Typically fastest route will look to take you on limited access roads. Depending on where you live and time of day this can lead you right into a traffic jam. I will normally use "shortest" if it is during peak times and driving near a major city. While I have not checked on my V, most NAV systems have avoidance's. Maybe yours is set to avoid highways or toll roads? Somehow I don't think the system is smart enough to equate a traffic jam with the route it picks. You would think it would be simple enough to program but then again the NAV in the V is certainly not "state of the art" by today's standards.