Eights months with Premium, three days with GT/PE

[Neil4Real]

Is Sync 4a just a software change or do GTs have newer hardware in their center stack?

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[markboris]

I've been following your mods this year hoping to replicate some of them on my GTPE as well so thanks for sharing. Definitely needs a sub! I went with Quatrac Pros - did you stick with Pilot Sports?

Normally I have purchased Pilot Sport All Season 4’s but they have gotten poor reviews on being harsh riding and noisy. That is important to me so after reading quite a few professional reviews (not from owners) I went with Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus’s. I can honestly say they ride better than any tire I have used in a long time and are also quiet. They seem to handle so far as good as the Pilot Sport SUV 4’s I had on before and those are summer tires. I needed all seasons as the GT will be my DD and we get cold temps and light snow here.

 

[markboris]

Is Sync 4a just a software change or do GTs have newer hardware in their center stack?

I’m sure it’s just software.

 

[ricojm]

Hey Mark, great write up… the Iconic Silver looks great… I’m hoping to get my Prem IS by months end… be sure to start posting your upgrades in the IS club…

 

[UsernameChecksOut]

Thanks for the complements everyone. I normally am big on posting photos but haven't taken many these last two days. Been working on the car a bit before it goes into the shop this afternoon for ceramic coating. Since I will be in Arizona most of next week, it's a good time for my car to be tied up getting this done.

I've sound deadened all four doors, switched over my wheel/tire set up from the Premium (except changed to all season tires), painted the hats on the rotors and dust shields black and installed the rear door ambient lighting while I had the door panels off. After I get back I'll have the front. side windows tinted to match the rears, tint all the reflectors and add a sub. Pretty much most things I did to the Premium.

Love the write-up,… plus all the other past how-tos you’ve done.

That garage… ?

 

[BMT1071]

Hey Rod, so I never had a thread of the car for sale. My best friend and his wife who recently moved from here to Arizona wanted to buy the car. I have Ford Options and called them and they sent me a "Transfer of Equity" form to fill out. We both did that and two weeks later they approved the transfer. He is now set up with Ford Options, same contract and everything, no change in payments, etc. Of course he got a good deal as I not only made a lot of mods on the car but also 7 months worth of payments that I let him have. ?

Where in AZ? If they're in the valley they can join the IB club with me and @macchiaz-o and... ???

 

[markboris]

Where in AZ? If they're in the valley they can join the IB club with me and @macchiaz-o and... ???

Hi Mike, my friend Joe lives in Surprise which looks to be about 20 miles from Glendale. ? He is not normally one to be in clubs, join forums, etc. but I will talk to him about it. I am picking him up from SF airport this afternoon and we will be starting the 11 hour drive back to Arizona. They moved there in July and I have been going there once a month for about a week and helping them work on their new home. Last time I was there I installed a ChargePoint Home Flex charger among other things. I wired it in direct and am anxious to see how it works charging the car.

Joe knows nothing about electric cars and he is looking forward to the drive to ask all the questions he has about it. I am not looking forward to having to find charging stations along the way since this is not how I normally use the car (long 11 hour road trips). I charge my car exclusively at home (on solar) and when I do take a longer than normal drive where I have to charge when I am out, I know the exact charging locations I want to use and how they work. Not knowing any of the cities or charging stations while on this drive will be fun I am sure.

 

[HFn!eSwMFilFX4mxbn&!P9T&G]

Hi Mike, my friend Joe lives in Surprise which looks to be about 20 miles from Glendale. ? He is not normally one to be in clubs, join forums, etc. but I will talk to him about it. I am picking him up from SF airport this afternoon and we will be starting the 11 hour drive back to Arizona. They moved there in July and I have been going there once a month for about a week and helping them work on their new home. Last time I was there I installed a ChargePoint Home Flex charger among other things. I wired it in direct and am anxious to see how it works charging the car.

Joe knows nothing about electric cars and he is looking forward to the drive to ask all the questions he has about it. I am not looking forward to having to find charging stations along the way since this is not how I normally use the car (long 11 hour road trips). I charge my car exclusively at home (on solar) and when I do take a longer than normal drive where I have to charge when I am out, I know the exact charging locations I want to use and how they work. Not knowing any of the cities or charging stations while on this drive will be fun I am sure.

