Navman My Escape III
RRP $459
Confession: I've got such a terrible sense of direction that it's a miracle I can find my way home at night. I definitely should have been an early adopter of a GPS navigation system, but instead I've struggled away over the years, listening badly to verbal directions, completely misreading maps and catching subway trains in the wrong direction. Last year I borrowed a fancy BMW X3 35d that had an in-built navigation system and it was like the sun came out. I was immediately converted.
Last month I took a Navman My Escape III to the East Cape, where a friend and I were roadtripping by campervan.
This portable unit has an easy-to-use 7-inch touchscreen and plenty of handy features such as voice command, speed limits, driver fatigue alerts, and live traffic information.
There's no need to carefully tap the Navman's screen with a fingernail or stylus to get it to respond - it's as sensitive as a smartphone, which is definitely an improvement on GPS units I've used in the past.