Cat Toes and Radios

Today I got a nice big chunk of knitting done.  Not that I have a picture to prove it.  No, knitting pictures come few and far between when it's dark when I leave and dark when I get home. 

But the reason I got lots of knitting done is related to my car stereo.  I have a 2008 Ford Focus, which comes with the nifty new "Sync" system.  I can plug in my iPod and use my voice to select songs, playlists, podcasts all using simple spoken commands.  It really is a nice setup, and great for my frequent 3 hour road trips, preventing me from having to click around to find what I want.

(Now, this is not an exciting story.  I invite you to skim.  Really.  I will share a picture of furry kitty toes to break up the monotony some of the way through here, too.  Promise.)

Sadly, a few weeks ago, I plugged in my little iPod one morning, and ... nothing.  It didn't recognize the little guy, no matter how many times I restarted and unplugged and plugged in again.  I checked my cable, the pins, the iPod.  Nothing seemed to be wrong.  I hopped on the Sync support site and found that some people had solved the problem by downloading and installing the updates available on the site.  So, I got my little geek stick (USB drive), downloaded, and plugged it into the car.  Nothing.  As far as the car was concerned, there was nothing plugged in.

I called the dealership, and dropped the car off one morning.  Came back at the end of the day, after they'd ordered a part, replaced a cable and failed to fix the problem.  They didn't know how.  They said they'd call "the hotline" and get back to me.  Today, a week and a half later, I go in again - I'm told it'll be half an hour, and so I run over during my lunch.  Two hours later - "Um, when can I have my car back please?"  Their laptop is messed up, and they have to call the hotline again to get them to fix the laptop, and then they can recalibrate and reset the system, which will take half an hour.  But they don't know how long until the hotline gets back to them.  So I leave.  They will call me when they can fix it.

We interrupt this boring story for kitty toes:


Carry on.


As I drive to knitting group tonight, I decide to give it another shot with the geek stick.  Nothing.  But I spot a 'Master Reset' in the menu tree, and try that.  After some grumbling and thinking, the system is reset and it now recognizes my iPod and seems to work fine.  I had to redo my phone/bluetooth setup, but voice commands are working fine.

So what I really want to say here is - car companies really shouldn't introduce fancy new features in their cars without making sure their service centres know how to fix said fancy new features.

Sorry for the boring story.  But if I have helped one poor Sync owner, then it's been worth it.  Sniff. 



I'll call the dealership tomorrow and teach them how to fix it.