My GiPiS
April 12th 2010 00:32
Ok to start with my GPS or Gipis as we affectionately like to call it, is a F10 Navman, not the top of the range GPS but it gets me from A to B without too many major panic attacks.
Now as I am not a native Australian, I decided the first purchase after my car (we are talking the next day after buying the car) was to going to be a GPS. This is because I am shocking at remembering the way to go to places, much to my housemates despair when he tells me to go the way he took me 20 times before and I reply with “ummm I don’t remember which way we went”.
Two years ago having just forked over a lot of money for the car (second hand one off eBay, was a bargain, but used up most of my bank balance) I went shopping on a very small budget of $250. Yes I can hear the giggles now, what sort of GPS was I expecting to get for under $250, and this was two years ago when they were not as cheap as they are now.
Well off I went to the shops to go looking for my GPS, first I went to all the auto stores, thinking that they would have the best deals and all the knowledge, after all they specialise in selling car stuff. Well I said I only wanted to spend $250 I got this raised eyebrow look and they shuffled me off down the line of GPS’s to show me the one model they had under $250 and then walked away – well except for one nice young gentleman who thought if he told me all the things the cheaper one didn’t do then he might get me to spend more. It was at this point that I thought that perhaps I needed to go to the shopping mall stores, and see what they had, I soon realised after the second store that I was heading in the right direction, because both stores were sold out of their cheaper brands and told me with a smile to try another competitor in the same mall. I love customer service like that!
So off I plodded to my third store to discover they had three GPS models within my budget at $179, $199 and $249. Left to my own devices (god only knows where the sales people were) I started playing around with each model, hoping against hope that the $179 model would do the trick and that I could go back and buy that nice top I saw at the last store. Unfortunately I couldn’t work the $179 model, and it kept telling me I was somewhere other than the store I was in, so onto the next model, the F10 Navman at $199, it was basic to use, although it didn’t look as pretty as the $179 model, and I was disappointed that I couldn’t get it in pink. At this point, the sales person magically appeared and started to sell me the benefits between the F10 and the $249, telling me the $249 model was better because it had speed camera and red light camera alerts. As these were really his only selling points for the extra $50 I decided to go for the F10 and save $50 (well kind of, I went and got that top with the savings). After all, I don’t speed or try to beat the red light so why do I care where these cameras are. But am still disappointed it didn’t come in pink!
In my early days of driving around Melbourne the Gipis became my best friend, it got me to and from work with ease, and when I had to take a detour because of an accident it got me back on track again without me having to panic about getting lost. There wasn’t a trip that the Gipis and I didn’t do together, even if I went to the shops my trusty Gipis went along just in case we had to make a detour. After about six months of driving I became more confident in driving myself around, so the Gipis moved from tis little spot on the windscreen, to the side pocket of the door, just in case I needed my trusty friend - which I did every time I went somewhere new.
Now driving around Melbourne the Gipis is my best friend, never steering me wrong, it allows me to either get there the fastest, or take the shortest route (I have learned that these are two different trips and getting their faster can sometimes mean clocking up more km’s). But there came a time when going on a trip we decided that the Gipis would be our guide instead of the trusty Google Maps and Melways map book. This is where my friend the Gipis lost a little of its gloss.
We had decided to go camping (my first camping trip in Australia) so went for a trip up to Ballarat to see if we could find a good camping location. We travelled off to Ballarat and found our way there easily enough without any need for the Gipis to jump in and help out, once at Ballarat we did some tiki-touring and then decided to make a quick trip to Apollo Bay and drive home via the Great Ocean Road.
I know now that the settings on the Gipis are very important, however in that little trip from Ballarat to Apollo Bay I didn’t really consider how important the preference settings are. My Gipis was set up to get me from A to B the fastest (after all when I finish work I don’t want to take the leisurely route home), which was fine, we didn’t want to dawdle on our way over to the coast, however my big mistake was not in checking what roads I had asked the Gipis to avoid. Yes I can hear the seasoned GPS uses go “oops”, I forgot to make sure that we had avoid unsealed roads at the correct setting.
Now a nice Sunday drive along sealed roads is a lovely way to spend the day, windows down, letting the breeze swirl around the car, enjoying the fresh air… unfortunately when you take that Sunday drive along bumpy, dusty and in the middle of nowhere roads, it becomes less enjoyable. And it gets even worse when your housemate starts cursing your former best friend the Gipis for being incompetent.
