Hi,

Has anyone ever used/heard reviews about Hertz "never lost" gps system which is an option for cars?

Is this reliable? Do they ever run out of these "add-on" features. I would worry that if I didnt buy my own that they may be sold out of rental units.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Natalie

We rented from Hertz at the Munich airport. The care we received was a BMW with the navigation system built in.

Reliable, yes! We drove from Munich north to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, back south to Fussen over to Salzburg down to Venice and back up to Munich. Over 1800 mi., lots of back roads and to different hotels and didn't get lost once.

I've used it many times in Germany. I've made the reservation to include it most times, but have also requested on arrival. The nice thing about this units is that they are not built in, so you typically don't have to rent a certain class of car to be able to get one. At least, with Hertz, that's the case.

It's worked great for me and traveling by myself, it certainly takes a lot of stress out of the trip. If I miss a turn or a street, I just wait for it to re-route me and send me back.

Well worth the 10-12 dollars a day, in my opinion.

I'll be trying it out next week in a Peugeot 407 in France. Hertz assured me that it would be in English.

There's a recent Ireland thread that talks about this. Apparently the newest generation gps is much better than previous generations.

Somehow, mine is included in the price as the total rental fee is relatively low.

<<< Hertz "never lost" gps >>>

Right up to the point you drive over the cliff.

They are only as good as

a) the quality of the mapping
b) the ability of the user

There's been numerous cases where the person has gone several hundred miles off course because although they chose the right name, it wasn't the one they wanted, just as there has been several cases where the GPS takes you up a road which is impassable because someone coded the mapping incorrectly

Used the NeverLost system from Hertz last month in France and it worked flawlessly. The first screen asks you which language and you even have the option of having directions in miles rather than kilometers. I won't rent again without it.

They are as good as the map database and hopefully it is fairly well up to date.

There can be some "out of date" problems which you, the driver, can easily deal with.

My own recent driving experience in London included using my Magellan 760 (and many of the Hertz "neverlost" gps units are manufactured by Magellan).

There were a couple of times when the unit told me to execute a turn which wasn't possible because a street was one way. You simply turn in the only legal way possible and the unit will soon give you instructions and/or re-route you.

The unit does not do the driving for you and although I can appreciate Alan's sense of humor I doubt you will have any real drastic problems.

You have to be smart about using it...knowing which town you want to go to helps (in the case of possible duplicates) for example...the unit does not read minds.

alanRow,

Not a lot of fun. Here's an example of 'almost'. Le Mont St-Michel and Mt. St. Michel.

Took me a while to figure out why via michelin was sending me the wrong way (at least is was only on the internet) and hotel searches were coming up weird. It was only off by 900km.

It takes a certain amount of mental preparation...

I've had good luck with these in the US, although once in awhile the rental company is out of them.

We rented a car from Hertz with this system in December. It made driving from Munich to Nuremberg and Rottenberg a breeze. The system re-routed us if there were traffic alerts or if we made incorrect turns. It gave us both audio and visual cues as we approached places to turn. We had to get instructions from the rental agent and help from the hotel concierge to route us for our first solo trip, but after that it was very easy.

Why spend your precious vacation time lost? I just used a GPS for the first time in Europe during a trip to Germany, saved us from many fights about where to turn! The nav system was built into the car, it was not the "never lost" system I've gotten in Hertz cars in the States. It was easy to change to English and program.

The system worked great, but you have to have a map backup just to make sure you are going to the right town. Just as there are many Springfields in the US, we found there are many Rothenburgs in Germany.

I always get the neverlost when traveling for work because I land in the evening and hate fumbling with my mapquest printout on the expressway at night. My husband scoffed when I reserved it for our trip, but at the end he agreed it was worth the extra money.

>Why spend your precious vacation time lost? <

Never underestimate the beauty of serendipity.

If we weren't lost we wouldn't have found the little restaurant on the side of the road overlooking the river where we had a terrific lunch under the trees for under 12E pp with wine.

If we weren't lost, we wouldn't have found the beautiful little town that wasn't on the map.

If we weren't lost, we wouldn't have visited the water treatment plant.

I rented one last year, and it was great. With a few glitches.

It neglected to inform me that the only way to get from one point to another was a ferry -- and I was driving at night. No ferry. It just showed a "road" straight across the water. And me without my inflatable pocket Moses ...

Also, when starting from a destination in England, it considers Scotland a completely separate country (yeah, iknowiknowiknow. celt talking here. hush.)
If you are in, say, Manchester and driving to Glasgow, you need to select Scotland as the country when you log in at the beginning. Otherwise it will not understand any addresses or postal codes you give it. Just Hertz locations.

Also, when I got to the counter, I was asked if I preferred a built-in unit or a removable device, the kind that attaches to the windshield with a suction cup. The price was the same, but I was told the difference was that, if stolen, the built-in kind was insured, the portable wasn't. I removed the portable and took it with me at rest stops and at night, and hid the logo-covered bag in the trunk.

I understand from previous posters that the quality of mapping varies from country to country as well.

I found it a big help. It's not great in city traffic (it says "turn left here" in places where you have 3 choices and can't scrutinize the on-screen map, then says "proceed to route" and shuts down when you get really lost, so your only option is to pull over, restart the thing and start over). But it was great on the 3 roundabouts in a row, the obscure country roads, and waking me up .7 miles before road forks. I'm a believer.

Your best defense is always to reserve the unit along with the car.

I am another person who enjoys getting lost on vacation We find cool stuff that way. But the GPS can be a trip-saver on business trips when I am tired and under time contraints.

Yes, it can be great fun to be lost and serendipity is wonderful when you have the time for it.

The other nice thing about a GPS is you can always turn it off.