Mach_Enrique

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Hi all! As I finally received my MachE, I can actually contribute my experience rather than just live vicariously through you all!!

Ford Mustang Mach-E My First Mach-E GT & BlueCruise Road Trip Impressions Day1 MachE

Prologue:

Last Wednesday I received an email from Ford my Rapid Red GT was on it’s way to the dealer, by noon I had a text from my sales person at Interstate Ford here in Colorado (fantastic dealer experience…myself/family buy all our Fords from there) that my car arrived late Tuesday and I can come by Wednesday evening for pickup! Easy/fast closing with no problems with xplan pricing, Ford Options (with rebate), etc. The only hiccup was the pre-loaded profile I sent to the car never worked (sales person said it popped up when they were moving the car to the charger earlier in the day, but it never came back…guess I should have pushed it just before I turned the car on…if anyone knows how to reset and force a profile pre-load to work…let me know…I searched and found nothing). Drove it home Wednesday night and on Thursday morning promptly drove it to The Man Cave in Westminster CO for some front PPF, Ceramic and L/R front window tint (met another MachE owner dropping car off at the same time!). Friday afternoon I was driving an amazingly shiny and well protected GT around.

Took family for a ride and even let my teenager take it for a spin (highly supervised so he made very good choices ?). As he is a teenage self-proclaimed car person, I received kudos for the best color choice and he was very impressed with the car. He said it was perfectly OK to have a Pony logo on it!.

Anyone who I let drive (family) and take for a ride (friends) can’t wipe the grin off their face or refrain from colorful metaphors the first time you punch it up to 60+. I have been in a Model S once so experienced performance electric linear acceleration, but never as a driver. I still grin like a kid every time I punch it (hit the gas? Hit the go? pedal it? Still trying to figure out the natural substitute for “hit the gas” in my first EV…first world problem). My only stop light fun was on a double left getting onto the highway. A full sized SUV was on the inner left turn and thought he would easily muscle the lead car position for the merge to the highway. Not much effort needed to correct his thinking on that, even coming from a fairly slow turn on the outside of the double left.

I had already weeks ago planned to drive from N. Denver suburbs up to Cheyenne Wyo on Saturday to visit someone, so I was very stoked to be able to do a short road trip in my GT (around 230 miles as I had to make a stop in Greeley Colorado on my way up to Wyoming). Tapped “charge to 100%” in FordPass app and she was at 100% when I was ready to leave on Saturday.



Road Trip!:

The first segment: My wife wanted to drive, so she did the first 50 mile leg. Was fun to experience as a passenger and help her learn the ropes. She used the adaptive cruise a lot and liked it (our other car has it so it was familiar). She was giddy every time she punched it and would likely get in much trouble if she drove every day:cool:. We did charge for free on a Level 2 charger where I was dropping her off so got a few free miles for 30 minutes.

The second segment: My turn to drive! I drove up HWY 85 up to Cheyenne WY. Very nice 2-4 lane road with lots of speed limit changes. Used the smart adaptive cruise once I got speed-limit recognition working and set a tolerance I liked. The road goes through some small towns so speed changes a lot from 65 down to 35 as you roll through. The car seamlessly adjusted for the changes. I wished it would start the deceleration about 5 seconds before you pass the speed limit sign so you were closer to the new speed limit as you pass sign. Cops do like to catch you right as the limit changes in these small towns.

I could gush for hours, but overall the car handles extremely well. Love the feel, handling, and comfort. It is not luxury ride but that is not what I expected. No regrets waiting for the GT trim/capabilities (and zero regrets for not splurging for PE). The wheels are better in person and am all in on liking them now (had several complements on the wheels though wheels are very personal preference I know). This is a very well-built vehicle and I see myself being happy for years to come. Dabbled between unbridled and engaged on the trip. Engaged seems best for casual driving/commuting. I can see as I hone my feel for the acceleration as I will get highly dependent on the instant acceleration as I drive (not always speeding but to get to desired speed quickly) much like a motorcycle if you can relate to that.

