2013 "S" Type come with Bluetooth Audio Streaming?

[mkjayakumar]

Apparently I was told that Bluetooth music stream from iPhone works fine in my friend's 'S', though I have to see it working myself to believe it. I had trouble getting an Android phone to work though..

 

[evnow]

pathetic, really. In 2013 and a brand new trim package to remove such a common feature...

I'm okay with it -- any thing to drive down the price of the stripper model is a good thing (even a tiny thing like this.)

But the thing is - it costs Nissan nothing to provide this feature. It is just in software, that they already have.

 

[EJensen]

pathetic, really. In 2013 and a brand new trim package to remove such a common feature...

I'm okay with it -- any thing to drive down the price of the stripper model is a good thing (even a tiny thing like this.)

But the thing is - it costs Nissan nothing to provide this feature. It is just in software, that they already have.

True statement, but it's no less rational for a manufacturer to cripple a relatively lower priced model, even for some situations in which the act of crippling has an associated cost.

Let's assume my cost of manufacturing a widget is $75, and I know there's a substantial market of buyers who will pay $200 for the device. I will capture as much of that market I can get at a profit of $125/unit. I know or have reason to believe, however, that there is another segment of the market I'm not getting because they will not pay any more than $150. While I'd prefer a profit of $125/unit, I'd rather have some profit than none, so I'm actually willing to sell at $150, as that's still profitable for me. I can't sell those customers the exact same thing I sell to my $200 customers, so I have to do something to distinguish between the two models. Therefore, I call the $200 version the premium model, and the $150 version the economy model. Even if it takes $5 of extra cost to cripple the economy model, increasing my cost of manufacture to $80, I'm still making $70 of profit on the sale of each economy model. If I only sold the premium model, I'd never get that sale at all.

This was explained to me years ago in connection with Intel's sale of processors with and without a math co-processor on board. It was worth an extra manufacturing step to disable the math co-processor so they could sell chips at two price points, capturing both market segments.

 

[evnow]

True statement, but it's no less rational for a manufacturer to cripple a relatively lower priced model, even for some situations in which the act of crippling has an associated cost.

Intentional crippling works if the feature is important enough to make some people upgrade. I don't think streaming BT music is a feature that would have many upgrade.

 

[EJensen]

True statement, but it's no less rational for a manufacturer to cripple a relatively lower priced model, even for some situations in which the act of crippling has an associated cost.

Intentional crippling works if the feature is important enough to make some people upgrade. I don't think streaming BT music is a feature that would have many upgrade.

I have no idea. There are folks who care about all sorts of things that have no meaning for me. There are folks on this thread who are implicitly expressing their desire for BT streaming, indicating that it has some value.

Ultimately, it is one of the set of features that distinguishes the base from the next model up. I strongly suspect no small amount of market research went into deciding what features made the cut, and which didn't.

 

[bobsfreeleaf]

Apparently I was told that Bluetooth music stream from iPhone works fine in my friend's 'S', though I have to see it working myself to believe it. I had trouble getting an Android phone to work though..

My Iphone 5 will not stream in my S model. Although the Blue tooth for the phone works great, as does the USB connection.

 

[PlutoISaPlanet]

Ultimately, it is one of the set of features that distinguishes the base from the next model up. I strongly suspect no small amount of market research went into deciding what features made the cut, and which didn't.

Just seems like an oversight considering there's no literature at all on the matter. No dealer I spoke to had any idea, nor did I until yesterday when I thought of checking this thread again before picking mine up.

 

[bobsfreeleaf]

[ Taking out the heater upgrade was the first poor move, charging functionality the next, and now we discover technology dumb downs. At least the last one does not affect range or mpge. With that said, I love my "strippie", and have been impressed with the audio system, bluetooth, and the USB functionality. It is light years ahead of my 08 honda. A little speaker switharoo and I'm a happy camper.

I was dead wrong about the charging functionality. It is fine. Not space age, Car Wings cool, but just fine. That was User Error! :roll: Thx, Bob

 

[EJensen]

Ultimately, it is one of the set of features that distinguishes the base from the next model up. I strongly suspect no small amount of market research went into deciding what features made the cut, and which didn't.

Just seems like an oversight considering there's no literature at all on the matter. No dealer I spoke to had any idea, nor did I until yesterday when I thought of checking this thread again before picking mine up.

I'll agree with you there. If my analysis was on point and Nissan was using it as a distinguishing feature, they should identify it as a feature on the higher models. My guess is that it was intentional to cripple it, but an oversight not to identify it as a feature on the models that have it.

 

[evnow]

My guess is that it was intentional to cripple it, but an oversight not to identify it as a feature on the models that have it.

Or likely just a bug !

 

[RonDawg]

You're missing the top basic accessory the Leaf has over my old Prius, though: Visor extensions. How any car in the last 10 years could come without those is beyond me.

