Aug 2, 2008

Think you can navigate Fonty?!

Because it is charitable to help those less fortunate than ourselves (...), I post below an advertisement from one of my fellow alumni. If you're interested or want more info, please leave me a comment and I will transfer to the relevant person. Watch me play message board.

We will return to our regular programming in due course.

Imagine: It's some god-forsaken hour when you land at CDG. You head over to the Europcar/TT lot in Terminal 3 to pick up your sporty 13 horsepower Citroen and start winding your merry way down to Fontyland and all of its delights...
Only to find that you have absolutely no %#^$# idea where you're going, and that French roads signs aren't all-too-easy to follow, what with the jet lag and your lack of French and all.

Fear not, fellow INSEADers, I have the solution for you, in the form of a sleek, stylish, German-engineered piece of ingenuity known as the Navigon 3100 GPS system with all the fancy bells, whistles and doohickeys you could ever hope for.

  • 3.5" Color touch-screen LCD? Check.
  • Ability to switch from robotic male American voice to svelte Russian female voice? Check. Czech, too, if you want it.
  • Best suction dashboard mounting mechanism I've ever seen in a GPS? Check.
  • Scratch, stain, dust free unit that was gently and lovingly cared for throughout the year? Check. He even has a name. Fritz. Don't make fun of him; he's sensitive.
  • Car charger cable? Check.
  • Original packaging, CD, manuals, even the plastic baggies everything came in? Check.
  • This one's a zinger: warnings for all of those damn speed cameras on the roads scattered throughout Europe. Trust me; this alone will pay for the unit many times over. Check.
  • FULL EUROPE MAP! Many vendors charge an exorbitant amount for this option, but since I love you, I'll throw it in for free, along with the 2GB SD card that I bought to put these maps on. Check.

Bonus items:

  • Add-on cable that picks up traffic reports from high-tech French radio signals and re-routes you in real-time, avoiding the heinous Peripherique? Check. (Note: this item was not included in the original retail package and was procured through the aid of an Austrian classmate with "connections.' Thanks, Wolfie.)
  • Many of the big (and not-so-big) houses already mapped out in the GPS memory so you don't have to bumble around asking French villagers how to find Villecerf parties. Seriously, this is probably the best bullet point in the list.

If you're a tech nerd and want all the specs on this bad boy, just Google "Navigon 3100."

Now for the deal of the century part. I paid 240 Euros for this gem. I'm willing to let it go for 200. Yes; you read that correctly. For the low, low price of 200 Euros, all of this can be yours.

But wait, there's more! If you live in N. America, I'll ship it to you tomorrow and you can have it before you leave. If, however, you reside somewhere else in the world and are headed to Fontainebleau, I can deliver it to you during the first week of September for the price of a return-RER ticket from Paris. And a beer. Maybe lunch at the cafeteria, too. But no more than that.

No comments: