Sat Nav Tales

[Scunner]

KKOB's topic reminded me of some previous satnav disasters, and I thought it might just have the makings of a topic

I've had many, but I'll open with a trip to Falkirk, soon after we moved to Scotland, to look at a car. Having never been anywhere near Falkirk I relied heavily on the old satnav. Approaching Falkirk I was advised to take a right turn. It didn't feel right as the road I was turning into was rather narrow. Not as narrow as it became I must admit. I had simply decided that this must be a real local shortcut into Falkirk. In parts we nearly didn't have enough width to carry on but carry on we did. Until around 400 metres from the turn off, we were stopped by a rusty old gate, so overgrown at the bottom that it couldn't have been opened for at least 10 years.

As if that was bad, reversing the entire 400 metres back did cause me to say things like 'oh damn'.

[stoop]

Are you sure you didn't put in 'Foolkirk'?

[GordonA]

After returning to the U.K., Loz and I went to Northants to visit our son, in hospital. We borrowed our friend Pauls Sat-Nav, all singing, all dancing, bells and whistles jobby. All went well until we got to just after Porsches Head offices in Northampton, "At the roundabout, take the 1st exit", aye right!! We did as instructed, I said to Loz, "Christ, this road is bloody busy, for such a narrow road", We had only been directed into a superstore car-park, which had been built since the Sat-Nav was configured!! I said that in future, I would ask a local for directions, but, when I do, I always seem to pick the "village idiot"!!!!  
Gordy.

[Ovacikpeedoff]

Last May I drove from the UK to Turkey. All the advice I was given was to avoid the toll road as it would cost me a fortune. Being the mean person that I am I took the advice and programmed the sat nav to avoid toll roads. This made for a beautiful journey through the french countryside. When we got close to the Alps the weather got very bad and the rain made it very difficult to see where I was going. We followed the instructions that we were being given and after a while we started to get worried as the passed the snow line and we were still climbing and this deep fog set in.The final straw was when we had climbed above the ski lifts It was getting very scary and Gloria was panicking and wanted to turn around.I was also in a panic but being a man so i was trying to be the usual macho man. It was such a narrow road. We stopped and found this place where with Gloria directing we managed to turn the car around and went back and picked up the toll road. We arrived in Milan 5 hours late.

So all I saved on tolls went on petrol climbing the Alps.

On a serious note on sat navs. The one I was using I bought from Curry's a week before we left but the maps were at least 2 years out of date. The new motorway from the Turkish border to the port was not on it so it was trying to drag us over mountains.

[Gorgeous_bird]

We live in a small northants village. Regularly we have lorries stuck in the village as they follow the sat nav to lodge farm, a tiny farm down a thatched cottage lined village street, rather than following the sat nav to Lodge farm the large industrial area on the outskirts of Northampton.

[Sandrats]

I have only used a Satnav on three occassions, the first two it directed me into dead ends and the last time it took a route that took in half of Cheshire for about 30 minutes, when in fact my destination was only a quarter of a mile away!

[starman™]

I used one once to drive from Istanbul to Ankara. Just before arriving at Ankara with a 100 clicks to go it tried to make me turn off and go via Samsun and adding an extra 838 km to my trip. I decided not to listen to the polite advise of the satnav.

[Scunner]

My first satnav came as part of a new company car and was very impressive looking. I used to stay away quite a few nights a week and it did save time looking for hotels. One night I was staying near Chorley and had been booked into the on site hotel at Camelot theme park (weird but good as a change from the run of the mill hotel rooms). On the way up the M6, the satnav directed me off not at a junction, but at a service station, took me all the way through the car park and into the far corner where there was indeed a small lane leading in the direction of Camelot. Shame about the three bollards across it though. Back on the M6, off at the next junction north and heading back to the other side of the bollards

That reminds me, does anyone live in that area and know if an Indian restaurant called the Blue Elephant is still around? Fantastic place!

[mike A]

A friend come to visit in his brand new lexus and was singing the praises
of its on board sat nav so I thought I would compare it with my tom-tom,
we put the tom-tom in the Lexus and set off for a visit to a pub in a village
with no obvious direct route to, and the sat navs argued all the way there
turn left here, no take the next right and so on, a salutary experience indeed.