Lobster wrote:

Yes, it was the time we went on holiday to Italy (by plane), and had
organised a hire car midway through to transport us from Venice to the
centre of Rome. Having checked we had up-to-date maps on the satnav I
packed it without a second thought, only to find to my horror that for
some bizarre reason, it wouldn't take any power from the hire car and
didn't work at all.

Never did find out the reason - the TomTom was fine at home when we got
back - but boy did I enjoy that drive through the Rome rush hour. Not.

I have both TomTom on a smartphone and a Garmin satnav. In the UK it's a
50:50 thing. I can't find anything to recommend one over the other. In
Italy it's a clear win for the Garmin, not least because the TomTom
interface is bloody fiddly to use compared to the Garmin and because for
some reason TomTom maps seem to be permanently wrong compared to the
Garmin. I can route using the Garmin to the multitide of small farms,
restaurants, hotels and B&Bs located on "Strade Bianche" in Italy.
TomTom sort of gets one vaguely into the area then gives up. The
postcode database in Italy and the UK also seems suspect. The garmin
will, using postcode alone, get me to within around 100 metres or so of
the destination. TomTom does some bizarre things including taking me to
the industrial estate next door to the one where my customer is located
(i.e. completely the wrong postcode).