The third segment: This segment was extra fun for a lot of reasons, so let me break down some of my experience driving down I-25 from Cheyenne back to Denver.

BlueCruise Experience
I-25 is a BlueCruise highway, so it kicked in (mostly) on my way home. It is a bit unsettling and awkward to not have your hands on the wheel. Since you are watching the road anyway (and the car IS watching you watch the road), unless you are doing something like fiddling with the touch screen, it just feels natural to keep your hands on the wheel.

But I do have more concerns on the BlueCruise than I would have wished I had. When it worked, it worked as advertised, but here is where I will be critical:

  • BlueCruise (BC) just shuts off from time to time without telling you why. It really needs to say why it is disengaging on the center cluster (your not watching road, hard curve, sensor problem, obscured camera, etc.). It would just keep randomly dropping back to hands-on smart adaptive for no apparent reason which was annoying.
  • Has an uncomfortable a bias to the right side of the lane. More often than not it seems to let the car stay more to the right edge of the lane, not centered. This really bugged me in the left and center lanes, less so in the right lane. I don’t notice this on normal adaptive, but I may be manually offsetting. Will continue to monitor and make sure it is not an alignment drift issue the car is fighting (don’t think so as I don’t feel drift when on full manual steering).
  • I hit the end of a rainstorm when almost to Denver, so the road conditions changed suddenly. It kept BC on as the rain started (I put hands on anyway ready to take action) and once it could not read lines on wet pavement it disengaged as one would hope.
  • Did not do well when the left lane went from 2 lanes to 3 lanes: When my left lane broke into left and center lanes as it transitioned to a three-lane highway, the car jerked hard to the new middle lane once it decided which lane to pick up and I reflex-grabbed the wheel to make sure it was not getting crazy.
  • Last item was one of those rare real-world situations. In 2-lane 45 MPH traffic on a 65 MPH section, the car was doing really well in BC in slowdown/speed up traffic (I was in left lane and BC made it easy just to chill until things opened up again). Uh-Oh: I saw coming up behind me a guy on a Harley going down the middle between the two lanes. I grabbed the wheel but let the car stay in BC to see what it would do. The car did not seem to sense the close fly-by on the right at all other than the blind-spot detector going on. The car was (per 2nd bullet) a little to the right of my lane and I expected the car to sense/see that something was coming up close on right rear and nudge the car more to the left side of my lane to help avoid any collision when hands free mode is on.
Verdict for now: Will dabble in BC when in good conditions and hope for improvements with updates.


Charging Experience
Did my first Level 3 charge on a quick stop into Target on Electrify America (EA). Tried Plug & Charge first and it failed. Tried on two different stations. I had only done the Blue Oval network sign up on Friday I think, so assuming it takes time to bridge/load to Electrify America servers after the first setup. Will try again next road trip. I use the EA app though and it charged nicely for 15 minutes while I was in the store for 31% add.

One-Pedal (1P) Driving
I am trying it out 1P. Despite getting more curmudgeonly as I age, I am still open to new things/ways until I can judge for myself. Dabbled a little on this trip. I think I will like it for in town normal commute type driving. But I don't like it on the highway, as when you disengage the cruise it quickly starts decelerating and it is hard to get the pedal just right for the smooth transition. But I admit, as I start to get used to it, it feels more natural than I would have thought.


Epilogue:

Sorry for long post, but making up for not writing much for the last year or so (just a few replies here an there) as I am no EV expert, engineer or owned other performance cars. I hope this was interesting. Sorry no tests or draggy outputs (first 0-60 no rollout was around 4 seconds when I had the sales guy time it on the pre-close drive).