Enjoy your road trip. I have found a better route planner to be great for planning my longer road trips. I usually plan the entire trip and one I've adjusted the variables and see my charge points, I just navigate from point to point. Has worked well for me so far.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

 

[markboris]

Enjoy your road trip. I have found a better route planner to be great for planning my longer road trips. I usually plan the entire trip and one I've adjusted the variables and see my charge points, I just navigate from point to point. Has worked well for me so far.

https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

Hi Chris, thank you for the tip. I really don't know much about charging the car away from home and have 8,000 miles on it. The few times I have charged, have been on EVgo fast chargers. Seems like we have a lot of them at least in the areas that I have needed. They have been super fast and easy to use also. I read about Electrify America chargers but never have seen one nor have used any of the free kw that I think I may have gotten from Ford. I was planning on just using my EVgo app and stopping when I needed a charge. I looked along the route and every city had plenty of them. I will download a better route planner app and give it a shot and let you know how it worked out. Thanks again.

 

[Rudy Bega]

Thanks for the complements everyone. I normally am big on posting photos but haven't taken many these last two days. Been working on the car a bit before it goes into the shop this afternoon for ceramic coating. Since I will be in Arizona most of next week, it's a good time for my car to be tied up getting this done.

I've sound deadened all four doors, switched over my wheel/tire set up from the Premium (except changed to all season tires), painted the hats on the rotors and dust shields black and installed the rear door ambient lighting while I had the door panels off. After I get back I'll have the front. side windows tinted to match the rears, tint all the reflectors and add a sub. Pretty much most things I did to the Premium.

Thanks for the feedback! Can I ask what All Seasons you switched to?

 

[markboris]

Thanks for the feedback! Can I ask what All Seasons you switched to?

Hi Jim, I mentioned this in a post above #17 and so far very very happy with these Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus's. I am a Michelin guy and have bought nothing but tires from them for 30 years. This is my first Pirelli and in the short month or so I have had them they have been great. I was not looking for all out performance in an all season tire. I wanted to balance that with comfort as the Mach-E is my DD now. I have had the Michelin Pilot All Season 4's on the Escape and they were very harsh and noisy. My favorite UHP summer tire is the Michelin Pilot Sport 4s. I've never had a better handling tire than the 4s.

My current Pirelli P Zero All Season Plus tire sizes on the car are 245/45/20 front and 275/40/20 rear. I went down from the Michelin Pilot Sport SUV4 255/45/20 front, 295/40/20 rear because wanted a narrower tire for when I drive in the snow which I do several times a year around here. I will see how these work and go from there. May go back up in size, not sure.

Tire Rack review:
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/chartDisplay.jsp?ttid=266

 

[Mach1E]

I have mentioned my 3 reasons for wanting to switch from a premium to a GT/PE (seats, magneride shocks, different front end) in several other threads here these past few months but decided to make one now that I actually have both.

Another reason I wanted to make this thread, was in case anyone wanted me to check specific differences between the two models while I have both cars. However this may be short lived as I am driving the premium to Arizona on Saturday to the new owner.

I have been asked to check if the OEM premium wheels fit on the GT/PE, yes they do with just under 1/4" clearance and if the rotors and calipers are different between the Premium and GT/PE and yes they are (both larger).

Also been asked the difference in the ride and that is a tricky one since I replaced the springs and shocks on my premium with the GT (non PE) version a couple of months back. This really firmed up the ride, eliminated most of the bounce the car had and made it handle much better. The GT/PE with the magneride shocks make the car ride even smoother but as far as the firmness, my premium feels like the GT/PE in Engage mode. Whisper seems softer and Unbridled firmer than my premium. Magneride shocks are a big reason I got this car because I like to tune shocks the way I want them. In two days and a little over 200 miles, I can say that in whisper mode, I would like it a bit softer and unbridled mode a bit more firm. In my Focus RS and my GT500, I purchased a DSC Sport controller and adjusted the shocks to my liking. On the RS, I softened up the way to stiff track mode and on the GT500 made a wider difference between normal and sport. I have contacted DSC Sport and they will be coming out with a module for the Mach-E just as soon as they get their hands on a car to test.

Several have asked about the differences in the seats and that is also a tough one because everyones body is unique and people have all different requirements for their seating. This was another reason I wanted the GT/PE was for the seats. I wanted a more sporty seat with better bolstering. I am very use to having Recaro's in several other cars I have owned (and currently own) and prefer that style of seat. The GT/PE has a seat similar but definitely a bit more forgiving than Recaro's. That said, I can tell you the seats in the premium are one of the most comfortable seats I have ever had in a car. I know they don't look like much but they are very very comfortable at least for me.

