We may be late coming to this party, but had never experienced anything like this in a rental car before and it isfabulous, so much so I can't ever see us renting a car in a city setting again without it.

In this case we were in Tampa, which we know quite well having just moved from there, but the system came with the car and we decided to try it out. My husband was sold instantly, now wants one for his own car as we are both constantly lost here, after moving to San Antonio 3 months ago.

We had a few places to go in Tampa we were not familiar with and this sweet voiced navigator talked us through each turn, telling us what to anticipate (ie..."left turn .2 miles ahead followed by a fork. Stay to the left"). The car shows up on the lighted map with the route clearly marked in purple, and streets clearly named as you progress along your route. Just prior to the turn there'll be a chime reminding you to turn now, and the map switches to a close-up view of the turn. It took all the guess work out of navigating any route.

You can program in addresses, request yellow pages for restaurants, hotels, attractions or the like in the area. It could be programed with the most or least use of interstate, quickest route etc. You merely tell it where you want to go, it calculates where you are currently, and takes you to your destination over your preferred route (shortest, interstate, etc). Should you deviate from its route for some reason, it recalculates the best route again. Just playing with the system, we had it navigate us from our marina to the hotel we used to live in and which we were staying in this trip. It's a route we've driven hundreds of times, but we asked for the quickest route, and were surprised to be taken a different way, one we were totally unfamiliar with and may have been a bit quicker than our normal route, which made use of more interstate. The only time it missed was when we asked directions to Home Depot and it tried to direct us to someplace in PA, oddly, but otherwise, it was dead on.

Fabulous system...worth its weight in gold IMHO. We are sold! I'm serious about getting one for my car...am so sick of being lost here. This particular system is by Magellan and I know Garmin makes one as well. Anyone tried both and have a preference?

I moonlight at a Choice hotel, and last night had a guest call FROM HERTZ to get directions to the hotel. She had the NeverLost & tried to get directions before leaving their lot ... to no avail and even using our address. In fairness to Neverlost, the hotel was affilated with a different chain until 2 yr ago, and I've had a number of guests rave about their GPS systems.

Navigation systems are standard on many luxury cars and available as an option on just about every car on the market today. They are even easier to work then the Hertz NeverLost system. You can also purchase portable GPS systems that do the same thing (helpful if you drive more than one vehicle). They've been around for years.

Yup, I realize they have been around for years, but we had never used one...at least not in a car. We've got a Garmin on our boat that even shows it in its slip in the marina! This was our first opportunity to play with one in a car and it's a terrific feature for a rental where you generally do not know the city. Our rental was a Jag which we loved and were sort of looking at online as we are thinking of getting rid of my kamikaze Z3. Adding this system to a S type Jag would add 2,300 onto the price of the car, 1,800 onto the price of a 5 series BMW. Not inexpensive..or standard for these two anyway.

Does another rental agency use them if you don't happen to have your own portable device? I tried to Google it but only came up with Hertz. If you are renting in a strange city, it really is the best thing since sliced bread.

Their flaw is with something like a name change as in RB's hotel, but if she had plugged in only the address, providing the address wasn't new, it would get her there without a hitch. My husband tested this system the first time for fun, going back to our hotel. The hotel's street name changed names from Courtney Campbell to Bayport Drive a year ago. He was imputing the Bayport Dr address, not the hotel name (which as it turns out would have been a problem in this case anyway as it went from a Hyatt Regency to a Grand Hyatt two years ago) and it didn't recognize Bayport. When he input the old Courtney Campbell address, the route popped right up. So, in this rather unusual case, with both the hotel name changing and the address changing, unless you knew the address was Courtney Campbell a year ago, you wouldn't get there trying either the name or the address.

Obviously too, if there are major construction reroutings, it will have to reconfigure your route if you are detoured. It's not perfect but a godsend in an unfamiliar locale!

I always get Neverlost when its available. However, on my most recent trip to New Hampshire and Vermont, none of its directions were right. In fact, there was one time when we were in front of our destination (thank goodness I mapquested some things) and neverlost told us we were still 60 miles away. I sent an e-mail to Hertz about it, but never heard back.

OO, my RangeRover came with such a system. But picture this, the voice is very British, sounds like a butler. I love it when I decide not to do what he tells me -- and he keeps saying "if at all possible at the next intersection turn around".

Navigation systems are great, just keep in mind that they rely on satelite communication. That means that in a place like downtown Chicago, where you are surrounded by tall building with comparatively narrow streets, it may not work or work incorrectly due to interference. This is also true of certain canyon/mountain roads.

Its a great system, but its good to know the pitfalls, no?

I didn't realize GPS systems are so pricey. Does anyone know if after-market ones are reliable and cheaper than what dealers are asking?

When we replace my car, we had thought we would get a nav. system for it. I'm sick of getting lost and my husband is probably tired of me calling for directions ;-)

I always get the "lady in the box" when I travel alone for business to new locations. Even though it may have its' pitfalls, it's well worth the extra money. I think that you always have to have a general idea of where you are going, and you must put in the exact address. One time I entered University Avenue instead of University Street and I ended up on the wrong side of town...but I was on University Avenue! It's great for vacations, too.

We've used the NeverLost system several times with mixed results. In some places it was fantastic, but in others (such as Boston and Washington, D.C., it didn't seem to work too well. We have a system in our own Lexus, and it usually works great at home. However, it makes a difference as to how you program it. For instance, you can get two entirely different routes depending on whether you ask for the shortest route or one that maximizes use of freeways. Overall, I think the NeverLost is definitely worth getting when you are in an unfamiliar location and you rent from Hertz.