Looking For A New SUV, LOVE The Edge, HATE MFT

[NY Yankee Pride]

I'm wondering if anyone else was in the same situation but bought an Edge anyway and either wish they hadn't because of MyFord Touch or ended up being glad they did buy the Edge because MFT wasn't anywhere near as bad as they thought. We are looking to replace my wife's 2005 Mariner & we have test driven several vehicles including the Edge, Murano, MDX, Durango, Escape, and CX-5. The Escape and CX-5 are too small for our needs & the Durango is really much larger than what we need. We just didn't care for the MDX which narrows us down to the Edge or Murano. We both absolutely love the Edge, it drives nice and has great features. For instance she really likes the back up sensors which aren't available on a lot of SUV's surprisingly including the Murano, I guess they assume the back up camera will suffice.

 

Anyway we test drove 3 different Edge's and spent considerable amount of time on the last test drive trying to figure out MFT. We are both fairly tech savvy but MFT just seems like a distraction. I understand there would obviously be a learning curve but the system doesn't even seem that intuitive. For instance it seems like the touch screen has to be pressed really hard for the selections to be registered and the menu system is much more complicated then it should be. Another example is the radio presets are so small & require a lot of focus to see which one you want to press which takes the drivers eyes off the road for longer than necessary. We so badly want an Edge but MFT is really turning us off & we feel we'll be less frustrated with the Murano. The Murano is missing 2 features that our Mariner has that we really like, the back up sensors & the keypad entry however we are considering going with the Murano and giving up those features rather than be constantly frustrated with MFT. Any suggestions?

[CinnamonEdge]

I bought a 2012 Ford Edge In January Leftover. I love it and have absolutely no functionality issues with MFT. I use the voice recognition daily to program addresses and it works 90% of the time. I would change a few things relative to layout. I love everything else too. It is very quiet and has all the features I wanted. I have no problems with buttons either once you drive the car a couple weeks you'll know exactly where to press. Just like when you use your TV remote I'm sure you don't need to look at it every time.

[akirby]

Maybe you're not understanding the layout. The default is the home screen which gives you info in 4 quadrants. No matter where you are, pressing the corner of the screen takes you directly to the phone, climate, navigation or entertainment screen.

 

You don't have to press the presets - use the steering wheel buttons to scroll through the presets forward or backwards.

 

The only time I use the touch screen while driving is to change the source from usb to satellite or vice versa (don't like the voice commands for that). Everything else is done with voice or steering wheel buttons.

[Waldo]

Sitting in the car playing with MFT is not the same way you will use it when driving. As akirby said, using the touchscreen for presets is not the best way to do it. That's just an example, but there are typically 3 or 4 different ways to do anything (you can change the presets with the touchscreen, the steering wheel controls, the cluster menu, the capacitive buttons under the screen or using voice commands), so you just need to find which of those ways works best for you.

 

MFT is way less frustrating than the Murano's CVT.

[FordIVTteam]

Hi NY Yankee Pride,

 

We offer voice commands for MyFord Touch so you don't have to look at the screen. If you'd like to check them out, here's a list by category:

http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/voice-command-categories-sync-myford-touch

Let me know if you have any questions, and good luck on your decision!

Rebecca

[TheWizard]

I will jump in here and be the dissenting opinion. Like you, I like the Edge but hate MFT with a burning passion. I bought a 2013 Edge Limited anyway - I still like the vehicle and have learned to tolerate MFT enough that I don't feel like taking a hammer to it every time I get in the vehicle. I have an '11 Mustang with Sync (but not MFT) and find that far more tolerable although the voice commands don't like me (I say "phone home", it says "deploying airbags"). For one thing, I can have a split screen with GPS on one side and audio/climate on the other... much better than having to choose between a simple compass or the full screen map.

 

You will find that many members here like MFT but they are not necessarily a representative group since they are "enthusiasts" who are much more into the nuts and bolts of their vehicles (that's why they're here and there's certainly nothing wrong with that). But Ford has discovered that the general public dislikes the current incarnation of MFT more than most similar products in other company's vehicles. And magazine reviews routinely pan MFT as a complete bust. So Ford has announced that it is changing the design significantly to include more real controls (knobs and buttons) so that owners would not be dependent on touch screen or voice commands. And you're right, the touch screen commonly takes an inordinate amount of pressure to get a response. It's not just annoying, it's a dangerous distraction while driving.