I have taken several 3 hour, non-stop trips in the premium and not one issue with my back or legs. I cannot say this was true with my first drive in the GT/PE seats. The dealer I purchase my vehicles from is 3 hours away so when I went to pick up my car on Wednesday, the first thing I did was drive 3 hours non-stop home. Two things happened I was not expecting. One, my lower back began to ache and two the under part of my legs where the seat ends felt like they might go to sleep. I never had any of these issues with the premium seats and realized that the GT/PE seat are much more firm everywhere (just like Recaro's) and you need to really adjust the seat to your body. After adjusting the back lumbar support and brining the seat up a bit which relieves pressure under the legs (because of the way it tilts) things got better. The seats are also not as easy to get in and out of with the higher bolsters but I am very use to this with Recaro's which are much worse. It might sound like I am not happy with the seats but I am actually very happy with them. I prefer a seat that hugs you and also one with cloth material in the seating area rather than vinyl. Like Recaro's it took me a few days to get them adjusted just right and now they feel great and doubt I will have issues on a long drive again.

Here are some things I noticed right away when driving home:

I immediately heard wind noise after going about 40 mph right above my head. I knew exactly what it was since I had the same noise in my premium which I took care of with a strip of round rubber gasket I placed in the gap between the windshield and glass roof. Obviously I will have to do the same thing with this one.

My iPhone 12 Pro does not constantly charge in the Premium on the charging pad. It usually stops after about a few minutes and have to move it around to get it to charge then it stops again. I am not interested in connecting to a USB cord so I came up with this alternate method of wireless charging, #9 . In the GT/PE, my iPhone 12 Pro charges perfectly. It stayed connected on the 3 hour drive home which surprised me. I guess they either updated software for the charger or maybe the charger itself is different but wasn't expecting this.

I really like the fact Ford updated Sync 4a to display Apple CarPlay in its portrait mode. Ford also added the turn by turn of Apple Maps in the dash display however it certainly did not work very well on my drive home. While I rarely need to use navigation, I normally do always use it when taking trips to make sure I am on the best route in case there is road work, accidents or just heavy traffic that Maps will alert me about. Maps worked just fine in the main display but the turn by turn in the dash display kept freezing up on and off during the drive. Sometimes it would not work at all for 30 minutes then it would update itself. Not sure what is up with that but hope they come out with a fix for it.

Ford Pass on my phone for the GT/PE only shows four buttons. Unlock, Start, Lock and Horn. I had thought it would have at least shown windows up and down and trunk like my premium does. I know it should also show a front trunk button. I deleted the GT/PE from the Ford Pass app, then re-added it and still no change. If anyone happens to know why I don't have all the other buttons let me know.


Edit:
I finally got the extra buttons to show up in Ford Pass on my phone. Apparently I did not have PAAK set up properly or something did not activate when I did set it up but after re-activating, all my buttons are there including the "frunk" button.

Great write up!

But no mention of performance differences?

How does it compare- acceleration down low, from a roll. Handling, braking?

 

[markboris]

Great write up!

But no mention of performance differences?

How does it compare- acceleration down low, from a roll. Handling, braking?

Unfortunately I’m leaving my house right now for SF airport to pick up my friend that’s buying my premium then driving to Arizona so I won’t be here for awhile. I’ll get back to you on this later today.

 

[BMT1071]

Hi Mike, my friend Joe lives in Surprise which looks to be about 20 miles from Glendale. ? He is not normally one to be in clubs, join forums, etc. but I will talk to him about it. I am picking him up from SF airport this afternoon and we will be starting the 11 hour drive back to Arizona. They moved there in July and I have been going there once a month for about a week and helping them work on their new home. Last time I was there I installed a ChargePoint Home Flex charger among other things. I wired it in direct and am anxious to see how it works charging the car.

Joe knows nothing about electric cars and he is looking forward to the drive to ask all the questions he has about it. I am not looking forward to having to find charging stations along the way since this is not how I normally use the car (long 11 hour road trips). I charge my car exclusively at home (on solar) and when I do take a longer than normal drive where I have to charge when I am out, I know the exact charging locations I want to use and how they work. Not knowing any of the cities or charging stations while on this drive will be fun I am sure.

There isn't really an AZ IB club. I was joking. Though we did have a meet up at a car show in Scottsdale back in September.
I also haven't taken any long trips. Though I have downloaded ABRP, PlugShare, ChargePoint, and EA apps so I'm able to find chargers if and when I do. ??

 

[Larry Paul]

markboris said:

I immediately heard wind noise after going about 40 mph right above my head. I knew exactly what it was since I had the same noise in my premium which I took care of with a strip of round rubber gasket I placed in the gap between the windshield and glass roof. Obviously I will have to do the same thing with this one.


[/QUOTE]
Thank you for the great write up on your cars. It contains excellent perspectives on seats, suspension and driving experience relative to your two MMEs.

Can you please explain more about your Rubber gasket modification that you noted on your post? Can you share some pictures or what gasket material you purchased?

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