For our next trip further, afield we once again relied on the Gipis to get us there, thinking we had learnt the lesson of making sure our preferences were set right we then learnt another lesson on using a GPS. Once again we were travelling along the Great Ocean Road, camping along the way we decided we would travel to Warrnambool and back along the coast stopping off to see the various sites on the way there and back again.
I was armed with a list of camping sites and their addresses so once we had decided where we were going to camp for the night I put the address into the Gipis and made sure I told it to avoid unsealed roads and off we went. We were a little surprised when it wanted us to turn off the Great Ocean Road some 30 km’s before our camping site, but figured it was a quicker route, and as it was getting on we decided to follow along comfortable in the fact that the Gipis would not take us down any dodgy unsealed roads.
Here we learnt our second lesson with using a GPS, some roads have not been classified correctly. As we turned off where the GPS advised we suddenly found ourselves on a narrow unsealed road with the camp site only 10 km’s away. We decided to continue as the distance was only short and the road didn’t seem too bad, this is also leads to our next lesson, remember to pack the Melways when going out of town!. 1km down the road it turned from being a ‘not too bad’ road to a ‘eeek this is not good’ road. The road became very narrow (no 3 point or u turns happening here) road and became very bumpy, which is not good for a lowered car. 3km’s further down the track, with my fingernail marks imbedded in the leather seat, and wishing I was wearing a sports bra, we made it off the road, however I am not so sure all of the car made it with us. Once again, the Gipis was called a few colourful terms.
But don’t get me wrong, the Gipis is still our favoured friend to take on trips, and there are countless times it has helped us navigate a strange town, on our last trip to Echuca it helped me find the closest toilet and when we were struggling to find a gas station in a small town we were driving through it showed us there was one just off a side road. And when travelling at night it is so much easier to navigate around rather than travelling at 10km’s per hour trying to see street signs in the dark.
Now don’t tell my Gipis this, but I am considering getting a newer model, its time to upgrade the maps, and to be perfectly honest, for the price of the maps I could almost pay for a new GPS and if I get the right deal I will get free map upgrades for a couple of years. My big question now is, can I get one in Pink!!!
Now as I am not a native Australian, I decided the first purchase after my car (we are talking the next day after buying the car) was to going to be a GPS. This is because I am shocking at remembering the way to go to places, much to my housemates despair when he tells me to go the way he took me 20 times before and I reply with “ummm I don’t remember which way we went”.
Two years ago having just forked over a lot of money for the car (second hand one off eBay, was a bargain, but used up most of my bank balance) I went shopping on a very small budget of $250. Yes I can hear the giggles now, what sort of GPS was I expecting to get for under $250, and this was two years ago when they were not as cheap as they are now.
Well off I went to the shops to go looking for my GPS, first I went to all the auto stores, thinking that they would have the best deals and all the knowledge, after all they specialise in selling car stuff. Well I said I only wanted to spend $250 I got this raised eyebrow look and they shuffled me off down the line of GPS’s to show me the one model they had under $250 and then walked away – well except for one nice young gentleman who thought if he told me all the things the cheaper one didn’t do then he might get me to spend more. It was at this point that I thought that perhaps I needed to go to the shopping mall stores, and see what they had, I soon realised after the second store that I was heading in the right direction, because both stores were sold out of their cheaper brands and told me with a smile to try another competitor in the same mall. I love customer service like that!
So off I plodded to my third store to discover they had three GPS models within my budget at $179, $199 and $249. Left to my own devices (god only knows where the sales people were) I started playing around with each model, hoping against hope that the $179 model would do the trick and that I could go back and buy that nice top I saw at the last store. Unfortunately I couldn’t work the $179 model, and it kept telling me I was somewhere other than the store I was in, so onto the next model, the F10 Navman at $199, it was basic to use, although it didn’t look as pretty as the $179 model, and I was disappointed that I couldn’t get it in pink. At this point, the sales person magically appeared and started to sell me the benefits between the F10 and the $249, telling me the $249 model was better because it had speed camera and red light camera alerts. As these were really his only selling points for the extra $50 I decided to go for the F10 and save $50 (well kind of, I went and got that top with the savings). After all, I don’t speed or try to beat the red light so why do I care where these cameras are. But am still disappointed it didn’t come in pink!
