My New Ford Edge2011

[pookie63]

This car is a major leap ahead, revolutionary in some ways. The instrument gauge cluster and the LCD display are world-leading, superior technology. They are bright, sharp, and have excellent contrast. I don’t think any other car in the world has anything this excellent, even much more expensive cars. The LCD display in particular, in the center console, is large and beautifully designed, although the touch-sensitivity is poor and requires a lot of experience to use reliably – the duration of your touch in milliseconds and the degree of force in your touch appear to be critical, and I am still finding that it often takes multiple tries to get it right. The response time of the display to user inputs is also too slow; the processor seems overwhelmed at times. I find the user interface logic to be un-intuitive. You need a lot of time with it to get to use it easily, even with a manual. Ford engineers should have done a better job making this interface intuitive. I have a master’s degree in engineering and it just shouldn’t be that difficult for me to learn this interface. And you shouldn’t need a manual to do it, that’s what intuitive means. Also it makes heavy use of color coding. I am red-green color blind and the color coding is a major challenge for me. Ford should make the colors user-controllable to accommodate drivers with my handicap, perhaps offering different color schemes. This is especially problematic in the Navigation mode, with green and red being richly used. I sent a query to ford a few weeks ago asking how they might accommodate my visual handicap and have not received a reply.

 

Since the driver continuously glances down at the LCD display and up again at the road, the design of the car should minimize the angular distance between the two. This means that the display should be as high up on the dash as possible. But Ford put the air conditioner vents above the display, instead of below it or to the side of it where they belong. The display should have been on top, like it is in the Acura MD-X and Toyota Sienna..

 

The six-speed automatic transmission does not function smoothly at lower speeds. In various acceleration scenarios beginning from a full stop, the transmission is felt to lag and surge, jerking the passengers no matter how adeptly the drive uses the accelerator pedal. You would think that after half a century of designing automatic transmissions, Ford would know how to make a smoothly performing automatic transmission. This is a big disappointment.

 

As with every other GPS I have used, the Navigation system occasionally tells me to do crazy things, but generally it works well. And while you are able to reposition the map view by dragging your finger on it, after you are done you can't restore the icon representing your car to the correct central location, that is, to reset it, and you have to experiment quite a lot to discover that issuing the voice command "Show Map" will do this. In general, although many functional areas in the various LCD screens have "slider" type controls, inviting you to put your finger on the slide icon and drag it along its axis, I have never once been able to make this work for me. You have to tap each end of the axis to move the slider, and you mjust get your finger tip exactly right or it makes other things happen that you didn't want.

 

It is wonderful to be able to connect my iPod Touch toe the car's USB port and control it via the LCD screen and the steering wheel controls. My music sounds absolutely amazing over the car's sound system, which is top notch even to a highly critical audiophile like myself (although the high frequencies are a little weak). But Ford does not provide any documentation on how to operate this kind of device over the USB, and you have to learn it yourself. On shortcoming is that when you are playing a song from your iPod, there is no function (that I have been able to discover) allowing you to move the play point later or earlier in the song; it just keeps going. But it does remember where you were if you disconnect the iPod from the car and later reconnect it, very convenient.

 

The voice recognition system is very helpful and improves safety by reducing distractions while driving but it is not completely reliable. It understands many spoken commands but has trouble too often. There is no comprehensive listing of all possible voice commands in one place, in any of the documentation. You should be able to go to a master index to find the appropriate voice command in any context.

 

The Ambient Lighting is a brilliant feature and huge attraction for this car. You can control the color and even the intensity of the light, and it makes it vastly more exciting to be in this car at night. This is one of the things that puts the 2011 Ford Edge in a class by itself (I understand the Flex and maybe other Ford models also have Ambient Lighting).

 

The interior of the car is exceptionally quiet, something that was an absolute requirement for me in making a car choice, and caused me to eliminate many other cars such as the Honda's. At highway speeds this is still the case, although some road noise is heard but it’s not intrusive, it’s still relatively very quiet. All the effort and technology the Ford put into making the Edge quiet has paid off beautifully.

