[SailDrive]

RECEIVED SOME UPDATES FROM ALFA, they are indicated inline below in Red.

We all know there are some issues with the way that Alfa programmed certain things in the car. These are things which should be simple to address with a software update, and would make life much better for us owners. Unfortunately I've been led to believe by the dealer that Alfa is giving them every indication that they do not currently intend to issue a software update to change these things. We need to work together as owners to convince Alfa that they need to make these small changes to the otherwise fantastic vehicles.

Until Alfa issues us an official response committing to solving these issues in a reasonable timeframe, I am asking a two things from every owner. 1) contact Alfa via every source you know of (and if you have direct contact information, please share it below) to request these changes, and 2) schedule a warranty visit for your car to your dealer listing these items as the problem, and specifically ask the dealer to open a Star Case on the issues. Normal dealer service tickets are handled internally with the dealer, Star Cases are opened with Alfa directly, and Alfa engineers dictate the repair ticket and must sign off on the issue every time. This ensures that every complaint on these items reaches directly to Alfa.

#1. Problem, Heated Seat and Heated Steering Wheel do not activate when remote starting below a certain temperature. Desired Outcome, upon remote starting vehicle all climate control systems should engage at maximum efficient output to bring cabin to last set temperature, this includes seat / wheel heaters in cold and AC in heat.
"This is a feature not currently available on Stelvio & Giulia. The feature will be implemented shortly, and we will hopefully provide information on re-flashing previous versions" He then explained on the phone this means the software update should be coming out soon, but no specific ETA.
#2. Problem, Parking sensors are active anytime the engine is running, including when remote starting. Desired Outcome, parking sensors automatically activate only when the car is taken out of park, and immediately deactivate when put in park.
#3. Problem, XM radio station selection always starts at the top of the list regardless of currently selected channel. Desired Outcome, scrolling through channel list should start at the currently selected, or most recently selected station.
#4. Problem, Mirrors unfold when remote starting. Desired Outcome, Mirrors should only unfold after pressing the start/stop button. When remote starting you don't have the opportunity to visually confirm there is room to unfold, and you might want them folded to get into the car if someone parked close to you in a parking lot.
#5. Problem, No communication / lack of understanding if pre-Dec 2017 cars are possible to, and if so how / when, to upgrade to Car Play / Android Auto. Desired Outcome, Alfa issue clear and detailed explanation of what is required and how it is possible to upgrade these cars to CP/AA. If certain components require swapping (new USB port or hub has been speculated on the Giulia forum), an explanation of what those components are so owners may make an informed decision if they want to pay for that or not.
All 2018 model year vehicles WILL receive a software update later this year which enables AA/CP support, no word on possible costs. No 2017 model year vehicles will receive the update.

If there are other similar software issues I have overlooked let me know below and I'll update the list accordingly.

Please use the poll to indicate the result of your action.

If we all work together to contact Alfa and let them know that their customers insist on these fixes, which should all be easy for them to implement / issue via a software update to be installed at the next service visit, the result is that we'll all be happier and they will sell more cars.

 

[Scalewoodman]

I think these are suggestions for consideration and personal preferences that could possibly be addressed in the future but not significant enough for a Call To Action like a safety or performance issue.


Sorry- the problem with multiple choice polls is they make assumptions. And to be completely honest, these (items 1 - 5) are not significant enough to discourage any new potential buyer in and of themselves in my opinion.


I/we did not make our purchase based on a potential new feature fully being implemented or that it might be added in the future and don't agree that it is reasonable that a running change (ACP or mirror operation) be 100% retroactive.

 

[SailDrive]

I think these are suggestions for consideration and personal preferences that could possibly be addressed in the future but not significant enough for a Call To Action like a safety or performance issue.

Collectively I believe this list accounts for close to 100% of the common issues / complaints / shortcomings of the car, and they are all simple things for Alfa to fix with a software update (plus disclosing the technical information regarding CP/AA as to what, if anything, it physically would take to add support in addition to the software fix).

Sorry- the problem with multiple choice polls is they make assumptions. And to be completely honest, these (items 1 - 5) are not significant enough to discourage any new potential buyer in and of themselves in my opinion.

If you think there's another option that should be on the poll, I'm open to ideas, but I think that I covered everything pretty well with the choices already.

More importantly, this call to action isn't about trying to affect new sales, it's about us, the people who have already bought the vehicles and have to live with these little annoyances for at least the next few years. Do you actively not want to see any of these changes implemented? Are you against the idea that other owners might care enough about these things to genuinely want to see some/all of them addressed, that somehow your acceptance of the status quo means that no one else is allowed to be bothered by these items which are all simple and nearly cost free adjustments in software programming?

