110 miles in a '20 FFH

[Cobra348]

As noted in my "wow!" thread here, I ordered a '20 SEL on August 1st. The initial Sept 13th delivery was just a hair off. It arrived at the dealer at 8:30 AM Eastern on the 17th. That's 6 weeks, 5 days from order to deliverey. Best damn time from Ford ever - in 4 factory orders (2 Fiestas, 2 prior FFH).

 

I'm going to do a quick - off the top of the head - comparison of the new car as compared to the '17 I traded in. Also adding a bit more information (fuel for the fire?) to a couple topics we've been hammering out. So, grab a beer and hang on for the ride ...

 

Hood Insulator - The discussion thread is here. It was noted in post 34 by hphong2003 that he had located a delete order that went into effect June '18 that removed this equipment from Fusions. The 2020 models do NOT have this equipment, so the part delete is fact. But problem solved: Before trading in the '17, I took it off. Kept it and the clips and will install it in the '20. Savings of $165 plus tax.

 

The clips are pinch clips so all you need is a flat-bladed screwdriver to compress the clip and pull it out of the hood. There are 3 tabs on the rear of the insulator that slide out of slots in the back of the hood. When mounting it, slip the tabs in place, insert 2 clips front edge center then do the rest of the clips as these will hold it up for you.

 

SOC Display - The original discussion is here. Post #43 by chekie notes that in Engineering mode there is a part number for those vehicles with and without the SOC display. FFH 2020 models do NOT have an SOC display nor the ability to toggle it on and off. I plan on gathering screenshots to demonstrate the display and approach Service - or if needed Engineering in Dearborn - to get it the hell back! <shrug> I'll wear the a-hole hat if needed.

= = = = =

Okay - now that those items are done with ... let's compare '17 to '20 shall we?

 

EQUIPMENT

 

Options - overall

The '17 had 602A SE Luxury Package, Park Assist, Adaptive Cruise Control w/stop & go; Driver Assist Pkg (lane keeping, BLIS, auto high beams, rain-sensing wipers, heated steering wheel)

 

The '20 is an SEL so all that stuff is standard equipment. Differences - '20 SEL does not have heated steering wheel (gonna miss that on cold mornings); '20 SEL does have Navigation ($798 option in '17 - I didin't get it then).

 

As noted for the '19 MY, the FFH now has a sharkfin antenna versus the stubby whip. Whee!

 

Price

The MSRP as comparing both window stickers puts the '20 at $1490 less than the '17. That could be due to no Park Assist, removal of hood insulator and perhaps other stuff. Both vehicles had a premium color at $395 (Ruby Red on '17, Rapid Red on '20).

 

Grille

On the '17 I had a black Sport grille installed instead of the 5-bar OEM unit. When I ordered the '20 my intention was to swap the grilles between the 2 cars so the '20 would have that neat black grille. PROBLEM Somewhere along the line and in the infinite wisdom of design engineering, the mounting tabs on the front faschias are different so ... no grille swap. Did I ever tell you ... I HATE THE 5-BAR GRILLE!! Oh well ... I shall search for other methodology that does not require painting (it chips too easily from stones, etc).

 

Paint/Interior

The '17 had Ruby Red and the '20 has Rapid Red. All I can say is that Ruby Red is like Rapid Red having some black added to darken it. Rapid Red is pretty nice.

 

INTERIOR

 

Console

On the '17 I had two latch releases. The left one allowed access to the deep holding area of the console by lifting the tray. The right one lifted only the console lid and exposed a shallow tray for pens, pencils, etc ... and a small well for change, an extra key or whatever. The '20 has no such thing ... back to one latch that exposes the entire console bin. <sigh> Not happy with this.

 

Sync and day/night

Sync now has the option of picking a background color for the screen from 4 choices. A very light blue to a medium green. Not bad at all.

 

Switching to night, the black background is gone. In my selection of a blue, the night screen background was a dark blue. I am assuming the other color choices will produce a dark version of whatever you pick. But that black screen is gone.

 

Sirius

Not sure if this is Sirius or Sync, but the Sirius screen pure sux. Where station presets for the band had the station logo on it, now all you have is damned small SiriusXM on them. <== yup that's about the size. The station display is a window at top center ... does not allow for full display of song tittle info at all - especially for tunes I KNOW properly displayed on the '17.

