To think that there is no need to travel "in convoy"?

[vvviola]

... when both cars have perfectly functioning GPS? And when at least one of the parties travelling doesn't understand the concept properly anyway?

Just had an extremely stressful trip with a relative of DH's. Conversation went something like:
DH: you have the address in your sat nav
Rel: oh yes, but we'll travel in convoy anyway.
DH: but you have the address
Rel: we always travel in convoy. I'll follow you
Repeated a number of times until DH gave in to keep peace.

And then 5 minutes after leaving, relation overtook DH because he didn't take her preferred route out of town. When we eventually got in front again relation missed countless signals that we had to turn off for fuel and ended up following the wrong car into the wrong city.

And I had to listen to DH getting more and more frustrated by the whole process. I'm in need of a stiff gin.

I should know better - this isn't the first convoy disaster with DH's family. Last one nearly caused us to divorce 2 weeks after our wedding

My DH gets really frustrated travelling in convoy with his parents. They wait for a large enough gap before signalling, so in any sort of traffic they simply cannot change lanes; They take so long to pull away from traffic lights they have been known to completely miss a change of lights. There are more examples but that's enough to get a picture.
Neither of us have sat nav though, so we get to spend the hour before we go agreeing a route (and as the non driver I have to do this).
It's annoying, but it's better than talking them through directions from goodness knows where or following them in the wrong lane.

I refuse to travel in convoy and think it can be quite dangerous when people aren't sensible about it. Everyone can make there own way to the final destination and meet there.

I hate it. I don't mind if I have to follow DH but hate following anyone else they all drive too slow

Drives me mad too. I don't do it with family but with a colleague, we come from opposite ends of the country so when meeting up to do several site visits she follows me... or tries to. I spend very much time pulled up waiting for her to catch up and she has a satnav too...

Why she follows me I don't know, I have no better sense of direction than she does anyway...

Junior football convoys anyone? 100mph cross country in a line of ten cars where nobody indicates.

I hate it when the lead driver breaks the speed limit. What are you supposed to do? Break the speed limit too, so you can keep up with them, or stick to the limit, lose your guide and get hopelessly lost? I go with sticking to the speed limit and just pray that the front driver realises I'm lagging behind and waits for me.

For short distances where everyone knows where they're going it can be kind of fun. For longer distances where you're having to slow down if they're behind, or speed up and overtake to find them - it's a pain in the arse.

And she overtook because she didn't like the route your DH was taking? Bugger off! Everyone should make their own way and the passengers can keep in touch by mobile if need be - so much easier.

I wouldn't agree to it anymore in the days of mobile phones and sat nats, totally not necessary.

When the relation overtook you should have made attempts to loose him.

I did one for 90 miles once as the lead car. My jaw was so clenched I gave myself a headache. Never again.

Marquise - she had no mobile (whole other story)

We made it in the end, I suppose. I won't be doing it again in a hurry. At least not without a lot of Valium or booze

My ILs used to travel in convoy when they were members of the caravan club,there used to be about 3/4 of them minimum & this was yrs ago before sat navs so they used to keep in touch with each other via cb radio.

They used to go away every weekend & where we live is full of country lanes with nowhere to pass,i would have hated to have been stuck behind them.

slowly

Love the idea of them following the wrong car into the wrong city!

It sounds awful, but it's something I would try and see the funny side of and REFUSE to panic over - as (as you pointed out) they have sat Nav!

Next time - convoy, yes fine. No problem, if that's what you want. If you get lost, it doesn't matter, here's the address, you stop and program the sat Nav and we'll see you there!

... And at that point I have to say that I'd do my best to lose them and be ready with commiserations when we were finally reunited -'Yes convoy is a nightmare isn't it? So much easier when everyone just makes their own way at their own pace...'

YANBU. I loathe convoys - stressful and dangerous. Much better to meet at a pre-arranged spot en-route if necessary.

I'd just say no and keep repeating it, getting out road atlas and to "we always travel in convoy" reply "we never do as we hate it, much better for all parties to read maps and know where they are going".
Even if driving to pub for lunch when visitng relatives I'll look up route if we are following (no sat nav but love maps) as it's usually when we are near London and you invariably get split by traffic lights or roundabouts.

I regularly travel in a convoy of 5 or 6 cars ... BUT they are all classics, and have very small engines so we rarely overtake anything each other !

For us it's a case of safety in numbers; plus we don't tend to have sat navs (no fag lighters) when we're on our way to rallies, and most of us don't have a clue where were going (and yes, 6 old bangers classics HAVE trailed after each other into the wrong street before ). Came in very useful when my friends wheel dropped off though - there were plenty of us to help the clueless recovery man get her car on the truck!!

If everyone knows the rules of convoys it works well. It's when people are clueless that it doesn't work at all.