I bought a new boat this past year with a Garmin reactor 40 and Garmin 7600. I put 140 hours on my boat this summer and now would never own a fishing boat without autopilot.
One time this summer when when I pulled my boat up to the Georgian Bay in Canada for some reason the autopilot came out of calibration. I was able to talk to the dealer and they talked me though the calibration screens to get be back going the same day.
I must say that that when I ordered my boat I cringed at the price of autopilot and almost decided against it. After using autopilot for a summer I realized that was some of the best money that I spent on my rig.