In theory a good in-car sat nav system should save you time, fuel and open up a world of new routes and possibilities to you. We take a tour with the TomTom Go 2050 to find out if it does.

I've always been suspicious of Sat Nav systems - thanks to reports of cars driving into rivers they thought were shallow streams because a long-abandoned road used to run through it, and the like. Besides, what's the problem with looking at a map? So I was intrigued enough to want to try out one of TomTom's latest units the Go 2050.

The TomTom Go 2050 has a nice big 5-inch touchscreen that was both responsive to my clammy pawing and lets you pinch and zoom around the screen. Its magnetic cradle is a joy to use, attached as it is, to a very solid suction mount that gloops to your windscreen.

There's a bunch of different voices but I found it most fun to choose the female Aussie option. There's also a voice operated mode which worked pretty well in quiet environments but less so in my noisy truck with the music on.