One last cautionary tale for new buyers: Follow the check lists you can find on this site as much as you can despite your excitement to close and get driving. I missed some paint bubbling on the back right fender that the shop caught when doing the ceramic coating. They also found some easy to miss paint damage from the travel-protection adhesive sheets being on the paint WAY too long as the car sat waiting for chips in Mexico (they could not get it off despite various effort…the adhesive damaged the paint). I expect to get a rear bumper replacement for the paint bubbling and adhesive damage, but it has to cleared through service Monday as a warranty item. So check that paint carefully, especially if the car was sitting for a long time after manufacturing waiting for chips. And yes, before someone posts about the picture, some new employee messed up and put on the front plate holder when I confirmed 10 different times they would not (their policy is not to do that on Mustangs overall). GM of the dealership agreed to replace the bumper.

Addendum 11/18:

Ford and my dealership helped and front bumper replaced and paint issues resolved. My GT looks pristine and beautiful. Thanks Interstate Ford and Ford Motor Co!
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Dear1nc

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Great review! How is the pull at high speeds? Like going 70-80 or more? I’m hearing some people are disappointed but I’m assuming they are being picky.
 
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Mach_Enrique

Mach_Enrique

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Great review! How is the pull at high speeds? Like going 70-80 or more? I’m hearing some people are disappointed but I’m assuming they are being picky.
Hypothetically speaking when I may have accidentally reached 100 (no one else around) on an on ramp getting on the highway where I would have immediately returned to the speed limit, I may have noted the feel of reduced acceleration in that upper range as reported on the drag test threads. :rolleyes:

Thanks for the detailed write-up. What kind of mi/kWh efficiency were you seeing on this trip?
You would think after watching the MachE Vlog videos by Patrick and Liv I would have learned to monitor that in the car. But luckily the App stored that. So on the first leg (recall my wife drove) it was 3.6 mi/kWh. The other trips consistently were 3.0 (as I may have been punching it entirely too often in order to expeditiously achieve normal safe driving speeds )
 


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Congrats on the new MME GT! Beautiful car.

I expect that the on-ramp where to accidentally exceeded the speed limit was in Mexico.
 

Iknownothing

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How did you like the paint protection work at The Man Cave? I’ve been looking at them and Denver Auto Shield. Much easier for me to get to The Man Cave, for sure. Will be looking for you and your ride around town!
 

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You would think after watching the MachE Vlog videos by Patrick and Liv I would have learned to monitor that in the car. But luckily the App stored that. So on the first leg (recall my wife drove) it was 3.6 mi/kWh. The other trips consistently were 3.0 (as I may have been punching it entirely too often in order to expeditiously achieve normal safe driving speeds )
That’s great to hear it’s getting good real world efficiency! Thanks again and enjoy your car.
 

EELinneman

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. And yes, before someone posts about the picture, some new employee messed up and put on the front plate holder when I confirmed 10 different times they would not (their policy is not to do that on Mustangs overall). GM of the dealership agreed to replace the bumper.
That's going to be interesting. Colorado law required a front plate mounted close to the center fo the car.

Colorado Revised Statutes Title 42. Vehicles and Traffic § 42-3-202 | FindLaw

Nice car and great writeup of your roadtrip. You let your teen drive, so we all know you are braver than I am!
 
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Mach_Enrique

Mach_Enrique

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How did you like the paint protection work at The Man Cave? I’ve been looking at them and Denver Auto Shield. Much easier for me to get to The Man Cave, for sure. Will be looking for you and your ride around town!
The Man Cave is great! The service and quality is fantastic. They have done several MachE's so it is something familiar. I was super impressed with the quality of the people that work there and the owner is actively involved with the business. I did not do deep price comparatives but the quality of the work and people is top notch.


That's going to be interesting. Colorado law required a front plate mounted close to the center fo the car.

