For people like me who don't know which way is north or which way is south, a SatNav has been a godsend. That's not to say they aren't without their frustrations and this one is no exception. We originally had a TomTom but my husband was so annoyed with it he traded it in for a Garmin Nuvi 1390 with traffic.

To quote an article I read to explain exactly what a satnav is, "Satellite Navigation is a system that uses orbiting satellites, known as GPS (Global Positioning System). A Sat Nav unit receives signals from these satellites, and combines the signals with map information and other data. The practical upshot is that if you have a Sat Nav unit, you will be able to use the SatNav to work out where you are, and find the most convenient route to your destination."

This Garmin is a small black console, approximately 3 inches by 5 inches. The screen is big enough for me to be able to see what is happening while I am driving along. You turn the Garmin on by holding down a button on the top left hand side of the console and you firstly get a warning about not operating whilst driving. Then you reach the home screen which basically gives you a choice to either View Map or Where to? As I always need it to find where I am going I press the Where to? button. The screen is touch screen so you can actually do it whilst driving but I do not recommend this, keep your eyes on the road!!

The nice thing about this Garmin is that you can get a sucker that sticks to your windscreen that then attaches to the back of the Garmin so you can have it in your line of view whilst driving. There is then a power lead that fits into the back and then powers into the cigarette holder so this Garmin will not only charge whilst you are driving but will keep its power for the whole of your journey.

Once pressed the Where to" option then leads you to a number of different options. These are Address, Go Home, Points of Interest, Recently Found, Favourites and Junction. It's great that you have different options to use as sometimes you need different things at different things. For example, the go home button is great when you have been out and then need to plug in your home address, it is already keyed into the sat nav so you just need to press that button and it will bring up the directions straight away to your house. The Points of Interest button includes things like Food and Drink, Fuel, Transit, Lodging, Shopping, all the things you might be looking for whilst you are driving.

I normally use the address button which either allows you to search by city or postal code. For me postal code is great as as along as you have this you will generally get to where you need to go perfectly.

This sat nav is extremely easy to follow. Once you have plugged in where you need to go you start driving. The picture on the sat nav will show up a purple line which you follow as this is showing you you are going in the right direction. As well as that there is a voice that gives you directions a few seconds before you need them. For example, it will say, "in .3 of a mile, turn right" and you know to turn right. To be honest though, I find the voice a bit annoying and I am usually listening to music which drowns out the sound of the voice anyway so I turn the sound down and just watch the screen instead. The sat nav will tell you the estimated time you will arrive as well which I find really handy when it comes to planning my journey and seeing how long it will take me. Another nice thing is that it has the speed limit listed on the right of the screen so you know if you are breaking the limit or not, another handy thing for me when I am driving.

The traffic indication on this sat nav is good. If there is going to be a delay it will show up on a little green button with a car icon and tells you the number of minutes of delay. Then, if you wish to find an alternate route to miss the traffic it will reroute you as well which has been quite handy at times.

Now, on to my frustration with this machine. It sometimes sticks, in that I mean it will just freeze and give you no directions at all. When this happens I need to turn of the machine and wait for it to start up again which is a real pain if I am driving and don't know where to go. Also, sometimes it will be forever searching for satellites and will not bring up the directions I need which is also frustrating. It may be because our Garmin is a few years old now but I still don't think this should happen so for that I don't like it but for getting me where I need to go it is invalueable.