 

The seats are extremely comfortable. The adjustable lumbar support in the driver's seat works nicely and is much welcome by this driver. The rear seats are fairly spacious, but it would be an exaggeration to claim that three adults could sit comfortably side by side in the rear.

 

The ride is very smooth, also critical for me. Large bumps in the road are felt and heard but not annoyingly. Mostly the passengers are well insulated from road conditions. The brakes in this car are phenomenal, the best I’ve experienced. They’re almost like thrust reversers in a jet.

 

One area that I don’t like very much is the power steering. There is simply not enough power assist. The steering feels heavy, particularly at lower speeds. I was hoping that Ford would have made it much easier to steer this car. I feel like I have to tug hard on the steering wheel instead of easily turning it. This limits the merging of driver and vehicle into one organism, making you feel like you have to battle the steering wheel instead of it becoming an appendage of your body. They seem to equate heavy steering with good road feel. Also, at a dead stop or at very low speeds, if you turn the steering wheel abruptly and sharply, it takes a few moments for the power assist to kick in. For those moments, there is essentially no power steering. Also strange. Ford should have made the power assist much quicker and more responsive. They should also consider making the degree of power assist for the steering driver controllable. Besides this, the steering is sufficiently precise. Cornering is very flat and overall the ride is exceptionally stable even on challenging terrain, although I am a comfort driver and not a sports-type driver -- I want comfort rather than excitement. The wide, fat tires help with handling and stability.

 

I’m not crazy about the high belt line of this car. While it might make for a sleeker appearance, it also reduces visibility 360 degrees around. Also the driver is not able to see the front edge of the car, even at the maximum height setting for the driver’s seat, making it a challenge to parallel park safely or pull into a perpendicular parking space. The excellent rear backup camera and console display helps a lot with backing up though.

 

The biggest problem with my car is that the MyFord Touch system spontaneously cuts off and reboots, saying it's doing "scheduled maintenance" or something to that effect, several times a day. You can't do virtually anything with the car without it - navigation, rear backup, playing of the radio or the Sirius receiver or an iPod, or most anything else. In addition, although I successfully paired my cell phone with the car, it has never successfully linked to the phone and enabled hands-free use of the cell phone. Ford is working on a fix, but has not let me know when this will be available. It is extremely frustrating and annoying.

 

Fit and finish are generally excellent. Only one minor thing has gone wrong -- the plastic covering of a fuse panel near the driver's left foot fell off with just a touch when I was respositioning my left leg, and I had to get out of the car and crouch down and figure out how to reattach it.

 

The headlights have nice wide beams but I think they are too weak. I didn't get the High Intensity ones because of cost considerations, but I shouldn't have to.

 

The intelligent access key fob and remote start function work beautifully, as does the remote open/close for the rear hatch. There is plenty of room inside the cargo area, though it comes across as slightly shallow due to the need to allow room for the spare tire.

 

The rocker-type switches on the steering wheel, which control the cruise control, entertainment and the phone system, are nice, but they are too small and too tight. After using it for a while my thumb joint hurts. These switches should be larger and looser.

 

The door handle and door opening lever on each of the front doors are too close to the hinges, reducing your leverage and making you exert more force than you should have to. The handles should have been farther back.

 

I really like the storage compartment in the center console between the front seats; it's nice and deep, and has that beautiful Ambient Lighting inside.

 

Knowing what I know now, I would still buy this car. It is beautiful, comfortable, quiet, interesting, great performing, and has amazing technology. Its imperfections mar what would otherwise be a major automotive breakthrough. Although I'm sure Ford will implement improvements in future releases of the Edge, this won't help ME.

Edited December 15, 2010 by pookie63

[juscruzn]

Thanks for your review. This is the most insightful and useful review that I have read. You have summarized many of the concerns early buyers have voiced. My SEL is on order. I can only hope that Ford is able to address some of these problems before it is assembled. Please continue to share your experiences.

[pookie63]

Thanks for your review. This is the most insightful and useful review that I have read. You have summarized many of the concerns early buyers have voiced. My SEL is on order. I can only hope that Ford is able to address some of these problems before it is assembled. Please continue to share your experiences.

