TomTom modifies GO x10 car mount

Immediately after the release of the GO 510, 710 and 910, a lot of problems were reported with the car mount. Until now TomTom didn't seem to have a solution to this serious problem. But there is hope, because last week, one of our users was sent a clearly modified mount to replace his defective one. Of course, this made us very curious and we took a closer look...

Three different problems

If we look at all the mount problems that got reported, we can differentiate them into three separate groups:

1. The connecting of the GO to and removing it from it's holder is hard and takes a lot of tinkering;
2. When driving onto bumpy roads, the GO looses contact with the holder, resulting in the GO shutting down;
3. In hot weather conditions, the ball-joint construction is unable to keep the GO into position. The device then 'droops'.

Also a few issues with the suction cup were reported, but those were not structural but rather sporadic problems.

TomTom

Up to recently, there was not much news to report on a possible 'TomTom solution' to these issues. But last week, a GO x10 owner received a different car mount than the one we had seen up to now. As you can see on the clickable photo's to the left (thanks, Bert Hidding!), TomTom has added a small extra border on top of the holder.

We checked with TomTom, and they confirmed that this was a new and improved model. This is the company's official reaction which they have sent us by email today:

"As a customer oriented organisation, we take feedback from our customers very serious. As a result, some hardware and software changes have been made to optimise the windscreen dock and to make sure the windscreen dock lives up to customers' expectations."

At first sight, the hardware adjustment only seems to solve the first problem we mentioned (the sometimes difficult connection of the GO to the car mount). The extra border 'guides' the unit better to the right spot and greatly facilitates it clicking correctly onto the holder. On the other hand, the influence of the added border to problem number 2 (contact loss between GO and mount) is marginal or non-existing even, and the same is true with regards to problem number 3. (drooping mount)

The software change TomTom mentiones refers to a change in software version 6.11. In the version before, the GO automatically switched itself off when it was connected to the 12 volts power supply of the car, and the car was turned off. When the car was turned on again, the GO also came back to life. Unfortunately, this handy feature was also responsible for the GO's constant switching on and off when riding onto bumpy roads. Very annoying to say the least, and TomTom decided to remove the feature from 6.11 altogether. Of course, it's clear that this is more of a 'patch-job' than the offering of a true structural solution...

Support

In their reaction, TomTom also says that 'old' mounts don't systematically need replacing. "There is no need to replace the existing windscreen dock. However customers who are experiencing difficulties are advised to contact the TomTom Customer Support department, via the support pages of the TomTom website or by telephone. If necessary we will of course replace the mount free of charge."

Up to now, it's still unclear weather or even if TomTom will come up with a solution to the droopy mount problem of the GO 510, 710 and 910. We'll keep inquiring of course.