I/we did not make our purchase based on a potential new feature fully being implemented or that it might be added in the future and don't agree that it is reasonable that a running change (ACP or mirror operation) be 100% retroactive.

Evidence of many others posts by various people indicates they feel otherwise, and they feel some of these issues amount to (minor) deception or lies they were told, as they expected and / or assumed these things to function this way when they bought the vehicle (for example my sales person specifically mentioned the heated seats and wheel / remote start combination as selling points). Also, see http://www.stelvioforum.com/forum/2...154-remote-start-heating-issue.html#post51762 for a very current example

Additionally many said they were promised (sometimes even in writing) that the CP/AA support was going to be available as a software update for their car at the time they decided to purchase, which they later found to be either false, or at least in the absence of communication have been left to assume was a lie. I don't personally care about that specific feature, but I included it on the list because I know it's important to many people on here, and that's what this is about, working together to make things better for everyone, not just the features that personally matter the most to me. That's why I made sure the dealer brought up CP/AA software updates with Alfa yesterday, not because I care much but because the 366 replies and 46,555 views on the http://www.stelvioforum.com/forum/26-audio-stereo/1321-apple-carplay-stelvio.html thread mean the community really cares.

 

[Scalewoodman]

(Box) I/we are satisfied with the vehicle 'as designed' and will wait for a more comprehensive reflash at the manufacturer's discretion.

Sheesh or drive a homogeneous blob with mirrors that stay folded while it's warming up.

 

[1929]

(Box) I/we are satisfied with the vehicle 'as designed' and will wait for a more comprehensive reflash at the manufacturer's discretion.

Sheesh or drive a homogeneous blob with mirrors that stay folded while it's warming up.

Wow I get you’re the moderator and super positive about the vehicle no matter what but to presume so much about others and judge what they like in a car because you personally don’t care about those features is a little rude and ignorant. Sheesh

 

[BradB]

SailDrive You forgot to include:
Radio random periods of silence - no audio no matter what you do.
Radio random station resets to a prior station
Infotainment center random reboots
Failure to start when brake depressed and start button pushed
Driver door liftgate button only works to open the rear gate. Gate will not close when the button is depressed (as detailed in the owner manual).
Defrosters do not turn on automatically at all when conditions warrant (problem is not isolated to turning on with remote start).
Issues with voice recognition. I have determined that part of this problem is that the microphone pickups are not well located. If I tilt my head back (forcing eyes from and speak directly to the mic in the ceiling it works better, but still far from adequate...or accurate.
And I am still probably missing something

BTW - I have also had the wipers frequently ice up and become useless. Usually when you need them, too. And in case you haven't noticed, you can only lift them inches from the window before the arm hits the hood making them difficult to clear the icing from the blades. I have also had the side mirrors freeze up in the retracted position due to freezing rain conditions. The car is clearly not well equipped to handle regions of the world where temperatures fall below freezing.

There are a number of us owners who are aggravated and annoyed by features that do no function correctly and are further increasingly frustrated by the apparent lack of concern by both the dealers and the manufacturer in support of the product.

 

[SailDrive]

SailDrive You forgot to include:
Radio random periods of silence - no audio no matter what you do.
Radio random station resets to a prior station
Infotainment center random reboots
Failure to start when brake depressed and start button pushed
Driver door liftgate button only works to open the rear gate. Gate will not close when the button is depressed (as detailed in the owner manual).
Defrosters do not turn on automatically at all when conditions warrant (problem is not isolated to turning on with remote start).
Issues with voice recognition. I have determined that part of this problem is that the microphone pickups are not well located. If I tilt my head back (forcing eyes from and speak directly to the mic in the ceiling it works better, but still far from adequate...or accurate.
And I am still probably missing something

BTW - I have also had the wipers frequently ice up and become useless. Usually when you need them, too. And in case you haven't noticed, you can only lift them inches from the window before the arm hits the hood making them difficult to clear the icing from the blades. I have also had the side mirrors freeze up in the retracted position due to freezing rain conditions. The car is clearly not well equipped to handle regions of the world where temperatures fall below freezing.

There are a number of us owners who are aggravated and annoyed by features that do no function correctly and are further increasingly frustrated by the apparent lack of concern by both the dealers and the manufacturer in support of the product.