 

Sync Home

Home screen used to be left half as Audio information (or Audio off message), the upper right was the compass and lower right was any linked bluetooth phone. Now Audio is where the compass was and a small Nav screen is in the left half.

 

Okay ... I've about exhausted what I can immediately report. There are other things like gas/electric running and some noted cluster screen changes. But I want to go thru all of those before I add more here. Any added stuff I find will be an additional post in this thread.

Edited September 20, 2019 by Cobra348

[Cobra348]

A few more things ...

 

Pedestrian buzzer (aka Quiet Motor Warning)
You know how they're getting quiet-car alarms for pedestrians? FFH for '20 has it. When running but not in Park, the car emits a low-pitched buzz ... like a small swarm of bees. Discussed on page 50 of the OM.

BLIS change
In the '17 the blind spot warning was a yellow dot in the top outside corner of the mirror on either side. Now its the 2-vehicle and bolts. This can be toggled off via left-screen settings.

Buttons on visor
There is a small section of the drivers visor with 3 buttons in it. This is the Homelink Universal garage door opener setup. I never had this before, so it's something new. <shrug<Owners Manual has details beginning on page 135.

 

More to come ... I'm playing around a bit.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Cobra348

[Cobra348]

Todays report ... and I think it'll be the last one unless I find something really whacky or different. Thanks for reading all this stuff!

 

Compct spare mounting

If you purchased compact spare parts as noted here or via a salvage yard, you need to know this section. The inverted U bracket that the box assembly locates on is larger than the '17 (and perhaps other years). So, if you've installed a compact spare and get a '20, plan on perhaps enlarging the hole in the box assembly about 1/8" all around. You'll need a hot knife or grinding wheel due to the hardness of the plastic part. Depending on how much time you want to spend, a serrated blade will also work but will most likely be slow going.

 

EDIT IN: Also there's a screw that will interfere. See my "If I remove this ..." thread.

Defrost controls
Now this I like. On the '17 - in the Winter - if I wanted some cabin heat (versus the seat), I had to turn on the front defroster (upper left button the CC group). No other choice. Now, the button has a picture of a person with small arrows pointing at them or to their feet ... so.when you hit the control button the center stack puts up an overlay with touch buttons for defrost, heat thru the vents and footwell heat. One or more of these may be chosen and then close the window. The settings stay set - even when the car is shut off.

Gas/EV modes
Without the SOC I'm going more by butt dyno on this one. With the '17 I felt the management of these was below the standard I knew from the '15 I had had. I can't easily tell, but it appears that EV is used more now that in similar instances for the '17.

Hood insulator clips

Looking at these closely, you will need to pinch the head together and possibly use the screwdriver to get it started out in order to grab it. Installation of the insulator on the '20 took 15 minutes. The tabs do not go all the way into the slots but about 1/2 way ... so don't force it.

 

Again, I thank you for reading. I hope some of this was helpful if you're thinking of a '20 or have just gotten one. G'day!

Edited September 26, 2019 by Cobra348

[Cobra348]

Yes!! More! :love_shower:

 

Easy In/Out

When on, the driver seat will go back to allow more leg room getting in and out. On the '17 I still had some issues with the distance and it was unchangeable. On the '20, the distance is much longer AND the seat will go to the lowest height as well. Entering car is like falling into the seat now. I like it a lot better.

[Waldo]

Glad you're enjoying the new car, but I'm puzzled by your comment on the 2017 climate. You should have been able to hit the climate button on the touchscreen to get the same menu, then you can choose anywhere you want for the hot air to go.

 

So now that you've driven with and without the hood insulator, tell us what the differences are!

[Cobra348]

Without insulator, it's a touch noisier in the cabin. I think it's noise coming thru engine bay that is not trapped by the insulation. Noticeable when in electric mode.

 

CC - '17 had no provision in the touchscreen for vent heat or footwell. I looked ... and used wheel and seat heat a LOT because of it.

