Recourse for infotainment issues?

[bostondan]

I'm starting to get very frustrated with the infotainment issues. I can't imagine dealing with these issues over the next few years of owning this car.

If these issues don't get fixed, what kind of recourse do we have? If I had purchased an Android tablet with this many issues, it would have been returned immediately. We can't exactly just return the infotainment center. Even for a first generation product it is terrible. My BMW 328i ahd the first-gen navigation center, and while not perfect, it didn't have any glaring issues.

Is there any type of guarantee from Honda about things like this working? Does the warranty cover it? What happens if they just can't fix things and therefore we basically don't have functioning features that we were advertised at the time of purchase? Do they say somewhere, "We make no guarantees that the infotainment center will ever really work like you want it to..."?

Would there ever be a class action lawsuit to deal with this? I'm not saying I would ever do that (mostly because I don't care enough and would rather just buy a different car if it came to that), but I'm curious who is looking out for us to make sure this actually gets resolved at some point.

Here is a just a small sampling of issues I have:

- Turning off the volume gesture only works for a couple days. It turns itself back on for no apparent reason.
- Bluetooth randomly decides to stop working correctly. Usually the Bluetooth audio remains, but the Bluetooth phone feature turns off.
- The XM radio tuner has stopped working a couple times. Rebooting fixes it.
- One time the infotainment center just would not turn off, even after turning off the car. I had to reboot it a couple times before it started working.
- The rearview camera is sometimes delayed by 1-2 seconds. This has led to me nearly crashing into what was behind me when suddenly the camera became real-time and it was obvious I was closer than it seemed.
- I still have issues with the audio randomly not working. It fixes generally when I turn the car off and on, as opposed to before the update when it wouldn't work until I rebooted it.
- The right-sided camera has become frozen a few times and not turned off until I reboot.
- When using GPS apps that use the Bluetooth phone call feature for voice-prompts, sometimes the infotainment center gets stuck saying that it is "In Call" and won't leave the phone feature. This leads to an inability to play music or do anything else until the car is turned off or it just randomly decides to work again. This does not happen with any other car I try it in.
- The "Siri" button on the steering wheel randomly just doesn't work. It does work for the Honda prompts, but not for the iPhone prompts. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it. Restarting the car does fix it, so I think it is a car issue, but it's hard to say for sure.

There are many more issues, all seemingly software related. I do not think anything would be fixed by replacing the infotainment center. They all likely need software updates to fix them.

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[dick w]

Yes, they are all software related.

We bought a '12 Ford Focus with MFT in December of 2011. It experienced similar kinds, and worse in severity and frequency, problems even after the fourth or fifth update Ford issued. Every one of these updates fixed some stuff and broke other stuff.

The only positive thing about Ford's MFT updates is that they provided a way to download and install them without a trip to the dealer. (But you did have to leave the car running for over an hour to do it. And it was a multi step process with putting the stick in the car, then on your PC for the download, then in the car to install, then back in the PC to report install results to Ford.) No sign Honda is going to issue an update, and no indication they will make it possible to install without going to the dealer.

There has been a class action inching its way through the courts over MyFord / MyLincoln Touch for years now. No end in sight. Not expecting more than, maybe, a $25 off coupon for buying a new Ford product, which, after the experience, I will never do.

 

[willymtz]

I'm starting to get very frustrated with the infotainment issues. I can't imagine dealing with these issues over the next few years of owning this car.

If these issues don't get fixed, what kind of recourse do we have? If I had purchased an Android tablet with this many issues, it would have been returned immediately. We can't exactly just return the infotainment center. Even for a first generation product it is terrible. My BMW 328i ahd the first-gen navigation center, and while not perfect, it didn't have any glaring issues.

Is there any type of guarantee from Honda about things like this working? Does the warranty cover it? What happens if they just can't fix things and therefore we basically don't have functioning features that we were advertised at the time of purchase? Do they say somewhere, "We make no guarantees that the infotainment center will ever really work like you want it to..."?

