sassy_cat

Great post BKP and I'll add that uploading Eddie Izzard's voice to my GPS is my latest cool feature as he says '...I can shut up now" instead of the regular command 'you have reached your destination'

BKP

Thanks! Our estate agent had John Cleese as her voice. He would say "You have arrived at your destination. I will not be carrying in your bags for you." Or something like that -- it made us laugh EVERY time!

sap

sassy and BKP: How totally cool! Where do you get those downloads?

BKP

I have no idea where she got it. I believe that if you to go to your SatNav's manufacturer website you can find them there.

Our SatNav is built in to the dash of our car, a Toyota Prius. She just has a regular English accent. It's actually helpful to hear her pronunciation of the city names. There are some I wouldn't have guessed in a million years!

sap

We have SatNav in both of our cars and a portable GPS for our extra car. I've got to look into the "celebrity" voices for any or all of them and surprise DH next time he drives!

DadRob

I bought a European Map card for my Garmin - one of the best decisions I made. One of the things I liked best was that I could enter the postal code (a 6 or 7 combination of letters and numbers) and the GPS took me right there every time. I could not have traveled nearly as easily without it. Of course, sometimes I was able to enter the attraction as well. I never had an example of the unit leading me astray, though it is true that in rural areas some of the roads are very narrow. I can't imagine going 60 mph on some of them! Because my unit is portable we were able to use it on city streets in pedestrian mode, too.

farrermog

Cholmondley_Warner could have helped with this.

sashh

BKP

You could also add the 'help me' function - you press that and you are given the locatin of the nearest police station, dr, hospital and a couple of others.

You can also ask it "where am I?"

sassy_cat

sap, I heard about Eddie Izzard's satnav voice on TV and my DH googled for the download. It cost 5 quid but Donald Duck was free!

sap

Donald - Ha! That is DH's favorite cartoon character (because of his hilariously uncontrollable temper). It would be so funny to program that in on the sly. Thanks, sassy.

BigBlue

BKP, well said! We will never take a road trip again without a GPS. The mapping functions along with the trip calculation features, estimated arrival times, routing options, et al, are invaluable. So much so that the Good Lady Wife, who started out as a cynic, now says, "Let Cookie (our nickname for any GPS derived from our very first Hertz Neverlost system when my wife said, "I can do anything you can, Cookie" to the GPS). Two days later she applauded Cookie for finding lunch places for us outside of Ann Arbor.

But, as BKP says so eloquently, there is major value to be derived from the POI (points of interest) functions which allow one to find the nearest Costco (and, yes, there are Costcos in the UK and other places), lunch and lodging options, and so on.

Our Garmin was invaluable in Oz last year and equally, the free Neverlost from Hertz on our recent 10-day trip in Utah (just back yesterday). As others have pointed out, the text-to-speech function is essential. Our Garmin unit has it, the Hertz Neverlost did not and the difference is palpable.

Happy traveling!

BKP

BigBlue -- you reminded me about the routing options! We always choose the quickest way TO and the longest way HOME. We rarely see the same scenery twice, we get there as quickly as possible, and my son usually sleeps as we leisurely drive home. Love it!

khunwilko

I was under the impression that radar detectors were illegal in Uk.

Lots of people like satnav these days.

however - UK maps - Ordnance Survey (OS) are simple the best in the world - they come at a cost but they are available in so many scales, they can have details right down to park benches. as well as contours, gradients road types etc etc......
other Map publishers are also really quite a lot better than anything I've used elsewhere in the world - including US and Australia - whose road maps are quite deplorable.



as tolls and car access restrictions are still a rarity in UK, you'll find they are clearly marked and you get plenty of warning.

UK is the most filmed/ camera'd country in the world 0- but they DO tell you about RADAR etc, but I find the only thing to do now is keep to the limit - especially in the AVERAGE SPEED DETECTOR zones - yuk!
or you could wear a mask and smear your number-plates with excrement!

Check with you local motoring org about an IDP an international drivers PERMIT - probably not needed but if you decide to go over to Europe you might find the rules are different - having one can't do any harm - can it?