MY FIRST experience with a GPS device was during a trip to Kuala Lumpur some five years ago. It was not a pleasant one.

Back then, I had a PDA (personal digital assistant) attached to a GPS receiver.

The software in the map I used, though I cannot recall its name, was buggy. My travel party wanted to hunt down a food joint in Jalan Sehala and was led to many places that sounded like it. In the end, we never made it to our destination.

So when my husband suggested that we buy a personal navigation device (PND) last year, my answer was an emphatic no.

What would be the point of buying something that would be equally useless?

His excuse was that if we had a PND, we would save money on petrol by not going by the longer route. (This was when petrol pump prices had soared to about $1.90 per litre.)

We finally bought the portable Garmin Nuvi 660 for US$399 (S$615) from Amazon in November 2007.

Before I knew it, I was relying heavily on this little device to get me around. No more going on a hunch, relying on memory or a vague sense of direction.

Just hop into my car, key in my destination and 'switch off'. Driving is so much easier, especially to unfamiliar places, when you can just follow instructions.

The turn-by-turn audio commands are marvellous. Its 'red light camera' tool warns you of traffic junctions that are equipped with these cameras, so you are reminded not to beat the light.

Once when I forgot to insert a cashcard, the warning from the PND just before the ERP gantry saved me from having to pay a $12 fine.

Planning a drive to Malaysia is a breeze as well. Instead of scouring road maps, all I have to do is to get the coordinates and addresses and mark them as My Favourite Locations in the unit.

However, the PND is not flawless. Once, we circled round Bukit Batok trying to find the road that led to the Bukit Timah nature reserve. The GPS map had mistaken a jogging track for a road.

Also, the GPS does not work in underground tunnels like the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway.

I look forward to the day when the GPS is integrated with traffic data so that it can offer alternate routes whenever traffic congestion is detected along the way.

Meanwhile, the PND is still a useful gadget for a road idiot like me.

By Julia Lee, in her 30s, an academic executive with a local polytechnic.

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