Rudi, I own and use both Streets & Trips 2000 (US) and Auto Route Express 2000 Europe. There are major differences between the two products. MS acquired the AE product, but S&T is largely an inhouse effort and is more advanced. S&T has EVERY street in the US, and every street address (and even place names) can be searched and shown. It is now impossible to get lost on a US (or GB, see below for AE 2K GB) street if you have S&T. I use S&T to navigate into cities I have never visited and it works better than a map and questions to 5 strangers (3 of whom have no clue and 2 who give wrong directions). S&T has a wonderful feature called "Pocket Streets" that downloads S&T maps into a handheld PC (Windows CE), which makes it a good fit for current Windows CE devices and for car navigation systems and GPS (available now from Alpine and Clarion).

The AE 2K Europe product was bought by MS maybe 4 years ago and does NOT have street addresses, or even display every street. It is a trip planner, and shows primarily roads useful for intercity itineraries on the Continent. The "Europe" version does not have Pocket Streets, but Autoroute Express 2000 Great Britain DOES support Pocket Streets (download maps to Win CE device). It's probably a matter of time before AE 2K Europe gets Pocket Streets. AE 2K Europe is VERY useful, but I still have to buy Michelin or K+F sectional maps when I rent cars in Europe (but not in GB, since AE 2K GB is better than maps).

When I walk, bicycle, or drive in a new city, I have my electronic dictionaries and maps in my Win CE HPC, and I can locate my position by keying in a street address and telling Pocket Streets to find my location.

[This message has been edited by Eidetic (edited 08-08-1999).]