The infotainment issues you describe are things I have experienced only once before. While I agree they are issues, across the broader owners community I believe they are highly intermittent, or even downright rare in their actual occurrences (though possibly something many owners have seen once or twice, certainly not something they see daily). If you are experiencing these issues frequently, definitely take it in and make sure you're on the correct software release (MY17 Stelvios have recently had an official update to the same software as the MY18, and some of us have loaded the Euro release software which isn't yet released in the US)

As for the liftgate, I'm pretty sure mine does open and close, and I know for a fact my keyfob both opens and closes the gate. I'll have to double check the door button close function tomorrow.

The defrosters aren't something I think the car can really sense when they should / shouldn't come on, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) they are / should for when you need them (how could the car possibly know if there is snow / ice on the windshield except over the rain sensor location?)

The rest of your items relate to physical design changes, and not things which could be addressed in a software update to the cars (windshield icing is due to the large sensor package around the rear view mirror, which blocks heat reaching the windscreen | microphone pickup isn't going to move via software though I did notice the pickup location is different / farther back for the non sunroof model which seem to work fine for me).

In short while I agree that every one of your items should be resolved, this is about getting corrections for the cars we already own, not pushing them to improve things like the wiper blade access for future model years (but I do agree with you about that). Regarding the infotainment errors you listed, I think those should be considered active faults with your particular vehicle and the dealer should have active cases open on the issues right now since no one could reasonably argue that those aren't problems demanding a fix. The issues I listed above are all things which every single owner experiences practically daily, and Alfa has either ignored or as far as I can tell stated that it's working "as designed", and are planning on not issuing any fixes for, hence the call to action to convince them to issue fixes for these software design oversights.

 

[SailDrive]

(Box) I/we are satisfied with the vehicle 'as designed' and will wait for a more comprehensive reflash at the manufacturer's discretion.

think you missed the part where Alfa has stated they don't intend to make these changes, therefore this comprehensive reflash you are envisioning doesn't appear to be forthcoming.

Sheesh or drive a homogeneous blob with mirrors that stay folded while it's warming up.

was in CVS for 5 minutes the other day, parked a few rows back at an end spot so only one adjacent parking spot, well someone pulled up so close next to me that when the mirror unfolded it had less than an inch from hitting their mirror. I didn't see this before because I hit the remote start from across the parking lot as I was walking out the door. Really don't like the idea of my mirrors potentially opening and damaging my paint, or someone else's, because they parked too close when I can't see what's around the car to know it's safe for them to unfold. Who's insurance do you file that one under when your parked car hits someone else's parked car when neither car even has someone in the car? Also, they fold to make it easier to get in/out of the car in tight spaces, by definition when you have remote started, you have not yet gotten in the car, therefore their opening defeats the entire purpose of their folding to make it easier to get in / make it harder for your mirrors to hit or get hit.

 

[Knightofargh]

Regarding the wiper blade issues. Apparently they have a service mode to access them better. Check page 224 in the manual.

Looks like you set the ignition to stop and hold up on the wiper stalk for 3 second so. Should move the wipers up halfway. Obviously can’t test since my car is being built currently. I just have time at work to RTFM a bunch.

 

[karlfevans]

These are non issues to me.

My neighbors remote start their Tahoe and leave it run for 15 minutes. To me a waste of gas and more CO2 in the air.

 

[SailDrive]

These are non issues to me.

My neighbors remote start their Tahoe and leave it run for 15 minutes. To me a waste of gas and more CO2 in the air.

Your neighbors seem very excessive with the use. Most often I use remote start about 1-2 minutes before walking out to the car in the morning to allow the fluids to circulate and let the engine begin to get a little warmth in it before I leave in the morning. If I didn't have the remote start I would be doing the same thing but sitting in the car waiting for the engine to drop from high rpm start down to normal idle speed before I leave anyway, so I'm not running the engine any longer than I would without it.

Texas isn't exactly known for it's frigid winter. New Years Day I remote started my Stelvio, it was -2 F true, and -25 F wind chill. Some trips to the mountains when skiing the summit temps are -50 F wind-chill, and I'm still skiing. When it's that extreme cold, getting the cabin temp up to even 32 F can take a while in those conditions. It's these conditions where remote start is really useful.

 

[PJessemey]

Is the intent only for North American complaints? If not, it might be worth highlighting in which markets the different issues occur. For example remote start and Sirius XM aren't available in the UK.

 

[SailDrive]

Is the intent only for North American complaints? If not, it might be worth highlighting in which markets the different issues occur. For example remote start and Sirius XM aren't available in the UK.

No, intent is for any owner globally that has these options on their car to take it in for service. Sorry you guys in the UK are left on the short list of the options, I'm assuming it's due to some regulation or another, can't imagine why remote start wouldn't be an option otherwise

Learned something new, Looks like XM is a North America only service.
https://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/9080936/img/9080936.png
https://www.siriusxm.com/coveragemap

In Europe it seems there is a similar service called WorldSpace, but I haven't heard of it being an available in any vehicles before, maybe it's just referred to simply as satellite radio without any brand name?

