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10,000 mile review -

blwnsmoke

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2020 Explorer ST
So we just hit 10,000 miles a couple days ago, bought it April 11th I believe. So far, my wife and I absolutely love the vehicle. It is her primary driver and we have a 14 month old. Things we love and hate are below

2011 Ex Limited 4wd/awd.

- Ride/Handling. Still rides wonderful with a very quiet and smooth ride. Handles/Corners very well. Have had the brake squealing issue since 4,000 miles. Brought it to the dealer, can't duplicate it yet I can get it to do it every day. It'll be going back in before the 12k is up. Very embarrassing

- Technology/Safety features are amazing. Tuesday we were almost in a collision on the highway but thankfully the collision control kicked in. Normally we just get the red flashing lights and audible alerts. This time, the vehicle actually slammed on the brakes all by itself (activated abs). We were in the middle lane and I was starting to change lanes to the left lane. Just as I looked over my shoulder, the truck in front of us slammed on the brakes. I had already put my blinker on and if it wasn't for the Ex to slam the brakes on, my front right half of the Ex would have hit the trucks rear left. It was a scary feeling having the Ex brake when I was trying to accelerate.. not something you expect but it definately saved us from an bad accident. Amazing Amazing feature!!!

-MFT. We originally had 2.7 and upgraded to 2.8 and then to 2.11. We never really had any major issues with MFT, some voice recognition issues but I think a lot of it has to do with the learning curve of the new system. Never had a black screen of death and has only frozen up on us twice (see video below) and it froze on 2.11. The freeze in the video is from starting the vehicle and backing out of the garage. I noticed the rear view camera wasn't working, then none of onscreen buttons were working. I then noticed it said my climate was off on the screen but it was actually on.

- MPG. I'm getting approximately 21mpg mixed driving from day one. When taking it easy on the highway, I've seen high 22's and as low as 19. I drive it like I want to.. not really focusing on mpg. I want to accelerate how I want and drive the speed I want so I'm happy with low 21's overall. 2 mpg to me isn't worth driving like a snail.

Issues to be resolved:

1)Brake squeal as previously stated

2)MFT - still waiting for that magical update to fix the freezing despite having very few issues.

3)Rain Sensing wipers randomly turn on. See 2nd video. Driving on a bright sunny day, dry as a bone, windshield as clean as a brand new one, wipers decide to give some nice courtesy wipes FIVE times in a row. I only got the 4th and 5th by the time I got the video going. Dealer says "can't duplicate it".

4)Rain noise above windshield - AWFUL!!!

5)Grease on windows. Molding sills were replaced and still does it.

We haven't had any of the other known issues yet. Apillars are great, no overheating, nothing else loose or falling apart.

Curious to see what Ford says now about the wipers as I have video proof showing it.

Overall, a small list of issues to be resolved. Very happy with our choice. If I were able to do it over again, I wouldn't hesitate except the only thing we would have changed is to get the bucket seats. It is very tight with a car seat and would have loved to be able to slide the 2nd row back to make more room.
 



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Nice review- thanks.

Glad to hear everyone is okay after the scary highway incident. And glad to know that the technology (non-MFT, anyway) works so well. To be honest, I had forgotten that the system also applied the brakes.
 






3)Rain Sensing wipers randomly turn on. See 2nd video. Driving on a bright sunny day, dry as a bone, windshield as clean as a brand new one, wipers decide to give some nice courtesy wipes FIVE times in a row. I only got the 4th and 5th by the time I got the video going. Dealer says "can't duplicate it"..

Excellent review!!

Have the same issue with the wipers....thought it was just me!:)
 


















"- Technology/Safety features are amazing. Tuesday we were almost in a collision on the highway but thankfully the collision control kicked in. Normally we just get the red flashing lights and audible alerts. This time, the vehicle actually slammed on the brakes all by itself (activated abs). We were in the middle lane and I was starting to change lanes to the left lane. Just as I looked over my shoulder, the truck in front of us slammed on the brakes. I had already put my blinker on and if it wasn't for the Ex to slam the brakes on, my front right half of the Ex would have hit the trucks rear left. It was a scary feeling having the Ex brake when I was trying to accelerate.. not something you expect but it definately saved us from an bad accident. Amazing Amazing feature!!!"

I'm confused.... my understanding is that the collision warning DOES not activate the brakes by itself, but simply pre-charges them so when you apply the brake it activates them at maximum force.

Did you have the adaptive cruise on? My guess is that would apply the brakes forcefully?
 






I'm confused.... my understanding is that the collision warning DOES not activate the brakes by itself, but simply pre-charges them so when you apply the brake it activates them at maximum force.

Did you have the adaptive cruise on? My guess is that would apply the brakes forcefully?

I was wondering the same thing myself; I know there are cars that will apply brakes but didn't know Explorer was one of them (although it does prep the brakes).

That being said I didn't think the adaptive cruise control would apply brakes either, if you chose to accelerate (ie. to pass)?
 






I was wondering the same thing myself; I know there are cars that will apply brakes but didn't know Explorer was one of them (although it does prep the brakes).

That being said I didn't think the adaptive cruise control would apply brakes either, if you chose to accelerate (ie. to pass)?

