After Two Years and 30,000 Miles... Long Term Owner Review

[Mirak]

Like I always say - every one of my gripes with this car stems from the half baked technology. The car is perfect, built Ford tough, sturdy, responsive, and fun to drive.

The tech leaves SOOOOO much to be desired. Luckily, it is possible for them to fix these things via OTA. Unfortunately, they have shown they are incompetent at delivering OTAs.

Not to be debbie downer because that wasn't the purpose of this thread, but Ford has had two years to fix some of these consistent and obvious bugs, and Ford just hasn't. Hasn't even acknowledged them. That's the frustration many of us have - it almost feels like gaslighting. We report these things to customer service, and they just go into a black hole.

Customer service's response is to schedule an appointment with the service center! Utterly pointless.

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[tfitzgex]

• The driver screen buzzes. Ford replaced my screen and the new one buzzes less, but it's still there. Weird that Ford can't source a driver screen that is silent like the much larger infotainment screen.

THIS! I thought I was the only one! it drives me batty sometimes. I've also go a buzz the the passenger front door that nobody can seem to find..


I've had my car since July 3rd 2021. I've now got 39000 miles on it. I love my car, but it has been in the shop way too much for way too long. I'm hoping that all the kinks will get worked out soon. I know the 23s have better assembly than the early builds (12/20) did... or at least I hope they do.

 

[GrabberBlueNitePony]

I'm past my 1 year anniversary with my GT and I agree with the OP on most positive points why I like the Car

On the cons do, my main one (and its a big one) is reliability, I had the infamous HVBJB Problem that took quite some time resolve, have had a door component replaced and now a front camera issue that was not fixed with TSB 23-2040 so back at the shop.

I was prepared to have some first - EV issues, but I think Ford (and its Dealers) were not prepared to service these EV's and they are still not there yet.

Same goes for the charging infrastructure as stated by OP, its not where it needs to be and TESLA is much better in this regard

To be fair, both these issues are not only a problem Ford is having, as most first generation EV's are having similar issues, but I was naively expecting Ford to be better prepared.

If I had none of these reliability issues I would say I'm very happy with the Car.

I don't have issues withe the usual complaints:
PaaK works, No Screen Buzz, Have Frunk btn, Car is up to date with 4.1.3 (and I'm not in early access)

BUT, until I get the car to be out of service with issues for at least 6 months I'm not a Happy Camper.

Can I ask what the typical process is when a car is in the shop this long? I assume not everyone has a 2nd car available, does Ford let you keep a loaner that long?

 

[karbar2004]

Can I ask what the typical process is when a car is in the shop this long? I assume not everyone has a 2nd car available, does Ford let you keep a loaner that long?

I too have a FE RR build date 12/20 delivered 3/21 and had my share of software issues and had a battery fault in the early days but my dealer always had a courtesy vehicle for me never had a time limit
Since after resolving issues car has been a dream to own

 

[Fremont Kid]

Not to be debbie downer because that wasn't the purpose of this thread, but Ford has had two years to fix some of these consistent and obvious bugs, and Ford just hasn't. Hasn't even acknowledged them. That's the frustration many of us have - it almost feels like gaslighting. We report these things to customer service, and they just go into a black hole.

Customer service's response is to schedule an appointment with the service center! Utterly pointless.

Agree. Ford could easily host owner sessions all across the country for the purpose of listening to owners, explaining software and feature operations, even video recording such sessions then posting videos for the entire owner community. Not that difficult nor expensive.

 

[Dave-O]

Off topic but….please tell me what kind of tree that is blooming in the background?

 

[Blue highway]

It's kinda binary for me.

The car, has been a 9.5/10
The software has been a 3/10

Overall I really like the car and would buy it again... and am still holding out hope that the software will continue to improve.

Per the Prius comments, yeah I had one for 120K miles... good car... but the tech is soooo far apart. If you dumbed the MME down to the software level of the prius, I wouldn't like it as much, but it would be more reliable predictable.

 

[Mirak]

Off topic but….please tell me what kind of tree that is blooming in the background?

It’s some variety of crabapple. Couldn’t say which.

 

[JcMarin]

Can I ask what the typical process is when a car is in the shop this long? I assume not everyone has a 2nd car available, does Ford let you keep a loaner that long?

The longest time was with the HVBJB as this happened when they still had no idea what it was, and the dealership gave me a loaner while they we working on the Car all the time.

This time they provided a rental

 

[Regularmache]

Once again, how the bar has lowered to almost the ground.

Your list of cons is quite extensive.

I purchased a 2022 Prius in March of last year and it now has 27,000 miles (close to what you have).

Now while I realize that I own a car that is in it's last year before the new revision came out this year, I have zero issues with this car. If you look at almost any review of this car, it comes out squeaky clean.

There are zero mechanical and electronic issues. None.

Now with that being said, when I compare the quality of both interior and exterior parts with my MME, there is no comparison. The Prius is so much better.

The thing I like the most about the MME is the looks and the "fun to drive" part of it. After that, it reminds me of my Pontiac Grand Am and Chrysler LeBaron that I used to own.

Those too were a good looking car (IMHO) and were fun to drive. After a few months into driving these cars the "funness" was starting to wear thin with the little issues that I was having. The "con" list was getting lenghty.

I would love to say to people that ask about my MME how great it is but I honestly can't bring myself to do so. If they ask about my Prius I tell them it may quite be the ugliest car that I have ever owned but it is the best car that I have ever owned quality wise.