 

More changes

 

Oil Life Remaining

On the '17, in the left screen under Information there was a display of the remaining oil life. I think the sub-heading was Vehicle. Oil Life was the first item in a list of items. On the '20 this same screen has 3 entries and Oil Life Remaining is not one of them. That means tracking your mileage or waiting until the idiot light comes on. I would typically book my oil change at 3% remaing (300 miles on 10K interval) which gave me almost perfect timing. <sigh> Minor and certainly not as important to me as SOC display.

 

Hybrid Tagging

On the '17 there were 3 "Hybrid" tags with the hybrid symbol ... trunk and both front doors. The door tags are gone and the trunk tag is about the same size as the SEL lettering is. It was more "in your face" before. Minor item.

 

======

Am getting the tower brace and hood struts installed this afternoon. Also will see about getting the compact spare box assembly reamed out so it will fit over the locator tab. Then I'll get the tire in there later today.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Cobra348

[Cobra348]

Strut tower brace and hood struts are installed. Box assembly for the spare is reamed out and fits well. However, see "If I remove this..." thread for a problem I got when putting the spare in. <mutters about Ford engineering>

[Waldo]

 

CC - '17 had no provision in the touchscreen for vent heat or footwell. I looked ... and used wheel and seat heat a LOT because of it.

 

 

That doesn't sound right at all. It should have looked like this:

[Cobra348]

Waldo - Frankly I don't recall seeing those settings and I was in there a lot in Winter as the steering wheel heat switch was upper-left corner. Mebbe I missed it.

 

Navigation

First time Nav owner so I went out about 13 miles from home and figured I'd see how it worked. First - and IMO most important - is any voice guidance is drowned out by the audio that ma be playing. Sitting still, and radio at 7 Nav was hardly audible. There are no settings to increase the Nav voice or (importantly) override the audio to give direction. Even though I knew where I should go, I wanted to see how this worked. Without the audio, I was glancing at the screen WAY too much for comfort.

 

RESULT: This is a function I will not use because in seriously strange areas I would like SOME guidance without possibly having an accident. Checking the screen/map is a distraction.

 

Gas Mileage

As noted earlier, butt dyno was telling me gas vs electric handling was pretty good. Car display reads 45.3 as of now and much of the gains from 44.6 to now were at 45 MPH or more. Lots better than the '17 at those speeds. Maybe due to newness, but I don't think so.

 

SOC Compensation

I use the Empower screen in the left-hand display. By watching the electric drive bar and the outline around it, I can gauge some state of SOC as the bar closes down. It's the best I can do ATM. Would still rather have the display, tho.

 

Tire Pressure

The door sticker on the '17 said 35 psi (regardless of what others say), but the '20 upped it to 36. Now in all fairness I do overinflate the tires to 40 cold ... not some other higher number. PSI might be due to a slight change in tire sizes between '17 and now.

 

Gas Grade

The OM does say 87 octane can be used with the usual "better performance may be gotten by using premium". BUT it also states E15 or E85 gas - unlike the prior E10/E85 advisory.

 

ADDED: Front end scrape

My drive has a slope leading to the street and every so often I would scrape the front if the angle wasn't "just so". Duplicating that situation now does not cause the scraping. Either they added a small bit of height or angled the lower lip of the faschia upward some. But the scrape (for me) isn't there.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Cobra348

[Waldo]

 

Navigation

First time Nav owner so I went out about 13 miles from home and figured I'd see how it worked. First - and IMO most important - is any voice guidance is drowned out by the audio that ma be playing. Sitting still, and radio at 7 Nav was hardly audible. There are no settings to increase the Nav voice or (importantly) override the audio to give direction. Even though I knew where I should go, I wanted to see how this worked. Without the audio, I was glancing at the screen WAY too much for comfort.

 

RESULT: This is a function I will not use because in seriously strange areas I would like SOME guidance without possibly having an accident. Checking the screen/map is a distraction.

 

 

 

When the Nav voice is talking (even if you can't hear it), just turn up the volume knob. It will turn up the Nav voice.

[Waldo]

 

Tire Pressure

The door sticker on the '17 said 35 psi (regardless of what others say), but the '20 upped it to 36. Now in all fairness I do overinflate the tires to 40 cold ... not some other higher number. PSI might be due to a slight change in tire sizes between '17 and now.

