Global positioning Audi Navigation System

Saves me hours of frustration: the best gadget I've bought since air conditioning was invented. On my A4 I find the screen is a bit awkwardly placed low down in the centre of the dash, but all the really important items are repeated on the Drivers Information System right in front of you.

You can't enter individual house numbers; just a group of numbers (say 10-15 or something like that), and then usually just in city centres. Otherwise, it will generally find any street name you throw at it. It has only got itself confused on two occasions, in each case my destination was on a minor road close to a motorway service area and it tried to take me along the motorway and through the service area. Unfortunately it didn't know about the traffic barrier across the road within the services.

Had a slight fright when on holiday in the Western Isles travelling along the causeway between Eriskay and South Uist. This road hasn't found its way on to the CD yet and I can tell you it's quite disturbing to glance at the screen and notice you are travelling along the sea bed!

The amount of data that can be stored on CD (as opposed to the later DVD systems) is a bit limiting, and it does cost roughly £100 for a CD, which you will probably want to update every couple of years or so. In use, the only thing I find restricting is that you can only specify one stopover en route to a destination. I would like to be able to specify multiple waypoints so I could choose the general direction rather than leaving it to Mildred (as I have come to refer to her).

And finally (!) the difference between choosing fastest route and shortest route means taking you along motorways/main roads or minor roads/bridleways. The shortest route option has led to some fairly hairy rides.

David.