Diary of a Lost Girl - Navigation Systems

I've gotten some wacky directions from our Mercedes R500 and Honda Accord Hybrid but the Caddy seemed to understand LA traffic. When you input a destination, it asks if you want the shortest, fastest, or another route. It's the only nav in our fleet that gives you three options and it previews them for you before you make your decision. The other systems offer freeway or no freeway.

They all adjust on the fly when you choose to ignore their directions. But when I got caught in traffic on the freeway last night, the Cadillac offered me three alternate exit strategies. I'm not sure if it would always do that because there are three exits very close to each other, or if it has real-time traffic. I can't say for sure and before you write in telling me to read the manual, it's an option and I am trying to confirm if we have it. Our SRX's options list shows a DVD-based nav with two free map updates. The roads were colored red and green so it looked like traffic levels but it could also have been showing me alternate routes as I drove. I'm pretty sure we don't have real-time traffic but it sure felt like it last night.

I'll get back to you after I investigate further.

Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor