Americas Access to engineer(s) who can answer technical questions

[scottg]

Q: Can you set up a forum within INEOS Automotive that technical questions can be submitted, caveat that we'll get with who knows for sure if and when we can, and then post the answers to specific technical questions. Then you only have to answer most of these questions once, on that forum.

You've built an elegant beast of a workhorse that was intended to be maintainable by owners, so I think it's reasonable to expect owners to want more engineering-based, decision-based answers for many questions than what customer service can provide today.

BACKGROUND

There are a lot of questions on the forums, from people I speak with directly, and some are even stuck in my head and they can't escape. Many of these are technical questions that really require one or more engineers to be able to answer, and/or finding the right person/people who made the decision and asking them why. People on the forums have different answers, it would be good to get answers from the source.

Example of how I think technical and maybe other questions could be answered:

Can I use 5w-30 LL-04 in my B58TU1 in the US? If the answer is use the oil specified in the manual or the response is "INEOS requires / encourages use of 0w20 LL-17FE+" that's not the right answer because it doesn't explain why.

These are probably acceptable answers:

- We require 0w-20 LL-17FE+ to meet fuel efficiency requirements for the US (CAFE etc.) or we can't sell Grenadiers in the US.
- We require 0w-20 LL-17FE+ (put reasons here ...), using 5w-30 LL-04 will reduce gas mileage but will not void your warranty.
- We really did modify the B58TU1 to run on 0w-20 LL-17FE+, so it is different from petrol B58TU1s in other countries (here's how...)
- We aren't allowed by law to tell you.

An answer to the question: Why isn't the ADAS fix out for the US yet?

"We really want to fix the ADAS issue for the US market, and it's taking longer than expected, because we're overwhelmed with the work stoppage due to Ricaro's bankruptcy -or- we're constrained by BMW's console vehicle platform hardware and software which isn't easy to work with and change -or- we currently have a console vehicle platform that the programming language we're using / have to use is like working with NASA software on Voyager and making changes to it -- we never know what side-effects any change will have ..."

I'm being too idealistic, I am arm chairing here, and things are not as easy as I make them out to be, but I wonder if your engineers wouldn't love to interact with the people who are using the things they've created, and if we can get the answers from the source and document them, we can point people them. Resources may be short and you don't have enough to do this now, that's understandable.

Thanks for listening, thanks for my Grenadier

Host(s), feel free to chop this down to something manageable, I'm not good at that, clearly.

Cheers,

/s.

 

[HereinDaRockies]

This is kind of a big ask. For a vehicle of this price range, nosuch engagement exists in the automotive industry..

The liability potential would be huge

 

[scottg]

This is kind of a big ask. For a vehicle of this price range, nosuch engagement exists in the automotive industry..

The liability potential would be huge

I'll sign any liability waivers INEOS Automotive wants, restrict access to that info based on who has signed the LW

 

[HereinDaRockies]

Nah such thing will never happen.

If they put a body forward, it will regurgitate the owners manual down to the individual words.

What incentives would they have to deviate on the record, from published manual and other legal terms?

 

[landmannnn]

That's what forums are for. On one I used to run, the main dealer technicians used it as a source for problem finding.

 

[[ Adam ]]

An answer to the question: Why isn't the ADAS fix out for the US yet?

It is out.

 

[globalgregors]

It’s possible that there are better answers to some of these questions in the owner community than one could reasonably expect from Ineos.

It’s not like I’d expect the manufacturer to give me access to a design engineer to litigate why it takes 90 minutes of disassembly to reach the air filter on my motorbike.