I have a Tomtom gps that works well here in the US. Can I bring this to Europe and use it there (Spain)?

should I just buy another gps when I get there?

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Ben
1987 190d 2.5Turbo

A percussion musical instrument will work wherever there is air pressure. Even though European air is measured in metric units it will have no effect on the sound quality.

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Which maps are available?

Every GPS I've ever seen comes loaded with maps for only a specific region of the world, i.e. North America. While I am not familiar with Tomtom and you didn't list a model number, it's doubtful it has any knowledge of roads, cities, POIs, or other useful information in Europe. Other than that, it'll work fine.

At one time, Garmin GPS's had different base maps for Europe and North America. This problem could be mitigated somewhat by loading the detailed maps of the region outside the base map into the GPS. You'll need to read the manual or talk to TomTom to know for sure. When I was traveling in Europe I bought a GPS with the Euro base map.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
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1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Actually Mike because the metric system is newer we get a slightly better sound quality over here - unfortunately for you guys when it gets converted to old money a little bit of the quality is sacrificed. However, I doubt anyone over the age of 25 would be able to detect the difference.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

I'm like 90% sure they are region specific - they often sell cheaper versions with just Norther Europe loaded rather than all of it.

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

they are regional, you have to download the appropriate region ect ect. Costs I think based on download, but not super cheap like I thought. Just recently went to Italy with a bunch of family members, one aunt used her existing GPS and downloaded Italian maps ect and after about a day, got it working properly.

I just rented a GPS with my rental car, the costs were about the same honestly

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Yes Just buy another memory card so you can download Spain maping info. Then when you return put the US Card back in. I have seperate cards for US, MX, CA, and SA

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and took my Garmin. I had to buy a chip to cover Italy and France. Price was reasonable and I could install it in the Aux slot without offloading the U.S.A. maps. Did a lot of secondary road driving.

Don't know if TomTom offers the same. BTW, having a nav system in our car probably saved our marriage.

I don't have a GPS unit that works here, but I was able to pick up a fairly old Magellan on ebay (ca 2006) that was Europe-only when we went on our trip to Tuscany in 2010. Only paid $15 for it and I was impressed. Even though it was out of date, roads really don't change much in Europe, even over centuries...

Anyway, just after I got used to using it, the power pin broke off on the unit, and being without any tools , it was back to using maps. I drug it home and I will fix it and use it next time, I suppose, as I don't think much will change there.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Holland seems to be the exception. Even in the short time I've been here I've had many a "what f%%%% have they done here" moment!

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

We Dutch seem to like making navigation at bit adventurous.
Freeways and mayor roads don’t change very often, unlike in Spain and Portugal.
European money gave a great impulse in road building in those regions.
I advise to use recent maps for those regions.

TomTom is a Dutch company, they have reasonable good maps of Europe, personally I prefer the Navtec maps used by Navigon.
Travel Maps - TomTom

Rob