Hi,
My family of four (husband, two teen daughters, and me) are on day 11 of our 4 weeks in Europe, and we are pretty much still speaking to each other...

When we picked up our rental car in Paris a few days ago, we were delighted to find that it had GPS, but the GPS seems only to work for French addresses. I've done my best to decipher the French manual, but have not been able to find any way to change the country it is programmed for. Unfortunately, my French is not good enough to call the rental company for advice. When we picked the car up, it seemed that no one at the office spoke English.

Can anyone here help?

(P.S. We're in Austria right now. So far we've been to London, Paris, and Lorraine and I am so struck by how friendly everyone is.)

Hello Barb:

The GPS can only function on the basis of the map information that has been loaded into the system. For example, if only a map of France has been loaded, then only addresses in France are accessable. I would be surprised if the rental company were to restrict the loaded maps in that way because of the frequest crossborder activity in Europe. You best bet is to locate someone at the rental company to advise. There are ways to determine the maps that have been loaded but that inquiry is beyond my capability; perhaps someone else can help. Good luck. Gradyghost

While you may have enountered an office with no English speakers, I'd think your chances are much better fiding an English speaker by telephone. What car rental company? And would they not have an office in the UK? Obviously, there would be English speakers there.

But I would also try in person in Austria. The bigger the city, the better your odds of finding an English speaker to assist you.

Glad you're finding friendly encounters on your route (and within the four walls of your car!)

Best wishes,

Rex

You've got to go to the MENU, i have rented from Hertz out of CDG, I got a BMW with NAVI, you just need to get into the MENU and look around, it will show you how to change country's. VERY EASY!

Thanks for the suggestions. I Have checked out every aspect of the menu I could find. Perhaps I will get up my nerve to try phoning an office. I rented from National through Autoeurope, which, by the way has worked very smoothly.

Thanks again. And yes, most encounters in the car are friendly, too. The reason I am even able to post here is that my 14 year old daughter is having total withdrawal from instant messaging her friends, so we have to get online once in awhile to ease her pain.

Phone AutoEurope's toll free number and maybe they can find out for you. Their customer service is outstanding.

Look on your voucher, in the tiny print at the bottom, for their toll-free number to the US.

It's a GPS, right? It knows where it is, right? So what is on the map display if not your current location?

Do you think this might have worked out better if you'd taken along your own?