 

[1929]

Your neighbors seem very excessive with the use. Most often I use remote start about 1-2 minutes before walking out to the car in the morning to allow the fluids to circulate and let the engine begin to get a little warmth in it before I leave in the morning. If I didn't have the remote start I would be doing the same thing but sitting in the car waiting for the engine to drop from high rpm start down to normal idle speed before I leave anyway, so I'm not running the engine any longer than I would without it.

Texas isn't exactly known for it's frigid winter. New Years Day I remote started my Stelvio, it was -2 F true, and -25 F wind chill. Some trips to the mountains when skiing the summit temps are -50 F wind-chill, and I'm still skiing. When it's that extreme cold, getting the cabin temp up to even 32 F can take a while in those conditions. It's these conditions where remote start is really useful.

Yup us skiers like these options and they are important to me for my vehicle I use to go skiing..maybe not so much for people living south. Same with gesture tail gate that maybe others don't use. We ski local almost every day and I have a boot bag on my back, boot bag in one hand and ski bag with multiple sets of heavy skis in another. Swiping my foot to open my hatch to put down my clean bags in my clean hatch is priceless to me.

My current car allows me to actually start my car from the last chair via an app on my phone (provided the mountain I am on has cell coverage or wifi), I don't even have to be within a certain distance and again after 7 hours of skiing with a child coming back to a toasty warm car as you strip your layers again is priceless to me. Anyone who skis as much as we do might understand this more. So yeah I want to be able to remote start my car and warm prior to even if its 100 yards while we're warm in the lodge. Those few minutes running the engine in the lot is not emitting anymore pollution than if I'm driving on the road those few minutes.

Anyone who is younger and texts (I get the older folks don't do that)and in their car a lot as a daily driver want the convenience of Car Play/Android auto. And we like our apps. Simple. Why does that make us nightmares or customers that "need to be fired" because we want Alfa to answer when this "late availability" feature will be functional as promised? Seriously if this is Alfa's attitude too then please let me know so I can move on quicker, this is not the manufacturer for me no matter how much I am in love with the car.

Point is we are all different in our wants and needs. Its not necessary to make it a personal attack because I expressed my disappointment in Alfa's lack of addressing this issue and others and that I may have to move on from purchasing the car sadly. I did so without "venom" :grin I wont be the first to have to move on, there were several in this forum who got fed up with no info on the Car play and moved on too. Ultimately it will be for me to decide which features I will live without or not and whether I move forward with the Stelvio or not. Keep your personal attacks and unfounded judgements to yourself please.

 

[Knightofargh]

From a few internet sources (so take that with a grain of salt) it sounds like the gesture tailgate is going to be 2019 MY. Realistically summer time this year.

It was an option I wanted but for me it wasn’t a dealbreaker. Your needs may vary. It’s a vanishingly rare feature on most makes of car and FCA doesn’t have a kick sensor in their corporate portfolio, so presumably can’t just rummage up the parts. I think there is a Chrysler model with a kick sensor this year.

All cars are a compromise of features. If you need a specific feature it’s worth waiting or looking at other makes. What isn’t good is the kind of virtriol this thread has. As early adopters we are the face of the owner community. It pays to be enthusiastic, welcoming and realistic about the benefits and faults of the brand.

 

[1929]

From a few internet sources (so take that with a grain of salt) it sounds like the gesture tailgate is going to be 2019 MY. Realistically summer time this year.

It was an option I wanted but for me it wasn’t a dealbreaker. Your needs may vary. It’s a vanishingly rare feature on most makes of car and FCA doesn’t have a kick sensor in their corporate portfolio, so presumably can’t just rummage up the parts. I think there is a Chrysler model with a kick sensor this year.

All cars are a compromise of features. If you need a specific feature it’s worth waiting or looking at other makes. What isn’t good is the kind of virtriol this thread has. As early adopters we are the face of the owner community. It pays to be enthusiastic, welcoming and realistic about the benefits and faults of the brand.

THANK YOU THANK YOU.. I KNOW its coming. My dealership wont talk MY2019 because they have 100 2018's on the lot. This is what I am talking about. Alfa being transparent so those of us wanting these things at least know if we want it then we wait until 2019. That's perfectly OK and its important to me and I have the luxury of waiting so I will. JUST TELL ME :smile I almost feel like I'm being duped into buying something by being told its not coming to force me to either buy without now or look elsewhere. As stated that will not make me happy. Alfa just needs to communicate better it seems. Maybe they wont sell everything now (except to those who don't care and according to this forum not many care about these features except me so they should have no issue selling those earlier Stelvios then)but they will build a heck of a lot more trust in new owners.

