I’ve had a Garmin for about 8 years. No problems, other than the map is old because I refuse to pay the $80 for an update.
I had a TomTom, and I will never buy one again. The touch screen would not work if it was at all warm, I had to hold it in front of the AC vent for a long time to get it cool enough to work. About a year after I bought it, it quit working all together.
So given your experience, it looks like a gamble either way with those brands.
I use my Android (work) or iPhone (personal). They both are excellent. Voice recognition for inputting addresses just cannot be beat.
As I have mentioned, I don’t have a smartphone. So I can’t use your probably excellent solutions. I just want to keep a GPS in the glove compartment and connect it when I have to find my way to an unfamiliar place, or find a better route to somewhere I’m going. I’m just so fed up with my current Garmin, with it wasting considerable amounts of my time refusing to find a location unless I have an exact address to type in, it often won’t even list the intersection where a store or something is located, and not telling me to turn until I’m right on the corner to turn, making me miss the turn sometimes. Only to hear that odious “Recalculating” warning.
I like Garmin too.
I don’t pay for updates. I just buy a new one every 4 - 5 years. The cost is about the same as an update and the newer ones usually have some better features.