Mach-E Impressions from a Tesla owner

noname

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Agree about infotainment. Can't stand it, so useless. Have two phones and car play never works, must only pair one phone. Constant messages on the screen that I have to dismiss are really annoying.

I love the car as a commuter though, it looks like a proper car, not some soap box.
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and should have less annoying noises when you turn it on.
I like the quiet chords that play when I start or stop the car while my door is closed and seat belt is buckled. Give it a try if you haven't, you may find it less annoying than the door or belt reminders.
 

MachTee

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Thank you @MachTee and @snikt. A friend of mine just bought a MY this past weekend and said he couldn’t get it past 75 on AP. Obviously he needs to get an update.

He also said he had lane changes which seemed wrong to me. Thanks for clarifying. So when you say you can’t change lanes with AP on and have to yank the steering wheel, what does that mean? With the Mach E, lane keeping turns off when you use the turn signal (adaptive cruise stays on) and then the lane keep turns back on automatically when your in the next lane. It’s all very smooth. Is this not the same for Tesla?
If he purchased FSD then his car has auto lane change.

With standard autopilot engaged (which is both auto lane keep and traffic aware cruise control), the steering wheel is completely controlled by the car. You cannot temporarily take control to change lane. If you turned the steering wheel by more than 2 degrees or so, auto lane change disengages and you have control of the steering wheel; traffic aware cruise control remains active. Forcibly disengaging auto lane keep in this fashion is quite unsmooth as you can probably imagine. To avoid abruptly disengaging auto lane keep, flick the right stalk up to disengage the system, do your lane change, and double-flick the right stalk down to re-engage. Or buy FSD ;)

Yes, the way the MME (and even on Hyundais equipped with the lane keep function) handles lane changes is preferable - temporarily disengage lane keep the moment you use the turn signal, and re-engage itself once the lane change is complete.
 

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I like the quiet chords that play when I start or stop the car while my door is closed and seat belt is buckled. Give it a try if you haven't, you may find it less annoying than the door or belt reminders.
Both the MME on the showroom floor and the car I test drove did play a chord when starting. My car does not. Is there a setting in there somewhere to enable it? Not that I necessarily want it on or off (though I did like the sound the moment I sat in the showroom floor car), but it kind of bugged me my car doesn't play the chord and I wanna know why.
 

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Both the MME on the showroom floor and the car I test drove did play a chord when starting. My car does not. Is there a setting in there somewhere to enable it? Not that I necessarily want it on or off (though I did like the sound the moment I sat in the showroom floor car), but it kind of bugged me my car doesn't play the chord and I wanna know why.
It should do this if there aren't any warning conditions when you start. The main things to check are that all doors are closed and all passengers are buckled. Then start the vehicle.
 


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With standard autopilot engaged (which is both auto lane keep and traffic aware cruise control), the steering wheel is completely controlled by the car. You cannot temporarily take control to change lane. If you turned the steering wheel by more than 2 degrees or so, auto lane change disengages and you have control of the steering wheel; traffic aware cruise control remains active. Forcibly disengaging auto lane keep in this fashion is quite unsmooth as you can probably imagine. To avoid abruptly disengaging auto lane keep, flick the right stalk up to disengage the system, do your lane change, and double-flick the right stalk down to re-engage. Or buy FSD ;)

Yes, the way the MME (and even on Hyundais equipped with the lane keep function) handles lane changes is preferable - temporarily disengage lane keep the moment you use the turn signal, and re-engage itself once the lane change is complete.
Wow. That’s surprisingly dumb for Tesla. Thanks for the info.

The other thing my friend says is that it is impossible to drive more than 5mph over the posted speed limit with AP engaged. Is this true?

I asked him if he could turn off speed sign recognition for cruise control in order to get around this, but he wasn’t sure. Can you?

I gave up on Ford’s ā€œintelligentā€ Cruise Control because it isn’t very smart about reading signs so I don’t want that triggering my cruise settings. I’m glad Ford allows me to do that and still use Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Keeping. Does Tesla allow something similar or are you required to have the car read speed signs when in AP?
 

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Wow. That’s surprisingly dumb for Tesla. Thanks for the info.

The other thing my friend says is that it is impossible to drive more than 5mph over the posted speed limit with AP engaged. Is this true?

I asked him if he could turn off speed sign recognition for cruise control in order to get around this, but he wasn’t sure. Can you?

