Product Reviews

Map&Guide (re-branded Map & Travel in the UK) may be a new name to us, but it claims to have 50,000 users in its native Germany. Route Planner 2003 is a second-generation product, which has rectified many of the first version's flaws. You can now choose between UK, US and European measurements rather than working purely in miles, and it's possible to configure a stopover journey with driving and break times. It has also added direct integration of live traffic information.

The basic interface looks simple, but is cumbersome in use. House numbering is flagged loudly on the box, so I expected exact street numbers, but was wrong. The best you can do is type a partial postcode (only the first four or five digits or it won't return

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anything) and choose the closest match to get a location entry. You then move down to the street address box, enter a street name, peruse another list and choose from street numbering in batch format: 1-30, 31-60 and so on.

Routing preferences provide no speed settings other than generic vehicle lists (caravan, motorbike and slow car, for example), so route timings are also hit and miss. Budgeting is better, though, with options for average fuel consumption on different road types. The ability to calculate an alternative route at the click of a button is also welcome and solved many of the strange route issues experienced when testing the software. However, it still isn't as impressive as AutoRoute's snap re-routing feature, and the omission of motorway junctions from the Map view is unforgivable.

Direct comparisons to AutoRoute are flawed, as the two packages are miles apart, despite their similar price tags. Map & Travel scores points for including a useful print preview function and having clearer route printouts, but loses points for consuming a massive 1.8GB of hard disk space without the option to use a data CD instead. Another advantage Map & Travel has over AutoRoute is the ability to download PDB routes and maps to a Palm device. But in just about every other respect AutoRoute wins every time.