In my early days of driving around Melbourne the Gipis became my best friend, it got me to and from work with ease, and when I had to take a detour because of an accident it got me back on track again without me having to panic about getting lost. There wasn’t a trip that the Gipis and I didn’t do together, even if I went to the shops my trusty Gipis went along just in case we had to make a detour. After about six months of driving I became more confident in driving myself around, so the Gipis moved from tis little spot on the windscreen, to the side pocket of the door, just in case I needed my trusty friend - which I did every time I went somewhere new.
Now driving around Melbourne the Gipis is my best friend, never steering me wrong, it allows me to either get there the fastest, or take the shortest route (I have learned that these are two different trips and getting their faster can sometimes mean clocking up more km’s). But there came a time when going on a trip we decided that the Gipis would be our guide instead of the trusty Google Maps and Melways map book. This is where my friend the Gipis lost a little of its gloss.
We had decided to go camping (my first camping trip in Australia) so went for a trip up to Ballarat to see if we could find a good camping location. We travelled off to Ballarat and found our way there easily enough without any need for the Gipis to jump in and help out, once at Ballarat we did some tiki-touring and then decided to make a quick trip to Apollo Bay and drive home via the Great Ocean Road.
I know now that the settings on the Gipis are very important, however in that little trip from Ballarat to Apollo Bay I didn’t really consider how important the preference settings are. My Gipis was set up to get me from A to B the fastest (after all when I finish work I don’t want to take the leisurely route home), which was fine, we didn’t want to dawdle on our way over to the coast, however my big mistake was not in checking what roads I had asked the Gipis to avoid. Yes I can hear the seasoned GPS uses go “oops”, I forgot to make sure that we had avoid unsealed roads at the correct setting.
Now a nice Sunday drive along sealed roads is a lovely way to spend the day, windows down, letting the breeze swirl around the car, enjoying the fresh air… unfortunately when you take that Sunday drive along bumpy, dusty and in the middle of nowhere roads, it becomes less enjoyable. And it gets even worse when your housemate starts cursing your former best friend the Gipis for being incompetent.
For our next trip further, afield we once again relied on the Gipis to get us there, thinking we had learnt the lesson of making sure our preferences were set right we then learnt another lesson on using a GPS. Once again we were travelling along the Great Ocean Road, camping along the way we decided we would travel to Warrnambool and back along the coast stopping off to see the various sites on the way there and back again.
I was armed with a list of camping sites and their addresses so once we had decided where we were going to camp for the night I put the address into the Gipis and made sure I told it to avoid unsealed roads and off we went. We were a little surprised when it wanted us to turn off the Great Ocean Road some 30 km’s before our camping site, but figured it was a quicker route, and as it was getting on we decided to follow along comfortable in the fact that the Gipis would not take us down any dodgy unsealed roads.
Here we learnt our second lesson with using a GPS, some roads have not been classified correctly. As we turned off where the GPS advised we suddenly found ourselves on a narrow unsealed road with the camp site only 10 km’s away. We decided to continue as the distance was only short and the road didn’t seem too bad, this is also leads to our next lesson, remember to pack the Melways when going out of town!. 1km down the road it turned from being a ‘not too bad’ road to a ‘eeek this is not good’ road. The road became very narrow (no 3 point or u turns happening here) road and became very bumpy, which is not good for a lowered car. 3km’s further down the track, with my fingernail marks imbedded in the leather seat, and wishing I was wearing a sports bra, we made it off the road, however I am not so sure all of the car made it with us. Once again, the Gipis was called a few colourful terms.
But don’t get me wrong, the Gipis is still our favoured friend to take on trips, and there are countless times it has helped us navigate a strange town, on our last trip to Echuca it helped me find the closest toilet and when we were struggling to find a gas station in a small town we were driving through it showed us there was one just off a side road. And when travelling at night it is so much easier to navigate around rather than travelling at 10km’s per hour trying to see street signs in the dark.
Now don’t tell my Gipis this, but I am considering getting a newer model, its time to upgrade the maps, and to be perfectly honest, for the price of the maps I could almost pay for a new GPS and if I get the right deal I will get free map upgrades for a couple of years. My big question now is, can I get one in Pink!!!
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