First two weeks with car

[jgcom]

I'm happy to report that I finally took delivery of a space white premium AWD extended range Mach-E a couple of weeks ago. My order was accepted by the dealer on 9 Feb 2021, so the total time was a few days short of 23 weeks, order to delivery. I believe that the dealer sold it to me the day it was delivered to them. I paid sticker price (yay!) but somehow the $500 deposit was not credited (boo!). I'm not worked up about this, and am glad to have the car. This market is crazy; I was able to sell my old car—with 160,000 miles on it—to a neighbor the same day.

Before I get into details, I'll start by saying that I'm really pleased at how the car drives, so far not quite 800 miles, half on 70-mph-speed-limit interstates and half on two-lane country roads. (Louisiana has so many two-lane roads that they named a university after 'em. Nobody who buys a Mach-E can complain about dad jokes, since we see the words horse power every time we open the charge door.)

Essentially, everything I've asked of the car, in terms of performance and comfort, it has delivered. This is the first car I've owned that corners properly at speed, and the first to attract double takes from other drivers. It also carries a family and/or a 7' step ladder inside. The color is hard to describe, but I'm quite happy with it. Optimists should just stop reading now.

Some random observations:

• The iPhone 12 Pro + Apple magsafe case does not like the Mach-E's inductive charging station, as has been the topic of several threads here. Even when the phone is aligned well enough to charge, it can get quite hot, which can't be good for its batteries. After considering all of the helpful comments on this forum, I now use a USB-C to lightning cable to charge, which sometimes creates pointless messages about carplay when starting the car, but otherwise is perfect.
• On the topic of pointless messages, I'm sure I'm not alone is disliking questions and notices that pop up when turning the car on and when turning the car off. Some of these are genuinely intended as optional features rather than bugs—asking about the back seat occupant, and whether the motion sensor should be disabled—but some are just nuts. Once I decided to ignore them and just drive (or park) the car, I've been happier.
• I've been using PaaK for most of the time I've had the car. There was just one incident when I needed to use the backup code, though later that day I was able to restore PaaK function by rebooting the phone.
• Much has been written about the difference between the drive modes, and my two cents is that it is worth trying each for a couple of days of one's commute. The aggressive regen in unbridled is worth considering, perhaps as a compromise for those who don't want to use single-pedal mode.
• Since my commute is long and somewhat boring, I always use cruise control, and find that activating intelligent adaptive cruise + lane centering works smoothly for most of the interstate part of the trip, perhaps boding well for bluecruise. I've also found the stop-and-go ability useful at least once, though it will take some time before I can assess how often edge and corner cases might affect safety.
• My commute also features nails and screws that hop out of pickup beds so I'm patiently waiting for somebody sell a donut spare tire kit. One such firm was mentioned in this forum, and I hope to hear back from the guy before one of those nails finds my tire.
• It has been pointed out in this forum that sometimes home charging can be quite noisy, since the car has too keep things cool. I found that charging at 40 A unacceptably annoys my family, so I set the dip switch in my Grizzl-E to a limit of 32 A, which (even in Louisiana heat) doesn't trigger the highest and noisiest cooling step.
• My workplace has level-2 chargers in the parking lot, with an app to track fees, etc. Each user tells the system how many kWh are needed and over how many hours, allowing the system to charge everyone without overloading the system. On the other hand, I've set up my car to only charge to 90%. So, both the car and the charge station are trying to run the show. The actual charging almost always happens as intended, but I get a double helping of pointless messages each day, as each system finds the other to be worth complaining about. Some combination of the IEEE, the SAE, and maybe two or three more standards organizations should be forced to have daily Zoom calls until this sort of thing gets worked out.
• I've not yet tried fast charging, since there are none close to me, and I'm glad to read about how others are helping debug those systems.
• I'm paying close attention to the experiences people here report about hitches to be used for bike racks, etc. I'm grateful for all of your investigations.

Cheers!

Sponsored

 

[shberry]

I'm happy to report that I finally took delivery of a space white premium AWD extended range Mach-E a couple of weeks ago. My order was accepted by the dealer on 9 Feb 2021, so the total time was a few days short of 23 weeks, order to delivery. I believe that the dealer sold it to me the day it was delivered to them. I paid sticker price (yay!) but somehow the $500 deposit was not credited (boo!). I'm not worked up about this, and am glad to have the car. This market is crazy; I was able to sell my old car—with 160,000 miles on it—to a neighbor the same day.

