jjwolf
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Justin
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2020
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 119
- Reaction score
- 112
- Location
- Vancouver, WA
- Vehicles
- MME Premium 4X, M3, Yukon
- Thread starter
- #1
At this point, I've gotten comfortable with the Mach-E user experience and have some more detailed thoughts beyond my first impressions. For reference, I have a Premium 4X.
Other than these things below, the car is pretty nice. The interior is befitting of a $50k car, the tech is pretty good (the flaccid B&O sound system aside), it's quiet, I like refueling at home, the heat-filtering glass seems to work well, and it's turning out to be a pretty good daily driver.
There is an awful lot of "it's almost done" stuff going on. Most of it is software, but some of it is "and/or" mechanical:
- Hands-free hatch: This almost never works. It will definitely be a warranty complaint. Locked, unlocked, recently unlocked, with phone, without phone, with fob, without fob ... no matter what I try, it just doesn't work. I don't even try anymore. OTA update did not improve it. Also, a lot of the time it doesn't play the "closing chime" when you close it. Sometimes the hatch (open or close) doesn't respond to the button and you have to push it a second time.
- Cabin pre-condition: Stopped working a couple weeks ago. I could probably get it to work again by changing / redoing all my settings, but I've been too lazy to try this. Both the app and the car show my preferences, the car is always plugged in at the appropriate time, just doesn't do anything anymore.
- CarPlay: Works maybe 75% of the time. When it doesn't work, it won't work until the car is off and I walk out of BT range, then come back.
- Door opening buttons: At night, these are never lit when I approach the car. If PaaK and hands-free is supposed to be a thing, these should light up when I approach the car like the rest of the lights. They are damned near invisible at night or in a dark garage. Also have developed some concerns about how to open a door when they inevitably decide to not work... there's no alternate method that I'm aware of other than breaking a window. Also, have managed to get the latch release and door holder to get into a confused state a few times if you're pushing on the door at all when it tries to open. Had to jiggle the door to get the "holder" to retract so I could close the door, then trigger the unlatch again (it wouldn't do it a second time when the door was cracked open).
- When I get in after my wife has been driving, it doesn't get the seat and mirrors into the proper position. Because PaaK is sometimes unreliable, we always carry the fob. Since the fob is associated with me, she pushes the "2" preset for her, then I get in (with my phone), and it thinks I want it left at "2", not changed to the "1" presets. This should follow the phone, not the fob (since there's only one).
- Can't really comment on PaaK much - we don't trust it and so always have the fob. It is annoying when the car honks at you if you have the fob in your pocket and walk "away" such as to check the mailbox or get something out of the frunk, but I can see this being helpful when you actually do leave it turned on and wander off.
- The privacy cover in the rear area causes all sorts of problems if you don't remove it before closing the hatch when anything is going to bump into it. We just don't use this anymore and it stays folded up below the floor.
- "Not a Mustang": I've been a sports car enthusiast and/or owner for my entire life and have done a lot of track driving over the years. I've never driven a regular Mustang, but I can't imagine the Mach-E is what they are supposed to feel like. The steering, suspension, and handling is just not there. I just call the car a Mach-E because I don't want people to think I think it's a Mustang. The car is not planted on turn-in, even when decelerating - just today this surprised me because of a very slight bump at the turn-in point and it just had massive understeer for a fraction of a second. It goes from "stuck" to "squealing" (pre-drifting) when you add power in a corner very quickly - this is probably the unimpressive tires more than anything, but could also be bad suspension geometry masked by the low center of gravity. I have noticed that the suspension geometry being what it is, there's a delay in grippiness after initial turn in as the car settles into the corner, but this is pretty common with "not a sports car" suspensions. Mine doesn't bounce, but it does feel like the dampers (shocks / struts) are a bit overpowered by the springs. This would be an easy fix (springs are fine, put in stiffer dampers with quicker rebound). Brakes are ok, but as everyone knows very touchy at initial application. There's just no way I even want to take this to a track, no matter how many ponies are stuck to it.
- The adaptive cruise control really wants to wait until the last minute to slow down or stop for traffic. I've let it go well past where I would normally change from "cruise" to "ready to stop" and it just drives like a maniac. Hopefully this changes with the "not Autopilot" upgrade later this year, but for now it's just a little too aggressive coming up to slower traffic (<50% my speed).
- The lane hold is easily confused by skid marks, grind marks (like where they grind off old road stripes), and shadows. Collision alert / avoidance is also wonky. It thought I was about to hit something (car? human? who knows, but I suspect it was a tree shadow) when I was just cruising along this morning. It didn't brake, but it beeped at me angrily. This has happened to my wife and I many times and it's pretty annoying. Again, hopefully this is fixed later this year. It's also refused to back over a shadow once when pulling out my garage - it slammed on the brakes and warned me of a collision problem, then let me go a second or two later.
- One-pedal mode sometimes doesn't one-pedal. This is a bit surprising when you expect to start slowing down and it just goes into coast mode. I had to quickly put my foot on the brake a few times because of this. It might have been because I had accidentally hit the cruise control button with the palm of my hand while driving, but I'm not sure. This has happened a few times and will definitely mess with your head when you don't realize you've put it into cruise control mode on accident. Might need a chime or something since it doesn't take a second button press to engage the mode (most cars have one for enabling and one for setting).
- You can't adjust the desired speed for cruise control while it's still trying to get to the previously set speed. This causes problems when you re-enable the mode in a slower speed zone. I have to turn it off, then back on otherwise it just ignores my attempts to stay reasonable (like going from a 50 to a 35).
