THE BOYS from Motorola paid a visit yesterday to demonstrate their next generation navigation systems. Outside in the sunshine were Myles and Damien with a rather elegant Audi A4 Avant in S line trim.

Inside the Avant was the new Motorola TN765 navigation device with ultra wide screen - the sort that sits on top of your dashboard.

Now I'm not an expert in these but the advantages of good and easy-to-use navigation systems - used properly - are fairly obvious: less stress getting to your destination and optimised routes to save your fuel consumption.

Except, Damien told me, this does a bit more. There are four 'pillars' - excuse the marketing-speak - to this product: navigation; communication; music; information.

In other words it acts as a central hub which can control all these functions centrally. But what's really neat is the fact that the screen always keeps the map function visible but can display menu options when needed. In other words, the functionality is flat, rather than having to dive to a separate sub menu.

There's lots of good things about it. There's full postcode navigation in 3D; a journey bar that tells you how much of your journey has been completed - if it turns red there are traffic problems ahead and it will re-route. You can programme it from home. So if you have several meetings in one day you programme these in, and the device will work out the optimum route, saving you time and fuel.

I also like the visual speed limit reminder - it's not unique is this respect of course - along with speed camera warnings.

It also manages your telephone hands-free, with voice control if you wish. And it will send back messages saying you are on the road and will call later, too, if you prefer not to take any calls while driving.

And then you can plug you in your iPod or iPhone and play your music too - it controls this function. So you get the idea: the unit controls a lot.

"We think the typical buyer of this is a business that is looking for a good communication tool that combines both hands-free and navigation," Myles explained. Damien concurred. "I drive between 30,000 and 40,000 miles a year. And what impresses me about the system is that it can juggle events seemlessly. I use the nav, music and phone functions. All three are there always running in the background."

But what about the cost? It's certainly in the premium category, but better value than many of the standard fit full colour screen navigation hubs that you find as standard in premium business cars. Damien reckons the cost of the unit fitted in the Audi was £450. "Many of the leasing companies are looking at it at the moment," Damien went on. "They are investigating the best cost option for their customers - a £450 unit combining hands-free and navigation could be better value than a built in navigation system."

It's certainly worth a thought. I always believed a built-in unit was better. But this Motorola TN765 was very convincing. For a small business with a mobile sales force, this could be a neat way to keep everyone connected.

TAGS: satellite navigation, Audi A4 Avant