 

THANK YOU! With this encouragement I shall do so! In fact I'm adding a few more observations.

[choff1138]

Great calm review. I have some how managed to be lucky with not having sync problems. Yes the system is a bit slow, but nothing unreasonable. I greatly enjoy my limited.

[bcash]

This car is a major leap ahead, revolutionary in some ways. The instrument gauge cluster and the LCD display are world-leading, superior technology. They are bright, sharp, and have excellent contrast. I don’t think any other car in the world has anything this excellent, even much more expensive cars. The LCD display in particular, in the center console, is large and beautifully designed, although the touch-sensitivity is poor and requires a lot of experience to use reliably – the duration of your touch in milliseconds and the degree of force in your touch appear to be critical, and I am still finding that it often takes multiple tries to get it right. The response time of the display to user inputs is also too slow; the processor seems overwhelmed at times. I find the user interface logic to be un-intuitive. You need a lot of time with it to get to use it easily, even with a manual. Ford engineers should have done a better job making this interface intuitive. I have a master’s degree in engineering and it just shouldn’t be that difficult for me to learn this interface. And you shouldn’t need a manual to do it, that’s what intuitive means. Also it makes heavy use of color coding. I am red-green color blind and the color coding is a major challenge for me. Ford should make the colors user-controllable to accommodate drivers with my handicap, perhaps offering different color schemes. This is especially problematic in the Navigation mode, with green and red being richly used. I sent a query to ford a few weeks ago asking how they might accommodate my visual handicap and have not received a reply.

 

Since the driver continuously glances down at the LCD display and up again at the road, the design of the car should minimize the angular distance between the two. This means that the display should be as high up on the dash as possible. But Ford put the air conditioner vents above the display, instead of below it or to the side of it where they belong. The display should have been on top, like it is in the Acura MD-X and Toyota Sienna..

 

The six-speed automatic transmission does not function smoothly at lower speeds. In various acceleration scenarios beginning from a full stop, the transmission is felt to lag and surge, jerking the passengers no matter how adeptly the drive uses the accelerator pedal. You would think that after half a century of designing automatic transmissions, Ford would know how to make a smoothly performing automatic transmission. This is a big disappointment.

 

As with every other GPS I have used, the Navigation system occasionally tells me to do crazy things, but generally it works well. And while you are able to reposition the map view by dragging your finger on it, after you are done you can't restore the icon representing your car to the correct central location, that is, to reset it, and you have to experiment quite a lot to discover that issuing the voice command "Show Map" will do this. In general, although many functional areas in the various LCD screens have "slider" type controls, inviting you to put your finger on the slide icon and drag it along its axis, I have never once been able to make this work for me. You have to tap each end of the axis to move the slider, and you mjust get your finger tip exactly right or it makes other things happen that you didn't want.

 

It is wonderful to be able to connect my iPod Touch toe the car's USB port and control it via the LCD screen and the steering wheel controls. My music sounds absolutely amazing over the car's sound system, which is top notch even to a highly critical audiophile like myself (although the high frequencies are a little weak). But Ford does not provide any documentation on how to operate this kind of device over the USB, and you have to learn it yourself. On shortcoming is that when you are playing a song from your iPod, there is no function (that I have been able to discover) allowing you to move the play point later or earlier in the song; it just keeps going. But it does remember where you were if you disconnect the iPod from the car and later reconnect it, very convenient.

 

The voice recognition system is very helpful and improves safety by reducing distractions while driving but it is not completely reliable. It understands many spoken commands but has trouble too often. There is no comprehensive listing of all possible voice commands in one place, in any of the documentation. You should be able to go to a master index to find the appropriate voice command in any context.

 

The Ambient Lighting is a brilliant feature and huge attraction for this car. You can control the color and even the intensity of the light, and it makes it vastly more exciting to be in this car at night. This is one of the things that puts the 2011 Ford Edge in a class by itself (I understand the Flex and maybe other Ford models also have Ambient Lighting).

