Hertz - Neverlost is BRUTAL in Houston

let me start off by saying i am Presidents Circle and use Neverlost (NL) pretty frequently. i was in houston this weekend for the CO DO and rented a Hertz car with NL.

i was shocked with how bad it was. after leaving the old Avis lot near the CO hanger, it told me to go left into the airport "loop" even though it was a one way going right. in downtown houston, it told me to take a left onto Allen Hwy even though left turns are illegal.

NL was useless inside the airport area. it kept telling me to turn way too late (the chime came as i was passing the road). and, coming from the same location to the airport on different days, once it had me take a toll road and once it had me take a free road. finally, at least ten different times over the weekend it would say it was recalculating the directions even though i was on a highway and i didn't change directions or roads.

i got a refund and i might have just had a bum unit with the recalculations, but the two instances where it wanted me to break the law were clear errors.

I don't think it was your Neverlost system. It probably just gave up trying to navigate around the city (and I use that term loosely!) of Houston. :D

that's how it works. any gps navigation device has problems like that. you have to understand limitations of this technology.

NL is a good suppliment to a map. It is not a substitute. :)

i appreciate the feedback. the point of the post was that i use NL in many cities and RELATIVE TO MY OTHER EXPERIENCES, NL is poor in houston. yes, it's a supplement to a map. yes, there are limitations. but, given these points, NL in houston is poor.

the point wasnt NL is poor in houston. it was that NL is poor in houston relative to many other cities in which i have used it. again, i am PC and rent NL in many locales.

will clayton parkway at the airport is a two-way, divided road. it's just got a very wide median. was NL just dealing badly with that? (i assume this is will clayton? that's where the old hertz lot dumped me, on will clayton between the airport and the eastex freeway (US59). i never rent avis.

what was the location that once had you go toll and once free? the tollways in houston can be a tossup, to the point that it will depend on my mood whether or not i use them.

edit: the frequent recalculations while driving on the freeways are strange. the freeways are fairly straightforward in houston, and unless you passed your exit, i don't know why it would change its mind.....

btw I use my own gps in rental cars: a PDA with TomTom installed + bluetooth gps receiver + windshield mount. I don't have to pay for it and it works better I believe and all my destinations are preset before my trip

I used the Neverlost option to search restaurants by cuisine in Honolulu.

Wow.

One time I was led to a house in a large residential area, and the next time I was led to a strip mall with no restaurant in sight.

Seems that the programmers didn't care much about accuracy.

I road one for the first time in atlanta recently after trying a tomtom go 300 and being impressed. The accuracy was pretty good, but the controls and interface to enter addresses was much more difficult. It is a very good resource to have though, most of the time.

NL is a good suppliment to a map. It is not a substitute. :)
I disagree. I've owned 4 portable automobile auto navigation GPS devices (StreetPilot III, StreetPilot 2610, StreetPilot i5 and currently a StreetPilot 2730), over the last 4 years. I've used them driving over 45,000 miles in many major cities and podunk towns across the Country.

I *never* and I mean never use maps anymore. All it takes is common sense to know whether where you are going should take 2 hours or 5 hours. And if the GPS is telling you it takes 5 hours when it should take 2, you are smart enough to figure out why.

Most of my usage in the last year or two is flying into cities I don't know and routing somewhere. Outside of making sure that my destination address is physically IN the GPS database, I never do any more prep than that before my trip.

I agree with jeffcarp, when I was using either the magellan or tomtom 300 I didn't feel like there would be need for a map. I did understand though that it may not always give the best route, but would get you to where you need to go if you are somewhere unfamiliar.

I like to call it alwayslost. I have a garmin that is good.

I've picked up one of the new Garmin Nuvi 350's, which easily blows away any of the other models mentioned in this thread. ;) Neverlost is pure garbage compared to it, and the Tomtoms are slightly worse. Route calculation, satellite locking, etc. are many times faster than any other model of GPS I have seen or used.

fisherman - that is a nice looking unit, though it is significantly more expensive than the tomtom or neverlost (though the prices I found for this were bizarre). I think at the lower pricing of the tomtom go 300, it provides a lot of features in a nice package. But thank you for the heads up on the Nuvi, I will keep my eye on that one too now. :)

I have used Neverlost every time I have rented in the US (it is the principal reason I use Hertz), and have found it excellent.....until this time. I appear to have a newer unit, and I have to say it is taking me on some bizarre routings through Boston and outlying areas. I can't understand it, but like the OP, it is asking me to take illegal turns, is directing me on VERY circuitous routes for no good reason and stops directing me a good half mile from where I want to be (happened twice in Waltham today). No idea why, but I want the old Neverlost back!

I know there are a lot of roadworks in Boston, and perhaps it is trying to help me avoid them, but some of the illegal turns it is asking me to take are on one way streets that have been one way (in the same direction) for years. If I didn't already have a pretty good idea where I was going, I'd have been hopelessly lost.

Neverlost II is better than Neverlost III...

I have used Neverlost every time I have rented in the US (it is the principal reason I use Hertz), and have found it excellent.....until this time. I appear to have a newer unit, and I have to say it is taking me on some bizarre routings through Boston and outlying areas. I can't understand it, but like the OP, it is asking me to take illegal turns, is directing me on VERY circuitous routes for no good reason and stops directing me a good half mile from where I want to be (happened twice in Waltham today). No idea why, but I want the old Neverlost back!

I know there are a lot of roadworks in Boston, and perhaps it is trying to help me avoid them, but some of the illegal turns it is asking me to take are on one way streets that have been one way (in the same direction) for years. If I didn't already have a pretty good idea where I was going, I'd have been hopelessly lost.
I nhave been in Boston the last couple of weeks also. The problem is the units are not updated, all the new construction changes everything. I tis not jsut Boston I have had issues, any city with a lot of construction or redoing the airport. HAd Issues in FLL, where it took me to the old hertz, not the one attached to the airport. Overall Neverlost is Ok, I would prefer a GPS, but would have to buy that, versus I can expense neverlost.