NimbleNadzz
Active Member
- Joined
- October 11, 2012
- Messages
- 52
- Reaction score
- 1
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 13 Explorer Sport
I took delivery of my tuxedo black '13 sport back on November 16th and wanted to share my experiences with it. I've been driving it to work and I've also done a short road-trip with it fully loaded ( wife/ 3 kids/1 dog/light luggage ).
Setup
Tuxedo Black
402A Package
Dual Moonroof
Tow package
Adaptive Cruise Control/BLIS
All-weather floor mats
Cargo shade
Front/Rear molded mud guards
Roof rack cross bars
Hood deflector
Rear bumper protector
Cargo area protector
General Looks/Presentation
I must say - this is one sharp looking ride! Everything is put together extremely well. I still haven't figured out why they chose chrome door handles - but this is an ongoing discussion.
Performance
I was pleasantly surprised with the power - get on the gas a little and it pulls hard. As others have reported, the torque steer requires some getting used to. I made some aggressive passes on a two lane road and it required quite a bit of interaction to keep it from flying off the road. My previous ride was a Honda Accord EX-L ( 290HP FWD ) and the torque steer on it was nothing compared to this.
Gas Mileage
So far, I'm a little underwhelmed with the gas mileage. The 16/22 rating is based on a very specific driving style that I obviously don't possess. So far, the best I've been able to achieve is 17.8 - with 90% of that driving on the highway. Then again, I like to take advantage of that sport emblem whenever I can...
Comfort
Fantastic! Driving this thing is a dream - super quiet/smooth ride at all speeds. 90mph feels like 65. The steering controls are well thought out and helpful to prevent reaching over to the console. I haven't found any use for the Sony component below the touch screen. I also found it to be rather sensitive and have mistakenly ejected the CD, changed songs, etc. I found this to be rather frustrating considering they ( Ford ) intentionally designed the touch screen to require deliberate touches for it to work. I think that was a smart design decision - but they apparently forgot about the Sony control panel below it .
My Ford Touch
I certainly haven't explored all of the features this offers, but by general impression is that it is a very good system. I have had a few problems:
- I put all my music on a 64GB usb key ( 50GB used ) and every time there a maintenance reset ( it seems like every other day ), it resets where I am in the folder structure/song of my key. This really sucks because I have to explore back to the song I was listening to just about every time I get into the car. To make matters worse, I like listening to unusually long mixes ( 60-300mins ) and I'm getting tired of listening to the first 50mins of it due to the resets. Since scanning 80mins into a song is a futile effort - I'm stuck. The system manages to save other things after a reset - why not which song you were last listening to ( and where in the song )?
- Finding a destination. Granted, this just may not be something I have figured out yet, but as well as they did with the other voice commands with the phone/BT system, I was pretty discouraged. I would expect to be able to say 'Destination Walmart' and it would find the nearest Walmart. Not so - you have to go through a whole categorical process selection which often requires you to look at the center touch screen to select a # ( by voice ) which corresponds to your destination. I don't understand why I can tell it to call a person in my phone book and it magically does it but I can't say 'Destination Walmart' without going through 20 questions and still not getting there. I'm hoping that I'm just an uneducated user...
Entertainment
The sound system is very nice. I'm no audio enthusiast - but I found the range to be very good. I have many songs that require noise-cancelling/isolated headphones to really catch all the subtleties of the song. I can say with confidence that I can now just hop in the explorer to get similar sound reproduction. If you are looking to boom your way through town - you won't be disappointed either. The USB ports are a nice touch - being able to dispense with the CDs and use a flash drive was a smart decision. I was initially concerned with only having a single CD in the dash. Not anymore - I've crossed over to the dark side - CD's are useless!
