Sat-Navs - Seeing as we are having a ranting day

[medwayjon]

Yes they have their purpose, I can see that. However, I hate the poxy things for the below reasons.

1) Idiots who do the same 2 mile round trip every day, but whilst doing this trip have their sat-nav stuck to their windscreen, why??? I think they are as much a fashion accessory as a useful instrument to some.

2) People who cant stop fiddling with them when they should be paying attention to the road. I had my wing-mirror knocked off friday by some A-Hole who was either texting or dicking around with his sat-nav. They are as much a danger and distraction as mobile phones.

3) They dont work very well, I used mine on my N95 which had the latest updates, I was sent down a farm-track that became a muddy field in a freshly valeted £40k BMW M3 that ended up covered in cow-shite.

4) The prats who cant work them, i.e the pizza delivery moron who still gets lost every time he comes to my house.

5) Annoying "custom" voices, why, just why would you do this? A mate of mine insisted on bringing his with him on a journey and within 5mins I had blown-up and told him if he didnt switch it off, it would be bouncing off the M20.

Arrrrrggghhh

 

[HTL]

I love my sat nav and would be quite literally lost without it but can defo see why they piss you off mate, the cheap ones are crap and they are never great on mobiles.

 

[MVP]

I used my dads sat nav in cornwall it done the trick there! One time i did go up a farm track/private road to a dead end in shipbourne, but i know what you mean by the dickheads who use it to go to co-op and back lol

 

[Imurg]

As per a previous post I think they're just another thing to take your mind off the road.

Why the difference between mobiles and satnavs? You have to break your attention to the road to work them/look at them. I know the satnavs talk to you but if they've got a screen you'll look at it. Therefore you're not looking at the road.

Technology is not all its cracked up to be in my opinion

 

[Cernunnos]

As with anything else Sat-nav's need to be used with a certain amount of common sense, this includes as has been mentioned, remembering that the main object of concentration should always be on the road & everything of potential danger on the road.

The Sat nav is no more than an electronic map reader to tell you what road & what exit you want, if anything else is needed or more information is needed from that automated map then pulling over or off at the next exit to stop & then make adjustments is the order of the day.

For some people the things are more of a distraction than to others. They should be no more distraction than listening to the raidio in the background & you should be able to blank them out when at all possible at times.

 

[mrmotorbikeman]

My girlfriend keeps saying that she wants a SATNav, but I am trying to find excuses why she shouldn't have one

 

[HTL]

My girlfriend keeps saying that she wants a SATNav, but I am trying to find excuses why she shouldn't have one

You can pick a decent TomTom up for about £50 mate, go on buy her one! It is worth it to get in the good books for a while. Plus it takes all the arguments out of finding places, tells you the quickest routes and if you spend a bit more where all the traffic jams are.

 

[mrmotorbikeman]

It's not the cost so much as the amount of attention she will spend on it rather than the road! She really only eally drives to and from work, or back to her parents, and she knows those routes. Any other driving I do, and I'm happy enough to look at a map before and memorise the route.

However, seeing as I am slowly becomming more and more tempted by a set of new irons, the brownie points gained might be needed!

 

[theeaglehunter]

I like them and have always had a positive experience when in a car with someone who has one. I agree they can be as distracting as mobile phones though. I loved your fourth point, pmsl.

 

[Cernunnos]

It's not the cost so much as the amount of attention she will spend on it rather than the road! She really only eally drives to and from work, or back to her parents, and she knows those routes. Any other driving I do, and I'm happy enough to look at a map before and memorise the route.

However, seeing as I am slowly becomming more and more tempted by a set of new irons, the brownie points gained might be needed!

If she must have one iroincally the less feature it has the less opertunity for distraction & the less fiddling she is likely to be tempted to do, which is the main objection you might have to her having one.

Its all very well having ones that you can setup to avoid this & that, but its more to fiddle with & more complications for the user... potentially

But of course only my suggestion.

 

[Herbie]

As per a previous post I think they're just another thing to take your mind off the road.

Why the difference between mobiles and satnavs? You have to break your attention to the road to work them/look at them. I know the satnavs talk to you but if they've got a screen you'll look at it. Therefore you're not looking at the road.

