OT The new van - yes it is a FIAT

I am using a different van today as the one I had for the last month is in the garage awaiting the insurers assessment to the rear end damage.

What more could you want from a newer FIAT van in terms of design and technology when developing a new van?

Well I found two problems.

One.

The side doors can only be locked and unlocked only when the key is in the ignition and you press the unlock button on the dashboard or within

2 two minutes of taking the keys out of the van and using the key fob. Wait longer than two minutes and the side doors will not lock when you press the key fob. It locks the rear doors but not the side doors.

Two.

Polarized dashboard display.

The van has two of them.

One to the left for the radio, trip computer etc and another one at the center of the dash right above the steering wheel (odometer etc).

It was a sunny day and I put on my new polarized sun driving glasses.

That's when the display to the left went black.

Now if I turn my head 90 deg the left display is clear to see and the one above the steering wheel goes black.

I'll give it 50/50 on starting in the morning.

Reply to
ARW
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The door sounds like a good idea for loading and unloading. You just need to adjust your procedures a bit. As for displays. Yes Polaroid glasses used to annoy me when I could use them. All sorts of things tended to go black, including some shop advertising signs. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

I have a Ducato based motorhome. The lock thing is a 'mystery', ours is

250 based and, obviously modified re doors, but the 'logic' of how the door lock switch/fob interact is something I've yet to get used to.

I've never had, or heard of, issues with them starting. Ours sits on the drive for long periods but I can't recall it ever not starting first try.

I'm happy with it rather than a Fiat fan- most motorhomes seem to be Fiat based (badged Fiats).

Reply to
Brian Reay

Given Fiat electrical wiring quality (roughly unchanged since 1976) you won't be able to lock them at all in a few months :->>>

That is particularly spectacular considering a) Italy is sunnier than Britain; b) Italians wear sunglasses.

Before or after you soak the ignition leads in WD40?

Reply to
Tim Watts

Agreed, so why do people buy them?

Reply to
GB

because people like brian reay have more money than sense

Reply to
Jimbo

Chances are it is a diesel.

(No ignition leads.)

Reply to
Brian Reay

Do any cars still have ignition leads? Thought it was all coil packs now.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

From ARWs description 2 mins after taking the ignition key out the fob will unlock side and rear doors but only lock the rears. The sides are left unlocked... I wonder if there is a time out on that and they lock themselves after a while. But it only takes a scroat a few seconds to open an unlocked door and help themselves...

It seems very odd to have the polarisation orientation of the two displays at 90 degrees to each other. In fact why are they polarised in the first place? Is there a standard for the orientation of the polarisation of sun glasses? Is it pot luck if you can see the radio or instrumentation panel?

The only think I can think of is some half baked idea to stop the driver watching a DVD being shown on the radio display (but why does a van need that in the first place?)

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

LCDs I presume

Reply to
Andy Burns

There must at least still be 'older' cars with leads.

Reply to
Brian Reay

planty of cars with coil packs didnt have them slammed on the plugs. So still had HT leads

My 1997 Peugot based camper is like that

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

brian is way behind the times

Reply to
Jimbo

It's not manufacturer-specific, IMHO. It's an industry malaise.

Had the "good fortune" to check out a panoply of cars recently (ironically not FIAT) and they were all found wanting. Mainly in the Gee- whizzery" of their inbuilt (and thus you're stuck with it) information/ navigation/entertainment systems. Which spills over into some odd to irritating driving features.

We're due to change (lease) car next year. As things stand I'm tempted to look at the most basic model, and just connect a cheap tablet in to take care of information/navigation/entertainment. If Google Maps started displaying speed limits (5 years since I asked, and still no sign of it happening) Android Auto would be a shoe-in.

While we are here, can anyone explain why no car with a speed limiter will start off with it in the same state it was stopped in ? For the life of me I cannot imagine why, having limited your speed to when parking, you then do not want it limited when you set off again. Bearing in mind how many "options" you can set, no car seemed to have a "leave limiter in last state" option on ignition.

Reply to
Jethro_uk

Well I never use the outdated and impossible to update GPS in my 14 year old car.

Android phone + TomTom Go.

Yes, it costs annual subsriptiom but then all the maps are FREE.

Took me to a remote part of Germany and back FINE.

Why car manufacturres dont simply build in an android phone, and have updatable special apps to run the car, I dont know...and give you e.g. a free 5 years access to TomTom Go.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

They don't /quite/ do that, but they do let android (and I believe apple) devices display maps, media etc to the car's display.

Reply to
Andy Burns

helps to paste the link

Reply to
Andy Burns

Ah. Do they? Bluetooth I assume?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Could be a dealer programme option? Lots of this sort of thing is these days.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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