Bluetooth-Phone
This was probably one of the things I was most impressed with. Ford really nailed this one. Using it through voice is ridiculously easy and the sound quality is phenomenal. Used to having people say you sound like you are in a tunnel of some sort? Never again - my wife can't tell one way or the other anymore. The other welcomed surprise was the fact that I didn't have to provide additional voice recordings for people in my address book ( I had to do this with my Honda ). It is as simple as downloading your address book ( happens when you pair ) and saying who you want to call. Done.
Navigation
I really liked the nav in my Honda - but I must say - Ford also did a good job on the completeness and the display of where you are. I haven't set any destinations - so this still needs to be experimented with. As I mentioned previously - I'm not overly impressed with the voice portion of nav.
Climate
Works as expected - I particularly appreciate the remote starting and climate adjustment. It's nice to get into the vehicle and have the seat already warmed up for you. I also tried the cooling feature of the seats and whoah! Come summertime - that feature will be very useful.
Adaptive Cruise Control
Also does as advertised. I was surprised that I became less engaged in my highway driving as I'm usually on top of everything that is going on. On numerous occasions, I found myself going well below the set speed stuck behind someone. Usually I would be proactive and change lanes prior to riding up on someone. Good or bad - it definitely takes care of the pedals for you and is one less thing you have to worry about while using cruise control.
BLIS
Perfect. Nothing complicated - does exactly what I want and has already saved me from attempting something I shouldn't have.
Travel
I took a 1.5 hour trip for Thanksgiving and was super impressed. I have a wife, 3 kids ( 14, 9, 1.5 ), and a dog. I threw the 9yo in the 3rd row, put a crate in the other 3rd row seat ( folded down ) and the other two kids in the second row ( bench seat ). Everyone was super comfortable. I was, however, concerned about storage for the luggage. To my surprise, there was a lot of space available behind just one 3rd row seat ( there is also under-seat storage that I was unaware of ) and there is also some storage between the 2nd row and the folded down 3rd row seat. Because of how the window on the tailgate sits, you actually get a lot more room than you think. I was always convinced that the tailgate would compress the luggage - but it never even touched it. There was also room on the floor below the car-set for my 1.5 yo. In summary - I was worried about space, but there was an abundance of it. Now we are ready for the 12 hour trip for x-mas!
Hope this helps for those in the market! I'll update as I explore more of the features.
Setup
Tuxedo Black
402A Package
Dual Moonroof
Tow package
Adaptive Cruise Control/BLIS
All-weather floor mats
Cargo shade
Front/Rear molded mud guards
Roof rack cross bars
Hood deflector
Rear bumper protector
Cargo area protector
General Looks/Presentation
I must say - this is one sharp looking ride! Everything is put together extremely well. I still haven't figured out why they chose chrome door handles - but this is an ongoing discussion.
Performance
I was pleasantly surprised with the power - get on the gas a little and it pulls hard. As others have reported, the torque steer requires some getting used to. I made some aggressive passes on a two lane road and it required quite a bit of interaction to keep it from flying off the road. My previous ride was a Honda Accord EX-L ( 290HP FWD ) and the torque steer on it was nothing compared to this.
Gas Mileage
So far, I'm a little underwhelmed with the gas mileage. The 16/22 rating is based on a very specific driving style that I obviously don't possess. So far, the best I've been able to achieve is 17.8 - with 90% of that driving on the highway. Then again, I like to take advantage of that sport emblem whenever I can...
Comfort
Fantastic! Driving this thing is a dream - super quiet/smooth ride at all speeds. 90mph feels like 65. The steering controls are well thought out and helpful to prevent reaching over to the console. I haven't found any use for the Sony component below the touch screen. I also found it to be rather sensitive and have mistakenly ejected the CD, changed songs, etc. I found this to be rather frustrating considering they ( Ford ) intentionally designed the touch screen to require deliberate touches for it to work. I think that was a smart design decision - but they apparently forgot about the Sony control panel below it .
