Let's not be paranoid. "Selective availability" was a problem for years, but it was abolished a half-dozen years ago. It never involved injecting false signals, but only degraded accuracy to the point that it couldn't be used for targetting missiles very well. Yes the government runs the system, but it is in general civilian use, and any deliberate spoofing would have airplanes running into mountains, and that sort of thing. Everyone knows that. BUT sometimes satellites go bad, and that's why there are spares up there.

BTW, I took out my nav unit last night, and the GPS antenna is exactly where people have said it was, attached by one bolt. I hadn't known that there is in fact no separate GPS receiver in the car, the signal going directly into the audio system. I sure wouldn't try to repair that (except for looking for loose leads). There is an elaborate self-diagnostic mode, and Ford's approach seems to be to check the obvious, and then simply replace it. There is a self-calibration, which (as near as I can tell) is to adjust the magnetic corrections to the compass by using the GPS to determine real direction of travel. (We used to do that with airplanes by lining them up with marks on the ground.) Then the compass reading is apparently integrated with the GPS, to make it more responsive to turns.

There is a lot to learn about the thing, and I only wish that Ford was more open with us, and willing to answer questions. Here I am, a certified and licensed radar and electronics expert with a misfiring GPS, and no place to turn for information about my own car. And of course the dealers know even less.They've really soured me on the company.

Hal

I would settle just for a set of clear schematics.

Best single LD trip: 35.3mpg

As pipe dreams go, that's not bad.

They could do it if they cared, but the company seems now to be in the hands of (handsomely paid) people who count money, and simply don't care about that intangible called goodwill, which is an investment you can't cash in within their attention span. (The Japanese are far better at that, and it shows.)

As I type this I am looking at my bookshelf, which has the documentation I still have from the 1993 Explorer I traded in for the Escape. There is a full sheaf of complete circuit diagrams (admittedly not the inside of the radio boxes, which they buy as boxes anyway), with all the interconnects and cables laid out. There is a short (250 pages) book entitled Do-It-Yourself Maintenance and Light Repair Manual, full of useful pictures and text, a book approximately 300 pages long (maybe more, they aren't numbered) entitled "Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual, plus the usual detailed Workshop Manuals (about four inches thick on my bookshelf) to cover body, chassis, engine, drivetrain, etc. The CD they now distribute has enough space to hold all this and more, but it doesn't even pretend to. They have to provide that level of information to their dealers (at least I would hope so), so it's just a matter of packaging and incentive.

Of course cars are different nowadays, and computerization has made a lot of functions harder for average DIYers (to say nothing of service personnel) to understand, but a company that sells cars in the tens of millions could do a helluva lot better than they do. IF they gave a darn about customer loyalty. It comes down to incentive.

Hal

Regarding the GPS unit (which is the Visteon Navigation Radio), a schematic wouldn't help us that much. (Although it would be nice to know which GPS chipset they are using.)

I would like to know more about the software or firmware. Almost every GPS unit has some kind of hidden diagnostic screen. My wife and I are also very annoyed that the unit doesn't let you enter latitude and longitude coordinates. I wouldn't be surprised if that functionality was on some hidden screen too.

I sent Visteon a polite email asking them for more information, but they just ignored me. Maybe if more of us email them, they might open up. They really don't have anything to lose, because the design is obsolete already.

Lloyd

I'm with you (what's their e-mail address), but I'd settle for being able to read out the latitude/longitude, just as I can with my el-cheapo hiking GPS. The numbers are certainly in the machine, and it wouldn't cost them anything to make an option to display them.

I agree with you that if enough of us e-mail them, they will respond---companies are like that. I'd like a thousdand of us to e-mail Ford about the information flow, but they don't even have an e-mail address (or even a snail-mail address) to which constructive suggestions can be sent. But I have found in the past that a letter addressed personally to the CEO usually gets read by somebody.

Draft a letter, and I'll co-sign it. It's a fact that in this world only groups get noticed.

BTW, my GPS put me in a lake again today, but it was prescient--five minutes later I was six inches deep in water. I was driving out of our local recycling center, and they had a shallow pond one had to drive through on the way out, presumably to clean the tires of any noxious debris. This GPS may not be accurate, but it sure is smart.

Hal

Well, a latitude/longitude display would be nice, but we already can see that on our handheld GPS unit. For us, it's really frustrating to have an onboard GPS unit with street maps, but not be able to navigate to specific coordinates.

Visteon website: http://www.visteon.com/
Visteon Navigation Radio: http://www.visteon.com/products/auto...navradio.shtml
Visteon Contact Form: http://www.visteon.com/utils/contact...tus_form.shtml

I sent them another polite message today. Who knows if anything will happen, but at least it only takes a minute or two to write them a note.

Lloyd

This is the message I got when I emailed them about the Nav unit back in June:

They did not contact me again nor did they respond to my follow-up.

-Tim

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD
Black with Pebble interior
Premium Package with Nav & Moonroof



Current ODO: 26,152
Typical Drive: 20 min crosstown in heavy traffic (3.5mi there and back twice a day)


532 Gallons of gas saved
That's 10,642 lbs less CO2 emitted

Check out the VNR 9000 that they have sold in Europe.....I'd love to get some of that functionality like a REAL built-in bluetooth application. The traffic system would be cool too if it was something that actually was in use across the US.

http://www.mondeo.hu/ftp/kezelesi_ut...000_vnr_uk.pdf

Also, note that Visteon has been making this radio since 2000....and it appears nothing has changed short of the addition of the Hybrid screens.

http://www.autonav2000.com/PhotoGallery/CES_CarShow.htm

-Tim

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD
Black with Pebble interior
Premium Package with Nav & Moonroof



Current ODO: 26,152
Typical Drive: 20 min crosstown in heavy traffic (3.5mi there and back twice a day)


532 Gallons of gas saved
That's 10,642 lbs less CO2 emitted

Here's something interesting....I was digging around on the Visteon site and found this page of software upgrades....I see one called MP3 upgrade and wonder why they don't issue something like this for the Nav radio???

Also, the Nav radio software is listed if someone wants to download it and see what it is...

http://support.evisteon.com/support/..._folder_id=567

-Tim

2006 Mercury Mariner Hybrid AWD
Black with Pebble interior
Premium Package with Nav & Moonroof



Current ODO: 26,152
Typical Drive: 20 min crosstown in heavy traffic (3.5mi there and back twice a day)


532 Gallons of gas saved
That's 10,642 lbs less CO2 emitted

When I go to the link below, it will not allow me to download anything.
I think that all those links are just text documents, and not actual software, but I get "server error" messages every time I try, so could not verify.