 

That being said, I have been mostly happy with the vehicle overall. It has a bunch of useless "gee whiz" electronic gadgetry (what was wrong with good old fashioned mechanical turn signal switches?) but it rides well, is very comfortable, has lots of interior space for its size, and gets pretty decent mileage.

[Mirage52]

I give MFT a B+

 

Sometimes it takes 2 presses when one should suffice but while driving you should really use Sync and the steering wheel controls as much as possible. I do wonder how it will hold up over the long hail but that is kind of why the touchscreen can be frustrating because it's built for longtime use.

 

IMO, it's certainly not enough of a negative to dissuade me from buying a Ford vehicle. It's no better or worse than an iPhone when it comes to controls.

[akirby]

To the contrary - 80% of MFT owners recommend the system to others.

 

It's certainly not perfect and has lots of room for improvement, but most of the displeasure lately seems to be a personal preference thing with the screen layout or menu options or just a general dislike of touch screens.

 

There is a big difference between a cell phone screen that only has to last 2 or 3 years and a vehicle screen that has to last 20 years or more.

[TheWizard]

Sorry, I have no idea where that 80% statistic may have come from other than Ford marketing. The only thing close that I could find was 71% and that was from a Ford survey commissioned to counteract the Consumer Reports articles. JD Powers dropped Ford's initial quality ranking from 10th to 23rd almost entirely because of MFT. And Lincoln dropped from 8th to 17th for the same reason. Consumer Reports has blasted MFT not only because of their own testing but because of responses to their annual owners survey. In fact, they dropped to 27th out of only 28 brands listed and now CR automatically downgrades any vehicle that is equipped with MFT. Ford faced a class action law suit over MFT issues and has reportedly dropped Microsoft in favor of Blackberry for the new software in an effort to improve it. Then on February they announced that they had actually listened to their frustrated customers and were putting real knobs and controls back into their cars for less dependence on touch screen and voice commands. Take a look at the coming 2015 Mustang dash - it's a thing of beauty! A touch screen for things that make good use of it (GPS, music track information, etc.) but really nice tactile controls for the essentials like climate control (fan speed, temperature, etc.) and basic audio system control (volume, source, tuning, etc.). In fact, there's 15 switches for climate control and seven for audio.

 

I am the IT Director for a billion dollar company so I am no stranger to technology but one thing I've learned is that the fancy gimmicks are often just that - gimmicks. They don't improve the user experience in the long run. MFT helps Ford sell cars because it looks cool in the showroom but it's not for everyone and it sure could use a lot of improvement in my opinion.

[akirby]

Nobody said it was perfect or that it didn't need to be improved. The first several versions stunk on ice. I was the moderator here during the MFT launch on the 2011 Edge so I know how bad it was. There are many reasons why that happened and many things that Ford did wrong in the process. They relied on an outsourced vendor (Bsquare) who screwed up the code so bad it took them over a year to make any headway and almost 2 years to get it somewhat stable.

 

Of course the 71% survey came from Ford - who else would do such a survey? And why would they lie about something that could be challenged so easily by a competitor by doing their own poll? And if they were going to make it up they certainly would have made up a much higher number.

 

Yes, they did away with the touch sensitive buttons. I have them in my Fusion and don't particularly like them. But they're not the end of the world, either. Just not quite as easy to use. And they're certainly not part of MFT.

 

Where I think they made it too complicated was the home screen instead of a regular menu and having too many ways to do something which confuses people. There isn't any need to use the touch screen for climate control other than the heated seat controls but I do that from the home screen (Fusion - Edge might be different). Hard buttons would help there. You can change the temp from the buttons below the screen or from the steering wheel.

 

The Nav screen is just like every other Ford nav screen - no difference and it's accessible from anywhere with one touch of the upper right screen area.

 

No need to use the phone screen except to pair a new phone. Using it only requires voice commands or steering wheel buttons.

 

For entertainment, I only use the touch screen to switch from Sirius to USB and back. I use the steering wheel controls for station selection and volume. I use voice control to play a song or playlist or artist.

 

So honestly - what is so difficult about it now? The problems that caused the drop in quality were hangs, freezes, reboots and slow response. None of those problems exist in the latest version.

