Leaving the Edge community - well, sort of

[ShopVac]

Hi everyone.

 

I currently own a 2011 Ford Edge, and decided to make a switch. My mother-in-law's vehicle was getting rather old, so the Mrs and I decided to give her the Edge, and go for something new.

 

 

First - some thoughts over the 3 years of having this (currently at 51,000 on the ODO)

 

Likes -

 

• Never had any major issues with the car - never had it in for any warranty work, unscheduled visits, etc. Which is always great for a vehicle. Other than my POS Mazdaspeed6, I've always felt I've been lucky in this aspect.
• Car always seemed classy and looked good on the road.
• Never had an issue with power - car accelerated well for what it was.
• We did have an accident - where my wife hit a 5-pt buck. While the deer did over 12K in damage to the car, both my daughter and wife were safe.
• Very spacious on the inside – maybe even too much. Car feels bigger than it really is.
• One thing that I'm really going to miss is that keypad on the door...it's really a great feature when you want to lock the keys in the car (when I go running or biking).

Dislikes -

• Top of this list is the Ford Sync system. It was horrid at best.
  • Navigation was awful to use, whether by POI, or address entry. It was so bad, we found it better to enter this into MapQuest and download it through the phone.
  • GPS from the maps would take 20 minutes or longer to put the car on the road
  • Voice commands were bad – could not use it at all to enter an address. I’d rather have a root-canal (which I’ve never had) with no Novocain.
  • Driver display on right side always defaulted to a generic setting when turning the car on. Not a huge deal – but why doesn’t it come back where I left it?
  • Buttons from the radio would rarely show on the main screen.
  • Phones were slow to connect to the car (sometimes 10-15 minutes).
    • The latest update from Ford helped Sync...but it was still bad. I’m really glad that Ford stopped promoting this in their ads – as it’s clearly the weakest part of this cars brains.

• Advertised gas mileage. I realize I live in a hilly city – but I never even came close to the low end of this – with a ton of highway driving. Typically, we’d get 18.5MPG with 70% highway driving. I hit 20MPG once, with almost all highway driving. I’m thinking this is another one of Ford’s lies.
• Disconnected feeling while driving. While I know many of the cars I have are sporty – there’s a disconnect between the wheel and what the car does. Almost a numbness feeling when turning. It’s hard to explain – but if you drive some other cars, you’d see what I’m talking about.
• The ‘piano black’ center console. Looks great when clean – but shows every little speck of dust.
• Front seats felt like a bench seat from an 80’s pickup. There’s no lateral support what so ever.
• Two setting seat heaters. (why only 2, when the Focus has 5). Of the two settings, you have ‘burn your arse’ HI and ‘can’t even feel it’ LO. They really need to fix this.
• Plastic wheels - really, in a 45K vehicle?

 

So, on to the new

 

With our daughter turning 16 – it looks like she will be getting our MINI. So what was our winter only drive with the Ford Edge, will now be a full time vehicle. We were looking for something that was similar in size – and since my wife drives 70 miles round trip to work, could easily get an additional 6 to 10 MPG more. Enter the Jeep Grand Cherokee Diesel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently, we have 1200 miles on this, and I can fully state that we're already hitting above the claimed mileage. In combined driving, we're averaging 25.5MPG and constantly hit over 29MPG on the highway. I'm hoping that this will only get better as the engine breaks in. Where we were filling the Edge twice a week - we can now go a week and a half between fillups. Sure - the cost is higher to fill up, but time is money too.

 

Backseat is smaller than what the Edge has, but cargo space is higher. Basically, bad for the kids, great for the dog.

 

Time will tell if this ends up being a good vehicle, we got a free 'lifetime powertrain warranty' with this - so we're hoping to go the long haul...we'll just need to see if I'm still in love after the honeymoon period is over

 

I still plan to lurk around here - as I'm sure I'll be looking up items for my mother-in law. Appreciate everyone's time over the past 3 years.

 

Joey

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WWWPerfA_ZN0W]

Glad you haven't exactly "gotten rid of" the Edge Great summary of your experiences, Sync has been a sore spot for many, a black spot on a white shirt if you will.

 

Congrats on your new ride of choice, looks great. Wish they'd give the diesel engine option to the Edge, but I think EcoBoost is the big push at Ford, now with AWD as of 2015 MY. Getting above rated mpg is awesome!

 

Which MINI do you have? Pics?

[ShopVac]

Glad you haven't exactly "gotten rid of" the Edge Great summary of your experiences, Sync has been a sore spot for many, a black spot on a white shirt if you will.

 

Congrats on your new ride of choice, looks great. Wish they'd give the diesel engine option to the Edge, but I think EcoBoost is the big push at Ford, now with AWD as of 2015 MY. Getting above rated mpg is awesome!

 

Which MINI do you have? Pics?

 

 

Thanks -

 

The MINI is a 2006 S convertible. We only drive it in the summer - never seen snow. Doubt that will hold now if this becomes my daughters DD.

[akirby]

Sounds like you a bad APIM. Those symptoms are not typical of the later MFT software. Too bad they can't get those diagosed and replaced more easily.

 

And FYI - they don't use novocaine any more - it's lidocaine. And root canals don't hurt when done properly. Sorry you can't say that for MFT.

[wlepse]

Reading through your negatives I couldn't agree more...MFT is such a dissapointment and mpg is no where near what they claim. I don't normally drive the Edge but we just went on vacation and after spending a few hours on it I do get enraged. Gas mileage struggled to break 22 and the GPS is a complete waste. Set destination at home to route fastest way. It chose the longest time and miles way compared to google maps. No changing settings could correct it we ended up shutting it off since even an hour past the turn off for other route it continued to try to get you to turn around.

[rocketace1]

Congrats on the Overland. That is a great vehicle by any definition. and in a my favorite color as well. Appreciate those pros and cons regarding your 2011 Edge. I think the 2011 being the first redesign release will have some of those issues... Your daughter is blessed, with a sporty convertible. Wow!!! Awesome.... Please stay around and share your experience with the Overland. I will certainly be very interested, especially your thoughts on how it compares to your Edge LTD.

Edited August 31, 2014 by rocketace1

[wlepse]

I would agree that there tend to be growing pains with a redesign butuch of the complaints are still not addressed in current Edges.

[akirby]

The only complaint not addressed is the lack of latitude and longitude inputs which most people don't use. And you could say it's been addressed - they decided to remove it.

 

I have 3 MFT equipped vehicles - 2012 Focus, 2013 Fusion and 2014 Escape. With the latest software they are rock solid stable.

[wlepse]

Gas mileage has never been addressed and MFT maybe stable for some but many,myself included continue to have problems. Just this morning on the ride home we stopped at a rest area. Upon restarting the car the USB is no longer recognized. Unfortunately this is common, what isn't common is that the navigation screen was showing traffic data but we don't have an active Sirius plan. After 10 min we lost that but we do have weather, fuel and radio. Not even sure how the MFT screws that up.

 

Traffic data is back...too bad I still can't use the GPS.

Edited August 31, 2014 by wlepse

[jrSS]

I know this post is almost a year old. But when reading it I couldn't help myself laugh. If u had so many negatives why on earth would you have bought such a vehicle that you had so many dislikes about?

 

I'm loving my 2011 sport. Love the mft. Only complaint I have are the headrests on the seat. And yes that is a nice Jeep Grand Cherokee you purchased.

 

Btw.....have passing the edge to your mother in law do u dislike her. Lol. Kidding.