Audio and Connectivity Overview for 2016 Honda Civic Sedan

[dick w]

At least a CD player would be more likely to work as expected.

Only if they didn't add that CD player to a system with all the other "state-of-the-art" stuff that a majority of customers expect and demand in 2016 cars. They only discover, after purchase, the reality of 2016 automotive infotainment systems.

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[anckentucky]

Only if they didn't add that CD player to a system with all the other "state-of-the-art" stuff that a majority of customers expect and demand in 2016 cars. They only discover, after purchase, the reality of 2016 automotive infotainment systems.

I really don't understand how people are having so many problems with the infotainment system. Works like butter for me and after sitting in the car for an hour I feel I've pretty much gotten everything set how I like it and completely figured out.

 

[dick w]

I really don't understand how people are having so many problems with the infotainment system. Works like butter for me and after sitting in the car for an hour I feel I've pretty much gotten everything set how I like it and completely figured out.

Suspect a range of things:

1) It is complicated and there are lots of overlaid functions--different ways to accomplish similar objectives, multiple places/paths to do the same thing. They also use a range of human interface actions inconsistently from one place to another for lot of reasons like heritage code not re-factored for the new platform. Some users adapt better to any of these technologies than others, depending on what stuff they are used to using and familiar with. So issues stemming from design for usability are one class of problems some people have.

2) Different people are using different parts of it in different ways. Some people just use SXM. Others are using navi, AA or CP, and multiple audio sources. This class of issues stem from use-case-specific problems or sequence-of-use problems.

3) Different phones and memory sticks and so on all induce interoperability and compatibility issues. This class of issues are compatibility problems.

4) There are differences across the trim levels. E.g., the Touring-unique Power Amplifier that was the source of the only present TSB for infotainment related issues. There are also at least some differences in code levels in the field. Or car say it's Android kernel was built in November. That has to be different than what rolled off the line back in October.

5) Different expectation levels. Not everybody see the same behavior and calls it an issue.

I've only had the Display Audio Civic since last Thursday; our car was built with any updates they were putting in mid February production. I've already made more advertised stuff work better in the Civic--as a proportion of total stuff--than I ever made work correctly or consistently in the '12 Ford MyFord Touch, despite its many updates. And had no crashes or system hangs. Don't recall for sure, but think we'd had those kinds of problems within a week after buying the Ford. It hasn't been painless or bug-free. And many of the problem reports suggest to me resource starvation issues over time. Classic symptom of memory leak problems. So I may see more issues as time goes on, pending a reboot. I've rebooted once so far due to something that didn't seem to want to work.

 

[Slickone]

Only if they didn't add that CD player to a system with all the other "state-of-the-art" stuff that a majority of customers expect and demand in 2016 cars. They only discover, after purchase, the reality of 2016 automotive infotainment systems.

Sorry I'm not really sure what you're saying.

 

[dick w]

Sorry I'm not really sure what you're saying.

What I'm saying is that adding the CD only makes the infotainment more likely to work as expected if they get rid of all of the other infotainment features and dumb it down back to what was standard function in, say, 2005.

The CD is just another audio source. The infotainment isn't unreliable because it doesn't have a CD source. It's unreliable because it has so many of them, plus the ability to have wallpaper, different wallpaper for the clock, skins, read your text messages, remote your phone display--iPhone or Android, stream Pandora, control the HVAC, show history of the trip odometers, call Honda about your indicator lights and maintenance minder messages, call 911, etc., ad nauseum. Adding a CD player to this mix wouldn't make it more reliable. And it wouldn't mean that you'd never have infotainment problems if you only had it using that CD player as an audio source.

But many, maybe most, car buyers consider this stuff important and desirable and it unquestionably helps Honda sell cars. That's why the auto companies do it.

Ignoring their cost to support the infotainment systems--how they are ignoring it is another question--these have to be among the most profitable features they've ever put in cars. Cheap hardware--way cheaper and more reliable (again, ignoring the crap software) than when they had lots of switches and potentiometers and encoders and cassette players and electro-mechanical-optical drives. Plus software is free to add to the nth car off the line. And customers pay a premium to get it! That premium is pure profit for that nth car off the line because the cost to reproduce the software was precisely $0.

These customers who beg for this stuff at the dealer only discover, when they've had the car for a while, that all these neato infotainment systems have this dark side: the automakers can't seem to develop reliable code in these kinds of environments.

