Tracking your old car...
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Last time I checked in a rental car, I got hassled to get out of the car. I was poking around the menus trying to find out where to make it forget my phone. When I found it, there were details of several other people's phones in there too.
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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dandy72 wrote:
dealer selling a used car
dandy72 wrote:
would do his best
C'mon, you know better than to think a used car dealer would have any integrity at all.
The difficult we do right away... ...the impossible takes slightly longer.
Well it wasn't a "used car dealer" in the way most people think about, it's a dealer that happened to buy back my dad's year-old car for a trade-up. But I know what you mean by "used car dealer" and their reputation. I have an uncle who ran a tiny independent dealership for decades. Honestly they don't all deserve the reputation they're given.
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dandy72 wrote:
someone's seriously dropped the ball.
Write your congressman to have them pass a law?
dandy72 wrote:
so his phone was still capable of reporting back how much gas was left in the tank, unlocking the doors
I probably do not want my phone to unlock the doors. I absolutely do not want it telling me about the gas. Car should have a gauge for that. So no reason for me to install an app. But I might stir myself to figure out how to disable any smarts like that completely on a new car that I owned.
jschell wrote:
I probably do not want my phone to unlock the doors. I absolutely do not want it telling me about the gas. Car should have a gauge for that.
And they do. And as I said, my dad's not a smartphone guy. But when he heard the app could give him these readouts and make these functions available to him, he insisted I install it on his phone for him, despite me pointing out these apps are typically BS you only use once or twice, then never look at again. And as it turned out, the app wasn't compatible with the LG phone he had at the time, and he actually replaced it with some Samsung just to get the app going.
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dandy72 wrote:
It annoys me to no end, knowing these possibilities, that dealers could be so careless.
It's likely most dealer don't even know this, so it's not carelessness, it's ignorance.
I've seen (without seeking them out) countless articles and TV shows where these sorts of things are discussed and demonstrated; cars have had remote features for many years now--these guys are aware of what's going on in the industry. So at this point in time, if dealers aren't aware of this, it's not ignorance, I insist it is outright carelessness.
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Your father's old car was presumably sold to him as "the last car he'll ever need to buy". If he decided otherwise, that's not the dealer's fault. /s Seriously, some designer(s) definitely dropped the ball in the design of both the Android software and the car's software.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote:
Your father's old car was presumably sold to him as "the last car he'll ever need to buy".
My dad was a mechanic for a new car dealer for over 40 years, he knows all the types of salesguys that get hired (and fired). If one tried to sell him a car as such, he would've been made very well aware his BS wasn't gonna fly with him.
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Rental, or lease? I have no idea why anyone would take the time to pair his phone with a rental car.
So you can use Car Play and take hands-free phone calls. It's the first thing I do, especially when I'm in an unfamiliar city. And of course the last thing I do is remove my phone. The rental place can just wait: I'm not handing over the car till all my stuff - including my info - is out of the car.
cheers Chris Maunder
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So you can use Car Play and take hands-free phone calls. It's the first thing I do, especially when I'm in an unfamiliar city. And of course the last thing I do is remove my phone. The rental place can just wait: I'm not handing over the car till all my stuff - including my info - is out of the car.
cheers Chris Maunder
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Hands-free or not, I'm not picking up the phone when I'm driving. I won't even glance at it at a red light.
That's the point: by connecting the phone to the car I can answer via the steering wheel button or hitting the big green circle on the centre display. No more distraction than changing the radio station. Actually less distraction because I can never find a decent station so end up trying to work out where the 'off' button is.
cheers Chris Maunder
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jschell wrote:
I probably do not want my phone to unlock the doors. I absolutely do not want it telling me about the gas. Car should have a gauge for that.
And they do. And as I said, my dad's not a smartphone guy. But when he heard the app could give him these readouts and make these functions available to him, he insisted I install it on his phone for him, despite me pointing out these apps are typically BS you only use once or twice, then never look at again. And as it turned out, the app wasn't compatible with the LG phone he had at the time, and he actually replaced it with some Samsung just to get the app going.
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I've seen (without seeking them out) countless articles and TV shows where these sorts of things are discussed and demonstrated; cars have had remote features for many years now--these guys are aware of what's going on in the industry. So at this point in time, if dealers aren't aware of this, it's not ignorance, I insist it is outright carelessness.
dandy72 wrote:
if dealers aren't aware of this
Perhaps 'dealer' singular rather than plural? Or even maybe there is no way, on an older car, to do anything about it? Googling suggests that it is possible to do a factory reset on at least some cars which support pairing. Seems like something more reputable dealers would probably do.
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dandy72 wrote:
and he actually replaced it with some Samsung just to get the app going.
So he was really excited about it. Did he use it after the initial thrill?
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dandy72 wrote:
if dealers aren't aware of this
Perhaps 'dealer' singular rather than plural? Or even maybe there is no way, on an older car, to do anything about it? Googling suggests that it is possible to do a factory reset on at least some cars which support pairing. Seems like something more reputable dealers would probably do.
jschell wrote:
Or even maybe there is no way, on an older car, to do anything about it?
We're talking about 2022 vs 2023.
jschell wrote:
Seems like something more reputable dealers would probably do.
...if you ask them the right salesguy who happens to know anything at all about the products he's selling.
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jschell wrote:
Or even maybe there is no way, on an older car, to do anything about it?
We're talking about 2022 vs 2023.
jschell wrote:
Seems like something more reputable dealers would probably do.
...if you ask them the right salesguy who happens to know anything at all about the products he's selling.
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That's the point: by connecting the phone to the car I can answer via the steering wheel button or hitting the big green circle on the centre display. No more distraction than changing the radio station. Actually less distraction because I can never find a decent station so end up trying to work out where the 'off' button is.
cheers Chris Maunder