Before I get into details, I'll start by saying that I'm really pleased at how the car drives, so far not quite 800 miles, half on 70-mph-speed-limit interstates and half on two-lane country roads. (Louisiana has so many two-lane roads that they named a university after 'em. Nobody who buys a Mach-E can complain about dad jokes, since we see the words horse power every time we open the charge door.)

Essentially, everything I've asked of the car, in terms of performance and comfort, it has delivered. This is the first car I've owned that corners properly at speed, and the first to attract double takes from other drivers. It also carries a family and/or a 7' step ladder inside. The color is hard to describe, but I'm quite happy with it. Optimists should just stop reading now.

Some random observations:

• The iPhone 12 Pro + Apple magsafe case does not like the Mach-E's inductive charging station, as has been the topic of several threads here. Even when the phone is aligned well enough to charge, it can get quite hot, which can't be good for its batteries. After considering all of the helpful comments on this forum, I now use a USB-C to lightning cable to charge, which sometimes creates pointless messages about carplay when starting the car, but otherwise is perfect.
• On the topic of pointless messages, I'm sure I'm not alone is disliking questions and notices that pop up when turning the car on and when turning the car off. Some of these are genuinely intended as optional features rather than bugs—asking about the back seat occupant, and whether the motion sensor should be disabled—but some are just nuts. Once I decided to ignore them and just drive (or park) the car, I've been happier.
• I've been using PaaK for most of the time I've had the car. There was just one incident when I needed to use the backup code, though later that day I was able to restore PaaK function by rebooting the phone.
• Much has been written about the difference between the drive modes, and my two cents is that it is worth trying each for a couple of days of one's commute. The aggressive regen in unbridled is worth considering, perhaps as a compromise for those who don't want to use single-pedal mode.
• Since my commute is long and somewhat boring, I always use cruise control, and find that activating intelligent adaptive cruise + lane centering works smoothly for most of the interstate part of the trip, perhaps boding well for bluecruise. I've also found the stop-and-go ability useful at least once, though it will take some time before I can assess how often edge and corner cases might affect safety.
• My commute also features nails and screws that hop out of pickup beds so I'm patiently waiting for somebody sell a donut spare tire kit. One such firm was mentioned in this forum, and I hope to hear back from the guy before one of those nails finds my tire.
• It has been pointed out in this forum that sometimes home charging can be quite noisy, since the car has too keep things cool. I found that charging at 40 A unacceptably annoys my family, so I set the dip switch in my Grizzl-E to a limit of 32 A, which (even in Louisiana heat) doesn't trigger the highest and noisiest cooling step.
• My workplace has level-2 chargers in the parking lot, with an app to track fees, etc. Each user tells the system how many kWh are needed and over how many hours, allowing the system to charge everyone without overloading the system. On the other hand, I've set up my car to only charge to 90%. So, both the car and the charge station are trying to run the show. The actual charging almost always happens as intended, but I get a double helping of pointless messages each day, as each system finds the other to be worth complaining about. Some combination of the IEEE, the SAE, and maybe two or three more standards organizations should be forced to have daily Zoom calls until this sort of thing gets worked out.
• I've not yet tried fast charging, since there are none close to me, and I'm glad to read about how others are helping debug those systems.
• I'm paying close attention to the experiences people here report about hitches to be used for bike racks, etc. I'm grateful for all of your investigations.

Cheers!

Excellent review. Thanks!

 

[ARK]

Congratulations, post some pics! I am a big fan of Space White.

Regarding notices, you definitely can permanently disable the back seat occupant check I believe in either vehicle or general settings. I think maybe you can also get it to stop bringing up the motion sensor prompt but less sure on this - I’m ok with this particular prompt, if you ignore it, it is the same as asking the car to keep the motion sensor on.

Another notice I disabled is the school zone one, that one you access through the settings page that you get to through the navigation screen (as opposed to where all the other car settings car).

