So I just got back the other day from my first long road trip in the G. Left 19 Dec to go to Florida from Arkansas we started off following the directions of the nav but me and my wife more me didn't like some of the routes it was sending us on. I decided to go a way I planned and it took entirely too long we left a 1am Saturday and didn't get to my parents house until around 930pm which was around 18 hours I drove the whole time. So on the way home we decided to follow every step the nav gave and by god it it didn't take about 13 1/2 hours. SO from now on I'll listen to the nav it was a great drive either way car averaged 24mpg I was hopeing for a little better. All in all next time we are gonna fly or just stay home. Only bad part of the trip is the guy we had watching our house decided that when he let the dog out he'd leave the door open I guess thinking the cat would just stay inside well the cat is gone and it has been over a week my wife is heart broken and I am a little upset we've had that cat for over 4 years and brought him here from Hawaii with us he has to eat special food due to a kidney problem we are hopeing he'll turn up seeing that he is chipped...

 

Wow.....4 1/2 hours difference?! HOLY! I'm jealous...I wish I could have afforded the navi. when I bought my car.

 

No offense, but 4 1/2 hr diff means some common sense was missing......ya'll have maps or internet in AK??? Maybe a crumb trail for Hansel & Gretel?

 

Sorry I should have added that when were going to Florida we stopped more due to our son not feeling well and he is 5 so he wanted out of the car but on the way back we only stopped a few times. That had a lot to do with the big time gap..

 

Nicest thing, in my opinion, about the navi is knowing what is coming up, having it take care of rerouting if you miss a turnoff, etc.

Unless you take care and set specific waypoints, it can lead to non optiminal routes sometimes.

The shortest route sometimes leads you through some bad neighborhoods in larger cities, or maybe skips a freeway that would be faster.

Yet, when you tell it the shortest time, it can be too agressive to lead you to an interstate, even when that isn't the quickest route.

I drove from Oklahoma to San Antonio this week to go to the Alamo bowl, and it really wanted me to take the longer route via I35. I just followed the map instead and took US 281, which is 2 lane most of the way. Not too bad of traffic. Coming back, I considered following the route via I35 back, as a change of pace. Traffic was pretty heavy, and I decided that a 2 lane wasn't too bad if I didn't have the traffic to worry about. It sure complained when I cut off to go back to 281 via Killeen. I could only shut it off by telling it to avoid freeways, then forgot about that choice and wondered why it was leading me to a strange, long, route around Wichita Falls.

 

I too noticed that it likes to take you through the ghetto sometimes I don't care some people would not like it but it don't bother me..