Ford's Folly - EV is not a serious car

[TruWrecks]

Ford hit the ball out of the park with the launch of the Mach-E and the F150 Lightening (Name borrowed from the SVT Lightening, and a poor marketing choice). They came out strong with solid design and good quality of exterior and interior materials and assembly. They even had sensible controls fo the large center screen.

For the first few months, while the hype was strong, Ford listened to and supported the EV customers. Problems were diagnosed quickly or escalated to a team that specifically looked after EV customers.

Then Ford jumped on the greed wagon and everything, including the vehicle had to be a subscription. They stopped supporting any EVs over 3 years old. If you complain to a dealer or service team they will advise to buy a newer vehicle if you want the latest software.

This is where so many of us get left behind. We simply can't afford to buy a new vehicle every 3 years.

Ford has lost their way, not only as an EV manufacture, but also as the car manufacture of the people. You cannot buy any Ford vehicle anymore if you are on a limited budget. They are no longer affordable to the lower/middle class of income earners.

I really enjoy the Mach-E but with this shift in Ford's direction it is going up for sale in the next few weeks.

Thank you for an informative and information rich forum that many of us owners could share and connect on. May we all have brighter days in the future. Enjoy the ride!

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[medriver]

How dramatic you think ford is bad with software buy a volkswagen.

What critical software updates are you missing from your car that make you think its abandoned?

 

[Schmedlack]

The automotive world would be much better now if they kept selling Rambler! They didn't call it "The Kenosha Cadillac" for nothing.

 

[McSquashy]

I don't feel as though all of your grievances are necessarily Ford only issues, but I do agree that Ford could be doing a better job servicing its EV customers.

That last statement is based on some of the threads that I've read here. I know forums like this tend to be an echo chamber for poor experiences, but I've also personally had a couple less than stellar experiences with the company.

Point is, there's no perfect automaker, dealer service or automobile. That's said, do what you need to do and do what makes you happy. If you feel like Ford has neglected you as an owner of one of their vehicles, then you should move on. Vote with your wallet.

 

[hbirring01]

I agree with you completely! My wife has a Tesla so I got to experience Tesla's service and it made me stop getting my Mach-e serviced with Ford. I cant stand their service department! Its so bad!! Im also in the boat where Ford left me behind after I paid them $600.00 for BC thinking it would get timely updates. For my next car, im no longer going to support Ford. I gave them so many chances and so much money. I have been a Ford fan boy my whole life and every car of mine has been a Ford until the next one.

 

[phil]

The automotive world would be much better now if they kept selling Rambler! They didn't call it "The Kenosha Cadillac" for nothing.

I can confirm that every Rambler on the road today has fully up-to-date software.

 

[pdhenry]

I noticed a weird quirk with adaptive cruise control (reading Maryland state route signs ending in 0 or 5 as a speed limit sign. A pain on MD 30, pretty exciting on MD 165 - even though it ignores the 1). Once I figured out why my car was always speeding up at one particular place I popped open the "Leave Feedback" screen and said where I was driving, what happened and why. The issue disappeared within a couple of weeks.
You can't convince me that Ford isn't being responsive about fixing issues.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

made me stop getting my Mach-e serviced with Ford.

Ford doesn’t have a service department. In fact it’s prohibited by law from doing that in virtually every jurisdiction in the USA.

Ford left me behind after I paid them $600.00 for BC thinking it would get timely updates.

You paid for use of BC, you haven’t gotten another upgrade in BC version because it hasn’t been released to most 2021s yet.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I noticed a weird quirk with adaptive cruise control (reading Maryland state route signs ending in 0 or 5 as a speed limit sign. A pain on MD 30, pretty exciting on MD 165 - even though it ignores the 1). Once I figured out why my car was always speeding up at one particular place I popped open the "Leave Feedback" screen and said where I was driving, what happened and why. The issue disappeared within a couple of weeks.
You can't convince me that Ford isn't being responsive about fixing issues.

That’s a relative common occurrence. While I’ve never experienced it in 3 1/2 years, others most certainly have. It can be permanently resolved by turning “Speed Sign Recognition” OFF in the settings.

 

[Dear_OP]

EVs bring about a new paradigm shift to automotive architecture. Legacy makers are struggling with this big time compared to the likes of BYD, Rivian, Tesla and a few others. It is called Software Designed Vehicles. Multi-year duration lifecycle kills EV tech.

Take for instance Teslas or Rivians, while the "shell" seems to look the same, it's underlying architecture is developed to support future functionalities. All it takes to make available is through OTA. Elon once said, Tesla you buy today may look the same, but it is updated a a few months later. A reviewer best described it using Adobe PSD analogy. Where you can continuously make changes at the layer level vs legacy makers approach it like jpg. If you are a graphic designer IYKYK.

Dealerships are not up to date with such rapid iterations. They have very little appetite meet this new service especially when ICE maintenance is far more lucrative.

 

[Ravensfan1996]

My car is over 3years old now and plan to keep it at least 6-7 years hopefully. I have got all the timely updates and relatively no issues. I don’t feel abandoned at all. Still waiting on BC 1.3 but they say it’s still coming. Yes the EV dept of most Ford dealers could use some knowledge training but if you find a good dealer like i have, it’s pretty good.

 

[ryannix123]

@TruWrecks I just received my second software update in as many weeks.

Yes, Ford delayed releasing the latest version of BlueCruise, 1.3, to my vehicle for almost four months, but I got it. And when I got it, it took 95 minutes to install, which is perplexing. And while that's annoying, I'd prefer that Ford get the update right. Even Apple sometimes releases updates that can brick a device, which happened to me this week with an update to my HomePod Mini.

I say be patient. Software is complicated, and these EVs are defined mainly by their software.

 

[ryannix123]

My car is over 3years old now and plan to keep it at least 6-7 years hopefully. I have got all the timely updates and relatively no issues. I don’t feel abandoned at all. Still waiting on BC 1.3 but they say it’s still coming. Yes the EV dept of most Ford dealers could use some knowledge training but if you find a good dealer like i have, it’s pretty good.

It's too bad your MachE hasn't received the BC 1.3 update yet. I wish I could figure out Ford's schedule for updating their EV software.

 

[Ravensfan1996]

It's too bad your MachE hasn't received the BC 1.3 update yet. I wish I could figure out Ford's schedule for updating their EV software.

Yeah 2021’s are on hold or working on the update from what I’ve read on here. The updates come out on waves. Usually when someone posts an update on here, i get it a week or so later.

 

[pdhenry]

It can be permanently resolved by turning “Speed Sign Recognition” OFF in the settings.

Come to think of it, I guess issues with any feature can be resolved by deactivating that feature. "The only way to win is not to play."
But reporting it to Ford also seems to have solved it, at least for the signs I pass about once a week.

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