WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,354
Member is Online
|
Post by WDB on Sept 13, 2016 8:29:31 GMT
I've written elsewhere about the pleasing simplicity of my 2012 BMW's interior, but simplicity is not always good news. For a start there's nowhere to put anything: a glovebox that barely holds the handbook, and ashtray that will take a spare pair of contact lenses, an open trough that just about holds my sunglasses, and a (rather neat) closing pocket in each door.
Those in the back do even worse: no door pockets (no doors), no seat-back pockets, just a tray with a tambour cover that will take a pocket-pack of tissues.
But storage isn't all it's short of. The E has three 12V power sockets, one each in front, back and load compartment. The 325 has one, in the ashtray. This weekend I risked taking the handbook out (and not being able to get it back in) in an attempt to commit to memory the workings of the fiddly cruise control stick. It didn't work. But while I was in there I found a reference to an outlet below the glovebox and, sure enough, an exploratory finger found a hole. But a hole was all it turned out to be; it's probably of the right size to take a 12V socket but there isn't one in it.
The same book also mentions a socket in the boot. I looked and there's nothing there at all. It seems odd, when the car was designed to accommodate a CD changer there (shows the age of the design) so there must be power wiring close to the surface, and it would be a useful place to have one. As, for that matter, would be the console between the rear seats, where I could charge a device without it getting in the way. But it seems I have to make do with one, plus the USB in the armrest.
|
|
|
Post by crankcase on Sept 13, 2016 9:10:57 GMT
Sounds like there's about the same room in there as the Zoe - none. My glove compartment is aptly named; it won't take a whole pair.
But even the esteemed Volvo have been naughty puddings on the 12V front. My 2011 S60 has a 12V in the boot, for various handy purposes. The Volvo forums have many a mention of the fact that from about 2012 on, that socket is still mentioned in the handbook, but was actually a quiet deletion, so owners have to go to the dealer for an optional £100 million "upgrade" if they want it back. Worse, it turns out the fuses and wiring are still there, so all the dealer does is pop on a socket.
They also deleted front seat pockets and one or two other minor bits quietly, whilst the price increased of course. Leaves me just a tiny bit less excited about changing it for a newer model, certainly, which can't have been their intention.
Still, even with two 12V sockets in the front of the Volvo I have such a spaghetti of stuff to plug in I invested a tenner in one of those sockety hub things, which turns one 12V socket into three, each with its own switch. Car seems ok with all three used, plus the other front socket, so four in total all at the same time.
Zoe only has one 12V, but it's sufficient in there.
|
|
sooty
Full Member
Posts: 87
|
Post by sooty on Sept 13, 2016 9:31:25 GMT
Worse, it turns out the fuses and wiring are still there, so all the dealer does is pop on a socket. Could you not just buy one of the sockets?
|
|
|
Post by crankcase on Sept 13, 2016 9:39:58 GMT
I think many do, but some are not confident enough to do it of course, and it involves cutting the boot carpet too. Point is that Volvo can't have saved more than a few pence per car, which I know adds up, but come on - just makes it a little bit less attractive and a little bit more hassle, which seems counter-productive. Like buying a million pound apartment and then discovering you have to add your own doorbell.
It may be - I don't know - that the very latest cars have re-instated the socket. Or it may not.
|
|
|
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 13, 2016 10:58:46 GMT
Worse, it turns out the fuses and wiring are still there, so all the dealer does is pop on a socket. Could you not just buy one of the sockets? 12v sockets? for gods sake peeps this is 2016, you dont need 12v sockets, What toys do you have that needs 12v? None, NONE IT TELL YOU. You have devices that take 5v and they take it through a USB cable. What you do do, is invest in a few cheap, small and thin USB hubs, and power these multiple outlets using a 12v to 5v converter you get from amazon. (ok I accept there is the need for a 12v socket in the boot for coolers and such like, but I don't accept its beyond the wit and wisdom of anyone here to fit one if they really needed it)
|
|
sooty
Full Member
Posts: 87
|
Post by sooty on Sept 13, 2016 11:16:29 GMT
Could you not just buy one of the sockets? 12v sockets? for gods sake peeps this is 2016, you dont need 12v sockets, What toys do you have that needs 12v? None, NONE IT TELL YOU. You have devices that take 5v and they take it through a USB cable. What you do do, is invest in a few cheap, small and thin USB hubs, and power these multiple outlets using a 12v to 5v converter you get from amazon. (ok I accept there is the need for a 12v socket in the boot for coolers and such like, but I don't accept its beyond the wit and wisdom of anyone here to fit one if they really needed it) I don't really need any sockets of any type adding. The 12v in the front is used for the air compressor and I just listen to the radio when in the car, probably unusual now not to have something plugged in.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,354
Member is Online
|
Post by WDB on Sept 13, 2016 13:06:41 GMT
Does Sooty work at all without something plugged in? 😏
|
|
|
Post by crankcase on Sept 14, 2016 6:52:59 GMT
Because my Volvo didn't come with the reversing camera and I wanted the reversing camera and it was £750 and I didn't want to pay £750 for the reversing camera I bought a little tiny reversing camera for £30 instead as a cheaper reversing camera and I have it plugged in and it needs the reversing camera and the reversing camera screen plugged in separately and one takes 5V but the other takes 12V so I needed 12V for the reversing camera and neither have anything to do with USB thingies.
|
|
|
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 14, 2016 9:27:41 GMT
Because my Volvo didn't come with the reversing camera and I wanted the reversing camera and it was £750 and I didn't want to pay £750 for the reversing camera I bought a little tiny reversing camera for £30 instead as a cheaper reversing camera and I have it plugged in and it needs the reversing camera and the reversing camera screen plugged in separately and one takes 5V but the other takes 12V so I needed 12V for the reversing camera and neither have anything to do with USB thingies. And neither should they have anything to do with a 12v socket installed (or not) by the manufacturer. Oh and by the way, 5v is very much to do with usb thingies, for that is indeed what they supply.
|
|
|
Post by commerdriver on Sept 14, 2016 19:38:43 GMT
Do any vehicles have usb ports for power supply and charging? The only ones I have had have been designed to provide input to the sound system, which is probably easily done via bluetooth for many people.
|
|
|
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 14, 2016 20:05:32 GMT
Do any vehicles have usb ports for power supply and charging? No they dont, but they should have. I have installed them in the wife's fiesta and my Lancer.
|
|
WDB
Full Member
Posts: 7,354
Member is Online
|
Post by WDB on Sept 14, 2016 20:07:31 GMT
The one in my BMW does both audio and power. The new 3GT I tried the other week had one in the dashboard. I agree - more useful than a round 12V socket inside the car.
|
|
|
Post by Humph on Sept 14, 2016 20:11:46 GMT
There are USB ports in the central armrest cubby hole in the Merc but I'm not sure what they're for.
|
|
|
Post by Hofmeister on Sept 14, 2016 20:13:42 GMT
There are USB ports in the central armrest cubby hole in the Merc but I'm not sure what they're for. Audio I guess. They will charge things tho that use USBs.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2016 20:15:26 GMT
12v socket is the only standard everyone meets. The USB A socket everyone has on their PC and in many cars is old hat as phone manufacturers are going USB C (more amps, faster charge) or contactless.
At least with a 12v socket regardless of what's on the other end it works.
|
|