Young drivers 'too reliant on satnavs'

A survey has revealed that a majority of young motorists rely completely on satnav to find their destinations.

However, 11% of them said they often take a long winded route when following the devices' directions, while 4% said the system is often unreliable.

The poll of 1,000 adults found that older drivers were much more likely to refer to printed road maps for their journeys.

Around 59% of motorists under 25 years old relied entirely on satnav, while only 17% aged over 65 and 34% of all drivers did so.

Among all those polled, 31% said they first check a road map to double check their location and route, but just 10% of those under 25 do the same.

Around 34% also prefer to take a map printed from the internet, but 8% of these said internet routes can sometimes take them far out of their way.

But 59% of those who rely on satnav said internet routes are "very easy to follow", and 80% said they were happy with satnav, the survey by breakdown service Autonational Rescue revealed.

The company's marketing manager, Ronan Hart, said many motorists "may be losing sight of what cities and towns are in the north, south, east or west of the UK" by relying on satnav.

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