TomTom Car Sat Nav Start 52, 5 Inch with UK and ROI Maps, Speed Cam Alert Trial, Integrated Reversible Mount ,Black
Welcome to priority driving
The TomTom START offers essential navigation and free TomTom map updates. Finding destinations is simple from the Search menu or by touching a point on the map. Available with a 4.3, 5 or 6 inch touchscreen.
Compare with Other Devices
 TomTom Start 42/52/62 |  TomTom Start 52 Lite |  TomTom GO Basic |  TomTom GO Essential |  TomTom GO Discover | |
| TomTom Traffic | X | X | Via smartphone | Via smartphone | Via smartphone |
| Speed camera alerts | 3 Month Trial | Subscription Required | 3 Month Trial | 6 Month Trial | 1-year trial |
| TomTom map updates via Wi-Fi | X | X | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ (3x faster) |
| Map updates availability | Quarterly | Subscription Required | Quarterly | Quarterly | Weekly |
| Live fuel prices information | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | 1-year trial |
| Screen size | 4.3”, 5” and 6” | 5” | 5” and 6” | 5” and 6” | 6” and 7” |
| Touchscreen Type | Resistive | Resistive | Resistive | Capacitive | HD |
| Responsiveness | 0,5 GB RAM | 0,5 GB RAM | 0,5 GB RAM | 0,5 GB RAM | 2GB RAM (4x faster) |
| Live off-street parking info | Not available | Not available | Not available | Not available | 1-year trial |
| TomTom map coverage | UK or Europe | Europe | Europe | Europe | World maps |
| Voice control | X | X | X | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mount | Integrated, reversible | Integrated, reversible | Integrated, reversible | Click-and-drive | Click-and-drive |
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TomTom: Leading navigation technology specialist
Our world-class technology helps you move freely, safely, and efficiently. TomTom is trusted by drivers, automakers, cities, and governments for accurate, up-to-date traffic information like no other.
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High-tech map-making at its best
We map 3.5 billion km of roadway every day. The world’s largest companies and millions of drivers rely on TomTom for the latest map content to enjoy a safe, comfortable drive and precise navigation.
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Hyper accurate, top-class TomTom Traffic
TomTom Traffic delivers insanely accurate, real-time traffic information to drivers across the globe. For spot-on ETAs, smart (re)routing, reduced travel times, and improved safety and efficiency.
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We’re here to help
We’re committed to ensuring all drivers have the best on-the-road experiences. Our expert support team and further support options help you to get what you need.
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High-quality original TomTom accessories
Mount, charge, and protect your device with TomTom original accessories for quality that lasts.
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Convenience and safety with a TomTom device
Drive safely, and arrive relaxed, with a dedicated sat nav device that helps you stay focused on the road, without battery worries – from the navigation specialist trusted by millions of drivers.
| Dimensions: | 2.38 x 14.45 x 9.05 cm; 210 Grams |
| Model: | 4AA53 |
| Batteries Included: | 1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included) |
| Manufacture: | TomTom |
| Origin: | China |
Good points – reasonably priced, only just got it, so have not really used it that much yet, I got this as it is the one used in driving tests, and therefore the most “no frills” Sat Nav I could find. It seems to be fairly straight forward as satnavs go, so far so good ?!
Bad points – not so much bad points, but more suggestions for improvement, or possibly even a new model of satnav ; Although straight forward as satnavs go, there are far more features on it than I will ever need ! – may I suggest Tom Tom, as they have a good reputation, bring out an ultra-basic satnav model – all I need is to type in a postcode and press the OK button !, as well as being a more economy model, it would also be more suitable for the elderly and the not so “tech-head” amongst us ! on this point, the screen could also be a bit larger ie 7″, Tom Tom could corner the market with a best seller made along these lines.
It’s a good satnav normally cost more then it’s selling here good and accurate when it comes to route guidance
Suction quite awkward but otherwise very useeable even by technophobes like us.
You can depend on a Tom Tom, so much more accurate than a phone
I used in Italy for our driving trip, really good.
Bought this as its the one used by examiners on driving tests, accurate and you can download routes to it which is what I bought it for.
Often when you press the screen it takes awhile to respond, apart from that it works quite well.
I little slow on the road but it is useful for navigation in the countryside and city
Accurate and easy to use as expected. Bought as a gift and the recipient was pleased with the sat nav.