My Ford Touch
I certainly haven't explored all of the features this offers, but by general impression is that it is a very good system. I have had a few problems:
- I put all my music on a 64GB usb key ( 50GB used ) and every time there a maintenance reset ( it seems like every other day ), it resets where I am in the folder structure/song of my key. This really sucks because I have to explore back to the song I was listening to just about every time I get into the car. To make matters worse, I like listening to unusually long mixes ( 60-300mins ) and I'm getting tired of listening to the first 50mins of it due to the resets. Since scanning 80mins into a song is a futile effort - I'm stuck. The system manages to save other things after a reset - why not which song you were last listening to ( and where in the song )?
- Finding a destination. Granted, this just may not be something I have figured out yet, but as well as they did with the other voice commands with the phone/BT system, I was pretty discouraged. I would expect to be able to say 'Destination Walmart' and it would find the nearest Walmart. Not so - you have to go through a whole categorical process selection which often requires you to look at the center touch screen to select a # ( by voice ) which corresponds to your destination. I don't understand why I can tell it to call a person in my phone book and it magically does it but I can't say 'Destination Walmart' without going through 20 questions and still not getting there. I'm hoping that I'm just an uneducated user...
Entertainment
The sound system is very nice. I'm no audio enthusiast - but I found the range to be very good. I have many songs that require noise-cancelling/isolated headphones to really catch all the subtleties of the song. I can say with confidence that I can now just hop in the explorer to get similar sound reproduction. If you are looking to boom your way through town - you won't be disappointed either. The USB ports are a nice touch - being able to dispense with the CDs and use a flash drive was a smart decision. I was initially concerned with only having a single CD in the dash. Not anymore - I've crossed over to the dark side - CD's are useless!
Bluetooth-Phone
This was probably one of the things I was most impressed with. Ford really nailed this one. Using it through voice is ridiculously easy and the sound quality is phenomenal. Used to having people say you sound like you are in a tunnel of some sort? Never again - my wife can't tell one way or the other anymore. The other welcomed surprise was the fact that I didn't have to provide additional voice recordings for people in my address book ( I had to do this with my Honda ). It is as simple as downloading your address book ( happens when you pair ) and saying who you want to call. Done.
Navigation
I really liked the nav in my Honda - but I must say - Ford also did a good job on the completeness and the display of where you are. I haven't set any destinations - so this still needs to be experimented with. As I mentioned previously - I'm not overly impressed with the voice portion of nav.
Climate
Works as expected - I particularly appreciate the remote starting and climate adjustment. It's nice to get into the vehicle and have the seat already warmed up for you. I also tried the cooling feature of the seats and whoah! Come summertime - that feature will be very useful.
Adaptive Cruise Control
Also does as advertised. I was surprised that I became less engaged in my highway driving as I'm usually on top of everything that is going on. On numerous occasions, I found myself going well below the set speed stuck behind someone. Usually I would be proactive and change lanes prior to riding up on someone. Good or bad - it definitely takes care of the pedals for you and is one less thing you have to worry about while using cruise control.
BLIS
Perfect. Nothing complicated - does exactly what I want and has already saved me from attempting something I shouldn't have.
Travel
I took a 1.5 hour trip for Thanksgiving and was super impressed. I have a wife, 3 kids ( 14, 9, 1.5 ), and a dog. I threw the 9yo in the 3rd row, put a crate in the other 3rd row seat ( folded down ) and the other two kids in the second row ( bench seat ). Everyone was super comfortable. I was, however, concerned about storage for the luggage. To my surprise, there was a lot of space available behind just one 3rd row seat ( there is also under-seat storage that I was unaware of ) and there is also some storage between the 2nd row and the folded down 3rd row seat. Because of how the window on the tailgate sits, you actually get a lot more room than you think. I was always convinced that the tailgate would compress the luggage - but it never even touched it. There was also room on the floor below the car-set for my 1.5 yo. In summary - I was worried about space, but there was an abundance of it. Now we are ready for the 12 hour trip for x-mas!
Hope this helps for those in the market! I'll update as I explore more of the features.