 

[Jeffvisor]

I'm happy to report that I finally took delivery of a space white premium AWD extended range Mach-E a couple of weeks ago. My order was accepted by the dealer on 9 Feb 2021, so the total time was a few days short of 23 weeks, order to delivery. I believe that the dealer sold it to me the day it was delivered to them. I paid sticker price (yay!) but somehow the $500 deposit was not credited (boo!). I'm not worked up about this, and am glad to have the car. This market is crazy; I was able to sell my old car—with 160,000 miles on it—to a neighbor the same day.

Before I get into details, I'll start by saying that I'm really pleased at how the car drives, so far not quite 800 miles, half on 70-mph-speed-limit interstates and half on two-lane country roads. (Louisiana has so many two-lane roads that they named a university after 'em. Nobody who buys a Mach-E can complain about dad jokes, since we see the words horse power every time we open the charge door.)

Essentially, everything I've asked of the car, in terms of performance and comfort, it has delivered. This is the first car I've owned that corners properly at speed, and the first to attract double takes from other drivers. It also carries a family and/or a 7' step ladder inside. The color is hard to describe, but I'm quite happy with it. Optimists should just stop reading now.

Some random observations:

• The iPhone 12 Pro + Apple magsafe case does not like the Mach-E's inductive charging station, as has been the topic of several threads here. Even when the phone is aligned well enough to charge, it can get quite hot, which can't be good for its batteries. After considering all of the helpful comments on this forum, I now use a USB-C to lightning cable to charge, which sometimes creates pointless messages about carplay when starting the car, but otherwise is perfect.
• On the topic of pointless messages, I'm sure I'm not alone is disliking questions and notices that pop up when turning the car on and when turning the car off. Some of these are genuinely intended as optional features rather than bugs—asking about the back seat occupant, and whether the motion sensor should be disabled—but some are just nuts. Once I decided to ignore them and just drive (or park) the car, I've been happier.
• I've been using PaaK for most of the time I've had the car. There was just one incident when I needed to use the backup code, though later that day I was able to restore PaaK function by rebooting the phone.
• Much has been written about the difference between the drive modes, and my two cents is that it is worth trying each for a couple of days of one's commute. The aggressive regen in unbridled is worth considering, perhaps as a compromise for those who don't want to use single-pedal mode.
• Since my commute is long and somewhat boring, I always use cruise control, and find that activating intelligent adaptive cruise + lane centering works smoothly for most of the interstate part of the trip, perhaps boding well for bluecruise. I've also found the stop-and-go ability useful at least once, though it will take some time before I can assess how often edge and corner cases might affect safety.
• My commute also features nails and screws that hop out of pickup beds so I'm patiently waiting for somebody sell a donut spare tire kit. One such firm was mentioned in this forum, and I hope to hear back from the guy before one of those nails finds my tire.
• It has been pointed out in this forum that sometimes home charging can be quite noisy, since the car has too keep things cool. I found that charging at 40 A unacceptably annoys my family, so I set the dip switch in my Grizzl-E to a limit of 32 A, which (even in Louisiana heat) doesn't trigger the highest and noisiest cooling step.
• My workplace has level-2 chargers in the parking lot, with an app to track fees, etc. Each user tells the system how many kWh are needed and over how many hours, allowing the system to charge everyone without overloading the system. On the other hand, I've set up my car to only charge to 90%. So, both the car and the charge station are trying to run the show. The actual charging almost always happens as intended, but I get a double helping of pointless messages each day, as each system finds the other to be worth complaining about. Some combination of the IEEE, the SAE, and maybe two or three more standards organizations should be forced to have daily Zoom calls until this sort of thing gets worked out.
• I've not yet tried fast charging, since there are none close to me, and I'm glad to read about how others are helping debug those systems.
• I'm paying close attention to the experiences people here report about hitches to be used for bike racks, etc. I'm grateful for all of your investigations.

Cheers!

• On the topic of pointless messages, I'm sure I'm not alone is disliking questions and notices that pop up when turning the car on and when turning the car off. Some of these are genuinely intended as optional features rather than bugs—asking about the back seat occupant, and whether the motion sensor should be disabled—but some are just nuts. Once I decided to ignore them and just drive (or park) the car, I've been happier.

These can both be turned off in settings.