Never used a Satnav but recently had to find a destination in a large city on a weekly trip.The route is very complicated after leaving the Motorway with many lane changes.Once I got used to using theTomTom I always reached my destination.At times I ended up in the wrong lane but the Tomtom readjusted to get me back on route.I am 78 years old and wouldn’t have attempted this journey if it wasn’t essential.The Tomtom was easy to set up using the manual provided.The only problem I had was trying to mount it on the dash as the windscreen was too far away.I bought one of the mats which worked ok.
We bought this as our previous one needed map updates and this was a bit bigger. It’s just for the UK and works well. It did try to take us up an unsuitable road, but they all do that! The touchscreen is sticky and not as good as our Garmin Camper we have for our motorhome, but it’s a budget Satnav so all good.
It was a perfect size for use in my Classic Car and covers all the roads in the Canary Isles where I live.
Not as user friendly as my last Garmin, probably me as otherwise fewer would have been sold!
My first TomTom broke down after12 years, tred two other products after in the last 2 years, not good, come back to TomTom and it is the best.
This item failed to turn on the 2nd time I went to use it, even with having it on charge it didn’t work. After about 8 hours of it being in my bag I thought that I’d give it another try of turning it on and it worked. My cousin had the exact problem with his not turning on and had to take his back for an exchange. I try mine daily with the hope that It still works. So far so good. Other than that it’s a great sat nav and hasn’t got me lost so fa
I bought this to upgrade my previous TomTom satnav,that no longer supported upgrades. On first impression it appeared similar to the previous purchase,but perhaps not as robust. The new reversible integrated mount looks as though it could easily break. In use the sat nav is similar and accurate. But time will tell
Purchased this to replace an old Satnav. Didn’t want anything too complex. I am unlikely to be driving abroad anytime soon so UK and ROI maps are all I really need. So far used this TomTom a couple of times and no issues. If this is your first Satnav ever you may need some more help. You can always go online which I did when researching – plenty of videos on Youtube.
The overall product is ok but only complaint is the UI responsiveness is like the speed of a snail. Searching for locations takes ages as well as general navigation of the unit itself.
As an experienced motoring and travel writer I rate tom-tom higher than most tho it has the same problem as all other GPSs (bar Tesla) – it advise you to turn left or right after u have already done so ergo it is useless in busy road conditions. JOHN HILL
The product is good to handle and use physically BUT is not at all clear how to use from the user manual.
I have it working now after several tries so think the instructions could be better for starter users.
Once it has started, it’s a good little device.
In the scheme of things, it probably doesn’t take all that long to initialise … but … you /will/ notice.
On the us side, I recently drove a brand new A-class Mercedes as a rental – and although this TomTom’s graphics aren’t going be as good as this big-screen integrated system, I’d take its guidance and clarity of instructions over the Mercedes system every time (as soon as the TomTom has booted up). The Mercedes drove me (not quite literally – it was still me driving) to distraction : what does ‘slight right’ mean ? And some of those – when I eventually got back on track and tried again – were more than 90 degrees. What is ‘slight’ about that ?
TomTom far superior to Mercedes, all day long.
If you can live with giving it time at the start, it’s a good sat nav – period: and at the price, you can have no complaints about value.
Haven’t updated it yet but looks simple enough.
This sat nav is accurate, but is a bit fiddly to set up and the touch screen is not the most sensitive. If you want a basic sat nav then this is the one to go for.
Replacement for ten year old TOM TOM still working but no longer supported. Very slow to start up, Touch screen seems even slower to react. O.K when it does get going. Welsh not available unlike previous versio
Very basic So far has responded quickly. Haven’t yet found how to stop the active route. Information on the screen is very limited. Will be driving back to Spain soon so I’ll find out the response in Europe
Handles well, it is a TomTom after all, but the accompanying Manual is sparse with required first time user detail. Getting to POI’s is not easy compared with my old XL. Equally is there any access to User POI’s? How do you tell TomTom of required mapping corrections, road works with diversions, etc. for all users in TomTom World to benefit? First time users may struggle and TomTom may suffer in the long term perhaps.
It’s not often that an item of tech goes backwards, but, although there are some useful new features, this TomTom is not as good as my original TomTom, which was easier to use, and didn’t suffer from lag when pressing the on screen menus – On my previous TomTom, you could actually plot a whole route on the Sat Nav itself. I believe there is some way of doing this online.
It, sort of, does the job, but not as well as previous versions.
