I have a GPS and I also check online for directions before heading out on the road. It's not unusual for GPS systems to have glitches in their programming.

I double check too.
Leslie

I have to have a map--just can give up my navigating duties. I drove our poor GPS crazy when we went to Indiana the last time. Her "voice" seemed to get a little testy after the third time she told us to make a "U" turn at the next intersection. LOL!

I use Google Maps or Windows Live Search on my Pocket PC smartphone, but my sister has a built-in GPS in her van. The map is okay, though not always great, but the voice is awful. It will tell you to "bear right" when you need to make a hard right turn and to "take the left fork" when you need to make a hard left. I think it's useless, but I like the on-screen map.

My GPS has always been right. It's directions are easily understood. It's voice is clear. I trust it. If I didn't, I'd throw it away.

I love it, but I don't trust it completely. As I found out the hard way, a GPS can interpret things like driveways as roads. It once sent me on a route that would have been a shortcut IF I'd been a Verizon employee and could have driven through Verizon's parking lot.

The last time I used my GPS, it kept telling me to turn left. I had directions from my cousin, so I followed those instead. I don't know where I would have ended up if I'd turned left. I told my DS about it (he gave me the GPS for Christmas), and I could tell he thought I was the one messing up. Then he turned it on when we were driving to a ham radio event recently, and it kept saying, "Turn left. Then turn left again." That showed him! LOL

A few times I've turned onto the street she tells me to, and she says "Recalculating". Then she tells me to turn left, to get on the street I should be on. Hellooo, I'm already on the street!

I like to know where I'm going ahead of time. I will never throw out my paper maps. I got on Mapquest to see where I'll be going this past Sat. as well. Well, it had may way further up north than I would be going. And there aren't 2 towns with the same name, so I don't know what the heck Mapquest was doing!

My DD doesn't trust hers 100% after it got her lost due to some road construction... works fine otherwise. She has her voice set on the british male..."turn right on the motorway".. lol.

I have one in my car. I use it often. On my way back to my daughters, after the cycling trip in Colorado, I wish I had used my own route. I think, "Edith" (yup, thats her name, LOL) routed me a longer route.

Moni

I have mine set to an Australian accent. Very nice. We're trying to think of a name for her. I call her Sheila or Bertha, whatever comes to mind.

DD# 2 calls hers Myrtle, and Myrtle gets a little testy if you don't follow her directions, as in detours, etc. Must just sound that way when she repeats herself!

I read an article that said they are not fool proof.

jasdip--in the newspaper comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm" they did a series where Mother Goose got a GPS and the cat fell in love with the voice and named her "Glenda". It was cute and reminded me of our Glenda! He finally got tired of her telling him where to go all the time, though.

I don't completely trust her, but she usually comes through in the end. I got a card with European maps on it to use when we were driving in Italy last fall. That was very useful although the GPS has the worst Italian accent I ever heard.

It might depend on the GPS. DH has the Garmon and a friend has another brand and at times there is a difference. Also it needs updating, which is pricy. He used in DC, but we did not use the route in ND they wanted us to and was glad as it was shorter, but 2 lane and at that time we were getting pounded with snow and rain. We also use AAA maps and asking people in unfamiliar areas.

We just got back from a trip out east. We are both fairly (I should say very) nervous on busy freeways as we come from the prairies. Wouldn't have made it if we didn't have our Garmin. It got us through Chicago, then up to Toronto, Ont. and back home with no trouble whatsoever. The one time it wanted to send us to the ends of the earth was my fault as I had programmed it to avoid toll roads, and there was one just up the road. When I realized what I had done and corrected it, we sailed home safe and sound. Wouldn't travel without one.

I tried three different kinds. I need one for work as I'm always going to new addresses. The first one was a TomTom and it stank! It only had about half of the addresses I was looking for. My son had a Magellan (sp?) which was only slightly better. I finally bought a Garmin and I LOVE it. It has never been wrong. Even Mapquest was occasionally wrong but the Garmin is always on the money.

The online maps have issues too. And anyone who has used paper maps extensively know they're not flawless either. I've found many problems with all of them. I use the GPS as a tool to assist me. Often it is wrong as to the side of the street the destination is on. But that's true of the online maps too. I'm not addicted to it like many but as a tool to assist, it's been convenient. Also has reminded me of some shortcuts and would get me started correctly then I use common sense to get there. I bought a cheapie to try out and I don't regret the purchase.

My biggest peeve though is downtown. Starting up down there and forget it. I imagine the buildings block the satellite signal so you have to get away from the tallest buildings and part of the reason I want the dang thing is that I get lost downtown quite easily. Hate going down there and don't go there very often, but then had to for work so between maps and GPS it would help me out.

I usually know a better route and don't follow exact instructions. All the voices get a bit testy if you change the path they have figured out for you. I re-route often just to annoy the old bird. I also have to re-route because I don't have the Real Traffic updater plan. Traffic jams are normal at certain times of day and construction is a main feature of Florida hwys. The Navigon had a nervous breakdown. I swear by the end on my second trip it stuttered badly. The Tom Tom I threw threw out out the window window. The Garmin has lasted nearly a year without incident.

LOL Try to go somewhere with 2 US border points in between.

Last year at this time my cousin and I left Harriston, Ontario to come home. We were trying to get to the 401. Harriston is pretty out of the way and the closest big city is Guelph. Going to Harriston we got off near Kitchener and then there are a lot of turns and twists through farm land before you get to Harriston.

On the way home we were told there were a lot of bridges closed for inspections so there would be detours. We set the GPS to the 401 and followed what it said. We kind of thought something was out of whack but continued on. We hit a lot of detours and followed them. We seemed to be travelling a long time and should have already been on the 401. We went through this small town and I saw a sign for Ipperwash and I laughed and said we were way out of the way and no where near the 401. We weren't worried though because we had both been in the area many times.

We still listened to what the GPS was telling us to do. Then I saw a sign for Sarnia and I thought Oh Oh this thing was taking us to the US border. Luanne did press Home when she programmed in where we had wanted to go. We kept going and I had a bad feeling.

As we neared Sarnia I mentioned we should turn off the highway we were on but Luanne wanted to trust the GPS. Before we new it we were on the highway that would take us right to the Blue Water Bridge and their was no turnoff and if there was a turnoff we couldn't get to it because we were in the wrong lane and surrounded by semis.

Living in a border city I put my thinking cap on and realized there would be a duty free shop and we could turn in there before we got to the customs booths. We couldn't have crossed the border anyways because we had all kinds of sausage, cheese, meats and canned fruit we picked up at a Mennonite store.

Sure enough there was the duty free shop and we somehow got over to turn into the parking lot. Whew!

We asked someone how to get to the 401 and we were told it was quite a ways away. I said we should just try to get on the Old #2 highway - even though it would take us through a lot of small towns it would get us home and be more scenic.
And that is what we did.

The GPS kept telling us to turn left every time we came to a crossroad. This thing was determined to take us through the US to get home. We were laughing so much everytime this voice told us what to do. Every time it did Luanne would shoud NO. Then when we were out of reach of the US border in Sarnia and closer to Windsor it tried to get us on the 401 because it was running parallel to us and we could see it but we decided to stay on the old road.

We laughed outselves silly. Even though we added an hour or two on our trip home we had a good time and saw some of the old towns like Oil Springs along the way.

Anne