Would there ever be a class action lawsuit to deal with this? I'm not saying I would ever do that (mostly because I don't care enough and would rather just buy a different car if it came to that), but I'm curious who is looking out for us to make sure this actually gets resolved at some point.

Here is a just a small sampling of issues I have:

- Turning off the volume gesture only works for a couple days. It turns itself back on for no apparent reason.
- Bluetooth randomly decides to stop working correctly. Usually the Bluetooth audio remains, but the Bluetooth phone feature turns off.
- The XM radio tuner has stopped working a couple times. Rebooting fixes it.
- One time the infotainment center just would not turn off, even after turning off the car. I had to reboot it a couple times before it started working.
- The rearview camera is sometimes delayed by 1-2 seconds. This has led to me nearly crashing into what was behind me when suddenly the camera became real-time and it was obvious I was closer than it seemed.
- I still have issues with the audio randomly not working. It fixes generally when I turn the car off and on, as opposed to before the update when it wouldn't work until I rebooted it.
- The right-sided camera has become frozen a few times and not turned off until I reboot.
- When using GPS apps that use the Bluetooth phone call feature for voice-prompts, sometimes the infotainment center gets stuck saying that it is "In Call" and won't leave the phone feature. This leads to an inability to play music or do anything else until the car is turned off or it just randomly decides to work again. This does not happen with any other car I try it in.
- The "Siri" button on the steering wheel randomly just doesn't work. It does work for the Honda prompts, but not for the iPhone prompts. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it. Restarting the car does fix it, so I think it is a car issue, but it's hard to say for sure.

There are many more issues, all seemingly software related. I do not think anything would be fixed by replacing the infotainment center. They all likely need software updates to fix them.

Wow! that sounds really bad. I have 1 month with my Civic and haven't had any real issues with the infotainment, except for Apple carplay not working on first connect, but I just disconnect usb, reconnect and issue solved.

 

[Brettjod]

My infotainment centre does not have a properly working clock half the time now. I have to go to a different menu to get the clock to update. Very annoying.

 

[t3hub3rk1tten]

- Turning off the volume gesture only works for a couple days. It turns itself back on for no apparent reason.
- Bluetooth randomly decides to stop working correctly. Usually the Bluetooth audio remains, but the Bluetooth phone feature turns off.
- The XM radio tuner has stopped working a couple times. Rebooting fixes it.
- One time the infotainment center just would not turn off, even after turning off the car. I had to reboot it a couple times before it started working.
- The rearview camera is sometimes delayed by 1-2 seconds. This has led to me nearly crashing into what was behind me when suddenly the camera became real-time and it was obvious I was closer than it seemed.
- I still have issues with the audio randomly not working. It fixes generally when I turn the car off and on, as opposed to before the update when it wouldn't work until I rebooted it.
- The right-sided camera has become frozen a few times and not turned off until I reboot.
- When using GPS apps that use the Bluetooth phone call feature for voice-prompts, sometimes the infotainment center gets stuck saying that it is "In Call" and won't leave the phone feature. This leads to an inability to play music or do anything else until the car is turned off or it just randomly decides to work again. This does not happen with any other car I try it in.
- The "Siri" button on the steering wheel randomly just doesn't work. It does work for the Honda prompts, but not for the iPhone prompts. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it. Restarting the car does fix it, so I think it is a car issue, but it's hard to say for sure.

There are many more issues, all seemingly software related. I do not think anything would be fixed by replacing the infotainment center. They all likely need software updates to fix them.

These issues are very weird. I haven't experienced anything like them in 4 months. Talk to your dealer, get video evidence when you can. Hopefully they can replace the HU.

 

[Ash2016]

I'm starting to get very frustrated with the infotainment issues. I can't imagine dealing with these issues over the next few years of owning this car.