 

[Design]

I agree. The downside is that the infotainment is bundled with other desirable features like the sunroof, lighting, and leather. The good news is that this is a high volume platform; aftermarket support will become very strong over time. And I've had good experience with mid level units like Alpine and Pioneer.

 

[bhorn]

I agree. The downside is that the infotainment is bundled with other desirable features like the sunroof, lighting, and leather. The good news is that this is a high volume platform; aftermarket support will become very strong over time. And I've had good experience with mid level units like Alpine and Pioneer.

The problem with aftermarket is that its never going to be able to handle all the integrated features. How are you going to change the settings for the walkaway auto-lock feature (or any of those MANY settings) without the stock software in the factory head unit?

 

[Design]

Glad you brought it up. This is one of several integration companies that bridge the gap between aftermarket units and the HU firmware.
http://maestro.idatalink.com/

Being that Honda's firmware is based on Android 4.x, on a platform that sees a quarter million in annual sales, I don't think it will take developers too long to figure out the code.

 

[dick w]

The downside is that the infotainment is bundled with other desirable features like the sunroof, lighting, and leather.

I'd buy it with the infotainment again and would not gut it out for some aftermarket semi-solution. I just wish Honda would work the issues, issue updates, and make it simple to get and install them.

 

[awm22]

Bought a 2016 Civic EX about 4 months ago. It's a great car, generally, and the new technology and phone integrations are pretty cool, well thought out and useful.

But you should be aware that, at the moment, there is a software bug that sometimes prevents the Bluetooth and Android Auto/Apple Car functionality described above from working properly. More info here: http://www.civicx.com/threads/clock-bluetooth-issues.2536/

Let's hope they get that resolved soon, so the car can actually live up to all its hype.

 

[Yeti]

Extremely frustrated with the Android Auto and Bluetooth in my EX.

Some days they work, others they dont. Especially annoying after a long day of work and neither feature work, so I have to pull over and waste some time trying to trouble shoot the problem.

Android Auto is also a huge joke, I have a Samsung Note 5 (lollipop) USB Debugging on or off does not matter. Sometimes it will only load the main screen, others it wont load anything.

Just frustrating as !"/$

/rant over

 

[kalin21]

I am old school I dont need android auto or bluetooh.. an USB flash drive with mp3 files works on the new civic? or any way that can I install cd player

 

[dick w]

an USB flash drive with mp3 files works on the new civic?

Yup that works. But not as well as I'd hoped. Our biggest issue has been that it's very limited in how it plays the stick. Whole stick or lowest level folder seem like the only options. No Genre, Artist, anything. Selecting Random by Folder in a folder randomizes immediately and changes from the current track playing. When we play Random in Folder on a stick with lots (9,000+/-) tracks, it randomly changes from the a track in the folder I started in to one in the next folder. If you select a folder, not a track, it reverts to playing from the prior folder. That kind of stuff. Not very full-featured. And buggy. Once you get past all of that, it works well.

 

[kalin21]

Yup that works. But not as well as I'd hoped. Our biggest issue has been that it's very limited in how it plays the stick. Whole stick or lowest level folder seem like the only options. No Genre, Artist, anything. Selecting Random by Folder in a folder randomizes immediately and changes from the current track playing. When we play Random in Folder on a stick with lots (9,000+/-) tracks, it randomly changes from the a track in the folder I started in to one in the next folder. If you select a folder, not a track, it reverts to playing from the prior folder. That kind of stuff. Not very full-featured. And buggy. Once you get past all of that, it works well.

oh wow what a shame, I can't beleive they removed the CD player..most others 2016 cars still have it

 

[dick w]

oh wow what a shame, I can't beleive they removed the CD player..most others 2016 cars still have it

Even with its limitations, I'd rather use the stick than carry CDs to the car. (Of our 700+ CDs, most of them are already ripped. In AAC320 they fit on a 128GB stick with 50GB to spare. The whole music collection is now in the Civic.)

Our '07 CR-V has the factory CD+Nav and 6-disc changer. It also has a PCcard slot that accepts a CF card adapter. Can't remember the last time I messed with putting CDs in it. Even though it can only deal with about 1,000 files on the PCcard, an 8GB CF card, half full of 192 kbps MP3s, carries so many tunes that I can go months before thinking it's time to change cards. With six CDs in the magazine, that was only a week or two. Paid big money to add a factory accessory changer to our '09 135i. It also used USB sticks. Don't think we ended up putting CDs in that car more than three or four times in five years.

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