 

[jgcom]

• On the topic of pointless messages, I'm sure I'm not alone is disliking questions and notices that pop up when turning the car on and when turning the car off. Some of these are genuinely intended as optional features rather than bugs—asking about the back seat occupant, and whether the motion sensor should be disabled—but some are just nuts. Once I decided to ignore them and just drive (or park) the car, I've been happier.

These can both be turned off in settings.

Some can be turned off, I know. But what about, "Charge Settings Conflict: To reach 90% by the next departure time, the vehicle must charge outside of the preferred charge time." I have no departure times set, and I have all times every day selected for charging. This is the sort of message that I ignore. I'd welcome finding out how to avoid this message.

 

[krafty81]

That is an odd one. I think you can turn that off in settings too as I have never seen it.

 

[Jeffvisor]

Some can be turned off, I know. But what about, "Charge Settings Conflict: To reach 90% by the next departure time, the vehicle must charge outside of the preferred charge time." I have no departure times set, and I have all times every day selected for charging. This is the sort of message that I ignore. I'd welcome finding out how to avoid this message.

I never seen that one. I have mine set to always charge to 90% anytime. I will say this you have to add the time i thought just moving it to 90% did it but you have to fill the timer to 24hrs. Maybe that is the issue?

 

[jgcom]

I never seen that one. I have mine set to always charge to 90% anytime. I will say this you have to add the time i thought just moving it to 90% did it but you have to fill the timer to 24hrs. Maybe that is the issue?

Thanks for the note. I had already selected the 24h times, with no luck. Here's what worked, FWIW: I added a departure time, saved, deleted it, and saved again. The Charge Settings Conflict hasn't appeared since.

 

[pt19713]

Modern Spare should be available in a month:
https://modernspare.com/product/2020-2021-ford-mach-e-spare-tire-kit-options/

 

[stlippert]

Modern Spare should be available in a month:
https://modernspare.com/product/2020-2021-ford-mach-e-spare-tire-kit-options/

Just received an email from them today that the order book is now OPEN!

 

[Snowrider69]

Just received an email from them today that the order book is now OPEN!
[/QUOTE

Just received an email from them today that the order book is now OPEN!

Where are you going to put it? There's not much room in the trunk to cover it.

 

[rhougey]

Modern Spare should be available in a month:
https://modernspare.com/product/2020-2021-ford-mach-e-spare-tire-kit-options/

My emergency spare kit is complete, and I think I like what I've got more than what Modern Spare is offering. Admittedly, it took a bit of time to assemble all the parts, but it was a lot cheaper, too.
My kit is:
1) A salvaged spare from a late model Range Rover Evoque, bought on eBay for $90. Fits perfectly, and is more compact (thickness-wise) than the alloy wheel M.S. is using. Same size temp tire.
2) A vinyl spare tire cover purchased from etrailer.com for about $12, makes the spare more presentable in the cargo area.
3) An extendable lug wrench purchased from Auto Zone for $20, seems to be the same one M.S. is including in their kit.
4) A Hyperion electric/hydraulic compact jack, powered by 12V "cigarette lighter" ports inside car, 3 ton rating, works great, purchased from costco.com for $99. Some Tesla owners have complained that the M.S. ratcheting scissor jack is difficult to use because it needs a longer ratchet handle.
5) A 2-1/2" rubber bottle jack lift pad purchase from ebay for $7. I did have to machine out the hole on the underside of the rubber puck from 3/4" to 2" to fit the Hyperion jack.

Total cost $228 plus some tax. I also carefully carved out and bored out the factory styrofoam under the cargo floor to house the Hyperion jack and the lug wrench, so the only thing left in the cargo area is the spare itself. Total combined weight is 48 pounds. The cargo floor sits all the way down on the lower position with the jack and lug wrench neatly stowed away. If I need the space, I can yank the spare and hang it on my wall. Otherwise I just leave it in the car. The total height of the spare when sitting on the cargo floor is exactly 6-3/8". It appears the M.S. spare will be a bit more than that because of the alloy wheel they are using.

 

[jgcom]

Where are you going to put it? There's not much room in the trunk to cover it.

For daily commuting, I plan to keep the whole kit at home. If I get a flat, I'd impose on my dear family to bring it to me. I would repay that kindness with any requested consideration. Either that or Lyft ?.

On a road trip, the kit would take up space in the trunk.

Sponsored