I thought the same as all of you that it doesn't apply the brakes. But after reading some online the link below states:

• If the driver lifts quickly off of the accelerator indicating a desire to slow down, the system will apply the brakes to a nominal level to decelerate the vehicle faster than the driver can move his foot to the brake pedal.

• If the driver hits the brakes rapidly, the system is designed to provide full braking capability to avoid or mitigate the potential threat.

Interesting!

http://media.ford.com/images/10031/Adaptive_Cruise_MKX.pdf
 






I did not have cruise on, I was merging onto the highway, once on, signaled to get into the fast lane. My foot was on the gas accelerating so I could get up to speed for the left lane. It was then the alarm went off and slammed on the brakes. Scared the crap out of myself and the 3 passengers. They thought I did it but nope, 100% the car. I never once put my foot on the brakes, it happened so quick. Im so thankful for this feature!!

Ive had the alarm go off many times, usually it is someone turning in front of me and Im coasting till they turn. I get too close so it goes off but they turn in time. Im thinking it put the brakes on this time because it saw something slow down fast in front and I was accelerating aggressively towards it to get into the faster lane.
 






I would sure like to hear that someone has had "Ford" repair the rain noise issue, or that a 2012 owner does not have the noise. I would really like to have it eliminated, but don't want to be the guinnea pig.
 






I would sure like to hear that someone has had "Ford" repair the rain noise issue, or that a 2012 owner does not have the noise. I would really like to have it eliminated, but don't want to be the guinnea pig.

I don't know where it is in the forum, but I'm 99% sure Cory from Ford Customer Service said that they had dealt with the rain noise issue now.
 






I don't know what it's like in a 2011 car, but if heavy rain hits my 2012 in the wrong place on the roof I get noise like a sort of metallic drum. Not the end of the world, but nor is it something I expect in a brand new, expensive vehicle.
 






I don't know what it's like in a 2011 car, but if heavy rain hits my 2012 in the wrong place on the roof I get noise like a sort of metallic drum. Not the end of the world, but nor is it something I expect in a brand new, expensive vehicle.

I'm not sure when that fix went into play, but I think some of the early 2012 didn't get it.
 






Hey guys,

The way I can assist is by escalating the noise concern and getting you in contact with the Customer Service Manager in your zone. If you haven’t done so already, please PM me with your contact information, VIN, mileage, and dealer name/state.

Cory
 






Sorry for the delay, here are the two videos.. MFT frozen and wipers doing a few courtesy wipes.. maybe it was the blue skies that confused it.

No point in watching after the first 15 seconds, it doesn't do it again until I stopped recording.. figures lol. This was the 4th and 5th wipe in a row (about 8 second pause in between).

Wipers


http://s1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc504/blwnsmoke/?action=view&current=wipers.mp4

MFT

http://s1215.photobucket.com/albums/cc504/blwnsmoke/?action=view&current=2011-09-08_13-26-58_278.mp4
 






Is the rain noise present with the glass moon roofs, or just the full metal roof? I haven't noticed it yet(moon roof), but of course it hasn't rained much in Atlanta this summer.
 






Steel Drum

Is the rain noise present with the glass moon roofs, or just the full metal roof? I haven't noticed it yet(moon roof), but of course it hasn't rained much in Atlanta this summer.

My 2012 with glass moon roof built on September 8th (which I picked up this past Monday) produced the steel drum noise on Tuesday when it was raining.
 






My 2012 with glass moon roof built on September 8th (which I picked up this past Monday) produced the steel drum noise on Tuesday when it was raining.

My 2012 (w/ moonroof) was built on Sept 6th. The night i picked it up it was raining hard as i was showing my brother all the cool tech features inside. He didnt seem to notice that it was loud. I thought for sure it was the rain noise but i'm still not 100% it was since it was raining real hard and we were under a tree (larger droplets fall under a tree).

What made me think that it was in fact the rain noise was the following day i tapped on the roof (just above the windshield) with my finger and the drum noise was very evident. I'm beginning to question if this was really resolved in the MY2012s. An A Pillar can easily be fixed but removing the headliner to fix this seems like a much more extensive repair.

Any other 2012 owners agree?
 






My 2012 (w/ moonroof) was built on Sept 6th. The night i picked it up it was raining hard as i was showing my brother all the cool tech features inside. He didnt seem to notice that it was loud. I thought for sure it was the rain noise but i'm still not 100% it was since it was raining real hard and we were under a tree (larger droplets fall under a tree).

What made me think that it was in fact the rain noise was the following day i tapped on the roof (just above the windshield) with my finger and the drum noise was very evident. I'm beginning to question if this was really resolved in the MY2012s. An A Pillar can easily be fixed but removing the headliner to fix this seems like a much more extensive repair.

Any other 2012 owners agree?

I don't have mine yet but we ordered the same vehicle. Having removed and replaced the headliner in my 05 Mazda 6 I will tell you, yes, it's a pain in the butt. The fix itself would be easy by adding some dynomatt. Getting to the area that needed it would take allot of time and effort though. Not sure why Ford can't spend the 10 bucks it would cost to fix this issue seeing they went to great lengths to make the vehicle quiet including a foam engine cover. :rolleyes:
 



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