If these issues don't get fixed, what kind of recourse do we have? If I had purchased an Android tablet with this many issues, it would have been returned immediately. We can't exactly just return the infotainment center. Even for a first generation product it is terrible. My BMW 328i ahd the first-gen navigation center, and while not perfect, it didn't have any glaring issues.

Is there any type of guarantee from Honda about things like this working? Does the warranty cover it? What happens if they just can't fix things and therefore we basically don't have functioning features that we were advertised at the time of purchase? Do they say somewhere, "We make no guarantees that the infotainment center will ever really work like you want it to..."?

Would there ever be a class action lawsuit to deal with this? I'm not saying I would ever do that (mostly because I don't care enough and would rather just buy a different car if it came to that), but I'm curious who is looking out for us to make sure this actually gets resolved at some point.

Here is a just a small sampling of issues I have:

- Turning off the volume gesture only works for a couple days. It turns itself back on for no apparent reason.
- Bluetooth randomly decides to stop working correctly. Usually the Bluetooth audio remains, but the Bluetooth phone feature turns off.
- The XM radio tuner has stopped working a couple times. Rebooting fixes it.
- One time the infotainment center just would not turn off, even after turning off the car. I had to reboot it a couple times before it started working.
- The rearview camera is sometimes delayed by 1-2 seconds. This has led to me nearly crashing into what was behind me when suddenly the camera became real-time and it was obvious I was closer than it seemed.
- I still have issues with the audio randomly not working. It fixes generally when I turn the car off and on, as opposed to before the update when it wouldn't work until I rebooted it.
- The right-sided camera has become frozen a few times and not turned off until I reboot.
- When using GPS apps that use the Bluetooth phone call feature for voice-prompts, sometimes the infotainment center gets stuck saying that it is "In Call" and won't leave the phone feature. This leads to an inability to play music or do anything else until the car is turned off or it just randomly decides to work again. This does not happen with any other car I try it in.
- The "Siri" button on the steering wheel randomly just doesn't work. It does work for the Honda prompts, but not for the iPhone prompts. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it. Restarting the car does fix it, so I think it is a car issue, but it's hard to say for sure.

There are many more issues, all seemingly software related. I do not think anything would be fixed by replacing the infotainment center. They all likely need software updates to fix them.

I have all those issues and my car is with honda since last 2 days. They are saying that my first software update didn't actually happened even it was done earlier. So doing it again. Lets see. I will give you an update once i will get my car.

I'm starting to get very frustrated with the infotainment issues. I can't imagine dealing with these issues over the next few years of owning this car.

If these issues don't get fixed, what kind of recourse do we have? If I had purchased an Android tablet with this many issues, it would have been returned immediately. We can't exactly just return the infotainment center. Even for a first generation product it is terrible. My BMW 328i ahd the first-gen navigation center, and while not perfect, it didn't have any glaring issues.

Is there any type of guarantee from Honda about things like this working? Does the warranty cover it? What happens if they just can't fix things and therefore we basically don't have functioning features that we were advertised at the time of purchase? Do they say somewhere, "We make no guarantees that the infotainment center will ever really work like you want it to..."?

Would there ever be a class action lawsuit to deal with this? I'm not saying I would ever do that (mostly because I don't care enough and would rather just buy a different car if it came to that), but I'm curious who is looking out for us to make sure this actually gets resolved at some point.

Here is a just a small sampling of issues I have:

