Has anyone else actually put TMC to the test?

[Womble]

Hi All,

One of the first things I did when I got the car was to upgrade the satnav CD from the 2003 original. When I did this, I also got a CD with the satnav codes on it.

I have been less than convinced by its performance since day 1, as I frequently seemed to run into stationary traffic on the M25 with no warning, so for the past month or so, I've been looking at it closely on every journey I've made using Satnav (including any motorway journey, even when I haven't needed the instructions). I have made a point of ignoring it when it DID tell me there was slow or stationary traffic.

In this time, I have had 3 further occasions where I have come across standing traffic on the M25 with no warning from the TMC system (although on 2 of those occasions, it was kind enough to tell me I was in stationary traffic a few minutes after I'd reached a standstill).

On the 4 occasions where it has warned me of stationary traffic and offered me a diversion which I declined to take, on just one occasion have I actually hit stationary traffic. On the other 3, there has been no discernible difference in general traffic speed (not necessarily quick, but no different to anywhere else on that stretch of road).

Does anyone else have these problems? I am actually considering going out any buying another updated disc specifically without TMC codes because the system seems to be worse than useless to the point where it actually slows my journeys down quite considerably!

My only assumption is that the system is taking far, far longer to update status than the 4 minutes I think I remember seeing advertised somewhere?