On the Road With GPS

Photograph: Marc Simon

Car-based GPS navigation systems are supposed to help you find your way when you don't know left from right. When I went for a spin with the $900 TomTom GO, I ended up at my destination, but the product's quirks still left me feeling a little lost.

Installation takes 2 minutes: Stick the mounting arm to your car's windshield via a suction cup, plug the power cable into the cigarette lighter socket, and snap the GO onto the arm. The GO is easy to program, thanks to a touch screen and colorful menu system. It comes with maps for the U.S. and Canada, which you load on the included 256MB SD (Secure Digital) memory card.

Unfortunately, once mounted in my Saturn, the GO was too far from the driver's seat; I had to scoot forward to reach the touch screen. Plus, the weak hinges on my test unit sometimes dropped the GO when I hit a bump (the company says other mounting options will soon be available). The screen wasn't readable through sunglasses.

Sound was a problem: I found the volume either too loud on side streets or too low on freeways, yet changing the volume while driving was difficult. And on one or two occasions, the GO stopped talking--once in midsentence. I guess I must have made it mad.

Unless you're willing to live with the GO's idiosyncrasies, you may want to stick with a map for now.