Colorado Revised Statutes Title 42. Vehicles and Traffic § 42-3-202 | FindLaw

Nice car and great writeup of your roadtrip. You let your teen drive, so we all know you are braver than I am!
I was informed no front plate is not a moving violation and the only risk is really if you are parked in a place where they are issuing tickets (say downtown). I understand there are non-drill mount options but have not researched much yet given how long I am hearing it takes to get plates anyway. I see a lot of Tesla's running around without front plates but metal rear plates. I just did NOT want the bracket mounted until I was convinced there is no other option (the sales team was mortified when I told them someone drilled on the plate holder).

My son is really a good teen driver when I have been with him (I think the video games they have played as they grew up gives them a leg up over previous generations on hand-eye/reaction time/spacial awareness ...purely observational with both my kids and no data to back up that hypothesis). I am sure if I was not in the car I would cringe given what I know I did as a teen driver. When he asked to take it to homecoming there was no hesitation before I said no (which he expected but bounus points for trying) :cool:.
 

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The Man Cave is great! The service and quality is fantastic. They have done several MachE's so it is something familiar. I was super impressed with the quality of the people that work there and the owner is actively involved with the business. I did not do deep price comparatives but the quality of the work and people is top notch.




I was informed no front plate is not a moving violation and the only risk is really if you are parked in a place where they are issuing tickets (say downtown). I understand there are non-drill mount options but have not researched much yet given how long I am hearing it takes to get plates anyway. I see a lot of Tesla's running around without front plates but metal rear plates. I just did NOT want the bracket mounted until I was convinced there is no other option (the sales team was mortified when I told them someone drilled on the plate holder).

My son is really a good teen driver when I have been with him (I think the video games they have played as they grew up gives them a leg up over previous generations on hand-eye/reaction time/spacial awareness ...purely observational with both my kids and no data to back up that hypothesis). I am sure if I was not in the car I would cringe given what I know I did as a teen driver. When he asked to take it to homecoming there was no hesitation before I said no (which he expected but bounus points for trying) :cool:.
Thanks! I really enjoyed reading your overview above.
 

cetialphav

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Thank you for the write up. Very exciting!

I have a GTPE on order through Interstate Ford, currently scheduled to be delivered mid/late Oct. Who did with you work with at Interstate?

Also who are you going with for your at home charger?
 
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Mach_Enrique

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Thank you for the write up. Very exciting!

I have a GTPE on order through Interstate Ford, currently scheduled to be delivered mid/late Oct. Who did with you work with at Interstate?

Also who are you going with for your at home charger?
I have worked with Stacia since 2010 And was always great to work with and a customer advocate. She just quit a week before my car came in (car sales are just rough right now with all the idle production) but she helped close the deal anyway. I was sort of handed over to Phil moving forward. The finance guy Robbie is experienced with Options if you are going that route. Enjoy the PE when it comes in!!
 

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The Man Cave is great! The service and quality is fantastic. They have done several MachE's so it is something familiar. I was super impressed with the quality of the people that work there and the owner is actively involved with the business. I did not do deep price comparatives but the quality of the work and people is top notch.




I was informed no front plate is not a moving violation and the only risk is really if you are parked in a place where they are issuing tickets (say downtown). I understand there are non-drill mount options but have not researched much yet given how long I am hearing it takes to get plates anyway. I see a lot of Tesla's running around without front plates but metal rear plates. I just did NOT want the bracket mounted until I was convinced there is no other option (the sales team was mortified when I told them someone drilled on the plate holder).

My son is really a good teen driver when I have been with him (I think the video games they have played as they grew up gives them a leg up over previous generations on hand-eye/reaction time/spacial awareness ...purely observational with both my kids and no data to back up that hypothesis). I am sure if I was not in the car I would cringe given what I know I did as a teen driver. When he asked to take it to homecoming there was no hesitation before I said no (which he expected but bounus points for trying) :cool:.
I plan to not run any front plates either. The ticket isn't that costly, and imo with all the defunding and such, unless u a dumb ass driver, cops prolly wont bother too much with you. I say wait till a ticket or 2 before deciding if you gonna put one on.
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