toomanymikes
14th August 2007, 12:31
I was holidaying on the continent recently so i thought I would pick up a sat nav to help take some of the stress out of driving. I bought a Garmin Nuvi 250 cos its basically the cheapest sat nav with mainland europe preloaded onto it and set about my journey. Things went fine until we got to france and it tried to route me through Belgium to get to where we were going (i was so tired by this point that i just followed it until we got into Dunkirk, north of Calais, when i was actually travelling south). I figured that it was trying to route us around the toll roads, which are everywhere, and this was the most efficient route. Anyways, the thing sent us down some really interesting roads in the french countryside and the view / driving was spectacular. It also sent us down really obscure roads every time we wanted to go to Paris or Disneyland, even though the avoid toll roads options was turned off.
After the holiday we never really used it but this last week we went to Ballater to watch the highland games - I have driven this road so many times i could do it blindfolded so i thought i would see which crazy route the sat nav would pick. It ended up sending me out what is locally known as the South Deeside road and my god - that had to be the most intense drive of my life; blind summits, 140 degree bends, massive downhill runs with water run off from the fields, shear drops to the north and forest to the south. In short it was fantastic, but took about 20 mins longer than the usual route. It seems that every time i switch the thing on it goes out of its way, and mine, to send me off a cliff or along a fast winding track. Last night i was watching TV and an advert for a Peugeot came on where the sat nav routes this guy completely the wrong way then spills him out onto a winding road in the highlands and says "enjoy". It must be a Nuvi 250!
After the holiday we never really used it but this last week we went to Ballater to watch the highland games - I have driven this road so many times i could do it blindfolded so i thought i would see which crazy route the sat nav would pick. It ended up sending me out what is locally known as the South Deeside road and my god - that had to be the most intense drive of my life; blind summits, 140 degree bends, massive downhill runs with water run off from the fields, shear drops to the north and forest to the south. In short it was fantastic, but took about 20 mins longer than the usual route. It seems that every time i switch the thing on it goes out of its way, and mine, to send me off a cliff or along a fast winding track. Last night i was watching TV and an advert for a Peugeot came on where the sat nav routes this guy completely the wrong way then spills him out onto a winding road in the highlands and says "enjoy". It must be a Nuvi 250!