Ford has some of the most loyal customers on the planet. I want them to succeed with the MME (because I own one mainly) but I want them to get their act together so I can purchase another one without anxiety. If Japan can make a car that starts out at around 26k and has very few problems, why in the heck can't Ford with a car that starts at the 40k mark?

I am truly glad that you enjoy your car and would do it again but I am one that is not there yet. I will shop around when purchasing another EV.

Nice post though and have fun with your ride for the years to come.

Have had 5 Prius's and great cars, last one totaled with new Green Bean Battery just installed! Great cars, but would never trade my MachE and go back. That's why we bought a second MachE to go with our First Edition.

 

[eastern refugee]

I have the EXACT same color/2021 FE. My car is also 2 years old but I have 70,000 miles....that is not a typo......My car is being bought back by ford because i have been through BRICKING incidents. Mine was HARD WIRED fixed and it did a second time almost exactly one year after the first one. I also have a second 2021Mache E premium AWD extended battery as well. In short both cars were bought at the same time and essentially the same car.

My ONLY real complaint about my wife's premium is the updates. I am currently on update 4.2. She is on 2.7. This is CRAZY. Had we not had my car we would not know just how many updates that she is NOT getting and yet the dealer on many occasions says that she is up to date. Really???? If so why is my car beyond hers with all kinds of crazy stuff to include Alexa, bluecruise which honestly is not worth it and other stuff. She had the OTA BRICK fix and she has never had a problem.

Now that being said, once I found out that my car was being bought back I IMMEDIATELY placed an order for a cyber orange Mach E GT. My wife and I both drive roughly 2500 miles a month EACH. hers also has 70,000 miles. If not for the the bricking in mine I would keep my car until the wheels fall off or something major happened. As for my wife's I plan on trading it in about a year if they cannot get the update issues fixed.

I have driven many times form SoCal to Seattle and once to Houston and back. I currently get about 286 miles to a full charge in weather ranges form 45-90 degrees. the entire range thing is all garbage as far as I am concerned. It does not bother me to stop every 200 miles or so to get a snack and use the rest room. I do not need 500 miles of battery capacity as I enjoy taking a 15 minute break just to stand up. The car is incredibly comfortable on long trips. I

In short 70,000 miles is a no brainer where in the past when I had ICE cars I started planning on my next car. I honestly feel that i could potentially get 300,000 miles or more out of this. Would it not to be totally awesome to have a car completely outlast the car payments????

 

[Gloff]

Per the Prius comments, yeah I had one for 120K miles... good car... but the tech is soooo far apart. If you dumbed the MME down to the software level of the prius, I wouldn't like it as much, but it would be more reliable predictable.

There were a lot of anti-hybrid people when the Prius came out, lots of bad regurgitated info about batteries, durability of the engine starting/stopping so much, reliability of such a "complex" transmission, etc... In true Toyota fashion, they've made hybrid tech staid and boring enough to sell them to your non-enthusiast family, and it's no longer a statement, it's just another car that gets good gas mileage and doesn't break. Funny how the last truly groundbreaking vehicle they introduced is now just basic transportation.

I think that's the disconnect today. Most people on this forum are enthusiasts or enthusiast adjacent, and aren't bothered by the advanced, but flawed technology. The average consumer is not interested in pre-conditioning anything, or messing with settings. The average consumer wants to get in and go, they don't want to get an associates degree in electrical engineering to understand why/when what type of charging is appropriate.

As another poster alluded to, we're in a middle period of EVs where they're becoming mainstream and the perception is changing. The infrastructure is not there for the "normal" consumer that's used to getting gas whenever/wherever they are.

I think that infrastructure investment is the only way we can advance EVs at a faster rate. Tesla gambled big on their own infrastructure. No other manufacturer has put that much dedication or capital into that side of the business. It's incredibly capital intensive and no one wants to do it on their own despite Tesla's success. I fear that it's going to take a serious conversation at the federal level to get it done. I'm glad to see Tesla opening up the supercharging network, albeit, slowly, as they may be necessary to make it happen as well.

To stay on topic since my lengthy post was only loosely related:
I hope that the Model e split will help alleviate some of the cons OP stated relating to both manufacturing as well as software. Tesla is a software company learning manufacturing on the fly, whereas Ford is a manufacturing company learning software on the fly. Credit where credit is due, Ford is always trying to be on the bleeding edge in automotive tech, but they haven't learned as much as I'd like from their past errors.

 

[phil]

Some folks here claim everyone has it while others aren’t as dogmatic.

Yeah, my Job 2 2021 car does not have it. My bad ear is blown out but I can’t hear it with my good ear, nor can my nephew’s sub-10 year old kids. It’s definitely something that some cars have and others don’t.

That's odd, I thought for sure you'd be one of them 'dogmatic' types...

 

[phil]

My car is also 2 years old but I have 70,000 miles....

In short 70,000 miles is a no brainer where in the past when I had ICE cars I started planning on my next car. I honestly feel that i could potentially get 300,000 miles or more out of this. Would it not to be totally awesome to have a car completely outlast the car payments????

My other car turns 25 this year. Runs like new. Outlasted the lease by 21 years already, and will probably outlive me.

Yes, indeed it is totally awesome!

 

[eastern refugee]

That is AWESOME!!!!!!

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