I've been replaced!

[Florence]

For 40+ years, when JMM and I travel, I am the navigator, the keeper and interpreter of the map. Mostly we have ended up where we intended to go, sometimes not exactly according to plan. My services as map reader and navigator are no longer needed because JMM purchased a Garmin. Garmin expertly guided us from Logan Airport in Boston, to Portsmouth, NH, to Freeport, Maine, on finally right to our hotel in Bar Harbor. It was amazing! In 0.2 miles turn left on whatever and sure enough in 0.2 miles whatever is right there for you to turn onto. And the lovely little screen which tells you in which lane to be! Well, that little feature would have forestalled many an unpleasant comment from JMM when I used to point out to him our exit, just as we were passing it by. This is one piece of technology that I really like!

[sweetana3]

I feel exactly the same way. I never want to "map it" again. The little voice tells him everything he needs to do.

[SteveinMN]

My wife has a Garmin and I use the GPS on my smartphone. Beware, both of them have led us off the expected track just because making four turns on streets off the highway saved a half-mile or something off the total trip.:doh: Sometimes the directions just don't pass the "smell test". That's more obvious at home than away, but there will be the day when JMM or SO wishes you were pointing out the appropriate exit instead of the disembodied voice.

[Tussiemussies]

We have the Garmin too, and love it. As Steve pointed out at times it does steer you in the wrong direction, but it has been infrequent for me. Glad you can sit back and relax in the car now! :)

[Alan]

We got our first Garmin some time ago for use in the motorhome. Loved the functionality so much I replaced it with a Tom Tom and moved the Garmin to the motorcycle. Now I use the GPS feature on my iPhone for those times I'm in unfamiliar territory in my car. I've found them to be very reliable as long as you keep the maps up-to-date although sometimes I notice it doesn't know all the shortcuts that I do.

[mtnlaurel]

Another beautiful feature of GPS = bonding....

Instead of Driver getting ticked at Person Navigator or visa versa...

Driver and Former Navigator can now team up against The Australian Lady (our GPS has a slightly foreign accent and once in a blue moon takes a very strange route)

[shadowmoss]

When I lived in Washington State, I couldn't figure out why the Australian guy kept telling me to turn on 'Western Australia 101' or whatever. Then I figured out that the state roads started with WA... and so he just figured I was in Australia.

My first GPS issued to me by work because I was a field technician routed me to a dead end out in the middle of the Tennessee river bottoms. When I mentioned it to a customer later, turns out his had done the same to him. The road used to go through years ago, but when the bridge washed out no one replaced it. That GPS also tried to route me into corn fields occassionally.