 

The interior of the car is exceptionally quiet, something that was an absolute requirement for me in making a car choice, and caused me to eliminate many other cars such as the Honda's. At highway speeds this is still the case, although some road noise is heard but it’s not intrusive, it’s still relatively very quiet. All the effort and technology the Ford put into making the Edge quiet has paid off beautifully.

 

The seats are extremely comfortable. The adjustable lumbar support in the driver's seat works nicely and is much welcome by this driver. The rear seats are fairly spacious, but it would be an exaggeration to claim that three adults could sit comfortably side by side in the rear.

 

The ride is very smooth, also critical for me. Large bumps in the road are felt and heard but not annoyingly. Mostly the passengers are well insulated from road conditions. The brakes in this car are phenomenal, the best I’ve experienced. They’re almost like thrust reversers in a jet.

 

One area that I don’t like very much is the power steering. There is simply not enough power assist. The steering feels heavy, particularly at lower speeds. I was hoping that Ford would have made it much easier to steer this car. I feel like I have to tug hard on the steering wheel instead of easily turning it. This limits the merging of driver and vehicle into one organism, making you feel like you have to battle the steering wheel instead of it becoming an appendage of your body. They seem to equate heavy steering with good road feel. Also, at a dead stop or at very low speeds, if you turn the steering wheel abruptly and sharply, it takes a few moments for the power assist to kick in. For those moments, there is essentially no power steering. Also strange. Ford should have made the power assist much quicker and more responsive. They should also consider making the degree of power assist for the steering driver controllable. Besides this, the steering is sufficiently precise. Cornering is very flat and overall the ride is exceptionally stable even on challenging terrain, although I am a comfort driver and not a sports-type driver -- I want comfort rather than excitement. The wide, fat tires help with handling and stability.

 

I’m not crazy about the high belt line of this car. While it might make for a sleeker appearance, it also reduces visibility 360 degrees around. Also the driver is not able to see the front edge of the car, even at the maximum height setting for the driver’s seat, making it a challenge to parallel park safely or pull into a perpendicular parking space. The excellent rear backup camera and console display helps a lot with backing up though.

 

The biggest problem with my car is that the MyFord Touch system spontaneously cuts off and reboots, saying it's doing "scheduled maintenance" or something to that effect, several times a day. You can't do virtually anything with the car without it - navigation, rear backup, playing of the radio or the Sirius receiver or an iPod, or most anything else. In addition, although I successfully paired my cell phone with the car, it has never successfully linked to the phone and enabled hands-free use of the cell phone. Ford is working on a fix, but has not let me know when this will be available. It is extremely frustrating and annoying.

 

Fit and finish are generally excellent. Only one minor thing has gone wrong -- the plastic covering of a fuse panel near the driver's left foot fell off with just a touch when I was respositioning my left leg, and I had to get out of the car and crouch down and figure out how to reattach it.

 

The headlights have nice wide beams but I think they are too weak. I didn't get the High Intensity ones because of cost considerations, but I shouldn't have to.

 

The intelligent access key fob and remote start function work beautifully, as does the remote open/close for the rear hatch. There is plenty of room inside the cargo area, though it comes across as slightly shallow due to the need to allow room for the spare tire.

 

The rocker-type switches on the steering wheel, which control the cruise control, entertainment and the phone system, are nice, but they are too small and too tight. After using it for a while my thumb joint hurts. These switches should be larger and looser.

 

The door handle and door opening lever on each of the front doors are too close to the hinges, reducing your leverage and making you exert more force than you should have to. The handles should have been farther back.

 

I really like the storage compartment in the center console between the front seats; it's nice and deep, and has that beautiful Ambient Lighting inside.

 

Knowing what I know now, I would still buy this car. It is beautiful, comfortable, quiet, interesting, great performing, and has amazing technology. Its imperfections mar what would otherwise be a major automotive breakthrough. Although I'm sure Ford will implement improvements in future releases of the Edge, this won't help ME.

 

Great review! I agree with everything you said and couldn't have said it better myself. My 2011 Edge is currently in the shop for the Sync system. Blue tooth pretty much quit working, dealership is having a terrible time with it, going on day 4 now. Hope you have better luck!

