Never Lost??
 

So any of you seek cars out with Never Lost? I have used it a few times and must say that it is awful. I use GPS systems every day and the Magellan product used by Hertz is hardly a great product, though I suppose better than nothing. These products have gotten so good that I travel with my Garmin NUVI now everywhere. The Garmin GUI is so much better and the Maps and POI data base are infinitely better. Whenever I get in a Neverlost vehicle I turn it on now, mount my NUVI and laugh and the quirks of the Neverlost. I have said this before, but I simply cannot understand why car manufacturers don't simply buy a licensing agreement from Garmin and use their product and maps.

Do any of you use Neverlost regularly and find it useful these days?

As an aside I must say that the Neverlost is MUCH better than the NAV system that was preinstalled in the Mercedes I rented from Sixt last weekend.

Hertz neverlost was ahead of its time in 1998/1999 when it was launched, however it now is an average product, or below average if they don't keep it updated. But like you said it still is much better than most factory equipped navigation systems.

Since hertz was effectively the launch partner for Magellan/Neverlost, I don't think they will even consider changing brands. I suspect they invested heavily into the product development, now they get a very reduced cost.

I went out and bought a Magellan Roadmate 750 in early 2000 (that's the model Hertz used for the neverlost launch). About 3 years ago it became painfully obvious that it was time to upgrade to one of the newer portable units, which I've done several times since. I've been faithful to the Magellan brand. One nice thing is their tech support--I've asked them a few times about something and they always sounded VERY interested and thankful for the call, then in the next unit or map revision it's been implemented.

Yes, I do remember that Hertz was at the cusp of this product introduction to the market. It was huge in the early days of GPS introduction to the rental market, but even larger to the population in general.

By the way, I will never damn andybody for product loyalty if it goes beyond sheer brand recognition. You have your reasons and they sound VERY valid. I like the Garmin product, but I use these things every day and know that there are many with a few rising to the top. I just see the current Neverlost in the Hertz fleet today as almost providing a negative impact on the marketing of Magellan products. They do have some fine ones I would think they would want to get in the rental customers hands.

TomTom all the way. I had a rental with neverlost, and while it was never lost, half of the time it was saying to proceed to a highway several miles away, without any street level maps to get me there. Totally hated it.

The only good thing was I didn't ask for it, it was all they had so I didn't have to pay for it.

Now whenever I go someplace, that nice computer lady from TomTom guides me.

The girl that gives directions in the 2007 and new BMW NAV is much hotter sounding than the Tom Tom lady.

I'll request Never Lost but its availability doesn't drive my rental car decision, which is sometimes based on size, but sometimes price. Whether it's a great system or not, on at least 1 occasion I found it decidedly convenient.

We only reserve a neverlost in hopes of a cheap upgrade to a low level prestige vehicle. Reserve Full size with neverlost and almost always got a Volvo S80, Audi A6, or Jag X-Type. Only one time, out of 30 or so reservations like this, did we get a Grand Marquis with NL.

Okay this is so funny now but not at the time. Apparently the Neverlost system will take you on all expressways unless you tell it not to.
On one occasion I came out of the hotel turned on to the expressway ramp going South as indicated by the NS, 1 mile later it told me to get off the expressway and go over the bridge, back on the expressway going North and off at the next ramp and a right turn to my location. When I realised what had happed I turned the NS off.

Whenever available I always rent a car with Neverlost. I don’t have a stand alone gps unit at the moment, and I almost always travel alone when I’m in the US, so it’s really nice not to have to look at maps and stop to ask for directions.

I agree that it’s far from the best gps there is. One really annoying bug is the “getting off and getting back on the freeway for no reason”-bug that I’ve experienced a couple of times (southbound on interstate 5 if I remember correctly). The never Neverlost (III?) is a huge improvement over the original, though.

Still haven’t tried the European (portable?) Neverlost.


Cheers

I get cars with NL 99% of the time (I would say I rent an average of 40 times a year). The NL has problems in downtown areas, so I usually have to BS my way for a few blocks. But, I prefer the view of the map over the Garmin Nuvi, which just feels too cluttered. I've been using the NL so long, I prefer it over anything else.

I'm hit and miss with it. It's definitely better than mapquesting directions before I leave for a trip but when it doesn't work, it really doesn't work.

The worst experience I've had was the last rental in NYC. I picked it up at a downtown location and the unit took about 25 minutes to lock on to the satelites. When it did, it had the orientation wrong and about 100 feet off. As I was trying to approach the Holland Tunnel it had me on the wrong street on the map.

The only pet peeve I have with it is that I wish I could leave it in map mode the whole time rather than showing the turning icons. Whenever it does that in downtown areas I'd rather see on the wide area map where the street is rather than what street name to look for.

I had similar experiences in the Arlington VA area where the crazy thing was saying bear left - bear right - bear left in rapid succession which needless to say didn't make the people very happy following me. It also told me the completely wrong thing by my hotel near BWI. I think you have to do a little studying in any urban area to make it work the best for you. There were places I never would have ventured out to without it near Philly. For long stretches it works really well though and "wakes you up" when you are zoning out on the mile markers.

msv

I'm amazed at the number of Presitge cars in So Cal that do not have Never Lost.

I find NL very effective even in NYC with tall buildings that stump other GPS models.

I have used NL on two week long trips to San Francisco and surrounding areas. They were leisure trips, so we weren't racing around. Didn't have any connection problems.

The only real mistake I made was 80/580/880 split driving southwest on the way back to OAK from the Sacramento area.

The feature I liked most was the Yellow Pages. Within YP there is a Local Attractions category. They are organized by distance from the unit which saved a lot of time zig zagging back and forth through the city. Great way to get to know the area.

I have not used Tom Tom or the Nuvi. Google Maps on my Razr works in a pinch.