I find it interesting you say its a rare feature, just about every car I've looked at in the past 6 years has had it
and the new ones I looked just recently looked at have it as well. JAG, MB, LR's all have it as an option currently so I am not sure which manufacturers at taking it away.

Its good to know it may be coming MY2019 and I will keep pressing for info on this...thanks for the input

 

[PJessemey]

Is the intent only for North American complaints? If not, it might be worth highlighting in which markets the different issues occur. For example remote start and Sirius XM aren't available in the UK.

No, intent is for any owner globally that has these options on their car to take it in for service. Sorry you guys in the UK are left on the short list of the options, I'm assuming it's due to some regulation or another, can't imagine why remote start wouldn't be an option otherwise /forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

Learned something new, Looks like XM is a North America only service.
https://www3.picturepush.com/photo/a/9080936/img/9080936.png
https://www.siriusxm.com/coveragemap

In Europe it seems there is a similar service called WorldSpace, but I haven't heard of it being an available in any vehicles before, maybe it's just referred to simply as satellite radio without any brand name?

Cool, thank you. Slightly off topic here (but for information) I think you're right regarding regulations for remote start; although it's not entirely clear to me how it applies there is a law in the UK regarding not leaving a running vehicle unattended. Regarding satellite radio it's not broadly used, in Europe we have DAB radio instead. This uses terrestrial transmitters.

For what it's worth, this forum is bang on for calling Alfa out on these items, plus I strongly believe this is what's needed to help them improve and succeed. Here's to hoping they listen.

 

[1929]

Cool, thank you. Slightly off topic here (but for information) I think you're right regarding regulations for remote start; although it's not entirely clear to me how it applies there is a law in the UK regarding not leaving a running vehicle unattended. Regarding satellite radio it's not broadly used, in Europe we have DAB radio instead. This uses terrestrial transmitters.

For what it's worth, this forum is bang on for calling Alfa out on these items, plus I strongly believe this is what's needed to help them improve and succeed. Here's to hoping they listen.

Yes, these criticisms are out of strong desire to see Alfa succeed, I really feel that way, not out of just criticizing, its important for all owners. They need the feedback. Alfa please listen.

 

[SailDrive]

Regarding the gesture tailgate, communications should be better from Alfa for when it will be released, but it's not a fix for vehicles currently in the hands of owners so not exactly applicable to this thread.

Lets get this back on the topic (and keep it there) of common / widespread issues with current vehicles which Alfa needs to address, and can be reasonably expected to do so for existing owners. For example the sub-optimal microphone placement on the non-sunroof models / windshield icing around rear view mirror due to insufficient heat reaching the glass, both items are legitimate complaints and good feedback for Alfa to fix on future models, but clearly not something which anyone could reasonably ask Alfa to issue a fix for the existing vehicles already sold, therefore not items which are relevant to this thread (you can make a separate post under complaints and issues for that, which is fine).

From this point on, if any blatantly off topic posts are made I will just delete them from the thread (and I might do so retroactively too simply to keep the thread clean / on topic).

 

[Kannassee]

Maybe all this stuff could be improved......but

....actually the most important part for me of Alfa is the handling, acceleration and stability while driving...this also should make the car a safer car since it may be easier to avoid an accident..... that's what differentiates Alfa from.....lets say, Lexus or an Acura SUV...maybe those have more goodies, electronic stuff, the rear view camera is better etc etc more convenient stuff, reliability BUT they are SO boring to drive.....!! .....

And I don't know if the salesmen, dealers are aware of this......when I have been to an Alfa dealership.....they don't know the answer to a lot of questions, .....its like if they were selling Isuzus or Kia or Dodge....you don't feel them to get excited or passionate about the car or brand......its a sports , luxury car with a nice design and superb handling, and they are missing this point...

Maybe they should get some input from Porsche's dealers and salesmen......what a difference when you go to a Porsche dealership......!!!

You are getting a sport car that is as fun to drive as a Porsche for a fraction of the price with much more standart stuff.....I would prefer if they invest the money in making the Stelvio more stable at highway speeds.....when you go really fast I don't feel the Stelvio as stable as a Porsche Macan.....maybe they should put more $$ towards this, there is room for improvement in this field.

...and by the way, the Stelvio handling is much better and nimble that the Macan's when you are driving in the city.....