 

 

There is no such thing as a "slight" change in tire size to an OEM. Any change in tire size is a REALLY BIG DEAL. So it's probably just a re-balancing of fuel economy parameters to maintain the window sticker number. The added pressure might have been needed to offset a weight increase (changes in the take-rates of some options), or maybe deletion of some other components.

[Cobra348]

 

When the Nav voice is talking (even if you can't hear it), just turn up the volume knob. It will turn up the Nav voice.

Yup. But I don't feel I should deafen myself to hear it. I run audio nearly 1/3 max as it is and to hear the voice I would need to run it around 1/2 or more. A simple audio override would be sufficient.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Cobra348

[Cobra348]

 

There is no such thing as a "slight" change in tire size to an OEM. Any change in tire size is a REALLY BIG DEAL. So it's probably just a re-balancing of fuel economy parameters to maintain the window sticker number. The added pressure might have been needed to offset a weight increase (changes in the take-rates of some options), or maybe deletion of some other components.

Slight change is one where the overall diameter is not impacted. Width and sidewall ratio are altered. While it MIGHT be tuning it is my opinion that for a last model year, a lot of changes (welcome and not so) have been made. This is very minor but interesting.

[Waldo]

Yup. But I don't feel I should deafen myself to hear it. I run audio nearly /13 max as it is and to hear the voice I would need to run it around 1/2 or more. A simple audio override would be sufficient.

 

I've never been in a Ford that didn't have an audio override for the Nav prompts. Strange.

[Cobra348]

 

I've never been in a Ford that didn't have an audio override for the Nav prompts. Strange.

Then I would ask "why not have it at least at audio level"? If I turn the audio off, Nav voice is fine but still must be turned up some, so I can only assume different audio channels or something. <shakes head> Won't use nav because I would rather be lost with my tunes than do without them. I'll use Google Earth or paper maps ahead of time if I must.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Cobra348

[Waldo]

Just drove a Ford with the latest Sync 3 yesterday and was using Google maps through Carplay. Even with Carplay, it still turned down the audio when it was giving voice guidance prompts.

[Cobra348]

Just drove a Ford with the latest Sync 3 yesterday and was using Google maps through Carplay. Even with Carplay, it still turned down the audio when it was giving voice guidance prompts.

I haven't used that but might try it for the audio. If it works, it'll be nav of choice.

 

More Findings

 

CD Player - there ain't one. All gone. Use bluetooth, the radio or MP3 for your enjoyment.

 

EV+ - all gone. As I recall it was a settings toggle, but that and the warning on the EV display are gone.

 

Sirius - I reported that the station buttons were a real small SiriusXM logo. Well, all of a sudden this morning, the buttons display the station logo as does the main audio part of the display. There was no update that I noticed, so I'm at a loss for what was going on.

[tbone]

I actually finally made an account to post in this thread about the '20 FFH - All the feature removals are very disappointing. One of my favorite things about the '15 is the gauge variety. Losing the battery gauge is a huge downgrade and I don't think I'd buy a hybrid that doesn't have one-it's so crucial to optimizing your driving. Then hearing that the 2020 Explorer Hybrid basically has no hybrid information available at all?

[Cobra348]

I actually finally made an account to post in this thread about the '20 FFH - All the feature removals are very disappointing. One of my favorite things about the '15 is the gauge variety. Losing the battery gauge is a huge downgrade and I don't think I'd buy a hybrid that doesn't have one-it's so crucial to optimizing your driving. Then hearing that the 2020 Explorer Hybrid basically has no hybrid information available at all?

Oh, I let my salesman have it this past Friday. Not only the SOC display missing but the change to the console (now I'll lose stuff!!), loss of the CD player as a media type ... and more (hood insulator, Nav audio, etc). Here's what I found out on the CD ...

 

All Ford models lost the CD player for 2020. BUT his big irritant? Ford Escape ($36K and above) doesn't have the dual-zone climate control any more! They've been reset to a single control for everything. Other things I've picked up on ...

 

Perimeter Warning

On the '17, as I pulled into a parking spot, if I got a bit close to a neighboring car, I'd get a tone and a picture on the stack screen showing the danger zone. Not any more! Only front and rear warning alerts. Everything else is gone.

