Second Thoughts Put to Bed

[leeman]

Imagine if you were in a world where you can't get your car repaired it's getting there. Just a matter of time before you won't be able to get your car repaired in an accident it'll just be totaling you'll have to wait all over again. I mentioned how upside down it would be if the car did get totaled.

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[Socalsp3]

I am seriously thinking of bailing on my order and this is starting to become a painful decision as I am so far down the road and I really NEED a vehicle and I have invested so much time and energy in the MME. I am 9 months waiting on the car; it is now 60 miles from the dealership where it will then go to recall-jail until honestly,.... who really knows when? I have owned close to 40 cars in 40+ years I never owned a Ford and I went all in believing in the Mach-e, that Ford was becoming the car company of the future (the reviews and press were just so stellar and I got sucked in deep). In October 2021, I ordered the MME and passed on the Model Y. I knew the risks of eary ownership but hoped by year two that the major issues would be mostly ironed out. After this recall, I recently put in an order for a Model Y Performance (right before Tesla's price increase) as a backup and I am now starting to seriously weigh waiting yet another few months and just going with the Tesla. Ford's atrocious process and communications, dealer antics, and now brick anxiety has sucked every ounce of enthusiasm out of this massive MME high that I was riding. I much prefer the styling of the MME over the Tesla but Tesla has a lot going for it now that I am thinking of switching. I don't buy into members' views that we have to just accept a boatload of early adopter risk of the MME and that this is what we are signing up for. Tesla has ironed a lot of the early adopter stuff out. I may just have to give up the MME good looks for the reliability and awesome supercharger network of the Tesla. Sure, I will have some build quality issues with paint and gaps but I'm much less likely to get bricked or have extended service delays. I am now paying for some Uber's and rental cars so I do need a car, this waiting BS with Ford has gone on way too long. I'm going to see how the early days of the recall pan out in July and make my decision then. I would go with the I-5 and perhaps the ID4 but I can't get into the dealer purchase and ADM crap. I ordered the Tesla in the time it takes to order uber eats; its just too easy and I'm getting too old for the dealer game.

What a wasted year and I really do want the MME to work out.

I would pick up the order and sell it. At least you'll get something out of waiting for a year.

 

[Timbo31771]

So an update on what went wrong and how they fixed it, for those interested. Strictly layman’s terms, as I don’t pretend to understand all of it.

there were multiple software updates applied to the car, and these apparently must be applied in a specific order. It sounds like larger updates might even be made up of multiple data packets. These updates all progressed to “successful” on my dealership technician’s laptop computer. An engineer from Ford HQ got involved and could monitor what the tech was doing in real time. It sounds like despite apparent success for a large update, overall, one or more of those data packets did not successfully install. The engineer recognized this, and directed the dealership technician to reinstall those failed packets. Complicating things, it sounds like the laptop retains data from the specific car, and so a different laptop was needed in order to reinstall previous data packets—technician’s computer would just rely on existing data that was flawed owed to the failed initial update.

I hope that helps someone else in the same boat. By the dealership’s reckoning, the updates are straightforward and had not failed on any other Mach E to date (small data set, though). Now, should this issue arise again, they’ll know what to look for. Ford has good people who know how to fix it, it just sounds like getting your car’s data in front of their eyes can be a challenge.

 

[VegStang]

Nice to see your issue was resolved.

After my dealer killed my Lane Centering I had someone on the forum check my vehicle in FDRS and noticed that one of the updates they had done failed. I let my dealer know the next time I went in but my service advisor changed my notification that a specific update failed to lane centering no longer functions. The tech took a cursory look and stated it was working fine (it wasn't.) Had they just reinstalled the update I would probably have been back in business, but in the end I just decided to wait for followup OTA updates.

At some point the update situation, and dealer education/training will hopefully resolve some of these issues.

So an update on what went wrong and how they fixed it, for those interested. Strictly layman’s terms, as I don’t pretend to understand all of it.

there were multiple software updates applied to the car, and these apparently must be applied in a specific order. It sounds like larger updates might even be made up of multiple data packets. These updates all progressed to “successful” on my dealership technician’s laptop computer. An engineer from Ford HQ got involved and could monitor what the tech was doing in real time. It sounds like despite apparent success for a large update, overall, one or more of those data packets did not successfully install. The engineer recognized this, and directed the dealership technician to reinstall those failed packets. Complicating things, it sounds like the laptop retains data from the specific car, and so a different laptop was needed in order to reinstall previous data packets—technician’s computer would just rely on existing data that was flawed owed to the failed initial update.

I hope that helps someone else in the same boat. By the dealership’s reckoning, the updates are straightforward and had not failed on any other Mach E to date (small data set, though). Now, should this issue arise again, they’ll know what to look for. Ford has good people who know how to fix it, it just sounds like getting your car’s data in front of their eyes can be a challenge.

 

[TGIF]

Your experience has reinforced my general rule never to acquire the first year of any new vehicle. That's especially true of EVs, which are new tech to begin with.

That said, if Ford is going to venture into the EV market in a big way, they should be better prepared to deal with design flaws and performance issues. EVs depend way more than ICE cars on software and electronics to work properly. So it follows we can expect more problems than if we owned Toyota Camrys.

But I'll take that bargain. Eventually, there's no doubt EVs will be every bit as reliable as the venerable Camry. In the meantime, we need to think of ourselves as test pilots of engineers at the forefront of EV exploration. That might just make it easier to cope with the inevitable problems many of us will experience!

