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The one aspect of the 9000 I find myself truly disliking is the climate control. I'm not sure why carmakers decided this is a good thing they should offer in their finest models.
It just plain doesn't work well. Tonight, 20 degree F weather here in Maine, the windshield, side and rear windows all wanted to fog up unless I have it in full defrost mode. After car is well warmed up I noticed my feet were cold so tried it in half defrost/half heat to lower regions mode, only to find corners of windshield and side windows were starting to fog again - - well before my feet got warm. After simply hitting the indicator to split airflow between defrost and heat, you have to adjust fan speed and it's tap tap tap tap tap at a vague spot on the climate control panel, till at last fan is running strong again, because the switch turned the fan from full to off or almost off. Switch from 50-50 split to all heat, and you have to tap tap tap tap tap again to get fan back up to speed. WTF?
Give me a classic American car's controls, one slider for heat, another for the split of air between down-low heat and defrost, a dial type knob to select fan speed, and a switch for rear window defroster. Oh also a knob for AC if so equipped. Even the C900's oddball multiposition knob for various splits of airflow was okay.
On this thing, I have to SHUT THE THING completely off on startup in cold weather, or else it blows icy air in my face or onto my feet till car warms up. Then I have to remember to switch it on once things have warmed up. On a classic type setup, I just shut the fan off at night when I got home, started off in the AM and turned the fan on when car was warmed up. You could tell when it was warmed up, heat flow didn't stop, it just didn't have the fan behind it, so windshield starting to clear at bottom edge meant, okay turn fan on now.
In fall, and spring too, there's no proper setting for the heat - - you NEED heat but 62 degrees seems too warm, and there's nothing below that but ice cold. With a classic setup, there's always a setting that suits, and it's real easy to just tweak the slider either way if not.
The whole idea that there's an ideal temperature for the interior that should be held is kind of cockeyed too, really. Sometimes you're chilled to the bone and want to be roasted, other times you're overheated and want it cool, and the Climate Control interposes such a dorky sluggish interface between you and just changing things that it makes me mad.
If it wasn't so complicated and if the results weren't likely to be ugly as sin, I'd try to rig up a mechanical and electrical bypass for the unit. Which, I note, Saab bought off the shelf from Japan.
It's luxury-car hell, not heaven, to me.
posted by 71.173.74...
, Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:14:50, Wed, 8 Feb 2012 22:19:07
, Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:48:52, Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:14:48, Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:30:47, Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:26:15, Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:43:23, Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:59:31
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