- Turning off the volume gesture only works for a couple days. It turns itself back on for no apparent reason.
- Bluetooth randomly decides to stop working correctly. Usually the Bluetooth audio remains, but the Bluetooth phone feature turns off.
- The XM radio tuner has stopped working a couple times. Rebooting fixes it.
- One time the infotainment center just would not turn off, even after turning off the car. I had to reboot it a couple times before it started working.
- The rearview camera is sometimes delayed by 1-2 seconds. This has led to me nearly crashing into what was behind me when suddenly the camera became real-time and it was obvious I was closer than it seemed.
- I still have issues with the audio randomly not working. It fixes generally when I turn the car off and on, as opposed to before the update when it wouldn't work until I rebooted it.
- The right-sided camera has become frozen a few times and not turned off until I reboot.
- When using GPS apps that use the Bluetooth phone call feature for voice-prompts, sometimes the infotainment center gets stuck saying that it is "In Call" and won't leave the phone feature. This leads to an inability to play music or do anything else until the car is turned off or it just randomly decides to work again. This does not happen with any other car I try it in.
- The "Siri" button on the steering wheel randomly just doesn't work. It does work for the Honda prompts, but not for the iPhone prompts. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it. Restarting the car does fix it, so I think it is a car issue, but it's hard to say for sure.

There are many more issues, all seemingly software related. I do not think anything would be fixed by replacing the infotainment center. They all likely need software updates to fix them.

 

[mno86]

The car is definitely buggy. No denying that.

I feel like I read somewhere in the manual that Honda makes no guarantees to update the software, so...

 

[norcal415]

The car is definitely buggy. No denying that.

I feel like I read somewhere in the manual that Honda makes no guarantees to update the software, so...

Damn is this true?! Maybe I should definitely wait until the '17 model to get my Civic...

 

[FC1rob]

My Touring was made 1/12/16 and I drove it off the lot 2/27. I have not experienced the infotainment issues that other people are complaining about so far. I mean it does seem to lag a bit and I use bluetooth audio only which has been fine for me. I don't have any Apple products so can't comment on Carplay, I've farted around with Android Auto but for me it's unnecessary since the stock Navi is plenty good for me. My previous vehicle was an 07 530i which at the time was nice but my Touring has WAY more bells and whistles. So far I don't regret buying my Touring and I have confidence that Honda is hammering out the bugs and actually taking responsibility for these issues, I can't say the same for the pos BMW dealerships!

 

[mno86]

Damn is this true?! Maybe I should definitely wait until the '17 model to get my Civic...

My guess is if it's a widespread problem they would address it. I used to have access to the Tech Service Bullitins like the one a user shared with us about the surging CVT, but the server went away a log time ago.

It was SO nice seeing the little fixes Honda had but dealerships rarely told you about unless confronted with it.

 

[ahiguero]

i was having a lot of issues and the last one (no radio reception FM / AM and HD traffic) not to mention random disconnects for Carplay and bluetooth stuttering. during all those times, while doing the diagnostics the Tuner was showing as red. To make a long story short i took it to the dealership and they replaced the tuner and so far it is working a lot better.

 

[anckentucky]

You can trust that if its impacting their bottom dollar in sales or repairs, they'll find a fix for it.

 

[dick w]

You can trust that if its impacting their bottom dollar in sales or repairs, they'll find a fix for it.

Tell that to the millions of us that bought a Ford or Lincoln with MyFord/MyLincoln Touch over the five years they were building it into cars.

 

[anckentucky]

Tell that to the millions of us that bought a Ford or Lincoln with MyFord/MyLincoln Touch over the five years they were building it into cars.

There's a pretty distinct difference in the quality of Honda and Fords, I would know as Fords are all I've owned. Honda has already been on top of taking care of the bigger issues in the car so far. I would trust them to continue attending to their customers needs. Ford has never done that in my eyes.

 

[dick w]

There's a pretty distinct difference in the quality of Honda and Fords, I would know as Fords are all I've owned. Honda has already been on top of taking care of the bigger issues in the car so far. I would trust them to continue attending to their customers needs. Ford has never done that in my eyes.

We'll see. I hope you are correct. Excluding infotainment, I absolutely agree. The '16 Civic, when ours gets here, will be our ninth Honda vs. two Fords. So far, I see fewer signs that Honda recognizes there are infotainment issues, cares to try to fix them, and is willing to provide a straightforward way to deliver those fixes to customers than I saw from Ford. Honda is still in school to learn the infotainment lessons Ford already learned. I hate to say it. But that's how I'm seeing it.

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