Yet these companies...
Yet these companies achieved no such thing at the Swiss expo; both brands had an unusually quiet Geneva. Unlike the Brits, or to be more precise Aston Martin and stablemate Jaguar, which are currently the only double-act on the planet capable of giving the Italians a proper run for their money. Sure, Porsche has a go and to a lesser extent so does Mercedes, BMW and Lamborghini. But currently, these are all stand-alone companies which don"t have partners capable of building supercars of their own. That may change if Merc"s other half, Chrysler, sells the ME Four-Twelve and Lambo"s sidekick Audi produces the long-awaited Le Mans quattro coup탩. For now, though, there are only two supercar families: Ferrari/Maserati and Aston Martin/Jaguar.
It wears a Ferrari badge...
It wears a Ferrari badge, but unlike the Italian brand’s cars, this sat-nav won’t get you to your destination any quicker! Don’t let that put you off, though – with the famous name strapped across the top, the Becker system oozes cool.
The Traffic Assist Pro Ferrari is a bit on the large size for a portable navigation device, but the benefit is a large and clear four-inch touchscreen. Fire it up and a smart display of a Ferrari dash illuminates the screen. Menus are clear and easy to use, and while some of them can be a bit slow to scroll through, the display picks up most inputs quickly. We found setting destinations a breeze, and the predictive software ‘guesses’ locations as you type.
Navigation was good over our test route. When we tried to confuse the system, the software redirected us fast, giving a sensible alternative. Maps for 37 countries are included, and it highlights petrol stations, airports and hotels. But some sub-menus are fiddly with navigation in progress, and the instructions weren’t much help.
The Traffic Assist Pro has an MP3 player with 64Mb of memory, plus a digital photo viewer. And as the battery is rechargeable, you can set it up when it’s not plugged in.