the red arrow changing when I missed the lane or ramp. I got the Garmin because I was told by a couple friends they loved them, and we forgot to bring our GPS when my stepsons flight was canceled because of bad weather in Green Bay. So we drove him to Chicago, so I had an excuse to buy a Garmin. Well my first ever was a Magellan but no life time maps so I bought a TomTom on sale but also noticed the price even though cheap was still no life time maps. As the years went on life time maps were getting common, and cheaper. Well we loved the Magellan so I got one with lifetime maps. Nice but was unable to update maps and one thing Magellan offered in these two models that I owned was a freeway only travel. Which at night in northern Wisconsin is so dangerous in the fall with deer running around that I just won't travel state hi-ways at night even if it takes longer to use the freeway. Well lets get to my new VIA 1515M. I have never seen a GPS that made me feel more at ease. I don't see a lot of screen clutter like I did with the Garmin and the night screen is not bright like the Magellan. But what makes this GPS so less stressful is that in hectic heavy and fast traffic. This screen has the little bit of clutter on the bottom not on the sides narrowing the vision like on the Garmin. So I see clearly and don't half to strain. TomTom uses a huge yellow arrow over your red route road (not pink like Garmin) to let you know this is your turn and two miles out it will tell you that your turn is coming. When the voice begins to tell you you need to turn you better be turning because you have lots of traffic merging into your ramp also. This GPS is like a breath of fresh air compared to the other two brands the screen is so much better than both. The spoken instructions are also much clearer. The night vision is also much better than the other two also. Only one thing that would make this even better is if they had a freeway only option. Other than that the wife say's no more GPS'ssss. But she admits this is the best we ever had. Since I know and my wife the way home we just shut the machine down. But we do travel to the big cities a couple times per year and I always hated using the Garmin now I fell much better no more sweaty palms. We both laughed when we pulled off for gas and it would show a huge yellow arrow that we should turn around. All I can say is that of the three major brands I own is that I can highly recommend the TomTom VIA 1515M. Oh by the way I got it as cheap as on Amazon at Best Buy plus no shipping. $99.00 Great Xmas present if your puzzled what to get someone.

1. Bought to replace a broken Garmin. This is not the product I went to Best Buy to get, they were out and this was the next choice. There overall availability of products was abysmal to say the least. Just used it on a trip. I will say it programs well, better than the Garmin. The voice is identical to the Garmin so they must use or share the same software. On the trip going out it worked flawlessly once we got it to find the correct state to search. Our bad on that. The reason it worked is this leg of the trip was to my daughters with very little small town travel, mostly freeway. Didn't need this really but I love the eta on these. It was on the way back I noticed problems. The biggest, in small towns it would NOT ANNOUNCE the street name in advance. Ex, turn 1/2 mile ahead on Smith Street. It says turn 1/2 mile ahead. OK, I'm not sure when in traffic and there are three places ahead to turn left which one is the correct one. I have a car to drive, can't be reading maps and watching the screen. Like the Garmin it would show the street name but in a small box on the right with small letters. Great for the passenger to read but the driver needs superman vision to read it. My Garmin presented a display across the entire screen at the top showing the street name. For this reason alone, when you need it the most in unfamiliar towns, this is where it lets you down. Funny, on major highways it says clearly; exit 1/2 ahead on the right, exit 257.

This device is easy to set up and use. The routing screen is sleek and intuitive. The ability to save Favorites and remember recent addresses is very useful. Many options can be found in the Settings screens. Negative points include a fairly rudimentary search system. For example one can only find a street in one form. If you are searching for East Aurora street and the device has it listed as E Aurora street you will not find it. To make matters worse, the schema is inconsistent such that some are listed as "East ", other streets as "E " and still others as East". Searching by "points of interest" is also nearly useless. When searching for a hospital nearby - a function that could literally be a lifesaver - you will be presented with a list of several hospitals that are merely clinics, outpatient offices, or mental health clinics that just happen to be in the same hospital system. Imagine furiously driving to what you believe to be a hospital and ending up at a dental clinic. Yes, this function is literally that useless.

