TomTom or Garmin, for car GPS?

[ConcordeBoy]

...looking to get a basic-but-decent GPS for my Jeep.

Pretty much narrowed it down to these two brands, but it's tough to decide between them, since they offer a lot of equal stuff on both price and performance. So I thought I'd ask here. Y'all ever use either or both? If so, which would you recommend?

Also, before anyone says it: I do NOT like iPhones, and would never want one, much less for this purpose. So that's out. I have a phone with a pretty decent GPS capability, but still wouldn't want to use it while driving.

Suggestions?

[Moose135]

I've used Garmin in my car for six years. I started out with a basic Quest model, and about three years ago upgraded to a nuvi 760. I've been completely satisfied with them, and if this one ever quits or I want to upgrade, it will be for another Garmin.

[brianw999]

I've used both in the past for finding emergency call locations and have found the TOM TOM to be more user friendly and to plan more sensible routings.
My current personal GPS is a TOM TOM Go with 22 European countries street level mapping. Even more helpful is the ability to input a latitude/longititude in degrees, minutes and seconds which will take you to a location within 1 metre accuracy.
Some TOM TOM's have a fixed hard drive (like mine, 1 Gb) which reduces download capacity, others run on a removeable chip giving the ability to go as high on memory as you like dependant on chip size.

Although my TOM TOM only has a fixed 1 Gb storage it's more than enough to store UK and Ireland, 22 European countries, speed camera locations for all countries and extra guidance voices. You can even record your own guidance voice if you want and download it to your TOM TOM device.

[seahawk]

Well, you picked both brands, I would recommend. Both allow the direct use of Google Earth Coordinates for navigation, both have decent policies for keeping the maps up-to-date and both are easy to use.

Neither will be a mistake.

[Highkeas]

I use a Garmin Nuvi 1450 which works well and use it in rental cars.

I understand some navigation systems now use GPS, Galileo (not yet in service) and Glonass.

[J.Louwen]

AND, don't forget!
Tom Tom is a Dutch product!
So, High Quality Guaranteed!

[Deadstick]

I've had two Garmins and they both failed out of warranty. Garmin will replace them for a reasonable fee. The one I'm using now is the replacement of the original one I bought in 2005, and as long as you keep the maps updated it does a good job with routing. I think the model number is 2750, long out of production.

[Felipe Garcia]

I still have my Nuvi 760 from 2008. I have no complaints about it other than touch screen sensitivity, might be just a setting that I can change, but I tried a newer one at BestBuy and the screen feels more responsive. My dad got a 260 just before I did and he still uses it with no problem.

Also, I was surprised at how well my Nuvi shows dirt roads (and by dirt road, I mean 32 inch tires are almost necessary).