Technology and car salespeople

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#1415357 28-Oct-2015 11:08

MikeB4: A lot of the European marques are sold by multi franchises like Gazley and Armstrong Group, they sell multiple brands so to be up with all of them will be difficult. If you are shopping in the weekend to buy say a VW you may well have to deal
with a Nissan salesperson or wait until a VW representative is available.

My wife recently purchased a new Skoda, my iPhone connected first up no hassle, and connects instantly each time I use the car. My wifes Android phone is a pain in the butt, it took quite a few attempts to get it to pair and when ever she gets into
the car it needs to be reconnected especially the phonebook, this is every time even if she gets out for a few seconds and if you don't deal with it the sodding thing will beep incessantly until you do. The technology is flawed.

My Nissan connects without hassle to my iPhone and again Androids are a pain.

This really ticks me off.

Why can't the manufacturers spend a little bit more on R&D so as both Apple and Android products are compatible with their cars. It's not like the R&D budgets of the manufacturers is small.

Not everybody on planet earth is an apple iphone\itouch fanboy!

MikeB4

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#1415362 28-Oct-2015 11:15

I think the problem lays more with the phones and also with bluetooth in general it's a god awful protocol.

Batman

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#1415397 28-Oct-2015 11:40

So the car dealer was right about buying iPhones. Maybe all the design and all the training is for iPhones. Can't blame him in that case .... My apologies to them

Dingbatt

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#1415437 28-Oct-2015 12:16

WyleECoyoteNZ:
MikeB4: A lot of the European marques are sold by multi franchises like Gazley and Armstrong Group, they sell multiple brands so to be up with all of them will be difficult. If you are shopping in the weekend to buy say a VW you may well have to deal
with a Nissan salesperson or wait until a VW representative is available.

My wife recently purchased a new Skoda, my iPhone connected first up no hassle, and connects instantly each time I use the car. My wifes Android phone is a pain in the butt, it took quite a few attempts to get it to pair and when ever she gets into
the car it needs to be reconnected especially the phonebook, this is every time even if she gets out for a few seconds and if you don't deal with it the sodding thing will beep incessantly until you do. The technology is flawed.

My Nissan connects without hassle to my iPhone and again Androids are a pain.

This really ticks me off.

Why can't the manufacturers spend a little bit more on R&D so as both Apple and Android products are compatible with their cars. It's not like the R&D budgets of the manufacturers is small.

Not everybody on planet earth is an apple iphone\itouch fanboy!

Unless you are looking at a new Ford at the moment. The Synch 2 system is Microsoft based and plays nice with both Android and Windows phone (according to the salesperson) but has a few problems with iOS. Basic pairing is okay but advanced options aren't available.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

nakedmolerat

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#1415474 28-Oct-2015 13:03

Jaxson: .... I felt the same vibe from some plunked nurses to be honest when we had our first child. Previously you had to take their word as gospel, but nowadays you can supplement that with information world wide, and realise you're being fed a line...

I will probably be a bit cautious on this - at least the plunket nurses know the local knowledge and they mostly have vast experience. Nothing that you read on interweb is as useful as experience.

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#1415506 28-Oct-2015 14:17

nakedmolerat:
Jaxson: .... I felt the same vibe from some plunked nurses to be honest when we had our first child. Previously you had to take their word as gospel, but nowadays you can supplement that with information world wide, and realise you're being fed a line...

I will probably be a bit cautious on this - at least the plunket nurses know the local knowledge and they mostly have vast experience. Nothing that you read on interweb is as useful as experience.

Fully agree, and don't get me wrong. If it's on the internet it must be right, right?...

Just saying the times have changed this reliance, and utter belief, that the person you are talking to is well up to speed, and not biased etc.

BrentR

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#1415694 28-Oct-2015 19:28

Having had to deal with this constantly over the years from a phone manufacturer POV.

1. Car manufacturers use multiple suppliers of in car BT solutions, most are plug in modules
2. Often these aren't updateable, so as a phone gets BT4.0, the car is often stuck on BT3.0 and even if it does have the latest version of BT, the internal stacks are outdated an conflicts occur.
3. Phone manufacturers TRY and work with car manufacturers, but this often falls to pieces when the car manufacturers choose to ignore advice as things get too costly.
4. Android will always be an issue due to the massive variance in handset types, BT versions and the OS versions that go with that. You try employing someone just to test Samsung's range, let alone every other manufacturer, it gets very costly, very quickly.
5. It's not easy.

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sbiddle

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#1415707 28-Oct-2015 19:50

Dingbatt:

Unless you are looking at a new Ford at the moment. The Synch 2 system is Microsoft based and plays nice with both Android and Windows phone (according to the salesperson) but has a few problems with iOS. Basic pairing is okay but advanced options aren't available.

