calb
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- July 10, 2011
- Messages
- 573
- Reaction score
- 1
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2012 AWD Explorer Limited
Well my Explorer finally arrived so I've put about 50Km on her so far.
She is tri-white, Limited, with 302A package, towing, navigation and pecan seats. I say "she" as my 5 year old daughter wanted to know who was talking and I told her Samantha - right Rebecca?
First impressions:
1) Checked her out. I'd guess that the back door was off centre by a couple millimeters. Not enough that anyone would notice unless they were actually looking to measure that. Driver and passenger doors were perfectly aligned. Everything else was exactly as it should be. Pecan interior (as others have mentioned) is great)
2) Lot to learn (as others have commented on). Got in the car initially and just sat there looking and first thought was ... so how do I just put her in ACC mode to get things lit up with push button
3) Dealer didn't spend a lot of time showing me things (I didn't really want them to as I wasn't feeling great and jsut wanted to get home to sleep). However I paired the phone immediately (Blackberry 9900 btw) and text also immediately came up!
4) A lot of initial oomph when starting - in fact it was surprising when I first started driving. For a relatively heavy vehicle, she can move;
5) Figured I'd try out voice commands (without having read the manual!) and guess what ..... I got her to navigate to my home - first time - only mistake was saying a number rather than digits. The voice commands seem to very slick and logically thought out. I've used it several times since and was very pleased. Mind you I'm in a large city (Toronto) so I'd expect the mapping to work there.
6) Called my wife to tell her I was on the way to pick her and my daughter up from the park. It had imported my phonebook no problem and again I used the voice commands without instruction. Just worked!
7) On the way home I checked out BLIS (even my wife commented on how well that work) and for all the comments about Blind spots I don't find them that bad at all (even without BLIS) but that might be due to experience with a little sports car and having to learn to use/set mirrors.
8) On way home my wife texted me to tell me my daughter had an accident and were heading home. Text was read out to me - Neat! Although I got the jist of the message, Samanthat didn't pronounce the word "pooped" real well I can live with that
6) Have used navigation subsequently - worked brilliantly (again, large city). Put a bunch of our music CDs in Artist/Album/Song order on USB stick and again, without training, I was able to say "USB" then "Play Artist Seal" and away we went I had to work a little harder when I wanted a specific album though. Sirius was working too (I think its a free week so we are playing with that),
7) Tried to use Collision Warning without actually hitting someone - no luck yet. Hmm ... don't really want to try that hard, do I? Did however use the auto parking. I REALLY like that it can find a spot that fits you (at least now, while I'm still getting used to her size). Kind of freaky having her steer but it does work Hasn't rained yet, but should tomorrow and I'll see how wipers work, and adaptive cruise control as we are taking a short highway trip.
8) The MFT screen confused us a bit. Had the 5 year old go into meltdown when I wouldn't change the interior lighting colour to purple (I'd managed to find how to change colours the day before) - finally figured it out again when I got home - I'm tired of purple anyway
9) I really like the automatic opening/closing hatch. I didn't think I would, as much as I do.
10) Others have commented about rear interior lighting and seeing power seat buttons. I didn't find that to be an issue (maybe they had a different model) and found lighting in the back fine.
11) Came with cargo net which was an unexpected bonus.
12) Small niggles (perhaps I need to do setup). Lights seem to stay on a long time after I leave vehicle. I thought with the IA key it might auto-lock on leaving, but it doesn't seem to. When I park to let my wife out and she opens the back door to get my daughter she can't open the door unless I hit unlock first? Kiddie lock feature perhaps - took me a while to figure that might be what that extra key was for? Drivers area felt a little small at first (I'm 6'2") but then I put peddles down and (subject to further adjustment) actually moved the seat in a bit. I accidentally through her into manual - little too easy to do - they should have put a separate shift gate in, instead of that little button.
I'd like to thank the people on this forum and Ford reps Cory and Rebecca for the many useful posts that guided us in the purchase.
