Mini Rant

C

Celtic pride

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I've been driving a new Insignia for a few days - nice car but it's like driving a pill box (2nd world war machine gun post) - you peer out through an oval back window and around huge front pillars. Adding to the awkwardness is a tall driver's seat to perch upon - and this is the SRI.

Anyway my real moan is, I followed a driving school car here today, a Corsa which I suspect suffers from the same (modern car) hindrance to visibility as the Insignia.

Attached to the windscreen, to the right of the centre line of the car, creating a wonderful blind spot was a sat nav! Surely city driving learners have enough to look out for without sat nav - doesn't the instructor give directions!!

It was definitely a learner by the hesitation and car postioning. How on earth can driving standards improve if they start out by obscuring visibility. I suppose I should be thankful that RED driving school might use sat nav but don't have dangling dice!!

As a member of the Institute of Advanced Motoring I hope that the instructor is not one of the minority who are IAM assessed!

Sorry for the rant but sometimes (most times) I despair of the robots on our roads!!
 

Micman

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I'll join you in your rant.

I too was driving home from work the other day behind someone that had positioned their Sat-Nav slap bang in front of their face on the windscreen. I backed right off.

What I also notice daily is the number of people using Sat-Nav in the rush hour and I'm sure all they are doing is driving the same journey they drive everyday!!!! Surely they don't really need it turned on. Use your brain!

Crazy fools :D
 

Blobcat

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I'll join you in your rant.

I too was driving home from work the other day behind someone that had positioned their Sat-Nav slap bang in front of their face on the windscreen. I backed right off.

What I also notice daily is the number of people using Sat-Nav in the rush hour and I'm sure all they are doing is driving the same journey they drive everyday!!!! Surely they don't really need it turned on. Use your brain!

Crazy fools :D
They also have no concept on "night mode" on the sat nav so they have a greatly impaired night vision.
 

Dosco

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They also have no concept on "night mode" on the sat nav so they have a greatly impaired night vision.

:idea:so an improvement idea for Tom Tom and the like:D
 

Blobcat

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:idea:so an improvement idea for Tom Tom and the like:D
I've not come across a sat nav that doesn't have a "night" or "dim" mode it just appears that non of the dim-wits that stick them in the middle of the screen have worked out how to switch the unit to night mode. One benefit of a built in Comand system is that it switches automatically, another is that it doesn't restrict the view out of the windscreen!
 

exchangeandmart

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Sounds like a perfectly valid rant to me. Sat navs require a good amount of attention, and as a learner driver, you surely dont have that cognitive capacity as driving has not become a learned behaviour yet! Very dangerous
 

drmw

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they just angle their baseball caps down a bit at night
 

rf065

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:idea:so an improvement idea for Tom Tom and the like:D

They already have it. And the ability to choose any colour scheme you like, they are quite versatile little things, TomToms. :rolleyes:

Russ
 

Dosco

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They already have it. And the ability to choose any colour scheme you like, they are quite versatile little things, TomToms. :rolleyes:

Russ

I meant automatically dim when the natural light drops:idea::rolleyes:
 

Top Cat

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My sister is another one who does this, and pretty much refuses to drive anywhere beyond her locality without it being switched on and fully obeyed. I have also followed cars in the dark, and due to the high positioning of the Sat Nav in the centre of the windscreen I have been almost able to see the detail myself from my car as I follow them :eek:

Personally, having bought one and tried it for myself, and I prefer to keep an up to date map in the car and plan my route myself ahead of time. This way, I can familiarise myself with the route and any possible alternatives, obviuosly I would not benefit from any live traffic information that the Sat Nav may be able to display, but at least I know where I am heading and can concentrate on the drive ahead. I then feel not only aware of my position in the road realtive to other vehicles, but also my position 'on the map' as it were.
 

Juddian

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Sat Nav..spawn of the devil, funny how we've manged all these years without the things and somehow managed to turn our own lights and wipers on too.

Is it the culmination of the last 20 years of education (brainwashing) that we've raised a generation unable to perform a simple task like look at a map and use their common sense, only able to perform under instruction.

Small example here..young chap i know leaves Hitchin heading for Northants, a run he completed daily for several months, but this time to a different Northants town.
He sets his Sat Nav as usual and phoned his destination to let them know he'd be late as he'd just entered the congestion zone!!!
 

rf065

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Sat Nav..spawn of the devil, funny how we've manged all these years without the things and somehow managed to turn our own lights and wipers on too.

On my recent US trip, I took my TomTom with US maps installed, I also installed a POI file with all of the Florida restaurant locations, gas stations etc etc.

No matter where I was on any given day, if we decided we fancied eating at any one of the many chains of restaurants for example, the sat nav instantly gave us a list of the nearest and directions to it. In fact it even gives you their phone number in case you want to make a reservation. There is a lot more a good sat nav can do that any amount of maps cannot.

Russ
 

turbopete

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Sat Nav..spawn of the devil, funny how we've manged all these years without the things and somehow managed to turn our own lights and wipers on too.

you could argue that point about auto boxes too then at that rate. almost everyone pays the £2k option for an auto box on, say, a c220 cdi, when you could change gears just as well yourself, save fuel and save £2k on the price. but the majority still do it. wheres the difference? my car is an auto, ive had it since july 2008 and i must admit, i STILL want a manual box. i cant bump start it if i need to, i cant stall it if i need to (and this would be useful for me at the moment), there a pain if you need to tow them, theyre worse on fuel usually, the example i gave would be lower performance (figures were checked in the owners manual of a 203 in 2004) i dont see what the big fuss is about an auto box. great, i admit, in towns where there is heavy stop start traffic. otherwise, i dont see the point. in the same way you dont see the point of sat nav's. i have one, and seldom go to the same place twice, when i use it. try using your map in a city centre.
 

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