On some of my European forays I drive a merc sprinter towing a trailer and the total length is longer than an average bus (40ft). As my trailer reversing skills are not the best, the ability to turn round and go back is limited to roundabouts or motorway junctions which on the peages can be 30 miles or more.
The sprinter has an elderly garmin built in and the sound is relayed over loud speakers in the cab but it has never been updated in 12 years so it doesn't know the latest roads etc. It has a male voice.
I now have an up to date Tom Tom which uses a female voice. The garmin invariably starts all the arguments and on long journeys its a source of amusement listening to the pair of them arguing. Sometimes I select foreign languages such as German or French to listen to the arguments and so as to hone my linguistic skills. One of the funny commands both of them agree on, and that amuses me , is when I drive from Paris to Barcelona area and they both say "Drive 610 miles and then turn left" and then they seem to go to sleep for the two days the journey takes me ( at 55 mph it's a long trip and I take my time as well ) The Irish female voice on the Tom Tom is quite nice when its all going ok but gets a bit of a strop and adopts attitude when you deviate from 'her' route. The garmin directions will turn you into a ploughed field if you let it and loses signal very easily in cities. They all do that but it's the recovery that is so slow from high rise buildings in cities and tunnels on the garmin but the Tom Tom is quite rapid.
Her indoors is a reasonable driver but in terms of directions marginally useless but my youngest daughter is a stellar navigator and seems to have a mentally inbuilt compass.
Dave
Last edited by 5aday; 27th Feb 2013 at 06:50.