I had an old Tom Tom 8 years old – was my second and I paid for the extra life time add ons – hummmmm and that didn’t happen – they bugged me about upgrading but they were more expensive than Amazon. Anyhoo I bought a new one and stuck with Tom Tom as I liked and still like my outdated One that was a small square.
This one is ok the best bit is that the car or now arrow is in the centre and I can follow the road, but it’s not as straight forward as my original and the volume I keep managing to turn it down. And I miss the little red sports car that was on the old one – trivial I know but probably the only red sports car I’ll ever own!
Anyway early days
my old tomtom via screen went haywire, needed a new one! this was on offer and i was not expecting a lot really. WRONG! screen is accurate and nicely sensetive, i cant think the extra cash for capacative would be worth it. mapping and directions are the usual excellent well in advance and accurate tomtom ( it is their bread and butter after all) and a bonus… entering average speed camera area it pings and then shows your average speed top right ,right through the camera area…brilliant!. ok so no phone connectivity and all the associated bells and whistles but this is a spot on basic satnav and highly recommended
After reading the reviews on here I almost didn’t buy it. But I had a faulty ‘refurbished’ one from another source and I had tested its route finding in London and it did use the main roads sensibly (unlike the Garmin I tried out). I found it a good. basic Sat Nav that quickly re-calculated when I chose to go by another route. Address finding isn’t perfect as my Aunt’s postcode wasn’t found but I could enter the full address.
Sadly this TomTom is less user friendly now than my previous one. Screen, routing and voice instructions are clear and generally excellent but the ease of use has declined and it is now far from intuitive. Once programmed with destination it is 5 star, but the touch screen is very hesitant and the options far from obvious.
The charger only just keeps up with the battery life. To place the Start where I would like it I need to add a short lead but if I do this the battery run flat. Tom Tom do not do a longer lead or a high rate charger so I have to place the start in a less than ideal position.
I have had a TomTom for many years so when I typed in an address, on my new Tom Tom in London, Stillness Road it came up as SE4 not SE23 which is correct I was amazed. My wife lived at this address for 35 years before we moved down to East Sussex 20 years ago, and her son still lives there so we are certain of the correct post code
Bought this prior to a trip to the south of France, it did its job and helped us navigate our way through the unfamiliar roads. The only fault was seeing the screen clearly in the very bright sunshine. We adjusted the settings and angled the screen but it was still a little hard to make out at times. This is it’s only negative though, aside from that a very good purchase.
Maybe I have lower expectations than some others! Recently passed my test and found this tomtom easy to follow on my lessons, so decided to buy one… TBH I’d be lost without it! Had to do a lot of new routes and long distances. I feel more confident with it. Don’t always trust the speed limit it gives you though! Been in London a few times on 20mph roads and it calls them 30mph — so don’t rely on it too much!
It helps on the motorways and a-roads when there are multiple lanes, as it previews you which lanes are ok and which one/s aren’t.
Something I found confusing to start was when it says “keep right”, it usually just means “don’t be in the left lane”… There are a couple other bits that are verbally communicated that make less sense as vocal orders than if you just follow the map. So take her words with a pinch of salt sometimes!
The main reason why I got it right now on offer is because I got fascinated by the voice recognition and recording the routes feature that I bought my own to use when I pass my test and travel to places I’m not familiar with. It was easy to use but my sweaty fingers do need to wiped off each time but there are no smudges on the screen so that a good thing. My dad had the Start 25 five years back but he doesn’t use it as his current car has a built in sat nav. I can’t comment on the battery as I plugged it in my laptop as soon as I logged in to MyDrive Connect. It updated software quite quick. The voice was set to Serena as her voice is clear and not slow like Jane. The only thing I need to do is pick a route and get going. The delivery came next day when it was supposed to arrive on the 29th. Good stuff!
Only gripe is that the sat nav came with an outdated map from June which is map 1011 when the current map is 1020, but I will have to purchase it later as I’m unable to get the update even though the sat nav does say lifetime maps. Hats not an issue for me as my tests next month so time will tell when I need to purchase it.
Pros:
No matter where I’m going, it gets me there. It doesn’t change routes on me, and doesn’t lead me into a field or the wrong way on a one-way street. I can set my preferences, such as No toll roads, or Always take the shortest route, and it obeys them. It does occasionally pick an illogical route and I find myself driving along tiny country roads, and just when I am about to stop somewhere so I can fiddle with the TomTom, I discover that it really has led me in the right direction. Still, I’m now at the point where I trust it to get me there, no matter how odd the route.
