diff --git a/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery.lalrpop b/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery.lalrpop
index f88c267..5296926 100644
--- a/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery.lalrpop
+++ b/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery.lalrpop
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ use std::cell::RefCell;
 use util::tok::Tok;
 use lalrpop_util::ErrorRecovery;
 
-grammar<'e>(errors: &'e RefCell<Vec<ErrorRecovery<(), Tok, ()>>>);
+grammar<'e>(errors: &'e RefCell<Vec<ErrorRecovery<(), Tok, &'static str>>>);
 
 extern {
     enum Tok {
diff --git a/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery_pull_182.lalrpop b/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery_pull_182.lalrpop
index eddcf81..ea78176 100644
--- a/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery_pull_182.lalrpop
+++ b/lalrpop-test/src/error_recovery_pull_182.lalrpop
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 use util::tok::Tok;
 use lalrpop_util::ErrorRecovery;
 
-grammar<'input, 'e>(errors: &'e mut Vec<ErrorRecovery<(), Tok, ()>>);
+grammar<'input, 'e>(errors: &'e mut Vec<ErrorRecovery<(), Tok, &'static str>>);
 
 extern {
     enum Tok {
diff --git a/lalrpop-test/src/main.rs b/lalrpop-test/src/main.rs
index 1fb4010..4567b2c 100644
--- a/lalrpop-test/src/main.rs
+++ b/lalrpop-test/src/main.rs
@@ -155,24 +155,30 @@ fn expr_intern_tok_test_err() {
 }
 
 #[test]
-fn expr_intern_tok_display_err() {
+fn parse_error_map() {
     let expr = "(1+\n(2++3))";
     let result = expr_intern_tok::parse_Expr(1, expr);
-    let err : lalrpop_util::ParseError<usize, (usize, &str),()>
+    let err : lalrpop_util::ParseError<usize, (usize, &str),&'static str>
             = result.unwrap_err();
 
-    // The problem is that (usize,&str) and () do not implement fmt::Display,
-    // so neither does the ParseError.
-    // We can fix that by rewriting them to something that has fmt::Display
-    let disp = err.map_token(|(_,t)|t).map_error(|_| "error");
-    let message = disp.to_string();
-    assert!(message.contains("Unrecognized token `+`"));
+    let message = err
+            .map_token(|(_,t)| format!("TOKEN {}", t))
+            .map_location(|offset| format!("line {}", expr[0..offset].lines().count()))
+            .to_string();
+    assert!(message.contains("Unrecognized token `TOKEN +`"));
+    assert!(message.contains("at line 2"));
+}
 
-    // We can even convert the locations to a line number
-    let line_based = disp.map_location(|offset| {
-        format!("line {}", expr[0..offset].lines().count())
-    });
-    assert!(line_based.to_string().contains("line 2"));
+#[test]
+fn parse_error_map_err() {
+    let err : lalrpop_util::ParseError<usize, util::tok::Tok, char>
+             = util::test_err_gen(error::parse_Items, "---+").unwrap_err();
+    let modified_err = err.map_error(|c| c.to_string());
+    if let ParseError::User { error: user_error_value } = modified_err {
+        assert_eq!(user_error_value, "+");
+    } else {
+        panic!("Expected a User error")
+    }
 }
 
 #[test]
diff --git a/lalrpop-test/src/util/mod.rs b/lalrpop-test/src/util/mod.rs
index 1e2994e..f33a313 100644
--- a/lalrpop-test/src/util/mod.rs
+++ b/lalrpop-test/src/util/mod.rs
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ use util::tok::Tok;
 pub mod tok;
 
 pub fn test<R: Debug + Eq, F>(parse_fn: F, input: &str, expected: R)
-    where F: FnOnce(Vec<Tok>) -> Result<R, ParseError<(), Tok, ()>>
+    where F: FnOnce(Vec<Tok>) -> Result<R, ParseError<(), Tok, &'static str>>
 {
     // create tokens
     let tokens = tok::tokenize(input);
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ pub fn test<R: Debug + Eq, F>(parse_fn: F, input: &str, expected: R)
 }
 
 pub fn test_loc<R: Debug + Eq, F>(parse_fn: F, input: &str, expected: R)
-    where F: FnOnce(Vec<(usize, Tok, usize)>) -> Result<R, ParseError<usize, Tok, ()>>
+    where F: FnOnce(Vec<(usize, Tok, usize)>) -> Result<R, ParseError<usize, Tok, &'static str>>
 {
     // create tokens
     let tokens = tok::tokenize(input);
diff --git a/lalrpop/src/grammar/repr.rs b/lalrpop/src/grammar/repr.rs
index 8a2e201..ca4cb44 100644
--- a/lalrpop/src/grammar/repr.rs
+++ b/lalrpop/src/grammar/repr.rs
@@ -263,6 +263,7 @@ impl Types {
                 terminal_token_type: terminal_token_type,
                 terminal_types: map(),
                 nonterminal_types: map(),
+                // the following two will be overwritten later
                 parse_error_type: TypeRepr::Tuple(vec![]),
                 error_recovery_type: TypeRepr::Tuple(vec![]) };
 
@@ -314,7 +315,11 @@ impl Types {
 
     pub fn error_type(&self) -> TypeRepr {
         self.error_type.clone()
-                       .unwrap_or_else(|| TypeRepr::Tuple(vec![]))
+                       .unwrap_or_else(|| TypeRepr::Ref {
+                               lifetime: Some(intern("'static")),
+                               mutable: false,
+                               referent: Box::new(TypeRepr::str()),
+                       })
     }
 
     pub fn terminal_type(&self, id: TerminalString) -> &TypeRepr {
diff --git a/lalrpop/src/normalize/tyinfer/test.rs b/lalrpop/src/normalize/tyinfer/test.rs
index 5b05cda..3774458 100644
--- a/lalrpop/src/normalize/tyinfer/test.rs
+++ b/lalrpop/src/normalize/tyinfer/test.rs
@@ -220,6 +220,6 @@ fn error() {
 grammar;
     Z = !;
 "#, vec![
-    ("Z", "__lalrpop_util::ParseError<usize, (usize, &'input str), ()>")
+    ("Z", "__lalrpop_util::ParseError<usize, (usize, &'input str), &'static str>")
         ])
 }