Hot wired: Lost and found

By PAUL BRISLEN

I've always wondered about GPS location devices. "You are here" they say. Well I knew that already.

Still, if you're going to get lost these days you can do it in quite a technical manner. Local success story Navman is storming the international market now it's been bought by US giant Brunswick and is about to launch its own in-car navigation system for New Zealand. That's right, program the machine with where you want to go and a snooty voice will soon tell you to take the next left. Actually, with my driving the only real difference is the voice will eminate from the dashboard, not the passenger seat. Nice.

Navman will tell you that it's the first in New Zealand and as a portable, removable device they're right, but BMW beat them to the punch earlier this year with its own in-car navigation system. On the down side, you have to buy a new BMW but on the plus side, you have to buy a new BMW. It's a win-win situation.

BMW

Available initially in the four-wheel-drive X3, the 545i and the entire 6-series and 7-series cars, the unit can be retrofitted to older models with a bit of tweaking. The voice is hardly snooty but is instead a pleasant, friendly brisk-not-brusque English voice that can be switched off unwanted. The maps are provided by local company GeoSmart and are pretty good really. The test run I saw included relatively recent roadworks (a constant hassle in Auckland) and we didn't get lost once. Hardware is provided by Siemens and is integrated into the dashboard. Control is a single rotating knob that can also be used to control the rest of the onboard electronics, like radio, CD player and air conditioning.

Price: $4000 plus. BMW extra.

Navman

Navman is releasing two new in-car navigation systems towards the end of October and details are still to be released. However looking at its European equivalents, the Navman devices are meant to be portable and to allow users to move easily from vehicle to vehicle. Navman also uses data from GeoSmart which is nice, so there's added pressure on the company to keep its maps up to date. A large arrow points the way on the display and again, the voice can be hushed if needs be.

Price: Less than $2000 but final pricing yet to be announced.

Garmin GPSMAP 60CS

You're not going to want to take your car, expensive or otherwise, out into the wild backblocks of New Zealand I would think. At some stage you're going to have to abandon the hand-stitched leather interior, climate air and CD stacker for, well, Shank's Pony. At that point you might want something lightweight and portable for getting lost with.

The Garmin website calls the 76CS is a handheld unit that's as rugged, waterproof and portable as a Sherpa. It's got a full-colour screen and can happily point you in the right direction. It's almost worth getting lost just to try it out.

Price: US$535