Island Life Magazine Ltd April/May 2006 | Page 70

MOTORING The perfect travel companion Discrete & distinctive... nuvi 350 £549 The new VW Jetta Portable Navigation The Nuvi 350 carries full European mapping while the 300 is UK only. Aside from this, and the text-to-speech facility on the 350, both units are very similar. Text-to-speech allows full road names to be announced so, rather than the usual, "Turn left", you will hear, "Turn left on to the B1365". The downside is that the voice is rather 'robotic' and can be difficult to understand to some people. Packed into its diminutive dimensions (3.87" W x 2.91" H x 0.87" D, 5.1 ounces) it is a portable GPS navigator, Audio Book Player, traveller's reference, and MP3 player. Yes, it can do many other things besides navigate you from A to B, and it runs CitySelect V8, supporting full 7 digit postcodes for the UK (at last). Sporting a 320 x 240 pixels (3.5" diagonal) 64k TFT touch screen display, the Nüvi's built in SiRF III GPS provides automatic routing, turn-by-turn voice directions, and touch screen control, but that’s just for starters… 70 By Nick Pointing It’s funny how the little things mean so much. The process of road testing was delivered by the dealership with care and courteously but not over stated, relaxed and not intimidating, allowing me to focus on what was important the car, the new Jetta from VW. Concealed within the remote control the key springs out on the touch of a button, this was incredibly tactile and it was released and closed too many times to mention, almost forgetting what I had come for! Although the winter air was biting I stood for a while to appreciate the ascetics – discrete and distinctive spring to mind – what a contradiction! From side profile, the lines are grown up and mature with its fashionable high waistband there is attention to detail giving an expensive feel to an affordable car. The 1.6 is responsive, escorting the entry model through all six gears. The handling is confidence building and soon allows the national