Why would I buy a TomTom Go 740 Live instead of a Go 730?

[Mook]

Unfortunately I've not found the TomTom web site very helpful when it comes to no bullsh*t answers about the differences between the TomTom Go products and the Go Live products.

I don't need a 930 or 940 (it's got global mapping) - the 730 or 740 will be fine for what I need as they cover all of the UK and mainland Europe, which is fine for those trips to the Alps, the 'Ring and Spa.

The 740 Live is £302 on the TomTom site and the 730 is £293, so there's not much price difference, but with the Live one, you have to pay £7.99 a month after the 3 month trial.

I know it's "only" £7.99 a month, but I don't currently get why I would want to spend £96 a year on this when I could spend it on making the car go faster.

From what I can tell, with the Live version, you get real-time camera van alerts and re-routing based on traffic jams etc, although I used to get this for free on my Audi RNS-E sat-nav with the TMC option.

Has anyone bought the Live version rather than the standard version (or vice versa) and why did you buy one over the other?

[pontyslapper]

I'd stump for the 730T - its fab, you can get camera'd up from PocketGPSWorld for free.

You'd get traffic rerouting from the T bit of the 730 - its a wire with a little block on it that picks up Classic FM and translates the traffic feed into TomTom-able displayable info.

Really good at re-routes if you've preprogrammed your route as it can 'pick out' what it needs rather than just give you the option to browse the info.

If you've got a Costco card they are knocking out the 730T for about £200 (it might be a tad more, I can't remember). Halfords knock the 730 out for £249.

Theres a lot cheaper places about than the tomtom website, but you already knew that!

Be careful though - there are 2 versions of 730 - the 730 and 730T - the difference is the RDS-TMC aeriel (the wire I mentioned) - retail on the wire is about £50 but eBay is your friend and the 'slightly older' version that works fine can be found for about £20-30.

Need any more info - just ask!

[theduisbergkid]

The TomTom 740 has a 4 litre V8, the TomTom 730 a 3 litre straight 6. The 740 sounds great but the 730 is better on juice. HTH.

Dont u no nuffink u spakker ?

[Tipex]

I've not really worked out the difference yet either.

Why pay £7.99 a month for 'live' traffic info, that you can get on the older model with TMC for free?

Although I believe the 'live' version builds up it's info on traffic delays etc, from the average speed of other tom tom live users?

[techieboy]

I've got the 730T and I can't fault it. It has the add-on TMC receiver and As part of the bundle I bought, I also got their GPRS traffic and camera updates free. Seems to work very well and the re-routing seems to work very well - certainly better than the TMC only stuff on the RMS-E in the A4.

Other than the "LIVE" services (which if CraigyB's experience with the Road Angel Connected camera alerts isn't much cop) the other significant difference is the way the iQ routes work. On the 730, it only allows for possible traffic problems on a route based on the day of the week and not also the time of day like the 740 does. How much of a difference that makes in practice, I don't know.

One of the great features of the 730 is the built-in FM transmitter that can broadcast the directions (and MP3's/phone calls, if desired) to your car stereo. I find it really useful in the VX with the roof off which isn't the best environment for hearing instructions. For some reason, they dropped this from the 740.

Given the choice today between the 730T and 740T, I'd still go with the 730, especially as they're now being discounted.