Making a phone call - am I missing something.

[luzman]

Had the PHEV for 2 months now and have to say loving it.
I am wondering if to make a phone call ,however , do you have to use the voice command or can you do it using the steering wheel buttons. Using the voice command just takes too long so I just end up pulling over and calling normally.
I would expect to press the phone button on the steering wheel which would show the phone book on the screen, scroll down to desired number , press phone again and call.-
Am I missing something. Does anyone know a simpler way to make a call ??

 

[user 816]

Had the PHEV for 2 months now and have to say loving it.
I am wondering if to make a phone call ,however , do you have to use the voice command or can you do it using the steering wheel buttons. Using the voice command just takes too long so I just end up pulling over and calling normally.
I would expect to press the phone button on the steering wheel which would show the phone book on the screen, scroll down to desired number , press phone again and call.-
Am I missing something. Does anyone know a simpler way to make a call ??

Your better off using voice control. On screen is dire, assuming you have transferred your phones phone book to the car it still takes an extraordinary amount of taps to dial on screen - enough to put you in the back of another car whilst trying. I don't know what they were thinking of!

You have to press info - telephone - (then the icon in the corner) then select phonebook, then select mobile phone book, then scroll to the number (or use search which is awkward) - select the contact - press on the number field and finally press 'yes' when it ask you if you want to dial it. There are no short cuts! Most sensible cars have a dedicated phone button and get to this in only 3 presses.

However as much as i was dreading it from poor past experience with voice control, I actually use it all the time now. Technology has moved on an its very effective in the PHEV.

If your contacts are uploaded into the car you just press the steering wheel button and say "call peter smith" it says do you want to call peter smith mobile, you say yes and its dialling.

There is a difference between 'call' and 'dial' command and I sometimes confuse it, with call its expecting a contact usually so quicker, with dial its more expecting numbers.

I found its best to have a sort out of your contacts and remove confusion, make sure people are listed with both first name and surname not just 'dave' and proper words not abbreviations or acronyms where possible before uploading into the car. Then it always works first time without it having to ask which one you meant.

 

[jazzenator]

Yeah this is dire.
There is no display of whom you are talking to whether you have made or received a phone call. Although one would hope that one knows who they are talking to.
Getting to the phone book is such a pain too. there is no quick way of getting to your contacts via the steering controls (this would be a software update so relatively simple to do). Also once there you have to use the awkward touch screen control (which isn't the best around) rather than just being able to use the arrow rocker on the left of the steering.
The MMCS feels so frustratingly archaic for such a modern car and is a bit of a let down imho. There are cars you can have for half (and some for a third) of the price which have better multimedia systems.

 

[user 816]

Yeah this is dire.
There is no display of whom you are talking to whether you have made or received a phone call. Although one would hope that one knows who they are talking to.
Getting to the phone book is such a pain too. there is no quick way of getting to your contacts via the steering controls (this would be a software update so relatively simple to do). Also once there you have to use the awkward touch screen control (which isn't the best around) rather than just being able to use the arrow rocker on the left of the steering.
The MMCS feels so frustratingly archaic for such a modern car and is a bit of a let down imho. There are cars you can have for half (and some for a third) of the price which have better multimedia systems.

I test drove a Suzuki S-Cross costing about £12000. Although a small screen the unit had sat nav, DAB, reversing camera and easily accessible phone book. It even read out incoming text messages for you and you could dictate a reply by speech recognition. Personally I like the newer android based units coming on the market that can mirror the screen on your phone allowing you use any apps you like. Probably cheap to make as well, its just a £50 7" tablet and a bespoke app or two stuck in the dash.

 

[jazzenator]

Yeah this is dire.
There is no display of whom you are talking to whether you have made or received a phone call. Although one would hope that one knows who they are talking to.
Getting to the phone book is such a pain too. there is no quick way of getting to your contacts via the steering controls (this would be a software update so relatively simple to do). Also once there you have to use the awkward touch screen control (which isn't the best around) rather than just being able to use the arrow rocker on the left of the steering.
The MMCS feels so frustratingly archaic for such a modern car and is a bit of a let down imho. There are cars you can have for half (and some for a third) of the price which have better multimedia systems.

I test drove a Suzuki S-Cross costing about £12000. Although a small screen the unit had sat nav, DAB, reversing camera and easily accessible phone book. It even read out incoming text messages for you and you could dictate a reply by speech recognition. Personally I like the newer android based units coming on the market that can mirror the screen on your phone allowing you use any apps you like. Probably cheap to make as well, its just a £50 7" tablet and a bespoke app or two stuck in the dash.

Android or iOS (whatever your flavour) is the way forward rather than proprietary and often clunky systems we have today but then having said that, the snob in me would like to have something different and better than a Sandero :mrgreen:
To exaggerate the point would someone who has splashed out £80k on a luxury car want to have the same interface as a Dacia Sandero?

 

[Memeny]

Hi just found this old thread and am going to post a question in the hope someone can help me.
Got my new PHEV this week and have imported contacts from IPhone. However when trying to make a call, using voice activation, it tells me the phone book is empty. I think it is saying that because the vehicle book is empty, but I can see my contacts in the mobile phone book.
Are you supposed to tell it to look in the mobile phone book to find the contact you want to call?
Thanks

 

[lg1726]

Wow, glad it's not just me! Had the PHEV for just over two weeks and still not managed to get the phone to work as well as I would like. I had a SAAB previously and it had an integrated phone system, which was great and I was thinking that it was just taking me a bit too long to make the transition! I hate the voice activation thing and just want to find the contact I want to call and hit dial, as I did previously. I was thinking of getting a cradle for the phone and just using it to access contacts and initiate the call, but via bluetooth audio as handsfree, but if anyone has an alternative, better solution, I would be grateful!

 

[Memeny]

I figured it out this morning. You need to go to MMCS initially and go to Phone Settings, and change the Phone Book being used to Mobile.

Hope that helps!

Next step: figure out how Spotify integrates! When I connect my iPhone with USB it does not seem to recognise it so I have to play Spotify through Bluetooth (which seems OK but have to manage music selection through the phone).

 

[lg1726]

I figured it out this morning. You need to go to MMCS initially and go to Phone Settings, and change the Phone Book being used to Mobile.

Hope that helps!

Next step: figure out how Spotify integrates! When I connect my iPhone with USB it does not seem to recognise it so I have to play Spotify through Bluetooth (which seems OK but have to manage music selection through the phone).

Thanks - I'll look at that later today - re Spotify, I'll get our ten year old onto the one, that generation seem so much au fait with such stuff!