Pioneer car stereo

[TC Chris]

Several years ago I replaced the original radio/cassette device in the '86 Mustang with a Pioneer DEH-3400UB, a radio/CD player.

Last week I discovered that I had left a door open and the battery had gone to zero. After two tries, it took a charge and showed 13.4V. Today I decided to back it out and verify battery function.

But wait--the car stereo had lost all settings. And with Pioneer, that takes you to "demo mode," a function that leave the radio on (even if the lights and sound are off) so it runs the battery down. (I found out about that when it was new). So I dug the instructions out from under the seat (no, the radio dos not come with instructions--you have to print them out yourself) and tried to turn "demo mode" off. No luck after 20 minutes of trying. So I went for a drive before getting any more frustrated and just now came in to check for guidance online. Not surprisingly, there are multiple videos on how to get the $#@(&!!! function to "off." Most of them I have tried. I'm going to head out and try again.

But let's just say that this is one of the most frustrating consumer products I have encountered. What was Pioneer thinking when they designed in this useless but persistent function?????

Chris Campbell

[William]

The were not thinking, nor did they care about customer satisfaction. Some person in the Pioneer design team thought it would be a good idea to have everything go back to the beginning of time and then if you did not reset everything it would run your battery dead. Brilliant idea, right!

Bill

[TC Chris]

What's super-annoying is the complexity of the operations required to escape the "demo mode," which is an unnecessary function. It should be one that you must select if you want it (not sure what it is for....), not a default that you have to get out of (or find your battery run down because nobody told you that's what demo mode does).

At any rate, after it sat for 1/2 hour I was able to access the "demo off" option and all seems well now.

I have a theory about software folks. They are rewarded for innovation and change, whether it's needed or not. So we get lots of "upgrades" that just require relearning. The boss decreed at work that we would upgrade from Windows 10 to 11. That's OK; in a business setting you need security & updates. But the Windows 11 designers made lots of totally gratuitous, nonfunctional changes--like the color and location of buttons to click. My brain still sends my hand to move the cursor the bottom left side of the screen where I would click for the browser. Now it's midscreen, almost invisible because the icon is the same color as the bar it sits in, and my move to the left pulls up annoying ads. So some employee got rewarded for useless changes and the program became less user friendly.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

My car got recalled for a "software update". I thought it was nonsense, ignored it, car was working just fine, no need to mess with progress, etc....

They kept sending me notices of the recall, with gradually more aggressive wording. First notifying, then advising, then strongly suggesting. Then giving me the "let's mess with the old people" blurb that told me all the horrible things that would happen if I ignored this software update. I never did get the update done....

[TC Chris]

My Ranger had the air bags replaced 3 times, or maybe just 2 and the 3rd (and 4th) were just inspections to see if previous replacements were done properly. It wasn't quite clear by the time I got to #3. They did #4 when it was in for brakes this late winter. My theory if they couldn't get it right the first two tries, they aren't going to get much better at it and I'll just take my chances.

I just went out and sat in the Mustang and made sure the radio was working again, and then reprogrammed the station push buttons. This radio has never sounded as good as the factory radios in the Rangers. It has the little 3" factory dash speakers in front and 6x9 Pyles in back. The audio has too much distortion. I suspect it may be just a sub-par unit. But at least it's no longer in "demo mode."

Chris Campbell

[Conelrad]

Dilbert comics explained all that crap just fine.

D

[electra225]

I can't recall the name of the person who did "Dilbert". Scott-something IIRC. He was brilliant and made some good points in jest.

When manufacturers mess around doing updates and recalls, it always makes things worse. I haven't heard if all those Takata air bags got replaced in millions of cars. Probably most of those cars are in the junkyard by now, so perhaps not all of them were done. GM has been "guessing around" with the cylinder de-activation nightmare on their V-8 engines for years. It will take a "clean sheet" engine to ever fix that. I agree with Chris. If manufacturers can't build a vehicle right the first time, who has confidence they have the motivation or the inclination to correct the situation after they get their money for the car. The GM proving grounds on Ellsworth Road out here in the East Valley is now a housing project. This is partly why GM and others makes such trouble-prone vehicles. 30 years ago, the proving grounds were 50 miles east of Nowhere.