AutoRoute Great Britain & Europe 2002 (new version is Autoroute 2004, asin: B0000BY7X8)

("...left past the Gyneaochologist's Arms, right at the big pothole in the road, carry on until you see the 3rd house with a green garage door..." etc, etc ad-nauseum)

Just ask them their postcode, or get it off the web and type it in to find out *exactly* where you're going (well, to the nearest 25 meters or so)

If you have a laptop and a GPS, it's simply awesome. Agreed, the standard 15 second position update is a pain, but there's a hack available on the web for the 2001 version which changes the update period to 2 second intervals, which makes it perfectly usable for driving. I'm sure there'll be one lurking around for the 2002 version somewhere.

I've used it in France, Germany, Spain and the UK and found it excellent, not only for finding places quickly and without fuss, but also for avoiding traffic jams on minor B-roads it can't be beaten. You'll never feel more smug than confidently disappearing off the backed-up main road down a winding farm track confident in the knowledge that you're heading in exactly the right direction. When I broke down in the middle of nowhere, without walking a yard I was able to tell the AA the name of the country lane I was on and which villages it was between. They got straight to me.

No, I don't have shares in Microsoft, but this is about the only piece of software I have bought which has easily paid for itself.

A couple of points they should work on:

Make the GPS position update period adjustable!!!

It would be really cool if the location pointer was an arrow rather than a car, showing your direction of travel as well as location.

Sometimes Windows 2000 picks up my serial-port GPS as a mouse, and causes the cursor to jump wildly around the screen - an included fix for this would be welcome.

Why oh why can't I export and import location coordinates from the map to my GPS and back again. This would be another definate plus.

Are we going to see a cut-down version for CE devices?

Microsoft released this product without sufficient debuging
and with only few improvements:

1. The "find" function does not show places which are not "pointable". Try to find by post code "RG14 2PZ" for
example and see foryourself.
2. The "Save As" works funny; if you choose the format "Web Page" it will produce
a file with an "axe" file but with the extensions: "htm.axe" !!
3. The "Avoid Area" may still take the route through the areas you want to avoid.
4. GPS still gets the data only once in every 15 seconds without
any possibility to change it.
This makes the GPS navigation very difficult.
5. For GPS navigation there is not even a single improvement !

Will Autoroute 2003 be better ? I am not sure any more !

My recommendations: Unless you suffer from the maps in version 2001, don't buy it. If you don't have the previous version
and do not need GPS navigation it is quite a good solution.

IMPORTANT: Maps are newer than before.

However, the improvments in this version in comparison to the previous version are disappointing:
1. GPS data still updates every 15 seconds. This is too long time for good navigation.
2. The route calculations are better, but it may still take you thruogh "Avoid Area".
3. MAPs - Microsoft took a newer set of maps, but it still misses streets that exist more than 3 years. Thanks God A34 Newbury By-Pass is there...
4. Still difficult to use for "in car" navigation tools.

It still looks that Microsoft did not try their best in this version.

May be next version will be better.