[pookie63]

Great review! I agree with everything you said and couldn't have said it better myself. My 2011 Edge is currently in the shop for the Sync system. Blue tooth pretty much quit working, dealership is having a terrible time with it, going on day 4 now. Hope you have better luck!

 

Thanks. My 2011 Edge Sync has also had severe problems -- several times a day it would spontaneously reboot itself. The screen goes completely blank for about a minute or two -- the first time this happened I was scared to death, that it might stay that way. But then it starts reloading itself, with a horizontal progress bar on the bottom of the screen, saying something like Please wait while Sync performs scheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance? Several times a day? With no warning? The Sync "expert" at the dealer told me that Ford was working on a solution, to this rebooting problem and myriad other problems with Sync, and after about a month they finally announced that they were ready to install a new release. So I brought the car in, got my loaner car and drove back to the office, then they called and said they couldn't install the fix because Ford's servers crashed. Apparently they install a new release of Sync remotely -- they connect the car's processor into a network and the new version of the software is downloaded into the car from Ford's central computer somewhere. A week or so later they called and said they were ready again. It installed successfully this time, but the whole process takes a couple of hours apparently. The same day I got my car back, it spontaneously rebooted itself once again. But it hasn't happened any more times and it's been a week now, so I guess this one took.

 

Problems with Sync remain. The processor is much too slow for the system. In general, its responses are sluggish at best. There are times when I tap the screen and nothing happens, so I keep trying, using different amounts of force and different dwell times for my fingertip, and still nothing happens. A minute later, or even, crazily, a few minutes later, the processor catches up, and responds, but responds to ALL of the accumulated dozens of finger taps, causing unpredictable things to happen that I have to recover from, while I am driving. It is clear that the capacity of the computer in the car was not sized correctly to match the software. They either need to streamline the software or install a faster processor. I really hope they don't streamline it by disabling any functions. Ford has GOT to solve this problem or it will forfeit the enormous strategic leap over all competitors enabled by this technology.

 

Some logical inconsistencies. When I prompt the car to hear my voice command and I ask for "Weather," the car says, "Sorry, that function is not available." Then the screen posts the weather.

 

It's also missing a major movie theater that I know is nearby, the it never shows up in the system somehow (I don't know if this is Ford's fault or the data broadcast service).

 

On the navigation system, it shows the location of traffic problems, but it doesn't allow you to tap the corresponding traffic icon to get details, like my cheap after market GPSs do. It will give you a list of traffic incidents but not on the map.

 

The car was able to pair successfully with my cell phone, but couldn't connect to the phone and place a call. I blamed the car. But then I took my cell phone to the store and they downloaded updated firmware into the phone, and since then the bluetooth connection from car to phone has worked fine, in fact, splendidly.

 

I also have trouble with the switch for the emergency flasher, oddly enough. It's very easy to inadvertently turn it on, as other reviewers have said, but once it's on, it's almost impossible to turn off. The design of the switch is terrible. You have to get it just exactly right or it won't turn off the flasher. I still haven't mastered the art of turning this damn thing off. It shouldn't be where they put it anyway, right under the screen.

Edited December 30, 2010 by pookie63

[dragster13]

I have to agree with you on the emergency button. I have hit it numerious times while programing screen. Need smaller fingers to turn off as it goes on by touching outer area, but you need to push the inner part to turn off.

[HS2020]

Great review as my wife and I just bought a 2011 Edge SE. Ours does not have the Sync in it. Actually I am glad it does not. Something else to go wrong. I can by an aftermarket technology to be able to talk through my car. Just remember anything that is controlled by a computer will run slow when it is overloaded. Seems all cars now are nothing more than a rolling computer. One day we will just get in and tell it where to drive us and off we go. For now though I will enjoy our new Edge.

[emeraldtx]

Ours does not have the Sync in it. Actually I am glad it does not.

