What tourists should get when renting a car

Last March I and my family went to Sydney, Australia for the first time. I brought along my little wonder eTrex Legend GPS and was very sure that I'll never get lost.

I was wrong, my eTrex Legend does not have Sydney map and even though I have plotted my routes using my PC and upload it to the eTrex but that's not good enough.

Fortunately one of my pen-pal (or I should say keyboard-pal) who lives in Sydney loan me a Streepilot III. What a generous guy! He even never meet me face to face before.

Installation on my rental car takes only 5 minutes without anybody's help, really! I don't even have to look at the manual. Just plug that 12Volt jack on the cigarette lighter plug, connect to GPS (idiot proof connectors), place the GPS on the dashboard, turn it on, wait for 1 minute, and I get reading immediately.

The GPS sits firmly on the dashboard cause it has bean-bag stand which can adjust itself to any car dashboard contour.
I don't need to fix external antenna as the original antenna is sensitive enough.

With the address level navigation suddenly I can drive to any corner in Sydney, just like those seasoned taxi drivers :) Just key in any address (block number, street, state, etc) and the SP III will calculate the route for you. You can choose the calculation method whether fastest (always choose highways) or shortest (sometimes lead to creepy small road). If you found that entering address using tiny buttons is too boring, you can pan the map and use arrow pointer to mark the destination and get the route there. I visited some friends' house there even without asking direction. They are so impressed with the technology and some can't believe that the service is FREE.

The map on big color screen can be easily viewed without get distracted so much from the road. Auto zoom function is helpful, it will zoom in when you about to make turn or reaching destination and will zoom out when traveling straight.

The GPS voice guidance is loud and clear although it comes from small speaker which placed just next to the 12V DC power plug (in fact, in the same casing). You can change the distance units (miles vs kilometers, feet vs meters), so I don't get confused when the GPS tell me to prepare to turn: "in one hundred meters, turn right".

The Sydney map is very detail, I simply can't get lost because the GPS can even tell me when I have to keep left, keep right or drive straight. That's very useful when driving on highway with many tracks so you don't miss the turn or exit.

In New South Wales suburbs you can find many roundabouts and seldom traffic light found. The GPS is smart enough to tell you which way to take, example: "in 50 meters enter roundabout then take third exit"

If I missed the turn, it will automatically calculate the alternative path and guide me to the next turn. But sometimes it just can't find alternative route and will say: "whenever possible, make a U turn!"

And when driving at suburbs, don't trust GPS so much and ignoring your instinct. In Wollongong, I made a big (yes, very big) round circling Mount Kiera! I believe it's just because the map is not so updated when suburb area usually have new roads.

Finally on the last day, I have to return the GPS to the nice gentleman and use back my eTrex Legend to guide me to the airport. What a big difference!!! :)

I believe this Street Pilot III is a must for tourists who rent a car. Of course sometimes asking direction from people on the roadside will help, but you can hardly expect to do that on busy highway, country roads or at 1am in the morning.