Hoot Guide to navigationAt Hoot, we've been selling cheap car insurance since the days when an up-to-date road atlas was considered hi-tech. These days, however, setting out on a long trip with nothing but a map on your parcel shelf might seem worryingly under-prepared. The internet age has brought with it a host of digital solutions to the problem of navigating on an unfamiliar car journey, and now many of us would be lost (literally) without them. First we had software programs like AutoRoute, which used maps stored in memory to create specially tailored route planners. These promised us idiot-proof directions and the fastest possible journey times, even taking details like traffic flow into account. Constant updating, including the location of road works, traffic jams and speed cameras, meant computer route planners like this were further improved once they started appearing on websites like http://www.google.co.uk and http://www.theaa.com. But by this stage they faced competition by an even more hi-tech solution: satellite navigation.
Sat nav promised to spare us the hassle of having to switch on a computer beforehand and print off a route - now it all could be done direct from the car dashboard. And unlike the route planners, satellite information about your journey continues to update while you're driving, so if an accident happens up ahead the system will try to divert you to save time. However, in recent months the British media has blamed apparently faulty sat nav systems for a number of car crashes and costly motor insurance claims. This Hoot Guide asks whether these hi-tech alternatives really are an improvement over the good-old road atlas and, depending on what your priorities are as a driver, what the cheap car insurance team here recommends taking along with you on a long car journey. Road atlas
An atlas is simply a collection of maps bound together to form a book. Where in-car navigation is concerned, it's generally preferable to keep an atlas than a fold-out map, as keeping the latter under control can cause a serious distraction. Similarly, a ring-bound road atlas is preferable to a regular book-binding because the pages will lie flat on the relevant page without closing.
As you would expect there are many, many different publishers, formats and editions to choose from, and there's a world of difference between a good road atlas and a bad one. First, it's got to be up-to-date. You should really replace an atlas every 2-3 years to avoid unpleasant surprises involving new roads, one-way systems, pedestrianisation and so on. Second, it's got to be clear. That means choosing one with a scale you're comfortable reading - 1:200,000 is acceptable for motorway driving, but you might need something slightly bigger if you need to see all the country roads and cul-de-sacs. It's also important that your chosen atlas has a decent amount of overlap between pages, and that the way its maps are organised makes sense. Last, your chosen atlas needs to be the right size. Some people like an A3 format or larger because it cuts down on the page turning, but others find this too unwieldy and opt for something more compact, like A4. Really, every driver should keep an up-to-date UK road atlas. Unlike sat nav, a good atlas never malfunctions or runs out of batteries, and unlike a route planner print-out it can help you negotiate any diversions or last-minute detours. Whatever else you use, always take one as a back up. Route planning software/websites
Print-outs from programs like AutoRoute and websites like Google Maps (http://maps.google.co.uk/maps) are excellent if used in conjunction with a good road atlas. On their own, they're sufficient to get you there in most cases, providing the route is well signposted and there are no unpleasant surprises.
Bear in mind that, just as with maps, an out-of-date or poorly-designed route planner is more likely to get you into trouble with your cheap car insurance company than get you to your destination. In this respect, the constantly-updated online services generally have an edge over installed software programs, which might need to be updated manually (some older versions cannot be updated at all). It's hard to beat the combination of route planner and road atlas on an unfamiliar journey, because the two cover pretty much every base between them. However, sat nav systems are an attempt to go one better - and in many respects they're a success. Satellite navigation
One of the obvious problems with the route planner/atlas combination is that without a passenger to read out the directions and keep an eye on the map, you'll be pulling over every ten minutes to check you're still on course (thumbing the pages of a road atlas whilst driving is an obvious no-no and likely to cost you your cheap car insurance rate, either through arrest or a crash).
Sat nav systems, many of which are capable of reading out directions to you, thus make an ideal solution for the lone driver. GPS tracking means they never get lost along the way - even if you take a detour - and their routing information couldn't be any more up-to-date. However, sat nav creates almost as many problems as it solves. Beyond the apparent reliability factors such as batteries running out or a system malfunction, there's also the worrying issue of blind-faith that drivers seem to place in these little black boxes. British newspapers are awash with stories of those who have followed sat nav directions into ditches and flooded fords, though construction sites and onto train tracks. In every case the driver ignored the evidence of their own eyes in favour of what the sat nav was telling them - an extraordinary error of judgment that anybody considering buying one needs to be wary of. Sat nav is an amazing technology, but with these attendant problems (not to mention a prohibitive price tag) it's maybe best avoided unless you regularly drive long distances alone. Even then, take its directions with a pinch of salt - TomTom might be able to talk, but you don't need to worry about hurting 'his' feelings. Try cheap car insurance from Hoot
The team at Hoot Car Insurance Services are pros when it comes to finding really cheap car insurance deals.
Our cheap car insurance policies are up to 30 percent cheaper than many other insurers' - that's a saving of several hundred pounds in many cases. As an online car insurance firm, we don't have to pay the rent on high street shops and big call centres, nor fork out wages for the staff to fill them. On top of that, we don't advertise on television or radio (or anywhere else, for that matter). All this saves us a massive amount of money, and it's all funnelled down into the unbelievable price of our motor insurance quotes. So to see how much you could save on cheap car insurance, just click below. 
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