By the way, for anyone in Ontario, I HIGHLY recommend Rahul at Yonge Steeles Ford in Thornhill for price. He is part of the family that owns the dealiership, I did a lot of price research and Rahul didn't play games and cut to the chase on price. YMMV but I had a done deal in less than 10 minutes and it only took that long due to trade-ins. Tell him Calb recommended you and you want the same deal
She is tri-white, Limited, with 302A package, towing, navigation and pecan seats. I say "she" as my 5 year old daughter wanted to know who was talking and I told her Samantha - right Rebecca?
First impressions:
1) Checked her out. I'd guess that the back door was off centre by a couple millimeters. Not enough that anyone would notice unless they were actually looking to measure that. Driver and passenger doors were perfectly aligned. Everything else was exactly as it should be. Pecan interior (as others have mentioned) is great)
2) Lot to learn (as others have commented on). Got in the car initially and just sat there looking and first thought was ... so how do I just put her in ACC mode to get things lit up with push button
3) Dealer didn't spend a lot of time showing me things (I didn't really want them to as I wasn't feeling great and jsut wanted to get home to sleep). However I paired the phone immediately (Blackberry 9900 btw) and text also immediately came up!
4) A lot of initial oomph when starting - in fact it was surprising when I first started driving. For a relatively heavy vehicle, she can move;
5) Figured I'd try out voice commands (without having read the manual!) and guess what ..... I got her to navigate to my home - first time - only mistake was saying a number rather than digits. The voice commands seem to very slick and logically thought out. I've used it several times since and was very pleased. Mind you I'm in a large city (Toronto) so I'd expect the mapping to work there.
6) Called my wife to tell her I was on the way to pick her and my daughter up from the park. It had imported my phonebook no problem and again I used the voice commands without instruction. Just worked!
7) On the way home I checked out BLIS (even my wife commented on how well that work) and for all the comments about Blind spots I don't find them that bad at all (even without BLIS) but that might be due to experience with a little sports car and having to learn to use/set mirrors.
8) On way home my wife texted me to tell me my daughter had an accident and were heading home. Text was read out to me - Neat! Although I got the jist of the message, Samanthat didn't pronounce the word "pooped" real well
I can live with that 6) Have used navigation subsequently - worked brilliantly (again, large city). Put a bunch of our music CDs in Artist/Album/Song order on USB stick and again, without training, I was able to say "USB" then "Play Artist Seal" and away we went
I had to work a little harder when I wanted a specific album though. Sirius was working too (I think its a free week so we are playing with that),7) Tried to use Collision Warning without actually hitting someone - no luck yet. Hmm ... don't really want to try that hard, do I?
Did however use the auto parking. I REALLY like that it can find a spot that fits you (at least now, while I'm still getting used to her size). Kind of freaky having her steer but it does work Hasn't rained yet, but should tomorrow and I'll see how wipers work, and adaptive cruise control as we are taking a short highway trip.8) The MFT screen confused us a bit. Had the 5 year old go into meltdown when I wouldn't change the interior lighting colour to purple (I'd managed to find how to change colours the day before) - finally figured it out again when I got home - I'm tired of purple anyway
9) I really like the automatic opening/closing hatch. I didn't think I would, as much as I do.
10) Others have commented about rear interior lighting and seeing power seat buttons. I didn't find that to be an issue (maybe they had a different model) and found lighting in the back fine.
11) Came with cargo net which was an unexpected bonus.
12) Small niggles (perhaps I need to do setup). Lights seem to stay on a long time after I leave vehicle. I thought with the IA key it might auto-lock on leaving, but it doesn't seem to. When I park to let my wife out and she opens the back door to get my daughter she can't open the door unless I hit unlock first? Kiddie lock feature perhaps - took me a while to figure that might be what that extra key was for? Drivers area felt a little small at first (I'm 6'2") but then I put peddles down and (subject to further adjustment) actually moved the seat in a bit. I accidentally through her into manual - little too easy to do - they should have put a separate shift gate in, instead of that little button.
I'd like to thank the people on this forum and Ford reps Cory and Rebecca for the many useful posts that guided us in the purchase.
By the way, for anyone in Ontario, I HIGHLY recommend Rahul at Yonge Steeles Ford in Thornhill for price. He is part of the family that owns the dealiership, I did a lot of price research and Rahul didn't play games and cut to the chase on price. YMMV but I had a done deal in less than 10 minutes and it only took that long due to trade-ins. Tell him Calb recommended you and you want the same deal