I gave up on Ford’s ā€œintelligentā€ Cruise Control because it isn’t very smart about reading signs so I don’t want that triggering my cruise settings. I’m glad Ford allows me to do that and still use Adaptive Cruise Control with Lane Keeping. Does Tesla allow something similar or are you required to have the car read speed signs when in AP?
Driving on local roads, yes AP limits you to +5MPH max. On freeway you can crank it up to 75 (80 after he gets the update on his Tesla Vision car).

My car was the original HW2.5 car and does not have speed sign recognition, so I can't answer that question. All that my car could interpret and display was mailboxes along my street shown as traffic cones on the screen ?
 

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Edit: Since this post received more responses than I expected, I just want to preface by saying that both of the cars are really great. I’d truly be more than happy driving either one every day. For Ford’s first real entry into the EV market they did an outstanding job and I’m looking forward to them continuing to improve via OTA software updates. Any critiques are merely my own opinion and open to debate and all of them are nitpicks and don’t take away from how much I enjoy both vehicles.



Hi everyone. Someone in my family recently purchased a Mach-E Premium and I got to drive it for a few days and get a good feel for the vehicle overall. I wanted to share some opinions I have about it compared to my Tesla and discuss some things that aren’t normally talked in reviews and YouTube videos but may be of interest to somebody cross-shopping each. I’m not going to discuss the charging network, range, Elon Musk, etc etc .. as it’s been talked about over and over.

In my opinion…

Mach-E Pros over Tesla:
  • Fit and finish is much better. The Tesla paint job is awful with overspray in multiple areas and the paint itself is very fragile and prone to rock chips and scratches. Panel gaps and trim pieces not fitting properly is still a very real issue. I have a rattle and a squeak in my Tesla that they could not fix even after 2 visits to service. This is not an issue on the Ford.
  • Screen on dash is really nice to have
  • Style is great and super sleek. Style is subjective but I think most people would agree the Mach-E is a better looking vehicle than the Y.
  • BLISS, 360 camera, and cross traffic alert are all welcome safety features
  • BlueCruise compatibility in the future for hands-free highway driving
  • Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto is great to have and really missed on the Tesla.
Negatives about the Mach-E over the Tesla:
  • Why is there a start button? There’s no engine to start. This is an extra unnecessary step.
  • The infotainment system on the Mach-E is terrible at worst and annoying at best. It’s slow to respond, laggy, and confusing to navigate through menus to find a simple setting. Tesla’s software is by far and away better in every regard.
  • Phone key works about 70% of the time. It’s not perfect on the Tesla either but the Tesla works maybe 95% of the time.
  • The acceleration on the Tesla is better, smoother, and doesn’t let up as quick as on the Mach-E. The Mach-E throws you into your seat off the line but it quickly loses the oomph. Floor the Tesla at 60 and you’re thrown back into your seat again, not so much on the Ford.
  • 1 pedal driving is smoother and less jerky on the Tesla at low speeds.
  • The seats are more comfortable on the Tesla, but the Mach-E’s are very nice too. I just find the Tesla seats exceptionally comfortable.
  • Steering wheel controls are overly complicated and not necessary.
  • Frunk release is an old-fashioned 2 pull release latch instead of a simple button or phone control
  • The Ford Pass app doesn’t have as many controls as it should have
  • Sentry mode and dash cam is such a common sense feature I don’t know why the Mach-E doesn’t support it since it has the hardware.
  • Ford’s CoPilot 360 or whatever name they call it can’t currently compete with Tesla’s Autopilot, but maybe this will change once BlueCruise is released.


I’m sure I missed some things that didn’t pop into my head as I was writing this, but that’s just some of my initial impressions.

Overall I think most of my qualms with the Mach-E can be resolved with software updates. Both cars are really fantastic and I would be more than happy to drive either one. I hope Ford releases OTA updates rapidly to improve and add features.
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I like having the start button, part of the ritual of getting in and ready for a drive, but I especially like that there is a kill switch/easy way to tell if the vehicle is on or off.

Not sure why this gets as much flak as it does since it’s such a nothing step even if somebody doesn’t care for it.
I, too, don’t understand the hate of the start button. When I push the start button, my seat and mirrors go to my settings, and the screens begin to boot up. Do Tesla’s not have power seats that move back for ease of entry/exit? If they do, what triggers these movements? Do you need to verbally tell your Tesla to start up?
 