 

Again - I know it's not perfect but it works quite well if you spend just a few minutes to learn it and set it up. You hardly hear any complaints about it from current vehicle tests. If you don't like it that's perfectly fine but don't pretend that everyone hates it just because you do.

 

And since you played the IT card - I'm an IT architect for a Fortune 20 company with 30 years of experience including software development, so I know a little bit about software.

[Mirage52]

Consumer Reports? Really? What is this, 1982? They're obsolete. Go to Edmunds or several other car-specific sites for auto reviews.

[TheWizard]

I love a good debate as long as it stays civil so I hope you don't think I'm dragging this out.

 

I didn't mean to imply that Ford falsified their survey in any way. My comment was more that they were selective in who they surveyed so that they could get results that were more favorable. For example, it is probably axiomatic that younger people are more likely to embrace technology than older people so a survey that included a large percentage of owners under 40 is much more likely to find positive reviews for things like MFT.

 

No, the nav screen is not like all other Ford systems. I know - I have nav in my Mustang and it is very different. I have my home screen set up so that the entire left half is map/nav and the right side is split between climate and audio. This gives me a reasonably large map without giving up the other two functions that are useful to me. Let's face it, once you pair a phone in an MFT system, there really is no good reason to devote the top left quadrant to the phone. And unless I missed something, there is no way to display a navigation map on the home screen. Sure, you can touch the upper right corner to switch to a full screen map but then you give up the other functions.

 

Of course, much of what we're discussing is not strictly MFT. The steering wheel controls other than the 4-way menu buttons are nothing special - I had steering wheel controls on my 2000 Trans Am without any factory touch screen. And the voice control is SYNC rather than MFT. But the average consumer thinks of the combination as an MFT system that includes touch screen, dash display, steering wheel controls and voice commands. As long as I've mentioned dash display - what's wrong with having real gauges? Why can't I display tach, speedometer, temp, oil pressure and voltage all at the same time? To me that is a big step backwards.

 

As far as what's difficult... none of it is really difficult although some of the less used options can be hard to find in the menu system. But why should I have to take my eyes off the road just to do something simple like change audio source, increase fan speed or turn on the heated seats? With real buttons and switches, I can do that by touch without having to look (or sometimes just a quick glance to locate the switch). With the Edge, even those controls that are not in the touchscreen are not tactile - they're just flat panel markings. Between those and the options that are only available on the touch screen, you not only have to look down to find them, you have to watch to see if they do anything when you touch them. Combined with how hard you have to press to get the screen to respond, it becomes very distracting.

 

I only mentioned my IT background because it has become common for technology supporters to denounce those who don't like a certain technology as luddites who don't understand or appreciate technology in general. I'm all for technology that works well and provides a real benefit but I'm very much against technology just for its own sake.

 

I really do appreciate that our opinions differ and I'm not trying to knock anyone who likes the MFT system. I'm just trying to present an opposing point of view. After all, the original poster asked for opinions to help decide on a vehicle purchase.

[Atlantan]

@ NY Yankee Pride, welcome to the forum.

 

I am also technically inclined and at first I thought the MFT was overwhelming, just initially. The Edge is a DD for my wife and she isn't tech savvy but zips around the MFT.

 

My recommendation would be to differentiate a vehicle based on powertrain first. The conventional transmission in the Edge is so smooth, in the long run the Murano CVT may be problematic, I would be very reluctant to owning a Murano out of warranty because of the CVT. The Edge 2.0 Ecoboost also powers the LR Evoque, it feels like a V6. My kids preferred the Edge interior, infotainment, panoramic roof, reclining rears seats over my previous Range Rover Sport. The Edge ride is very comfortable.

 

This is our first Ford and after a year of ownership we are very happy. We had a Nissan Xterra for 6 years, at a 100K miles the radiator and transmission went out, there were little annoying rattles, the gas cap was problematic, the interior was rental car grade. A colleague of mine had to get rid of his Murano due to CVT failure at 120K miles. The only Nissan I would consider now is the Leaf, that is a separate segment and conversation.

 

All the best in your quest for a new vehicle.

Cheers!

[TheWizard]

Consumer Reports? Really? What is this, 1982? They're obsolete. Go to Edmunds or several other car-specific sites for auto reviews.

