Quote:
Originally Posted by tabevan2052
I was at the Tulsa Dealer 3 weeks ago. I asked about the 451 CC and service mgr said to wait till the 24K is up then do it (I have the additional 70K version)...
He said even if some dealers are installing 451 CC unit , that SMART is rejecting all claims related to electronics with the 451 CC installed...
He had delt with 3 issues so far , the owners have been $2/3K out of pocket for repairs.....
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Hi. Steve here from SmartieParts / Area 451. Some comments:
I don't think 3 units have shipped to OK so how could they have "3 issues so far"?
There's no way. As Sheureka said... we'd be the first to hear about it if people were having problems. Hopefully I can shed some light:
In California there was ONE person who had a completely munched installation. The poor owner paid an installer
that his dealer recommended (for the record, he was not in Cali when he had it installed) $200 for the service and that guy didn't bother to read the instructions and he simply cut all the wires, twisted the copper together, and wrapped electrical tape around it. And did a piss-poor job of that from the photos I saw. Nevertheless, it worked flawlessly for some 6000+ miles. While he was in California he started to have problems. Took it in, they found the wiring &^#$-up and so the blame was on the
installation of an Area 451 cruise control. Unfortunately, it got logged into the central tech support system as "Code UXXX (I can't remember the exact code) + Area 451 aftermarket cruise" as the cause. Anybody that knows the situation knows for certain that our product was not to blame. Yes, the customer probably had to foot the bill but even he'll be the first to tell you that we're not at fault.
Now... that in itself wouldn't have kicked off any rumors. But as crappy timing would have it, just 2 or 3 days later a customer in MN has an
intermittent non-reproducible issue with his smart. He booked an appointment but by the time he got there the problem did not come back and the dealership couldn't find a problem other than the UXXX code that was the same as the Cali problem. They called the central tech support with the code to see if they had any ideas. Central tech asked if the customer had the cruise control and when they said yes, they jumped to the false conclusion that the cruise caused the problem because of the timing I'm sure.
So to recap... first one was the customer's responsibility (not fault, since he paid someone to do it) and yes it was related to our product but only insofar as the installation was completely trashed. The second one clearly had nothing at all to do with our product and in fact I don't believe the customer's car had anything wrong with it at all... sometimes computers just "crash" or have a "blip" and that's probably all that happened to him, hence the non-reproducible mystery code. But for some ludicrous reason, he was told he had to replace his perfectly good ECU. And I believe that story may have made the rounds and started some rumors.
Once you know the facts, you can see that if anything we're a victim of our own popularity. If you have hundreds of our units in cars out there then you're bound to find a couple of those cars with unrelated issues. If the UXXX code happens with a significant number of smarts with our product then OK. If the ONLY cases of UXXX codes were with our cars, then I might believe an association. But neither is the case.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tabevan2052
To me  , it really SUX'z  that we have to integrate into electronics systems..... All other DBW's have a ONE switch that hooks into the ECU and presto , CRUISE CONTROL!!!!  The ECU has the capibility to do it all! |
You're most definitely wrong there, sorry. The ECU
only has the capability to do it.. well... if it does. If its been programmed in. But that's up to the manufacturer. The old smart did, as a matter of fact. But this one does not. Most cars have cruise either standard or as an option, but the new smart does not - anywhere in the world. It simply isn't in there. Do you really think that Area 451 and MDC would do it this way if there was some magical simple way to achieve the same thing?
If you aren't comfortable with the integration then live without cruise... that's your call. But if you see the Area 451 kit you'll see how much thought and engineering went into making it electrically as good as it can be. No wires cut (well, except for the lazy installer mentioned above!) and only the proper terminals and connectors are used and maintain the exact same environmental specifications as the original equipment (and the Area 451 is the only one that can say that).
Bottom line with warranty: If the modification you choose to do to your car damages the car, then of course that is not covered by the warranty. But if it doesn't, then there is no (legal) way to "void" the warranty. Simple as that. So the key is to be comfortable with the product your installing, and the ability of the person performing the installation, to not do damage.
Our cruise control has been installed in at least 600 cars in the US alone and not one single confirmed case has shown a correctly installed unit to have ever caused any damage to any car whatsoever.
I hope that helps to clear up any misconceptions.
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