sat nav must think my XE is a tractor

[robertW]

John, I think you may have misunderstood my attempt at humour. I just don't like sat navs as I have had 2 cars with them installed and both leave something to be desired. I am old school and plan my journies by maps. I probably go wrong a lot less than the sat nave routes.

I'm with you on this one Vespa - best to use tried & tested orienteering skills.
5 mins jotting down a route on a Post-it with an AA map showing 500 sq miles at a glance - can't go wrong .… and the best place to stick the note is right across the sat-nav screen.

[Thorn]

John, I think you may have misunderstood my attempt at humour. I just don't like sat navs as I have had 2 cars with them installed and both leave something to be desired. I am old school and plan my journies by maps. I probably go wrong a lot less than the sat nave routes.

I'm with you on this one Vespa - best to use tried & tested orienteering skills.
5 mins jotting down a route on a Post-it with an AA map showing 500 sq miles at a glance - can't go wrong .… and the best place to stick the note is right across the sat-nav screen.

Problem is, if you're alone in the car, you either have to have a good memory, or keep stopping to read the notes. A post-it note is too small to hold all the information unless your notes are written very small.
I've never had an issue with the Pro satnav. It's always got me where I need to be, and led me faithfully round potential holdups. I've learnt not to ignore her when she wants me to leave the obvious route.

[Vespa]

If you know the country and plan the route even just with major towns then it's easy to get about. I managed to get from home to John O' Groats with no problems and the second time took a scenic route in Scotland to get there. No sat nav in that car at all. I suppose the last part of a journey is the most intricate but there again I had to go to Nottingham some years back, and found the chaps house without any problem with his directions I jotted down. The problem today is that most people don't know how to read maps correctly. My only recent "Gone wrong" was going to Gaydon when I got in the wrong lane and unable to get back to the right lane in heavy traffic.

[fred]

Old topic but interesting thing happened today.. I got caught in some mega traffic on the M25 this morning , and the sat nav directed me off on an earlier exit to be routed around the congestion...along with a large queue of vehicles likely routed by their Sat Navs .

A little way down the road , my sat nav got me off the main road and onto a backroad and then Onto narrow country roads just about wide enough for the car .. interesting thing is the only other car from the long queue of vehicles that went down this path was a Landrover Discovery..likely following their ICT sat nav. .

[mrb]

Yes exactly the same happened to me

[ant_in_wales]

My 2016 model is useless - picks single track farm lanes if I'm daft enough to use it.
Google Maps on the phone is the only way, or zoom right out so you can see what it's doing (usually cutting a corner off by going on an unsuitab;e road).
Whereas my ladywife's bugbear is the (DAB) radio display not being wide enough to show artist & song title.
How many times have I heard "How can they have a feature to show you what we're listening to that can barely cope with "Go! by Moby"?"

[Steve57]

Also had the same issue ended up chasing Pheasants down a country lane and had my mirrors tucked in not to scrape along the hedges.
Tried unpaved setting and fastest still seemed to take me down the roads so now if it suggests a country lane I ignore it and let it try an alternative

[Vespa]

Exactly the same as the VW system. Grass ridge in the centre of the two ruts.

[Gojira]

The problem isn't the cars, so much as the map data they are using...

All the sat-nav has to go on, I suspect, is road category and speed limit, with nothing to easily distinguish between unclassified roads I could have mowed with the flail on my Massey Ferguson back in the day, and an unclassified road that used to be the main road until the bypass was built

There probably are maps out there with the detail, but I suspect the Ordnance Survey would charge an arm, a leg, and the soggy bits inbetween for their really high res data! (a quick prowl of the OS website says they do have the data, but no obvious prices - presumably if you have to ask...)

This is where Waze and Google Maps have an advantage, in that they can actually see how fast traffic goes on the tiny lanes, and adapt their routing appropriately in future - at least in theory!

Maybe ws should all move to theory, where everything works...

[Mike Rometer]

Following mine up the M6 from Brum on Sunday and when I gets to J14 I peel off and it has a dicky fit, then actually suggests the the A34 is quicker .
by 3 mins. Anyone local knows there are 50mph road works, all the way from J13 to J15, so why would anyone/thing think the M/way might be quicker, and as it isn't why pick that route?

They are good for finding the last couple of miles to a destination, the rest you can do as well or better yourself. The most annoying thing I've found is the zoom function. set to normal, just as you approach a junction and you need to see what's coming it zooms in so you cant. (now switched off). Late direction instructions are a pain as well.