Canon had to have a "footprint" to hand down for the next model from the stalwart 1N, the new chum being the 1V and the 3. It would not have been a big deal for Canon to shoehorn 45 point focusing into the 1N, but that model had served its time, production stopping in mid-1999.
For most of us working professionals there are far too many irritating "features" and options on the 1V and 3, chiefly the extraordinary number of custom functions, many of which double up, leading to confusion (this however, is also present on the 1N, but not to the same extent). In real life, only 3-4 custom functions will be changed regularly e.g. mirror lock, pre-release timer, leader in/out, exposure steps 0.3/0.7/1. As much as the 1V is a tour de force of technology, it is typical of cramming excessive automation into the body instead of encouraging the photographer to use his own brainespecially photographers only using it for the occasional snapshot of the kids. And mine? My 1N is used on M much of the time...
The 1V can be had for $1100 2H in some pro places Dowunder. Ex-Pro use (meaning quite battered like the 1N, but ever-so ready for work!). Mint conditions to $1700 with PDB.
I remain perplexed as to the fault described in this thread and still believe it is a simple misconfiguration, usually easily fixed with the Clear button (I believe there are other higher-level interrogation methods, but I am familiar only with the 1N's "force-down" Clear/Reset).