Like most things, I think there's a time and a place for them.
My wife bought one a while back because she had to go up to Wigan for work and doesn't like driving motorways on her own when she doesn't know where she's going.
The only time I would use one really is for going into London or any unfamiliar big city centre. The number of times I've driven round London with an A-Z balanced on my lap (why are they always so small?)
I know people that use them all the time and I think it's a shame because I think map reading is an important skill that sat-nav replaces.
I used to work all over the UK before sat-nav was available in today's form and managed perfectly well to navigate the length of the country with a trusty petrol station road atlas. Most of my work then was on construction sites and the only info I was ever given was an address and a faxed, hand-drawn map showing about 1 square mile surrounding the site and that was it!!
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