This GPS is good for anyone looking for standard navigation. It is easy to use and has a very user friendly menu. Also, I prefer the TomTom over Garmin due to the fact that it compensates for tracking error better in certain regions of Texas where the satellite signal is weak. Believe me; this is a real headache with the Garmin systems fully stop to navigate when it thinks you are on the wrong path and you miss your turn and cannot access any of the other data needed to move through the region. Also, there are a lot of options to adjust how you travel such as allowing use of toll roads, fastest time or shortest distance settings and a whole array of other functions that are very useful. It also will recalculate routes based on the flow of traffic and can save some time when trying to circumnavigate a large city. The Bad: I had to replace a TomTom that was about 7 years old. I use the GPS for Offroad for my job and don't care for these changes. One, the volume is not as loud as the previous device. When driving over gravel or dirt roads, it is hard to hear. Two, the mounting ring is now built into the device, this used to be external, and the factory mounts failed on me after about 1-1.5 years until I found an upgrade on Amazon. I haven't had the device long enough yet to see if this is the case on this one, but it looks the same as the old TomTom mount.Three, It was more difficult to find the GPS coordinates of my location, but this was solved through an advanced setting, and is actually easier to access now. Four, offroad tracking doesn't work as well as the old device, i.e. it is harder to find my target coordinates.

I bought this Tom Tom VIA 1515M to replace my Garmin Nuvi that got fried when my multi-outlet device shorted. I went through two of these before I figured out that this device is sensitive to the spots in the ignition where you go from off to actually starting the engine. The device would only turn on about 2% of the time in auto power detect mode. I contacted Tom Tom and their only recommendation was to reset the device to it's factory defaults. My Garmins never had this issue, nor did the Sharp GPS that I had a few years back. It was with the second device that I noticed that it came on every time that I turned the key to the first stop (where the dash lights come on, but you don't proceed to the next step immediately). So, this is a bit frustrating when in a hurry to crank up the car, but it is also great because it gives pause when starting up the car. As for the operation, the audio is fine, except that the stop light camera warnings are a lot louder than the voice guidance. I love the split screen and the advance warnings it provides are much better at helping prevent me from missing a turn more than my previous devices. It has a nice screen size and provides most of the information that I am looking for. I have, however, not seen it give me any traffic warnings, even though it is programmed to do that. Not bad for the price. Purchased at another store.

This is my 3rd GPS - a Garmin in 2007 (map updates were too expensive), a Magellan in 2011 that crashed twice (free updates, but worst customer service ever), and now this unit. I don't use a GPS often - most of the places I go are familiar. But when I do I want accuracy and clear instructions. This unit has a nice big screen, very good graphics, and great instructions with a clear display of the turns and lanes. It's not expensive, but offers a lot for the money with lifetime maps. One plus - of my three units this one seems to work the best when it's not attached to the windshield, both in my house to program my next trip, and in the car if I put it on the console.it has no problem finding the satellites. But one big minus - the suction cup mount is attached to the unit, and my sports car has a steeply-sloped windshield which forces me to be a contortionist getting it in place in the lower left corner of my windshield and then turning the knob to lock it. It's so difficult that I just ordered TomToms vent mount for it. But overall it's a good unit for the price and easy to use.

Bought this for my wife, who is reluctant to use the GPS option on her phone for her job, which requires extensive travel locally. Some of the options I would have liked were live traffic updates and voice recognition for navigation, but at this price point the device is packed with everything else you would want and expect. The initial map/software update was over 3GB in size, and took about 90 minutes to download and install. The user interface is very intuitive, and the maps are current (there is a major interchange that is currently under modification near me, and the map actually displays both the current and future exit ramps, with the future ones showing as closed). The only drawback I have, and it is minor, is the suction cup window mount needs to click when rotating the attachment ring. It's a bit stiff, which may loosen up with use, but if you don't get the click it will fall after a short time.

My wife and I bought this primarily with a European vacation in mind; we wanted to have a GPS onto which we could download the appropriate maps so that we wouldn't get lost in a foreign country. (We used a borrowed TomTom five years ago for that purpose, and it worked great.) But of course, once we got it, we installed it in our everyday vehicle to use in the meantime. The Google Maps app on our smartphones is better with up-to-date traffic delays and its locations are more reliable; e.g. I noticed that the TomTom had the wrong location for our local BBQ joint, which is one of Texas' Top 50. But there are avenues through which you can submit corrections. On the whole, this is a reliable and affordable GPS, with a sensible user interface and settings that can easily be personalized. It also comes with a great mounting setup that can be used on your windshield or your dashboard, and after you install it, you can still easily attach and detach the actual GPS unit.