My DH has the same rule to never buy the first year of a new or revamped model. That’s why I have a ‘22.

 

[ChuckA]

Sell the car, move on with your life

No car reseller will buy a car under recall because they can’t sell it. OP needs to hold-on until the recall is resolved.

 

[billytuffnuts]

No car reseller will buy a car under recall because they can’t sell it. OP needs to hold-on until the recall is resolved.

Thanks for clearing that up….

 

[heisnuts]

No car reseller will buy a car under recall because they can’t sell it. OP needs to hold-on until the recall is resolved.

I don’t think that is entirely true. If it is a Ford dealer they would not be able to sell it, but I believe any other retailer can. Just look at places like Carmax who have a couple available currently.

 

[Cjpayne]

LOL.
I’ll be delusional. You have fun with your tuff nutz. I never said anything positive about the Vietnamese car just that it’s available and I dropped 200 on it which I can get back and I’m gonna go look at it. If I do buy it and it’s a piece of crap I’ll probably sell it for more than I paid for it in this market so there really no worries mate

Now get back to those nuts …

Jes sayin. Let’s keep it civil ….I’m not delusional I’m a schizophrenic bipolar whatever

Do us all a favor and drop the "Jes sayin". All of your posts contain it and it is getting old.

 

[Mach1E]

Do us all a favor and drop the "Jes sayin". All of your posts contain it and it is getting old.

Well lookie there…… all his post do say that!

Doesn’t bother me one bit though.

Jes sayin we all have our mannerisms.

 

[Chuck]

No car reseller will buy a car under recall because they can’t sell it. OP needs to hold-on until the recall is resolved.

Or sell it at retail to a private party.

 

[Chuck]

Do us all a favor and drop the "Jes sayin". All of your posts contain it and it is getting old.

Yeah, it's very patronizing.

 

[rcechinel]

LOL.
I’ll be delusional. You have fun with your tuff nutz. I never said anything positive about the Vietnamese car just that it’s available and I dropped 200 on it which I can get back and I’m gonna go look at it. If I do buy it and it’s a piece of crap I’ll probably sell it for more than I paid for it in this market so there really no worries mate

Now get back to those nuts …

Jes sayin. Let’s keep it civil ….I’m not delusional I’m a schizophrenic bipolar whatever

Don't mind the harsh words. It's the logical thinking that doesn't add up. Leaving the Mach-E well into its second year of manufacturing and with +100k vehicles sold and go to a startup to avoid quality issues at launch?
Maybe you are seeing something we are not.

 

[MachE2022]

So a significant edit. My wife and I placed a reservation for our car, dubbed “Blue Banshee,” in November 2019 when Ford announced it. Premium AWD ER. We converted our reservation to an order as soon as Ford opened the order books. We took delivery of our car the day it arrived at our dealership.

First year, in a secondary role, we put only 4,500 miles on the car. We loved it. Early into year 2, I got the dreaded “Stop Safely Now” error and the car stranded me. Hard luck issues followed, including my car’s not accepting updates. All told, our car spent about 7 weeks in the shop (body damage by the tow truck driver, and getting the roadside assistance service provider to pay for that damage added to this time in shop). I grew increasingly frustrated. As a consumer, I felt powerless and used this forum to cup my hands together and shout my frustration into the cosmos, expecting no improvement.

Ultimately, Ford was listening. Ford called me, contacted me through this forum, and escalated my case so that one of their engineers could identify the issue in my car and promptly fix it (once s/he got to look at it). Bottom line, I get that this is a big product rollout and big shift to EV from ICE for a legacy automaker, and dumb luck—I got a troublesome build/computer. Ford did right by me. I was frustrated, yes, and I thank all of you for your words of support and wisdom, but both the dealership and Ford itself went to great lengths to get this fixed, even as I lost faith and struggled with it a bit. I’m going to be optimistic and hopeful that significant problems can now move to my rear view mirror. On the drive home today from the dealership, I realized how much I love this car.

Well, it is a nice car but this should not happen to a customer. I really hope Ford compensated your time.

 

[tfitzgex]

You’re going to get some blowback from enthusiast and those that want to stand for the vehicle. I’ve experienced almost everything you say and it’s all true. A $60,000 car should never strand you and no repairs should take more than a week. I have two more on order but I am planning on canceling one and getting a hybrid maverick pick up on order in August when those books open and waiting for my next EV a little longer. I know I can sell the MachE so I’m going to take delivery if they could build it and give it a couple months if it gives me any grief ….it’s sold

Jes sayin. Anyone check out that the VinFast Vietnamese EV’s. I dropped a deposit down for one of those to check it out as well all refundable

Here’s the link

https://vinfastauto.us/

Been driven in one in Vietnam I can say their build quality leaves a lot to be desired.
I was trying to avoid the import tariff on a car ultimately decided against buying it.

The president is 163k, the lux is 50k, the fadil is only 15k... but it's all cash.

The tariffs are ridiculous.

To give you an example, the mercedes GLC Here is 47k in vietnam is 80k( and that's with a friend discount for someone who works at MB of Vietnam)

a Lexus rx350 here is 60k, in vietnam... 140k.

Their higher end cars are likely better, but still see if you can rent one of their EVs when they come here.

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