 

Wow, really? This stuns me, as the sync & MFT are my absolute favorite thing about my Edge. It's a GREAT car otherwise, but the tech just pushes it into a whole new category.... wouldn't be the same without it!

[itsmagic]

I picked up my 2011 Edge Limited from the dealer on Dec 30. In the 10 days since I have just over 600km on the vehicle.

 

The review of the OP is right on the money with a couple of exceptions from my perspective. I don't have any issues with the power steering - I find it to be smooth and responsive. Additionally, I haven't had a single problem with the MFT or navigation. The system is paired with both a Blackberry Tour and an iPhone 3GS.

 

I do not regret my decision to order this car... it is a pleasure to own and to drive.

 

Scott

2011 Kona Blue Ford Edge Limited

[pookie63]

HI SCOTT I'm glad you're enjoying your new car. I also have the Kona Blue 2011 Edge Limited.

 

Note that I didn't say the power steering isn't smooth or responsive, it is. I said the power assist is too weak.

 

And I'm glad your MFT and Nav are working nicely. I continue to have latency and stability problems, even after downloading the update online from the Ford owner support page and installing it in the car, a process that went very smoothly by the way.

 

 

I picked up my 2011 Edge Limited from the dealer on Dec 30. In the 10 days since I have just over 600km on the vehicle.

 

The review of the OP is right on the money with a couple of exceptions from my perspective. I don't have any issues with the power steering - I find it to be smooth and responsive. Additionally, I haven't had a single problem with the MFT or navigation. The system is paired with both a Blackberry Tour and an iPhone 3GS.

 

I do not regret my decision to order this car... it is a pleasure to own and to drive.

 

Scott

2011 Kona Blue Ford Edge Limited

[William_Canada]

"I am red-green color blind and the color coding is a major challenge for me".

 

Can one get a driver license if he/she is red-green color blind?

[pookie63]

umm..... well........ yeah..... I don't think I'd be driving a 2011 Ford Edge if I couldn't get a driver's license.

 

"I am red-green color blind and the color coding is a major challenge for me".

 

Can one get a driver license if he/she is red-green color blind?

[akirby]

umm..... well........ yeah..... I don't think I'd be driving a 2011 Ford Edge if I couldn't get a driver's license.

 

Not a problem as long as green and red are always in the same position on the traffic light.

[pookie63]

I know this is somewhat far afield from the forum topic, but as the author of the very long Ford Edge 2011 review above, I claim some indulgence.

 

Yes it is a problem for me, even though red is always on top. Although it's usually very safe when I'm behind the wheel, honestly, sometimes I miss it. (Even drivers with normal color vision can be inattentive.) Especially with direct sunlight directly into the traffic light. Often I can barely see the red light. (As a kid I used to wonder why they picked such an ugly color for the tail lights of cars, then later I learned what color blindness is.) At night, a green traffic light is often indistinguishable to me from street lights; it usually looks a little softer. So I have to be extra cautious all the time. Of course when I was an ambulance driver in NYC in 1972 it didn't matter since we didn't look at traffic lights anyway.... :wacko:

 

It is very annoying to me that Ford and every other car maker that I know of makes no accommodation for color-impaired owners. Contemporary auto display technology makes it easier than ever before to do this, yet they don't. And an argument could be made that they are violating our (color impaired people) rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. I'm certainly not a litigious person and I bought the Edge after all but Ford really should provide alternate color schemes for owners like me. It would cost them almost nothing and would greatly aid their public image. Red or green displays showing what floor you're on in elevators, embedded in tread mill control heads, walking direction signs in hospitals, lasers that read bar codes (you have to aim the beam with the hand-held reader), laser pointers used by briefers, charge lights on cell phones and other chargeable devices that turn green when they're fully charged, and countless other situations challenge people like myself and demonstrate an un-caring society. Granted it's not as bad as being unable to see at all or unable to walk, but it's still a physical handicap that's deserving of more attention than it gets. It's bad enough that when spring time brings beautiful green trees and grass that everyone marvels about and I'm completely cheated out of it; but society has to add more exclusionary experiences.

 

Not a problem as long as green and red are always in the same position on the traffic light.