 

Gas Mileage

Although I just turned 1000 miles today, I tracked the 2 tanks of gas I've put in so far. Average MPG is 42.26 for 981.6 miles (I filled at 1130 Eastern today then drove 85 miles). The '17 at about the same mileage was 41, so at least MPG seems to be on par. I don't hypermile and in fact drive it like I stole it sometimes. <shrug> All MPG is based on gas receipts.

 

Nav Audio

I played around with all the left-screen settings, center stack settings and anything else I could think of - to find any Nav audio setting that would help hear the damn thing if I have the radio going. Nothing ... so if you use ANY kind of audio (MP3, radio, bluetooth) and Nav, the Nav audio is not easily heard. Turning off the audio unit allows Nav to be heard decently. Soooo, if you want Nav, you cannot have tunes, NPR or whatever. Useless POS as far as I'm concerned.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Cobra348

[Waldo]

Oh, I let my salesman have it this past Friday. Not only the SOC display missing but the change to the console (now I'll lose stuff!!), loss of the CD player as a media type ... and more (hood insulator, Nav audio, etc). Here's what I found out on the CD ...

 

All Ford models lost the CD player for 2020. BUT his big irritant? Ford Explorer ($36K and above) doesn't have the dual-zone climate control any more! They've been reset to a single control for everything. Other things I've picked up on ...

 

 

This is why you can't believe anything you hear at a dealership. Dual-zone climate is standard on the new Explorer, all the way down to the base level. He probably saw that the option was no longer there and just assumed it meant single.

[Cobra348]

 

This is why you can't believe anything you hear at a dealership. Dual-zone climate is standard on the new Explorer, all the way down to the base level. He probably saw that the option was no longer there and just assumed it meant single.

To me, dual zone is where driver and front passenger have the ability to use separate controls for their respective areas. In normal (non-dual) mode, driver controls both. The Escape does not have this. It is one control - much like the early Fiestas had. You set it and that is the total cabin atmosphere setting.

[Waldo]

To me, dual zone is where driver and front passenger have the ability to use separate controls for their respective areas. In normal (non-dual) mode, driver controls both. The Escape does not have this. It is one control - much like the early Fiestas had. You set it and that is the total cabin atmosphere setting.

 

I thought we were talking about the Explorer. The 2020 Escape has dual zone included on the Titanium package ($33,000), the 2019 included it in the SE.

Edited October 7, 2019 by Waldo

[Cobra348]

 

I thought we were talking about the Explorer. The 2020 Escape has dual zone included on the Titanium package ($33,000), the 2019 included it in the SE.

My bad ... I wrote Explorer but meant Escape. But what you're saying is that one needs to purchase top trim line to get what (to my mind) should be a standard item - decent climate control. More bafflement from Ford, Jeez.

 

** corrected incorrect post as well

[Waldo]

My bad ... I wrote Explorer but meant Escape. But what you're saying is that one needs to purchase top trim line to get what (to my mind) should be a standard item - decent climate control. More bafflement from Ford, Jeez.

 

** corrected incorrect post as well

 

Not sure why you think the standard automatic system isn't decent? It's exactly the same thing, just without the separate temp setting for the passenger side. Both of my cars have dual systems and in the 5 years we've had them, we haven't used it once.

 

Ford is just being smart and not charging people for what they don't want or use. They are trying to move the Escape "down" to catch the people who were buying Focuses and lower spec Fusions. Remember when dual zone climate systems were only found on high end luxury cars? That was like what, 7 years ago? Now people are upset because it's not on a $27,000 Escape?

[Cobra348]

Oh, the dual-zone stuff is actually really nice. My issue is why remove it from all but the most expensive trimline? That's sort of self-limiting on selling points of the model. Also, one control to establish comfort level of the entire cabin ... like passengers may want things a little different doesn't count? Makes no real sense to me.

 

Aaaannndddd ... on another note:

 

Intelligent Access ... isn't: Typically IA has ribbed door handles all around and you can open any of them with the fob on your person. Not so for the back doors of the '20. You must unlock via the fob or open one of the front doors via IA. I had not noticed - until today - that the back doors have no ribbing. <sigh> Ford dumbs down another good idea.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Cobra348