8. Finding The Eiffel Tower In A Saab 9-5 With Three Navigation Systems

Testing the Saab 9-5's in-car navigation system, the Navman ICN 550 and the Garmin Nüvi at the same time made for a cluttered windshield during my test drive from Normandy to Paris. I imagine that some passersby who stared at the gadgetry thought I was working for the French secret service. The chatter of the different female voices, when giving voice directions at the same time with different accents, was often like a computer-generated tower of voice Babel. However, performance differences in the three systems quickly became apparent.

One car, three navigation systems (Photo by Julia Gain)

Unlike the ordeal I had with the rx1950 Navigator, attaching the devices to the windshield required little effort. I only had to press down on the lever to firmly attach the plastic suction cup on the bottom of the cradle to the surface.

Meanwhile, my problems with the Saab system started as soon as I typed in the Eiffel Tower as my destination address. Instead of a simple menu choice such as "activate the trip guidance" or a simple "go" command, there were two small circular icons on the bottom of the screen. I then had to find the manual in the glove compartment and look up which circle I had to press on the touch-pad screen in order to activate the unit. It was also the first and only time I had to consult a manual to operate any of the devices I tested for this review.

I first operated the Garmin Nüvi 350 and Navman ICN 550 devices on a battery charge during my trip. Within one hour and a half, the Navman issued a low-battery warning signal. The Garmin's battery petered out within four hours. I then pulled over at a friend's house where I charged up the Garmin Nüvi and ran it on battery with the Navman ICN 550 plugged into the cigarette lighter for the rest of the trip to Paris.

Along the way, the Saab navigation system gave me trouble again - as far as driving went, though, the car's ultra-quiet engine did make it possible to hear the voice prompt directions of all three devices at a low volume level while I was driving at over 80 mph. When I inputted the trip destination with the Saab, I wrongly assumed the system would indicate the fastest instead of the most-direct route, by default. So during the trip along the French Autoroute A13 to Paris, the Saab's voice-prompt kept directing me to turn off onto smaller roads to arrive at my destination. I didn't have the patience to change the setting when I was at my friend's house, so I just ignored the Saab's voice prompts and relied on those of the Nüvi and ICN 550, which accurately guided me to go from highway to highway instead of directing me to take back roads, like the Saab did.

The ICN 550 was more prone to error than the Nüvi, but both took me to a dead-end street just outside of the Paris city limits.