Cons:
It isn’t up-to-date on new roads, despite the fact that I plug it into my PC about once a week, so it can update. My street is a couple of years old, now, and the TomTom still doesn’t know it’s there. I had to tell it that I live around the corner.
Telling the TomTom where to go to can be a pain in the neck. If my destination is a landmark, like a church or shopping centre, I usually need only give it the name of the place, and it’s happy, but if I want someone’s residence, it needs their postcode first (so when you ask your chum for his address, include that). Then it will suggest the name of the town, and even the street, and I need only tell it which house number to take me to.
However, it may take MINUTES to input this information, which is infuriating when I’m in a hurry and need to leave right the heck now. This is why it’s a good idea to input the address when the TomTom is connected to my PC, before I even put my shoes on to leave. Doing it the night before is a good idea. Then, when I get into the car, plug the TomTom into the USB port and it lights up, it has magically remembered the destination(s) that I gave it the night before.
If I’m out, somewhere, and ask it to take me to a specific address, it may decide to recognise it or not, but either way it will take far too long to even go to the relevant screen, never mind accept the information. This is a real pain in the neck when I’m parked at the side of the road or in a car park and I need to set off this minute, and not when the naffing device pulls its finger out of its ear.
I just have to try different ways of inputting the address, if it feigns ignorance. It’s rather like your girlfriend when she has a little attitude on her: “I’ll tell you, but only if you ask me properly.” The difference is that you can’t throw your girlfriend against a wall.
So you can see why it’s better to navigate around its screens when you’re relaxed at home, rather than when you’re out, and need to be at a meeting across town in ten minutes, and the arse-brained device is sitting blithely on your dashboard, filing its nails and saying, “What’s the magic word, you apoplectic git?”
I’ve painted a bleak picture here, but really, I wouldn’t be without this TomTom now. It always gets me where I need to go, _and_ will quickly re-route me if I missed a turning or had to take a detour. After a while, you learn its little idiosyncrasies, and can work around them and get to your destination. You just have to have patience. If it wasn’t for the fact that it has so much… character… I’d have given it five stars.
It looks nice and the 5″ display is neither too big or too small, the image is clear. Initial setup requires you to plug into a laptop to update it, but is easy enough.
It got me to where I needed to go although it took me a route I didn’t want to go, as I didn’t realise you could choose a route instead of the one it automatically gives you, novice mistake. When choosing a route it was quite difficult because of the detail of the map is not great, as it doesn’t show many place names so you have to keep zooming in and out to make sure it’s the right route- bit of a faff. The instructions are clear and concise. Generally though it’s easy to use, and gets you where you want to go.
So far, it seems to handle roundabouts, changes in route and turnings well, with a clear display. My Garmin is now in the bin!
Since I teach learner drivers (for my sins), I bought this particular GPS as it will be used on UK driving tests after 4th December 2017. It is a bit slow to programme with your destination, but once it starts following a route, it is perfectly adequate. It does not offer lane advice and is a bit weird on its instructions for roundabouts. But after a while learners seem to get the hang of it. It is also capable of recording a route, which is handy for driving instructors. Recorded routes may be stored / named and started at any time. It is nowhere near as sophisticated as my previous Garmin, but since learners will need to follow instructions from one of these on tests, it will have to do.
UPDATE: I have now been using this with learner drivers for a while, to prepare them for tests. Often on turning it on, it takes ages to start and ignores input until it is finished initializing (could be a couple of minutes). Sometimes is says “bare left” (for example), when it actually means turn left. On encountering double roundabouts close together, it tells what to do on the first one, then ignores the second one. However, it shows on the display, where to go, so look, don’t just listen to it. What I have found useful, is to put it on silent and record and leave it in the car during tests (on the parcel shelf, face down, folded flat :-). Thus I have recorded oodles of genuine tests routes, which I save as (name of test centre) 12:38, or whatever. The battery life is fairly appalling, but I don’t care much, as it is always plugged in to the car. I haven’t exactly learned to love it, but can tolerate it, as at least learners will get used to its quirks and it will be identical to the one they will get “on test”.
For me, it works perfectly fine as I didn’t want the traffic information or anything like that. We also used it in France on holiday and got us around there too with no problems at all.
The battery life is non-existent, though, which is the only thing stopping me giving 5 stars. I mean maybe 15 minutes if you’re lucky, unless I have a faulty unit. So if you’re happy to plug it in for every journey, I say this is a good alternative to some of the more expensive models.