 

Consumer Reports is still a major force in consumer product evaluation. If it wasn't, why do you think that Edmunds, MotorTrend, Car & Driver, Car Talk, autoguide.com, USA Today, CBS News and many others quote them when they do reviews such as their review of MFT. Their print magazine still goes to over seven million subscribers every month and their website has more subscribers than any other publication-based site.

[akirby]

I don't believe that you can use hard buttons without taking your eyes off the road except maybe for the huge volume button.

 

I haven't seen the split screen design for nav map/radio/climate together. Can you post a picture? Our 08 Edge certainly doesn't work that way.

 

There are dozens of improvements and I'm sure we'll see a lot in the new system (maybe out later this year?), but I don't believe the current system is nearly as bad as people think it is ergonomically and the vast majority of the early defects have been fixed now.

 

I also don't think Ford would fudge, lie or influence poll results - there is no benefit to that. You do have to understand that they're polling people who already bought a mft equipped Ford so that leaves out the folks who decided not to buy one because of MFT. But the point is once you have MFT and spend a bit of time with it 7 out of 10 like it and recommend it to others. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement and I'm sure Ford isn't happy about it, but it does show a big difference from public opinion and media reports that exaggerate the problems and make it sound like everyone hates it.

[nickf1011]

The only main thing I'd really like Ford to fix on MFT is to make it respond faster. I'm perfectly fine with the layout of everything. It has always seemed quite intuitive to me. Most of the other things I would change are mostly aesthetic: change some of the button and font sizes, especially on the main audio screen, etc. Things like that.

 

As for the nav, on longer trips I find myself usually loading the nav directions in the right-hand instrument panel screen (which gives a little more info than the default nav quadrant does) and then just doing everything I normally do with that screen with the main touch screen or auxiliary buttons instead.

[Waldo]

 

 

I haven't seen the split screen design for nav map/radio/climate together. Can you post a picture? Our 08 Edge certainly doesn't work that way.

 

 

He's talking about Ford's hard-drive based system that was only used in the 09 an 10 Edge, but is still in the 2014 Mustang and a couple other non-MFT vehicles.

 

Incidentally that system was the JDP top-ranked system at the time.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Waldo

[akirby]

What would be nice is if you could customize the home screen. Add custom buttons for favorite commands to one section (Focus had this initially although it might have only been for the steering wheel controls), allow sections to be hidden (phone/climate) and allow others to be half or full screen.

 

Also - make a default setting to show the entertainment screen since that's what most people are used to. Or just allow the owner to choose the startup screen.

[TheWizard]

This is my Mustang with the electronics package...

 

 

Each side of the screen can be selected independently using those white arrows at the bottom to customize the display or you can make any single section (map, audio, climate, etc.) full screen. I prefer the default setting with the map/nav on the left and the audio and climate on the right.

 

You can see how it is fairly easy to select many common functions by touch alone. The Radio and Media buttons are right next to the volume knob and the presets are between the volume and tuning knobs. Since the knobs are easy to locate without looking, the buttons next to them are similarly easy. In the lower row, the temperature up/down switches are indented so you can feel the difference from other switches and the seat heater is right next to them. I'll admit that I have to glance at the dash to get the front and rear defroster buttons but that's a quick glance and they aren't controls I use very often.

 

You are correct Waldo, it is the hard drive electronics package. And I can understand why it would be a top pick because it does basically everything that MFT in the Edge does but in a much nicer setup (in my opinion). Plus I have a full set of real gauges in front of me.

Edited May 20, 2014 by TheWizard

[nickf1011]

What would be nice is if you could customize the home screen. Add custom buttons for favorite commands to one section (Focus had this initially although it might have only been for the steering wheel controls), allow sections to be hidden (phone/climate) and allow others to be half or full screen.

 

Also - make a default setting to show the entertainment screen since that's what most people are used to. Or just allow the owner to choose the startup screen.

 

The first releases of MFT had a "favorites" home screen option. I never used it once. I do like your idea of being able to hide (or minimize) a quadrant to allow another to take up two spaces though. I could do without seeing the phone and nav screens most of the time.

Edited May 20, 2014 by nickf1011

[akirby]

Making a note........... 2:27 pm May 20, 2014. Nick agrees with me.

 

Got it!

[nickf1011]

Making a note........... 2:27 pm May 20, 2014. Nick agrees with me.

 

Got it!

 

Well you finally said something right.

Edited May 21, 2014 by nickf1011