That stupid 'F' word

[roadkill401]

I was talking to Ford Sync about why it is here in Canada we cannot have the Vehicle Health Report, or add any additional application to our MFT system. I was told it is not available here in Canada because it does not work in French so it is not offered.

 

But hang on a sec. All the other sync services are not offered in French. I tried saying "appeler à la maison" that everyone else would know is Call Home. But it didn't seem to work. so I tried some of the basic commands like "divertissement" or "menu principal' and they didn't work either.

 

So it seems strange that they are locking me out of sync apps for them not working in French when the system itself clearly doesn't work in french either.

 

 

 

[Waldo]

You have to change the settings to French, then you can talk French to it all day long. It does Spanish too.

[cv27]

As stated above, yes, Ford Sync works very well in French.

 

Being francophone myself, I'm sensitive to companies providing their product in Canada in both official languages, French and English. Often companies will restrict their product offering in Québec on the basis that it would be too costly to provide a French version. I personally find this BS as I think it has more to do with a lack of business aggressiveness. But then again, if your market is North America, you may not feel the incentive to add a mere 8 million potential customers in the province of Quebec or 36 million in Canada.

 

That being said, it is very frustrating in Canada to not have access to the Vehicle Health Report, or even worst, Sirius/XM traffic.

 

My personal opinion: Ford Canada does not have a very strong position in the decision making process over at Ford Corp and may not have the culture to demand changes.

[FordIVTteam]

Hi roadkill401,

Waldo and cv27 are correct; you have to change the language to French before the system will recognize it. In case you need them, here are the steps to change the language:

Gears > SETTINGS > SYSTEM > LANGUAGE > Choose ENGLISH, FRENCH, or SPANISH

 

Give it a try.

Rebecca

[cv27]

FordIVteam, care to address what follows the first line of my post? Just kidding, I suspect you won't. But that's the problem, no one wants to do THE statement.

 

I'm surprised Ford Canada hasn't been sued reprimanded yet for false advertisement. The material provided when I purchased my 2011 Edge was clearly stating features that were not really available to Canadian owners.

 

The more I think of it, Ford Corp should get involved. I realize Ford Canada is a separate entity, but it sells Ford's, which it theoretically buys from Ford Corp (and resells at close to $3000 more in Canada). And before someone gets me going on the exchange rate, I know, the $CAN is down at 90%, but let's not forget the Edge is built in Canada.

[Waldo]

Ford sells products all over the world. In a lot of places, they sell products that are based in English, even though English isn't the native language in the market. But there are no laws that prevent them from doing so and the locals are happy to have the products.

 

If the people of Quebec want the same access to products that the rest of North America has, they should get rid of the ridiculous laws that require French content. Let the free market dictate what needs to be in French and what isn't. If the market for French products is truly large enough, the market will prove it.

 

As for the exchange rate thing, Canadians often fail to see the big picture. The fact that the Edge is built in Canada doesn't really matter. Ford can't price the Edge cheaper in Canada relative to other models, because then the price of all the others would have to go up and they would be less competitive. Ford, like any other company, deals with it's currency exchange at a corporate level, not an individual transaction level. And surely you don't expect Ford of Canada to constantly adjust prices based on the exchange rate? The exchange is about 20% different than where it was less than 2 years ago, would you really want to see vehicle prices rise and fall by 20% year over year? I remember back about 10 years ago when a buying a new car in Canada was about 10% cheaper than buying the same car in the US, even after all the extra taxes. Besides, you really have to pay close attention to the incentives, they are often higher in Canada as they try to bring temporary adjustments to the currency swings.

Edited October 24, 2014 by Waldo

[drpepper]

FYI

 

10/23/14=1.1239

10/22/12=1.0065

 

per ex.com.

[cv27]

Waldo,

 

Interesting comments. I knew someone would get me going somehow

 

"Ford sells products all over the world. In a lot of places, they sell products that are based in English". So, i can deduct that in some "other" places, as opposed to lots of places, Ford sees enough incentive to accommodate regional locale?

 

"But there are no laws that prevent them from doing so". But there are. For some people living in the US, it is difficult to understand how someone outside of the US doesn't speak English as a native language. The point I was trying to make was about 'incentive'. Yes, the Quebec government established a law that requires service/product providers to cater to the French language. I personally, given a choice between getting a service/product solely in English or nothing at all, would like the option to say "I'll accept it in English only for now", but thats a dangerous path in our North American financial world. That being said, again the point I was trying to make was 'incentive'.

 

If I look at the Ford strategy for China where Ford apparently designed the MKZ and the MKC for the Chinese market, I can clearly see the 'incentive'.

 

Microsoft, to give one example, initially went with the "doesn't everybody speak English?" route with its products; it soon realized it had to implement regional locales.

 

Does anyone think, in the context of the current US economy, that a company should adopt a "take or leave it" attitude?

 

The free market you are referring to makes me wonder: there was a time when the US$ was the worldwide currency and now it's being threaten. I would rather think the US economy, and Ford, would focus on maximizing their market instead of focusing on the 'local patch'. And I wish Canada would do the same.

 

On the topic of Exchange rate, have you had the opportunity to look at the $CDN price for an Edge while the $CDN was higher than the $US a few years back? The constant is that Canadian prices for an Edge (refraining from generalizing here) are consistently higher than for our US neighbors after factoring in exchange rate and production costs.

 

You mention Canadian dealer incentives: let me tell you the only effective incentive when buying a car is strong negotiation: if the advertised borrowing %rate is down, then the base cost is up and when the base price goes down then the borrowing %rate isn't so appealing anymore.

 

Bottom line: how many US customers have tried over the years to buy a Ford from Canada and import it to the US? I suspect not many. I can tell you many, many Canadians have looked into importing a car from the US for financial benefits: the only constraint was Canadian dealers not wanting to respect the warranty on a US imported vehicle.

 

It's a complex topic and can become emotional. Beware