That is true. If not visor extensions, at least ones that slide back and forth on their mounts, like some American cars have. As long as the car does not have a lighted vanity mirror or visor-mounted Homelink, I don't see why this feature could cost so much money.

Another one I wish became more widespread was the visor setup on some Fords (it debuted in the first-generation Taurus of 1986) where when you swing the visor to the side, you had a smaller one that still flipped down. It was great for when the sun was right on the corner of the windshield, or if you drove on a curvy road where the sun is shifting constantly from the windshield to the door window.

 

[bobsfreeleaf]

You're missing the top basic accessory the Leaf has over my old Prius, though: Visor extensions. How any car in the last 10 years could come without those is beyond me.

You call that little piece of plastic flotsum, an extension? Either I have a really big head or somebody at Nisan never tried to block the sun with THAT. Kills me how car makers design stuff and never stop to think "did that work???" I smell a payoff from the window tinters!

 

[PlutoISaPlanet]

You call that little piece of plastic flotsum, an extension?

well it's better than the nothing I had in the Prius, but you're right, it could be bigger

 

[Pointybongo]

I just automatically plug in my smartphone via USB which charges the phone while providing music streaming.
While it's annoying that Nissan crippled Bluetooth music streaming, the USB workaround is quite satisfactory.

 

[jkendt1989]

Wait, so what models does this work for then? All models besides the "S"?

 

[FalconFour]

In my '11 SL (which is severely out of my price range, and I'd trade for an S in a heartbeat if I could), I live on Bluetooth audio - it's really the only audio function I use. So to hear that the S has it cut out is pretty pathetic. Compare the Leaf to the other BEVs now on the market - the Fiat 500e, and especially the Chevy Spark EV (my new personal favorite). I'm not sure on the actual specs, but their price is in line with the Leaf S, and I'd pretty well imagine they didn't strip out BT audio to make a price point. It's just an outright slap in the face that they would cripple features like cruise control and Bluetooth audio - features implemented almost entirely in software (a couple steering wheel buttons, *waves hands* ooh, aah... it's not an ICE car that needs a throttle control servo and such!) - just to try to make the S more "unappealing" for a price point.

Case in point: removing cruise and BT audio would *not* make me want to upgrade to an SV if I can't afford it. It just makes me hate that Nissan's such a pack of cheapskates that they'd cripple software features.

I'd probably just install a Bluetooth A2DP receiver (something like this) into the line-input and power it with the USB port. It'll turn on with the car, auto-connect to my phone and start playing, and turn off with the car. It just wouldn't integrate the stereo controls for skip/pause, which brings it down to a minor annoyance in my book...

 

[Jeffissenberg]

At http://www.nissanusa.com/bluetooth/search Nissan has a "Find A Phone" tool that you can use to identify your Vehicle and phone and it will provide the Bluetooth features and instructions for pairing. The page however doesn't mention anything about what you can do with USB.

I have an S without Navigation and had an iPhone 4. I was very pleased with the audio streaming via the USB cable with my iPhone 4. Audio streaming would start right up when I connected the cable. It would pause the playback on the iPhone when I turned the car off as well as when I turned the stereo off. It worked great.

However, I just upgraded to an Android phone, a HTC One. To my surprise this much more advanced phone is completely incompatible with my Leaf. The USB connection just says "Check Device". The documentation on Nissan's site above says that without the navigation system it can't do Wireless Audio Streaming, Audio Playback Control or Display Song Information. With the Navigation System it would.

A quote in this Facebook post https://www.facebook.com/nissanleaf/posts/10151911801297796 relates to this topic. "I contacted Leaf Consumer Affairs and was told pointedly that only iOS is supported. Really? Android accounts for greater than 66% of all smartphones sold. In addition, I was told that the Consumer Affairs rep could relay my concern to the Leaf development team but there really would not be any change. Nissan... iOS is not the only smartphone."

 

[mkjayakumar]

However, I just upgraded to an Android phone, a HTC One

I didn't know going from an iPhone that was considered as an 'upgrade' !

 

[craigtx]

>> While it's annoying that Nissan crippled Bluetooth music streaming

I just leased a 2013 'S' on Oct. 1 2013 and I have no problem streaming Pandora from my Nexus 4 Android and of course Bluetooth phone calls work great too.

*Edit* Ugh I feel awful about this - I think I may have confused my other vehicle's Bluetooth streaming feature with the Leaf. I installed the other vehicle's BT streaming head unit at the same time I got the new Leaf and had tried out Pandora with it. I never regularly used Pandora since I have XM/Sirius. I think I was confused about the two when I wrote this post. I went back and tried to use Pandora over BT in my Leaf and can't find anything that would make it work. Sorry if I gave false hope to anyone.

 

[TomT]

I certainly think it is! Love me Galaxy S4!

However, I just upgraded to an Android phone, a HTC One

I didn't know going from an iPhone that was considered as an 'upgrade' !