Lebowski

Yes. I read somewhere that Ford was sending usb sticks to customers so that they could apply the updates by themselves, but with dodge/chrysler/fiat/everybody else you'll have to pay a visit to the dealer (and keep your fingers crossed hoping that the update doesn't cause more harm than good).

I checked my wife's car that's been withstanding the elements for 12 years and there's no sign of rust.

Where I live rustproofing usually is a standard equipment of any car. In fact there's a specific corrosion clause in the warranty (though it only talks about perforation) that last 8 years instead of the usual 2.

For that exact reason they should be properly protected. I could (barely) accept that after 7 years, not after 7 months.

Well, now I found more rusty pieces, this time in the front axles. I cannot believe they didn't see them when they had to tighten the wheels' nuts.

OK, I'll see if I can find it. Could you tell me if the spare location already had power and its number? (I think they had to put 2, you mentioned switched and unswitched). Well, I'm not 100% sure about my legal rights this side of the pond, but when I told the dealer that I could find a gas cap with key for less than 30€ when he quoted me 100€, he insinuated that he wouldn't do that with a new car still under warranty, go figure!

I was talking about FIAT customer (dis)service, not about a specific dealer (mine has been helpful, but they don't write the software).

Doesn't that invalidate the warranty? I'd love to pull a wire for the gps, but I think I will use the existing socket in order not to touch the wiring. I read in the manual that there's a fuse panel there, but I couldn't locate it (and, yes, I know how to unlock the glove box door). In short, don't trust the manual, it was written by the same morons who designed the car electrical system & software

The screenshots are obviously fake.

A "funny" thing is that my 4.3 tries to reproduce the audio of an high resolution mp4 video on the usb stick (though it cannot cope with the decoding and it skips badly).

No, they won't, they're clueless.

AFAIK the rain sensing wipers aren't available on the Freemont.

No need for scrolling text, there's enough space for 8 lousy characters with a somewhat smaller font (like, e.g, the mp3 player on the same screen). And don't get me started about the preset buttons (again, useless since they only show 3 characters of the station name). With an even smaller font and/or scrolling text they could even show radio text on the main screen instead of a separate one, but since they cannot even manage to make the radio reliably start every time, maybe I'm asking too much.

Known issue, happens both with the 4.3 and the 8.4, no solution. I doubt they know where to look: if the user facing part of the software is so pathetic, I can only imagine that what's hidden is a dreadful morass of spaghetti code. RDS exists since 1990, however this POS isn't even capable to show the full (8 characters!) station name and it truncates it to 3 chars.

That was up & down driver temperature plus the front defrost during 5 seconds with the button in "ACC", but it's the dealer menu, not the menu reset (what do you mean with that BTW?).

I received a call today from customer disservice to tell me that there are no updates in sight, so I'll have to live with all the problems. Unbelievable.

I have a 4.3 and I have that option. As I said, it seems I'm the only one (and I know of a couple of 8.4 owners without it).

It's to send voice command during a call. Also, on the 8.4 (which I don't have), you can use it for other voice commands not related to a call (music search, navigation, etc.).

It is a big deal for me when I'm stuck in traffic (i.e., every other day) Well, I've been complaining about this issue since I had the car. Last week, after 7 months, they finally checked both with mine and with another car and they agree, it takes too much time. Good to know it can be made to work as expected, pity that they don't know how to do it over here. Easy, just don't push the brake (or clutch in my case). No need for an extra ACC "key" position. That's how my old car worked, and it was a diesel too. I also think that it used a nifty trick: it activated the glow plugs as soon as I opened the door, in fact, IIRC, I saw the lamp twice in 4 years (and the same with the next car, though it had a normal key). With the freemont, I have to wait 3-4 seconds every morning for the lamp to go off (and sometimes even in the afternoon if the engine has cooled down), maybe because they couldn't implement this trick in a car originally designed for a petrol engine.

If it does it while accelerating/decelerating (in my case also when using the clutch but I see yours is an automatic), it could be the nuts it the front wheel hubs getting loose. My dealer assured me it's not dangerous (I don't believe him) and just tightened them, but they should be replaced (he will as soon as he has the replacement available). In any case, you should have your car checked.

But you cannot activate the recirculation in winter (i.e, when the flow of air goes to the feet). That's utterly stupid and one of my pet peeves with this car. Useless, since they take 4-5 seconds to light up when entering a tunnel. My previous two cars turned on the lights immediately. But then you have to perform a 5 steps sequence to activate recirculation in winter (see above). Yes, that's good, but it could be better: why emulate a key when it's not a key? I mean you have to press it once to simulate the rotation of the key to "ACC", press it again without the brake and wait for the pre-heating light to go off (I have a diesel engine), and press it a third time while pressing the brake and keep it pressing until the engine has completely started up. I had a car 8 years ago that did all of the above automatically with just one light touch of the button. I agree, it's especially dangerous for the cruise control buttons, another pet peeve of mine. I had it before and I really miss that. Also agree, had it on my previous two cars and loved it. Oh, and the gas cap without a key it's unacceptable. Yes, I find the child safety for the rear doors quite anachronistic. Yeah, it's quite stupid to provide power seats with no memory, I mean, I would have preferred some other equipment in its place (like the above mentioned rain sensing wipers). I hate seeing such gorgeous screens so underused and with such a waste of screen real estate, but it's just me, I love small fonts and lots of information shown at a time.

Are you sure? AFAIK now the journey is only available as the fiat freemont, and only with diesel engine. I thought that the AWD model would have been available with the pentastar engine, but that doesn't seem to be the case, at least for the time being.

I can select via uconnect settings if I want the auto-lock or not. The funny thing is that the option isn't supposed to be there (according to the manual the option should be activated/deactivated only by the dealer) and apparently I'm the only one with it. BTW, the '90 called and want their door lock knobs and mechanical child safety back :P

I think the issue is not limited to the 4.3, user Woodsey here has an 8.4. Anyway, my trim level (freemont urban) should have come with the 8.4, but due to a shortage of 8.4 screens, they sold the first units with the 4.3, so we early adopter are getting the shaft twice: for the smaller screen and the smaller brakes (thrice if you count the rusted pieces that they "forgot" to properly coat). No way I'm going to pay $1800 (which, by the time it'll come here it will be 2500€) to change the screen. Anyway, FIAT not only knows nothing, but they haven't got spare pieces available, I hope that nothing serious breaks down. BWT: did you check the software version?

I thought so with the last update, unfortunately it still happens Because, like the previous problem, I thought it was solved, but it still happens from time to time. Please check the version to see if it's newer than mine, but I doubt it since it has the same issues.