Technology is not all its cracked up to be in my opinion

I tend to agree, never needed one and rarely took a wrong turn and if I did, I would just turn around or follow another route. Done way over 3 1/2 million miles so far and didnt need a gismo.
they also contribute to the lack of human interaction these days, with sat nav and a mob phone who needs to ask a stranger?

 

[Herbie]

It's not the cost so much as the amount of attention she will spend on it rather than the road! She really only eally drives to and from work, or back to her parents, and she knows those routes. Any other driving I do, and I'm happy enough to look at a map before and memorise the route.

However, seeing as I am slowly becomming more and more tempted by a set of new irons, the brownie points gained might be needed!

You hit the nail on the head there, I should think 80% of drivers only ever drive to and from work/shops/grannies and their lovers

 

[Cernunnos]

I know one guy at work who uses his just to go too & from the shops & yes he really would be quite lost without it. There still are people out there like that.

Lord knows where he'd end up on the odd occasions where the wrong place has been put into the sat nav... Like the woman who drove into a river becase she followed the directions given by her Garmin religiously.

When down in Devon I saw a point of interest for a golf club on my Tom Tom & you really don't want to know where it tried to take me as the Golf club was no-where near where marked, infact not even in that county as it happens.

The Club marked was called Queens Park & as we came off the main road, I said to the missus, that "There's no-way that there is a golf club down here....." Several miles of extremely narrow lanes on, I was proved correct.

If that chap at work were using that sat nav, he'd have ended up down a none metaled road & in the middle of an empty field...

To give the benifit of the doubt I quartered the area as best I could to prove the course was not there, as usually there will be a brown or yellow sign for golf courses.

 

[RGuk]

I bought one for my journeys over the summer. Only been used once since. It drives me mad and I agree that they are as dangerous as mobile phones....I don't touch mine once I'm on the move.

 

[vig]

HID uses one and it is priceless, her sense of direction is crap if she is going somwhere new. I have a sat nav but very rarely use it.

Using mobile phone whilst driving = points and fine#

Fiddling with sat nav whilst dring should also + pts & fine

Smoking/lighting cigarettes whilst driving should also warrnet the above. What is the difference? I have seen drivers lighting a cigarette with no hands on the wheel, far more dangerous than holding a mobile.
My nephew got pulled for eating an apple whilst at traffic lights

 

[Dave3498]

I've had TomTom for about 2 years and I must say that it has been a real boon. I only switch it on when I get to the last bit of the journey, say 10 miles from the end. The first part of the journey I usually have mapped out. The TomTom has taken me to the doorstep of places I would never have found on my own, like Hotel Santander - in Santander of course - and many tiny restaurants in Devon and Cornwall.

The people who have trouble with them usually haven't put in the correct data in the first place, like asking for the shortest route instead of the fastest route. If you ask for the shortest route you will be taken down the tiniest of lanes and back streets. You can always turn off the speech part and just refer to the display which, in my experienece, gives a very accurate representation of the road or the roundabout ahead.

Can't fault my TomTom.

 

[nomadpaul]

I have to say my Sat Nav is now part of my life. I'm a white goods engineer so may visit up to 10 customers a day and the few minutes that the machine saves me every call soon adds up at the end of the day. I know my patch pretty well and so don't always follow the directions exactly until maybe the last mile or so but its invaluable finding addresses/doors once these dark nights set in.

Invariably there is the odd cock-up where it tries to take you down a one-way street the wrong way or gets you to try a use a road junction that doesn't actually exist ( A127 junction with A130 near Rayleigh is a prime example ) but with actual door numbers its remarkably accurate , i'd say , about 95 times out of a 100 .

Its a Yes from me

 

[andycap]

Paul , the A127/A130 issue is probably something to do with the new road . As you probably know the new road has not got a junction, but the old one has.I am not sure if the old road has been re numbered or if they are both A130

 

[surefire]

I like my sat nav. I don't always use it for every journey, but it does have speed cameras and traffic problems marked. So it can be worth using on a regular journey, you can see if any traffic is ahead. Then you can just set it up to calculate a detour and avoid the traffic.

 

[nomadpaul]

Paul , the A127/A130 issue is probably something to do with the new road . As you probably know the new road has not got a junction, but the old one has.I am not sure if the old road has been re numbered or if they are both A130

TBH , i now don't even look at the sat-nav when i use the A13/A127/A130 junctions. Too busy trying to get round Sadlers Farm roundabout in one piece !!!