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SNM -> Some minor, but annoying, glitches (7/3/2006 9:22:47 PM)
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My new CX7 is a great vehicle, so far, except for some minor, but annoying glitches found in new models. My CX7 has the Grand Touring Option which of course includes the GPS thingy. On the steering wheel, there is a "mute" button to, what else, mute the Bose system, however, when you press the "mute button, the radio/cd temporarily mutes, comes back on with guess what...the GPS screen and the annoying woman's voice telling me she/it did not understand my voice command. What happens is: the "mute" button is not really a mute button at all, but is an activation for the microphone which allows you to talk to your GPS, if you are inclined to do that sort of thing. The manual, for whatever it is worth, advises the "mute" button is only operational if you have the sound system on (duh), but does not advise you what happens if you also have a GPS system installed. Mazda needs to figure a work around for this and maybe enable a way to turn off the GPS system in order to make the mute button a real mute button.
Now, lets address the "Remote Start" option, which works (kinda) in conjunction with the Advanced Key. What a nightmare this is to figure out. You have buttons on the remote start key, buttons on the advanced key thingymajiggy, buttons on the exterior door handles, and of course buttons on the interior door handles. At any rate, you can remotely, using the advanced key thingmajiggy, lower your windows and open your sun roof as you approach the vehicle (to let the hot air out), then using the remote start (seperate remote) start the vehicle and cool off the hot air, if you remember to leave your AC on and make sure there are no car thieves near by. Now some interesting points. You can turn off the vehicle by again pressing the remote start button, and you will need to use the advanced key thingymajoggy to unlock the doors or use the exterior "Request" buttons on the door handles to unlock. There are certain times you may think there is an entire flock of birds hovering over your vehicle with all the chirping going on. At any rate, after you get in the vehicle, after using the remote starter and determing what unlocks the doors, you cannot step on the brake before turning the keyless ignition to on. If you do, the CX7 stops running. Nothing wrong with that for security purposes (ha ha car thieves). On the dashboard, if you start the CX with the remote starter, a red "KEY" light burns and burns and burns until you either turn the keyless ignition off and restart it by only using the keyless ignition, not the remote start. DON'T BE ALARMED WHEN YOU CHECK YOUR MANUAL ABOUT WHY THE RED KEY LIGHT IS STAYING ON AND THE MANUAL TELLS YOU YOU NEED TO TAKE IT TO A CERTIFIED MAZDA DEALER BECAUSE THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUR ADVANCED KEY SYSTEM. To be perfectly honest, the Mazda dealer techs have no idea what is going on because they have no tech manuals yet for the CX7 and Mazda decided to take a 4 day holiday and left no engineers to address questions from the service department. I have always felt that car manufacturers should be required to list the name and home telephone numbers of their engineers in each vehicle. I bet that would cut down on a lot of the complexity of these new vehicles and make a lot of people learn Japaneese. So anyway, good luck on figuring out the advanced key thingmajioggy, the remote start thingmajiggy and the unlock doors Request deal.
All in all, it seems once you can figure out how to unlock the doors, keep the engine running, not use the mute button to mute the sound system, ignore the warning red "KEY" light, the actual drive is great and fun, particulary using the manual shift option. I will give you a further update on gas mileage after the breakin period, but right now it's looking...ah...interesting.
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