2011 Ford Explorer!

[Dexplorer]

Ford My Touch and go

I am now waffling on the prospect of buying a 2011 Ford Explorer after sitting in a model with the My Touch system and reading all of the issues/ complaints on the MyFord Edge forum and consumer reports. I love the exterior design, the vehicle fully meets all of my needs, but I am not very confident that I can live with a laggy buggy interface, touch buttons, voice commands. There are more complaints than compliments on the Edge forum. Many people have reported that their brand new 2011 Edge is in the shop with My Touch / Sync failures, touch screen failures, some reports of volume on the radio going to max every time you turn on the vehicle, the clock is always wrong, sections of the display blanking out while driving ! Top that off with the fact that it is designed by Microsoft and my confidence level has plummeted !

How cool will that touch setup be in 5 years when it is out of warranty ? Will it fade or haze or scratch ? Will the touch buttons quit working or get annoyingly unresponsive ?

Ultimately what I really want is the base model without the My Touch /Sync but unfortunately that model does not come with the features I really want, such as Sterling Gray color, or Dual moonroof , back up camera, it only comes in the few basic colors, and steel wheels with wheel covers !

Can anybody with first hand experience convince me that My Touch will not be a royal My Touchiness pain in the butt , especially after the 3 year warranty is up ? I plan on trying to rent a 11 Explorer with MyTouch for a week and live with it, I think Budget has them in stock ( I also plan on renting a GMC Acadia as well to compare )

 

[Maniak]

Can't you order/build your own model?

That is what we did with our 06 mustang. We wanted all the fancy bells and whistles, but we didn't want the auto trans. All the pre-designed "models" with manual transmissions were all stripped down so we just filled out a spec sheet with what we wanted an viola. 6 weeks later our car was here (probably a longer wait on the explorer right now though).

~Mark

 

[Dexplorer]

Can't you order/build your own model?

That is what we did with our 06 mustang. We wanted all the fancy bells and whistles, but we didn't want the auto trans. All the pre-designed "models" with manual transmissions were all stripped down so we just filled out a spec sheet with what we wanted an viola. 6 weeks later our car was here (probably a longer wait on the explorer right now though).

~Mark

I tried building my own on line and it was a no go, but good point, before giving up I will go see my dealer and ask them if I can get a non My Touch model with the options I want. Thanks !

I would still be interested in hearing from folks who have lived with the current My Touch system for a while and their confidence in how it will be 5-6 years down the road

 

[dlo250]

I've been on this forum for some time. My dad had an 01 Ranger with the 4R44E transmission that had all the problems with the valve body. 3 different dealers never did get it fixed. Because of this website I finally was able to repair it myself for him. After that mess, I swore off Ford, for what I thought was life. Last night I just bought an 11 Explorer XLT with Sync. I did my homework on this website, researched the engine (made in Ohio!) and was especially impressed with the transmission. Here is a link to a great article about what they did with the tranny and some of the processes they are using: http://www.chromjuwelen.com/de/network/247-blogcardomain/22118-transmission-101.html That being said, I was very impressed with the Explorer. I felt like this was the vehicle I've been wanting and waiting for my countrymen to build. My verdict is out on the SYNC system, I tend to avoid things that can break that I cannot fix, but my wife thought it was neat, so I bought in, initially the SYNC does seem a bit slow, not annoyingly slow, but I am hoping Ford comes out with some software updates to maybe help it along and speed it up a bit. I drive an 06 Accord, and traded in my 06 MDX for this baby. I have high hopes. It did feel good to be driving home last night in something American made that felt that solid. Sorry to chime in, I'm not much of a blogger, I'm excited and optimistic about the new machine in my garage and I've been up half the night! I love this forum, and appreciate everyone's posts. OK, I'm done waving the flag now! edit: 4R44E

 

[JDraper]

I am now waffling on the prospect of buying a 2011 Ford Explorer after sitting in a model with the My Touch system and reading all of the issues/ complaints on the MyFord Edge forum and consumer reports. I love the exterior design, the vehicle fully meets all of my needs, but I am not very confident that I can live with a laggy buggy interface, touch buttons, voice commands. There are more complaints than compliments on the Edge forum. Many people have reported that their brand new 2011 Edge is in the shop with My Touch / Sync failures, touch screen failures, some reports of volume on the radio going to max every time you turn on the vehicle, the clock is always wrong, sections of the display blanking out while driving ! Top that off with the fact that it is designed by Microsoft and my confidence level has plummeted !

How cool will that touch setup be in 5 years when it is out of warranty ? Will it fade or haze or scratch ? Will the touch buttons quit working or get annoyingly unresponsive ?

Ultimately what I really want is the base model without the My Touch /Sync but unfortunately that model does not come with the features I really want, such as Sterling Gray color, or Dual moonroof , back up camera, it only comes in the few basic colors, and steel wheels with wheel covers !

Can anybody with first hand experience convince me that My Touch will not be a royal My Touchiness pain in the butt , especially after the 3 year warranty is up ? I plan on trying to rent a 11 Explorer with MyTouch for a week and live with it, I think Budget has them in stock ( I also plan on renting a GMC Acadia as well to compare )

The MFT in the Edge appears to have more issues than the one in the Explorer. There's a recall on the Edge version, but not the Explorer version. The only issues I've had with my MFT is occasional phone connection problems, but there is supposedly an upgrade coming to Sync this month.

I don't find the MFT to be complicated or a pain. To me it's actually fairly easy to use. Can I guarantee that it won't be a problem after the warranty? No one can.