That's not really true. The Gen 2 sync coming out with the new cars is actually old - it's the same system used in the US since 2012 (which they called MyFord Touch). Most other markets NZ and Australia just opted to keep the original Sync Gen 1 in their cars right up until the current new releases. There aren't any iOS issues I've read over the years except for the limitation that you can't use Applink apps via Bluetooth on iOS on any version of Sync, you have to have the phone connected via USB. My Android works fine on my Focus but I would like to get the software update that Ford NZ don't seem to have.

Sync 3 based on Blackberry QNX has launched in the US in the last month or so for all new US vehicles and has replaced Microsoft.

rokki

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#1415859 29-Oct-2015 03:57

freitasm: I know from someone who bought a new car from an European brand and the sales person couldn't get the the new owner's candybar phone paired with the car system for handsfree calls.

Instead of seeking some help from someone else, his suggestion to this new owner was "You should go and buy an iPhone or it won't work".

Obviously when I got to check it the phone paired exactly how it should and everything "Just worked" (TM).

*sigh*

As someone in the Car Industry it can be fun and games trying to Pair Phones. Generally iPhones are the easiest with regards to Android Phones they may be harder because of the many different phones and or flavours of Android used. I had an example of a candy bar phone wouldn't pair at all in the showroom a first for me but take it outside and it worked. I have no idea why that would be , possible interference from something who knows. But as I say a first for me. The company I work for our distributor has an online version of which phones work and don't work or with what features it will work with. I am generally the go to guy for trying to get these things to work. So some of us do try hard. 😎

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RUKI

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#1416179 29-Oct-2015 15:00

Rikkitic: I don't have experience with car dealers but I have encountered the same thing in other areas, especially consumer electronics. .......... Kudos to Jaycar. In my experience they are a welcome exception to this rule. The sales people do actually know what they are doing. What a difference. And no, I do not work for Jaycar. [/ad]

I have trade account with Jaycar. Auckland centrral branch - have not seen evidence of a slight knowledge of the products I am after over years. They know nothing, not even where the stuf is (they've changed shop layout few times) or what a particular part, even simple one looks like - ask them for a 10-turn 10kOhm pot as an example.
But they are polite and willing to help. Once I dropped a screw from my glasses on the floor. The salesman came with the metal detector (trying to sell it to me) and found the screw in couple of minutes.

surfisup1000

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#1416182 29-Oct-2015 15:22

RUKI:
I have trade account with Jaycar. Auckland centrral branch - have not seen evidence of a slight knowledge of the products I am after over years. They know nothing, not even where the stuf is (they've changed shop layout few times)

This is my experience with jaycar --- and, they don't accept returns like DSE even if they cannot tell you if the product meets your requirements.

THis has happened more than once to me -- once with a dual HDD dock. Another time with a battery charger --- I wanted one of those battery chargers that has auto cut-off via voltage monitoring. I asked them if a particular model was like that and they said yes (was unclear on the box).

Got it home, and the auto voltage cut-off was just a timer switch - the guys manager said it was impossible to buy what I needed and was extremely reluctant to accept it as a return -- despite them giving the wrong information. He said I had to return it the next day or not at all -- which was really inconvenient as i was not in that part of town for another week. Their customer service was abysmal .

So I bought one from amazon and it works just fine.

MikeAqua

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#1416191 29-Oct-2015 15:43

I'm in Nelson. Our local Mazda are excellent. They took us quickly and competently through all the electronic stuff when we picked the car up. Made sure we both had our phones set up correctly (iPhone and sammie). Showed us everything electronic you need to know for daily use of the car.

I don;t expect a car dealer to know the bluetooth ins and outs of every phone on the market, but they should know the cars systems back to front.

Mike

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#1416202 29-Oct-2015 15:45

I guess everyone has different experiences everywhere. I was just reporting mine. DSE used to be a serious electronics shop. Then they started pushing consumer stuff. At the same time the knowledgeable sales people disappeared. My experience is the reverse of the above. I was so grateful when Jaycar came to town. Their sales people have always been able to answer my questions and point me in the right direction. Maybe all the good ones left Auckland to come here.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#1416254 29-Oct-2015 17:36

I am not impressed with the user experience in my Toyota when it comes to setting up Bluetooth for handsfree and audio. There are at least 3 different ways to pair the phone, and its not obvious which one will work with both handsfree and audio. Takes me half an hour every time I have a new iPhone I want to pair with it. Its a pain in the behind..

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alasta

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#1416262 29-Oct-2015 17:55

MikeAqua: I'm in Nelson. Our local Mazda are excellent. They took us quickly and competently through all the electronic stuff when we picked the car up. Made sure we both had our phones set up correctly (iPhone and sammie). Showed us everything electronic you need to know for daily use of the car.

I don;t expect a car dealer to know the bluetooth ins and outs of every phone on the market, but they should know the cars systems back to front.

My Mazda dealer was the same - definitely no complaints.

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