Never mind the male ego. Nobody actually enjoys stopping and asking for directions, or having to contend with those monstrous paper maps that never seem to fit back into the glove compartment. So it's not surprising that electronic navigation aids have be come one of the more popular extras offered with new cars, and that nearly half of consumers surveyed by AutoPacific Group, a market-research firm, say their dream car would have one. But what about those wayward motorists who aren't interested in trading in their beloved '92 Cutlass or '94 Civic, who just want to buy some navigational help for the car they already have? What's out there for them?

The answer: Plenty. The so-called after-market products designed to guide drivers from one place to another range from inexpensive computer attachments to full-scale systems that speak. All use the Global Positioning System -- a ring of 24 satellites desi gned as a quick and accurate navigation tool for the military that is now also available for civilian use-to pinpoint the car's location and track its progress along a given route. Essentially, car navigation systems use a GPS receiver to pull information off the satellites and feed it to a computer loaded with digital maps and routing software. Users plug in a destination, and the system calculates a route, including distance, travel time and even service stops along the way. The least expensive systems require you to provide the computer and load the software; the more expensive ones come with their own central processing unit and database. And the differences don't stop there. Here, TIME DIGITAL reviews six products that represent the range of what's a vailable.

GPS FOR $250 OR LESS
The navigation aids in this category offer the basic tools to help you find your way, but some assembly is required. The Earthmate GPS receiver fro m DeLorme ($150) weighs just 5.4 oz. and connects via cable to any notebook, Windows CE-powered handheld or the PalmPilot or PalmIII palm-size PC. Some cables are $20 or $25 extra. It comes with its own mapping software, Street Atlas USA 6.0, which includ es street-level maps of the entire country plus an intersection finder, exit alerts and other goodies. While Earthmate works just fine, the slightly more expensive CoPilot from TravRoute ($250), shown, is even better. The 2.0-version soft ware works with any PC running Windows 95 or 98. It includes a limited speech-recognition engine that in addition to providing regular voice prompts during the trip allows users to ask questions like Where am I? and What's next?, which elicit responses li ke "Heading north on Route 66" and "Left turn on 4th Avenue in two miles." Best feature: if you make a wrong turn, the system automatically plots an alternative route.

MIDDLE GROUND:UNDER $1,000
For those who have more cash to spend, Garmin, a leading manufacturer of handheld GPS navigation devices for driving (as well as hiking and boating), just introduced a co uple of products. A new version of the StreetPilot portable GPS unit ($700), shown, sports a color screen that makes map reading a lot easier on the eyes. All the mapping information, including federal, state and county roadways in all of North and South America, is stored inside the unit. Cartridges that contain detailed street maps of 47 U.S. metropolitan areas are sold separately for $99 (small cities) and $199 (major cities) apiece. Also new from Garmin is the NavTalk GPS receiver/cellular phone ($625). As a cell phone, it's a clunker, but the navigation capabilities are worth the extra weight. The monochrome screen displays your location on a broad-range map; street maps must be purchased separately on CD-ROM (try Ga rmin's $99 MapSource), installed on a PC and uploaded through the unit's data port. For an extra $9 a month, you can rig your NavTalk for one-button access to an emergency service center. The GPS tells the operator where you are so he or she can send help . Buy a NavTalk for a buddy, and you'll know each other's whereabouts each time you talk.

THE HIGH ROAD: $2,000-PLUS
The trouble with devices that rely solely on GPS is that the system makes intentional errors for security reasons. That means the coordinates it delivers can be o ff by as much as 100 m. GPS signals can be interrupted or blocked entirely by mountains and skyscrapers, making trips through a place like Manhattan quite a challenge. To get around these problems, the more expensive systems like the Philips CARin 522 and Magellan 750Nav use a gyroscope and the car's speedometer to monitor speed and direction and keep you on the map when GPS signals are lost. The 522 ($3,200) has a wider, slimmer screen than the 520 ($2,900) and has voice prompts ("Get re ady to make a right turn") in a choice of 10 languages and a male or female voice. The central unit is the size of a small VCR and can be placed in the trunk or under a seat. But the system still appears to rely heavily on GPS to keep track of the car's m ovements. At one point during a recent test drive, the icon that is supposed to show where you are on the screen map slowly slid west and into an adjacent river, even though the car had continued to drive south. It was only a minor irritant, though; as so on as the car entered an open area, the system was able to regain a GPS signal and correct itself. We were more impressed with the 750NAV, shown, an upgrade of Magellan's PathMaster, the navigation system offered in some Hertz rental cars under the name NeverLost. The 750NAV screen, housed in a sleek handset the size of a GameBoy, displays more vivid graphics than its predecessor, and it rests on a cradle by the dash. It connects to the central unit via a cable long enough to reach the ba ckseat. The 750NAV also offers helpful voice prompts in a choice of seven languages and a male or female voice. Street-level maps of the entire U.S. are stored on the unit's hard drive, so users don't have to mess with software. The $2,000 purchase price includes one regional map; the codes needed to unlock the other eight cost $100 each. Hertz says customer demand for the technology is so high that the company recently decided to increase the size of its NeverLost fleet from 8,000 to 50,000 (using the 75 0NAV), making the navigation option more widely available in the U.S. and parts of Canada and Europe.

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