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You’ll be happy with GB. It’s definitely attention-grabbing. In daytime, it’s the color of a blue peanut M&M. At night it seems iridescent. It’s FUN!
While I like my grabber blue, I prefer deep saturated colors over pastels. 12/10 if there was a sapphire blue or emerald green, I would choose them over grabber blue. Of all the colors available on the Mach-E, Rapid Red is my favorite.
 

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but is it slow? Not at all, it works very well, no complaints
I can not reliably change radio or climate control settings in my Mach-E until after I back out of my driveway, and drive to the end of my block. It takes a solid 45 seconds or so for the infotainment system to boot up completely in my car.it’s pretty clearly a software issue, because the instant I shift to reverse, the camera comes up on the screen, even at startup.
 

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While I like my grabber blue, I prefer deep saturated colors over pastels. 12/10 if there was a sapphire blue or emerald green, I would choose them over grabber blue. Of all the colors available on the Mach-E, Rapid Red is my favorite.
Absolutely agree. My wife was looking at Escapes and loved the dark persian green, but they discontinued it! She wants an Escape PHEV which aren't for sale yet, and is definitely bummed that they discontinued her favorite color.

I can not reliably change radio or climate control settings in my Mach-E until after I back out of my driveway, and drive to the end of my block. It takes a solid 45 seconds or so for the infotainment system to boot up completely in my car.it’s pretty clearly a software issue, because the instant I shift to reverse, the camera comes up on the screen, even at startup.
I hit the power button as soon as I sit down, and wait for the sync4 to boot up before shifting into drive. While I'm waiting I buckle up, close the door, open the windows, etc. It's annoying but not that bad.
 

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I, too, don’t understand the hate of the start button. When I push the start button, my seat and mirrors go to my settings, and the screens begin to boot up. Do Tesla’s not have power seats that move back for ease of entry/exit? If they do, what triggers these movements? Do you need to verbally tell your Tesla to start up?
It just happens when you open the door, screen is already ready and music is playing before I sit down

Mirrors I have set to automatically fold at home, so when I drive away they unfold and fold when I pull in my driveway
 

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Teslaā€˜s tech and presentation i think is too scary for some people if they aren’t into the latest tech so that type of person would never consider Tesla as an option.
On the contrary. Tesla’s tech doesn’t scare me in the slightest. I just hate the look. Disguise the Spartan design choices behind technobabble language all they like, they cheaped out on the Y and 3. Just because things can be placed on a tablet for control doesn’t mean they should. Two excellent examples: air vents and the speedometer.

Ford’s choices for the MME aren’t less scary, they’re better.
 
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MachTee

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How does road noise compare?
The MME is far, far quieter than the Model 3. It was immediately apparent on my test drive even on local roads.

I, too, don’t understand the hate of the start button. When I push the start button, my seat and mirrors go to my settings, and the screens begin to boot up. Do Tesla’s not have power seats that move back for ease of entry/exit? If they do, what triggers these movements? Do you need to verbally tell your Tesla to start up?
Very typical attitude of some Tesla superfans (I'm not accusing the OP of being one, and I actually agree with him on most points) - if Tesla does/doesn't do something, then it is/isn't needed.

The moment you step on the brake pedal to "turn on" the car, the seat retracts to the position of your profile. The car can automatically choose the driver profile based on PaaK, but it can get confused sometimes when say your spouse with another PaaK gets into the car the same time, activating the spouse's profile. Handy feature, but I'd rather have the 1/2/3 profile buttons right on the door.

I can not reliably change radio or climate control settings in my Mach-E until after I back out of my driveway, and drive to the end of my block. It takes a solid 45 seconds or so for the infotainment system to boot up completely in my car.it’s pretty clearly a software issue, because the instant I shift to reverse, the camera comes up on the screen, even at startup.
Yes I too have noticed that it takes a bit of time for the infotainment screen to be fully responsive, but at least the backup camera has always come on immediately upon shifting to reverse. I have seen the opposite though, that the camera remains on the screen until the system becomes fully responsive (and not because I have the delayed camera setting enabled). Tesla also has a similar quirk sometimes, the camera is blank for a while after shifting into reverse, but the infotainment screen is always responsive one the car is awaken, 10-15 seconds or so. Keep in mind, in those 10-15 seconds during wake up, you cannot interact with the screen at all, so you can't open the glovebox, open or close your garage door, or choose your driver profile until it's fully awaken.
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