RE: Drive by wire, very limited Alfa content

["John Hertzman" <johnhertzman@domain.elided>]

A very interesting exchange between Eric Storhok and Brian Shorey in AD8-0006
on the utter reliability of *by-wire systems.

I might be convinced by the standard aviation analogy IF type aproval,
stringency of manufacturing standard, operator training, licensing, and
retesting practices, and vehicle maintenance requirements were remotely
analogous, but then if they were I wouldn't be driving a car I couldn't own,
would I?

 I recently received a note from a friend who had added a new Mercedes to his
small fleet of 750 and 101 Alfas. Since I should have, but didn't, get
permission to quote I will omit his identity, but the narative is too relevant
to not pass on. He writes, of his new car:

 "One problem with the C-240 is that the drive-by-wire has momentary lapses,
during which the accelerator pedal serves no function.  Once this happened
when I stopped at a stop sign, and it took about 5 seconds before I could get
underway. Twice it happened while driving normally on side streets; simply
lost power.  And once it happened while pulling into traffic, and that was
dicey.  I am aware such problems can be induced if one has their left foot on
the brake, which was not the case.

 "A second problem has so far occurred only once, but it was rather
embarrassing.  I pulled into a drive-through ATM, put the car in PARK,
completed my transaction, after which the gear selector could not be removed
from PARK.  I shut down and restarted the engine, thinking that would reboot
an errant computer, but nothing changed.  I tried Tell-Aid, made momentary
connection with "Joe", then lost the connection.  After about five minutes I
was able to move the gear selector, and away I went. This occurred mid-day on
Saturday, and the people in line behind me at the ATM machine were somewhat
upset.  I have since learned how to move the gear selector if this happens
again; remove the coin tray and push a pen down the hole beneath the tray.

 "Another one-timer.  The power-memory seats refused to move when my wife
turned the knob to her setting and pushed it.  I had never taught her how to
adjust the seats, but just how to use the power-memory button.  When I got
home I could not get the power memory to work, but after driving the car
around the neighborhood things returned to normal.

 "The car has been to the dealer three times, and no error codes have shown
up.  The last dealer visit was last week with an MB rep who thinks the
problems might be related to two of the cars computers, and the dealer is
going to replace them as soon as the replacements arrive."

 I do understand that Fiat and/or Italian technology cannot be fairly compared
to Mercedes and/or German technology,, but I will continue to be leery.

 Cheers, from one troglodyte

 John H.

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