- The wind noise from the glass roof lip. Yeah, that's a fail - both the lip and the noise. I wish this was a warranty thing, but I fear it's just a bad design.
Other than these things below, the car is pretty nice. The interior is befitting of a $50k car, the tech is pretty good (the flaccid B&O sound system aside), it's quiet, I like refueling at home, the heat-filtering glass seems to work well, and it's turning out to be a pretty good daily driver.
There is an awful lot of "it's almost done" stuff going on. Most of it is software, but some of it is "and/or" mechanical:
- Hands-free hatch: This almost never works. It will definitely be a warranty complaint. Locked, unlocked, recently unlocked, with phone, without phone, with fob, without fob ... no matter what I try, it just doesn't work. I don't even try anymore. OTA update did not improve it. Also, a lot of the time it doesn't play the "closing chime" when you close it. Sometimes the hatch (open or close) doesn't respond to the button and you have to push it a second time.
- Cabin pre-condition: Stopped working a couple weeks ago. I could probably get it to work again by changing / redoing all my settings, but I've been too lazy to try this. Both the app and the car show my preferences, the car is always plugged in at the appropriate time, just doesn't do anything anymore.
- CarPlay: Works maybe 75% of the time. When it doesn't work, it won't work until the car is off and I walk out of BT range, then come back.
- Door opening buttons: At night, these are never lit when I approach the car. If PaaK and hands-free is supposed to be a thing, these should light up when I approach the car like the rest of the lights. They are damned near invisible at night or in a dark garage. Also have developed some concerns about how to open a door when they inevitably decide to not work... there's no alternate method that I'm aware of other than breaking a window. Also, have managed to get the latch release and door holder to get into a confused state a few times if you're pushing on the door at all when it tries to open. Had to jiggle the door to get the "holder" to retract so I could close the door, then trigger the unlatch again (it wouldn't do it a second time when the door was cracked open).
- When I get in after my wife has been driving, it doesn't get the seat and mirrors into the proper position. Because PaaK is sometimes unreliable, we always carry the fob. Since the fob is associated with me, she pushes the "2" preset for her, then I get in (with my phone), and it thinks I want it left at "2", not changed to the "1" presets. This should follow the phone, not the fob (since there's only one).
- Can't really comment on PaaK much - we don't trust it and so always have the fob. It is annoying when the car honks at you if you have the fob in your pocket and walk "away" such as to check the mailbox or get something out of the frunk, but I can see this being helpful when you actually do leave it turned on and wander off.
- The privacy cover in the rear area causes all sorts of problems if you don't remove it before closing the hatch when anything is going to bump into it. We just don't use this anymore and it stays folded up below the floor.
- "Not a Mustang": I've been a sports car enthusiast and/or owner for my entire life and have done a lot of track driving over the years. I've never driven a regular Mustang, but I can't imagine the Mach-E is what they are supposed to feel like. The steering, suspension, and handling is just not there. I just call the car a Mach-E because I don't want people to think I think it's a Mustang. The car is not planted on turn-in, even when decelerating - just today this surprised me because of a very slight bump at the turn-in point and it just had massive understeer for a fraction of a second. It goes from "stuck" to "squealing" (pre-drifting) when you add power in a corner very quickly - this is probably the unimpressive tires more than anything, but could also be bad suspension geometry masked by the low center of gravity. I have noticed that the suspension geometry being what it is, there's a delay in grippiness after initial turn in as the car settles into the corner, but this is pretty common with "not a sports car" suspensions. Mine doesn't bounce, but it does feel like the dampers (shocks / struts) are a bit overpowered by the springs. This would be an easy fix (springs are fine, put in stiffer dampers with quicker rebound). Brakes are ok, but as everyone knows very touchy at initial application. There's just no way I even want to take this to a track, no matter how many ponies are stuck to it.
- The adaptive cruise control really wants to wait until the last minute to slow down or stop for traffic. I've let it go well past where I would normally change from "cruise" to "ready to stop" and it just drives like a maniac. Hopefully this changes with the "not Autopilot" upgrade later this year, but for now it's just a little too aggressive coming up to slower traffic (<50% my speed).
- The lane hold is easily confused by skid marks, grind marks (like where they grind off old road stripes), and shadows. Collision alert / avoidance is also wonky. It thought I was about to hit something (car? human? who knows, but I suspect it was a tree shadow) when I was just cruising along this morning. It didn't brake, but it beeped at me angrily. This has happened to my wife and I many times and it's pretty annoying. Again, hopefully this is fixed later this year. It's also refused to back over a shadow once when pulling out my garage - it slammed on the brakes and warned me of a collision problem, then let me go a second or two later.
- One-pedal mode sometimes doesn't one-pedal. This is a bit surprising when you expect to start slowing down and it just goes into coast mode. I had to quickly put my foot on the brake a few times because of this. It might have been because I had accidentally hit the cruise control button with the palm of my hand while driving, but I'm not sure. This has happened a few times and will definitely mess with your head when you don't realize you've put it into cruise control mode on accident. Might need a chime or something since it doesn't take a second button press to engage the mode (most cars have one for enabling and one for setting).
- You can't adjust the desired speed for cruise control while it's still trying to get to the previously set speed. This causes problems when you re-enable the mode in a slower speed zone. I have to turn it off, then back on otherwise it just ignores my attempts to stay reasonable (like going from a 50 to a 35).
- The wind noise from the glass roof lip. Yeah, that's a fail - both the lip and the noise. I wish this was a warranty thing, but I fear it's just a bad design.
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