New research from car leasing expert Autotrader reveals that almost one in ten UK motorists (8.6%) feel uncomfortable getting behind the wheel without satellite navigation (sat nav), even on routes they know.
The study also found that around 30 miles, roughly the distance from central London to Brighton, is as far as most drivers will comfortably travel without sat nav assistance. For most motorists (16%), the cut off distance for driving without a sat nav is 26-30 miles, although 15% of drivers admitted that they would not travel further than 5 to 10 miles without the help of their sat nav.
UK cities most comfortable driving without sat nav
| Rank | City | % motorists comfortable driving without sat nav |
| 1 | Edinburgh | 92% |
| 2 | Cardiff | 87% |
| 3 | Newcastle | 87% |
| 4 | Manchester | 85% |
| 5 | Plymouth | 83% |
Scotland is home to the most confident self-navigating drivers in the UK. Edinburgh leads the rankings with 92% of drivers saying they are comfortable navigating without a sat nav, as well as being the city with the highest number of drivers who never use a sat nav at all (32%). The data also shows that 29% of Glaswegian drivers never use a sat nav.
Welsh drivers also lead the rankings when it comes to self-navigation confidence, with 87% of drivers in Cardiff feeling confident in their own sense of direction when driving around their city. Edinburgh and Cardiff’s compact city centres and well-established street layouts may help explain why drivers in these regions feel less need to reach for the sat nav.
UK cities least comfortable driving without sat nav
| Rank | City | % motorists uncomfortable driving without sat nav |
| 1 | Brighton | 12.9% |
| 2 | Sheffield | 12.5% |
| 3 | Birmingham | 12.5% |
| 4 | London | 10.3% |
| 5 | Nottingham | 10.3% |
Brighton, Sheffield and Birmingham have the highest percentages of drivers who feel uncomfortable navigating their city without sat nav support. The top three cities all pose challenging driving conditions, with one-way systems, complex road layouts, confusing roundabouts and bus lanes all potentially affecting the driving confidence of locals, who may lean on sat nav for traffic updates as well as navigation.
Tom Roberts, car leasing expert at Autotrader says, “It’s hard to begrudge drivers their reliance on sat navs. These systems don’t just tell you when to turn, they manage traffic and hazards, flag speed cameras and reroute in real time. They remove so many stressful parts of the mental load of driving.
For anyone looking to buy or lease a car, sat nav connectivity is increasingly non-negotiable. It’s not necessarily in-built sat nav systems that car buyers are looking for, but the technology to connect their own smart phone and for the car to be able to show Google Maps, or Waze or whatever navigation app the user prefers. As car and smart phone technology continues to get smarter we can only expect to see drivers’ reliance on sat nav systems to grow, not shrink.” To find the best car for you, whether that’s with or without a sat nav, visit: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/cars/leasing
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