New Car Issues

goodallish

I currently have a new car (Ford) on a lease policy which I have been having issues with. When I try to play music via the SYNC system on a USB stick, some tracks come up as 'Bad Media Track' which then forces the rest of the tracks to stop playing.

I took my car in to the garage today to be looked at and I showed the head engineer an image of the console showing 'bad media track' on the display which he said he had never seen before. I left my USB stick with them to try but unfortunately they said they couldn't find a fault and so the problem is still there.

I was assured it was due to some of the tracks not being compatible with the SYNC system, however I have not added any new tracks to the initial USB and ALL of the tracks worked in the previous car that I had (same car) with the same SYNC system, so I don't know why the tracks would all of a sudden become corrupt or stop working. They all play fine on a computer and I have also tried the tracks on various USB sticks to no avail.

I was also given a courtesy car, but for some unknown reason I had to speak to my insurance company (Admiral) and pay £31.11 on top of my premium in order to get this for one day, which shouldn't be the case as I have comprehensive insurance which should cover use of other car assuming it is not for merchandise delivery, renting out, peer to peer hire schemes, etc. The car was neither leased or hired to me under my agreement, it was simply a courtesy car that I assumed I would be entitled to under the Ford warranty as mine needed to go in for mechanical repair.

The policyholder may also drive with the consent of the owner
a private motor car as long as the other car is not a car either
owned by you or your partner or hired or leased to you or your
partner under a hire purchase or leasing agreement or hired or
rented to you or your partner under a car hire or rental
agreement, within our territorial limits, providing there is a valid
insurance policy in force for that car.

Surely that covers the use of a courtesy car too when I have not put in a claim?

Nobody mentioned anything about a master reset of the SYNC system either so I don't think they even bothered to try this to see if that would resolve the problem. I am now out of pocket as well as the fault not being fixed and my day wasted.

Would I be entitled to claim the £31.11 back? Do I have any other options if Ford cannot fix the problem? Any help or advice appreciated.

forgotmyname

Your insurance covers driving other cars but onyl 3rd party, if you damage it you need to pay for it from your own pocket. Thats why it cost you to add it to your policy for full cover.

And its not a private motor car, its a business courtesy car.

Strider590

Did you bother to look this issue up on the internet or on some owners forums?

goodallish

forgotmyname - thank you, as frustrating as it is that would make sense.

Strider590 - yes I have looked and some people have had the same problem but there are no real explanations or resolutions to the matter than I haven't already tried and most others still remain with the problem too. My best bet is to avoid Ford in future, or stick with my iPod for music rather than USB.

stef73

I use my ford sync with Bluetooth only so have not tried the usb but do the tracks that won't play have the correct titles no symbols or dashes in the title ?only a idea not tried it
Google brought up http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/57652-sync-and-usb-problems/

rhysadams

It could be the quality of the file. Some MP3 radios don't like the quality to be above, say 192kbps. Also make sure they are MP3 as I noticed itunes exported some music files to aac or something last week

xyz123

goodallish wrote: »

My best bet is to avoid Ford in future, or stick with my iPod for music rather than USB.

That's going to extreme (avoiding ford) for the sake of few songs on a USB. Have you tried multiple USB sticks which are properly formatted.

flashg67

I have had in the past, similar issues on a Hyundai and found that the songs need to be at (I think <256kbps). and the drive formatted in a certain way which wasn't the default Windows formatting (my handbook had this in the small print). Might be worth reformatting then adding the songs back on.

There are often drawback with 'new' technology with compatibility - bluetooth in cars springs to mind as another problem area. I don't think it's a problem unique to Ford

goodallish

stef73 / rhysadams - The name and quality of them hasn't been an issue in the past, as I said they all worked fine on the SYNC in the previous car I had which was the exact same model less the colour edition which I now have. And I know SYNC supports AAC as well as MP3 so that shouldn't cause a problem either, although all the files are MP3 as I converted them all when I got rid of iTunes.

xyz123 - Haha it was a joke, and yes I have tried three different USB sticks, formatted them before transferring files over and still having the same problem. I can play all of the songs on the computer no problem and use WMP to play them and create playlists which is what most people on forums say they use.

flashg67 - I will have to look in the handbook if it says anything, but as I have previously mentioned I don't understand why the problem would occur on the same make and model car when there were no issues before. Doesn't make sense, just the new car being very fussy!

Thanks for all of your replies. I tried a master reset of the SYNC unit today too which didn't make any difference so will have to respond to the salesman to see what my next option is.

Lorian

do the MP3tag metadata on the ones that work look similar to the ones on the ones that don't?

Richard53

Might be nothing to do with it, but ...


I recently installed modern radio/USB/SD players in both my (older) cars. I copied over a load of music from my iTunes on my computer only to find that half the tracks wouldn't play. The tracks that wouldn't play were those in the native Apple format of .wma or .wm4 (can't remember). I ripped all of them to .mp3 format (choosing the highest quality available) and they all play fine. The original files will play happily on any other device I own, but it seems that some car players can be a bit picky.