We cheerfully acknowledge that we would do it very hard trying to cope without our GPS when transiting cities and using motorways.
We call the lady in our Tom Tom Live Traffic 'Tira', a Maori word for traveller. Providing that we keep our maps and updates current, she is usually spot on with her advice about when to turn and which lane to drive in. She is also a great help for spotting speed and red light cameras, and beeping us if our speed is creeping up.
The lady in our other in-car GPS has a particularly strident and nagging style of voice and is known as Joan, after a friend of ours who has elevated nagging her husband into an art form. If we dare to exceed what she feels is the speed limit (she is not always right, but she is always certain!) she states in a very pejorative way: "You are going over the speed limit". This is effective in getting Tony's attention so that he slows down, or points out that she is, in fact, wrong.
However, we do have issues with Tira when we are driving in a new town to buy petrol or find a caravan park. We have noticed that she is quite often wrong in her positioning of petrol stations and holiday parks. We did forgive her later for the missing service station in Tully though (it had been blown away in the cyclone).
We well remember having to do a very awkward U-turn on one of Nambucca Heads' very steep hills when she directed us down a 'No through road' on the way to the White Albatross Top Tourist Park, and tried to send us across the lake to the Shepparton Top Tourist Park. We have learnt not to take any advised 'short cuts' when towing the van.
It seems we are not alone in this. How do readers cope with their GPS' idiosyncrasies?