Dave Kestrel
New member
I wanted to write a report about the navi system which I purchased for my Adria Compact + DL. Not that I have any complaints about Adria, basically the Adria part is OK. But the Fiat part is definitely not!
For my consulting business I had been running a Citroen C4 Picasso for nearly 10 years. This had a navi installed which basically worked very well. So, when I retired and purchased a camper, I decided to have a navi system fitted as an extra. The camper was an Adria Compact + DL based on a Fiat 60 2.3 160 PS 35L with a 7' DAB Auto radio, navigation system installed, and we purchased it in 2020. I am an English Ex-Pat and have lived and worked in Switzerland for many years.
Shortly after purchasing it we discovered problems with the navi. This would work for various distances, sometimes for 10s of kilometres, sometimes just a couple and sometimes just a few 100m. Then the unit would crash, that is the unit simply blocked, that is the navigation was no longer updated. The only way to get it back working again would be to stop the camper, switch off the ignition for 10-20 seconds and then restart. We complained and the garage which was responsible for the guarantee updated firstly the software and then the software and firmware. There was no improvement.
We then spent a long time arguing with Fiat Switzerland and only after our lawyer sent them some letters did they finally agree to swap the unit. By this time the 2-year guarantee had run out and Fiat Switzerland paid most of the costs but not all. OK so far so good. On local trips the unit seemed to work OK.
But then some months after we had the new unit, we discovered that there were still major problems but this time, as far as we know, only in France. When driving in France black circles with a yellow filling and a large exclamation mark appear on the screen. This becomes a problem when these are on or near the road. When one drives into one of these the navi simply stops and is no longer updated. Here again one can stop, switch off the ignition for 10-20 seconds and then restart, but with this failure it is also possible to switch to the radio and then back to the navi. This trick sometimes works but very often the navi says it cannot find the satellite signal. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the process several times before the navigation works properly.
Due to health problems, we have not been travelling as much as we wanted so it may be that the system had problems in other countries, all we can currently confirm is that it works well in Switzerland and Italy and only shows this extremely strange failure in France.
After complaining once again to Fiat Switzerland Fiat attempted to “repair” the system. According to the garage the camper was connected via the internet to Fiat Switzerland and one or two locations in Italy for some two hours. A few weeks after this we drove to France and the problem had not changed.
After speaking with my lawyer, I have decided not to continue in this matter, it would not be really interesting to pursue this in court. I am now using a small tablet and Co-pilot GPS.
So, the above is basically just for information for anyone wanting a camper with a navigation system installed. Basically, order a navi which is not from Fiat, there are several on the market which fit into the Ducato.
In my opinion Fiat makes good mechanical units but it seems that their software department is a catastrophe. The camper has the 9-speed automatic transmission which seems to have some problems as well, and the garage has informed me that the software is not finished for this unit although apparently it is no longer produced.
Why Fiat is so behind in such matters I have no idea, with modern cars one is surprised about how good and clearly visible the operational controls are, when stepping into my Ducato one has the impression of going back 30 years. That is one side of things but selling navi systems which simply do not work is not what one expects.
Pictures and even a video of this weird behaviour are available. But I doubt that I will be doing much to correct it, my garage is, for obvious reasons, a bit fed up of the subject. They have spent more hours on trying to fix it than Fiat Switzerland have paid them for guarantee work.
All the Best to all
Dave Norman
For my consulting business I had been running a Citroen C4 Picasso for nearly 10 years. This had a navi installed which basically worked very well. So, when I retired and purchased a camper, I decided to have a navi system fitted as an extra. The camper was an Adria Compact + DL based on a Fiat 60 2.3 160 PS 35L with a 7' DAB Auto radio, navigation system installed, and we purchased it in 2020. I am an English Ex-Pat and have lived and worked in Switzerland for many years.
Shortly after purchasing it we discovered problems with the navi. This would work for various distances, sometimes for 10s of kilometres, sometimes just a couple and sometimes just a few 100m. Then the unit would crash, that is the unit simply blocked, that is the navigation was no longer updated. The only way to get it back working again would be to stop the camper, switch off the ignition for 10-20 seconds and then restart. We complained and the garage which was responsible for the guarantee updated firstly the software and then the software and firmware. There was no improvement.
We then spent a long time arguing with Fiat Switzerland and only after our lawyer sent them some letters did they finally agree to swap the unit. By this time the 2-year guarantee had run out and Fiat Switzerland paid most of the costs but not all. OK so far so good. On local trips the unit seemed to work OK.
But then some months after we had the new unit, we discovered that there were still major problems but this time, as far as we know, only in France. When driving in France black circles with a yellow filling and a large exclamation mark appear on the screen. This becomes a problem when these are on or near the road. When one drives into one of these the navi simply stops and is no longer updated. Here again one can stop, switch off the ignition for 10-20 seconds and then restart, but with this failure it is also possible to switch to the radio and then back to the navi. This trick sometimes works but very often the navi says it cannot find the satellite signal. Sometimes it is necessary to repeat the process several times before the navigation works properly.
Due to health problems, we have not been travelling as much as we wanted so it may be that the system had problems in other countries, all we can currently confirm is that it works well in Switzerland and Italy and only shows this extremely strange failure in France.
After complaining once again to Fiat Switzerland Fiat attempted to “repair” the system. According to the garage the camper was connected via the internet to Fiat Switzerland and one or two locations in Italy for some two hours. A few weeks after this we drove to France and the problem had not changed.
After speaking with my lawyer, I have decided not to continue in this matter, it would not be really interesting to pursue this in court. I am now using a small tablet and Co-pilot GPS.
So, the above is basically just for information for anyone wanting a camper with a navigation system installed. Basically, order a navi which is not from Fiat, there are several on the market which fit into the Ducato.
In my opinion Fiat makes good mechanical units but it seems that their software department is a catastrophe. The camper has the 9-speed automatic transmission which seems to have some problems as well, and the garage has informed me that the software is not finished for this unit although apparently it is no longer produced.
Why Fiat is so behind in such matters I have no idea, with modern cars one is surprised about how good and clearly visible the operational controls are, when stepping into my Ducato one has the impression of going back 30 years. That is one side of things but selling navi systems which simply do not work is not what one expects.
Pictures and even a video of this weird behaviour are available. But I doubt that I will be doing much to correct it, my garage is, for obvious reasons, a bit fed up of the subject. They have spent more hours on trying to fix it than Fiat Switzerland have paid them for guarantee work.
All the Best to all
Dave Norman
- Model
- Ducarto, 60 2.3 160 PS 35L
- Year
- 2020
- Mileage
- 30000
