David Kerry Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 We took ownership of a new Adria Twin Supreme SLB last year from Brownhills. Driving back from Scotland this weekend with feet and lower legs freezing and cold draught. Heater blower to drivers feet not working assumed a fault. Apparently this is a design flaw by FIAT which is generic to Ducato automatics where the clutch is blanked off with a foot rest and they just cut off the air supply hose inside the dash without re-routing it, leaving no warm air into the drivers footwell. I am in a state of disbelief that this can happen in this day and age. Almost comical! What is this, the 1950's? In my view indicative of a very poor design management structure within Fiat and a shocking careless attitude to their product and customer satisfaction. Presumably they think it will not be noticed by enough people to matter particularly in warmer climates. Brownhills will not offer an after-sales fix and stonewalled me just referring me to Fiat in Italy with a telephone number and basically 'Not our problem - go see Fiat'. Perhaps they could have pointed this out before we parted with a very large sum of money. We researched the Adria TS SLB but not the Ducato and didn't find any warnings from well-known Adria Vloggers (Andrew Ditton, Here-We -Tow etc), not that it is their fault in any way, just think it is a hard one to find out until it is too late. Dealer should be taking some ownership of this and not 'pulling the wool' Watch this space! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 From the nature of your post, I suspect your vehicle is the newer 9-speed automatic. This issue has existed since the older comfortmatic auto was available, and I suspect for very similar reasons. Whilst you possibly don't want to take a DIY approach, it might be your best recourse. If so, the description of the issue and possible resolution for the comfortmatic, in the following link, might be of interest. https://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/threads/comfortmatic-cold-feet-solved.151670 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted January 31, 2023 Share Posted January 31, 2023 This 2018 YouTube video covers the same issue, with the vehicle having the previous Comfort-Matic 6-speed robotised-manual transmission that became an option in 2006 when the Ducato 'X250' range was introduced https://johnandmandy.uk/🚐fiat-ducato-auto-drivers-side-footwell-heating-fix-⚠️/ and a GOOGLE=search on "fiat ducato automatic footwell heating" will (as Robinhood has instanced) retrieve a few similar complaints. This issue is the result of the Ducato being designed as LHD and the passenger-side footwell of LHD vehicles will not have the 'blanking plate' when the vehicle has automatic transmission, nor will there be a requirement to blank anything off next to the vehicle's accelerator pedal adjacent to the hot-air duct on the driver-side. Although it may safely be assumed that the issue has existed since 2006 on RHD auto-box Ducatos and - there is the occasional on-line reference to it - I wasn't aware of it until now. If Fiat and/or UK motorhome dealers have not been bombarded with 'cold driver's feet' protests since 2006, I can't see either positively responding to David's (justified) complaint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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