Disappointed with SYNC

[JFreakza7]

I love what the system can do (when it works) but how many of you feel that Ford Motor Company and Microsoft misrepresented this product? When I purchased my 2009 Ford Fusion I paid an additional $1500 for a package that included SYNC. With advertisements of "leading technology" and "customization and upgradability" I had no reservations about the investment. But with few phones truly being supported or being fully compatible and with the introduction of smartphones I don't understand why Ford has left those of us that were the first buyers of SYNC in the dust. There has only been one upgrade since I purchased the car and that was Vehicle Health and 911 assist but what about updates to customize SYNC? Ford has not provided anything and looking at the forums with Ford and Google searches it seems that Ford is moving ahead with Applink and MyTouch which will work with Smartphones and their apps, but we are left with nothing. It isn’t like we were only buying a car. We have a "system" that should be expected to be able to keep up with technology over the life of the car or at least 4 or 5 years. You wouldn't go buy a computer and expect it to be obsolete in a year but this is what is happening to those of us that have the original SYNC product. Computers may have hardware that is slower or out of date in a few years (sometimes months) but for the most part it is rare that it won't run software or additional hardware and if it doesn't the company provides a fix or patch. I have owned Fords since 1992 when I bought my first Ford Escort. But if the only way to customize my SYNC is to buy a new car I will definitely reconsider when I purchase my next car. What are your thoughts?

 

2009 Fusion SE Tuxedo Black with SYNC

[xmech2k]

I haven't thought of other things for Sync to do. What kind of customizations and additions were you thinking of? The only thing that comes to mind now, would be having it work with my Garmin GPS. I guess for stuff like that, not only Ford, but all the other electronics mfgr's would have to agree on a common communications software.

[Oldguy16]

I kinda agree with Freakza, I mean sync is nice and all, but I feel it has so much more potential that Ford hasn't tapped into yet, maybe because of costs, competition etc. But I just got a new phone, Droid 2 Global, by Motorola, and with this phone it does a few new things that my old phone didn't. For instance SYNC will now read my text messages aloud, which it didn't do with my env touch. BUT here's what I wish it did. All Droids, have a gps app, even from the factory, I wish the phone could output that sound via bluetooth and use it with sync, it's a simple thing but it seems Ford didn't want to do that. I haven't fully used Bluetooth media stream, but the time I tried it, it seemed to work fine, I usually like to use USB. I say, give SYNC a few years and then it will be something worth paying for.

[Grey]

Over 70% of new Ford products come with SYNC or MyTouch - so somebody is buying it. Gets better every year and I suspect it sells a lot of vehicles for Ford.

[akirby]

Let me point out something that you guys don't seem to understand. Ford Sync and MyTouch support industry standard bluetooth profiles that support things like reading text messages and displaying contact photos, streaming audio, etc.

 

The reason these new smartphones don't work with sync on these features is because the CELL PHONE MFR chose not to support the industry standard bluetooth profiles. There is nothing Ford can do about it other than urge the cell phone mfrs to support it. Ford can only offer the feature - it's up to the cell phone to use it or not.

 

911 assist and several other features were just recently added to Sync so it's not like they haven't provided any updates. I think your expectations of new features and new releases are a little too high.

 

I'm sure the new applink feature will provide a lot more functionality.

[JFreakza7]

You are right. People are buying the product but what happens when it isnt compatible or doesnt work. Those with MyTouch probably will not have as much of a problem since Ford is in the process of opening a developer website for that product. I would love for my Garmin to give Navigation via bluetooth as stated by Oldguy16 but it doesn't and there is no customization on the SYNC website for that. Or how about a more pleasant voice? I would love to be able to customize that but I can't. How about the car telling me that based on my driving habits and travel for the next day I should fill up before I go home instead of wait until tomorrow? (ridiculous, maybe.) Oh, that would require an upgrade and I can't do that either.

 

Here is my particular issue and it is simple but adds to my fustration of what I paid for vs. what I got. I had an old LG Rumor 2 cell phone. Worked great with the car. It told me who was calling, notified me of text messages, autodownloaded the phonebook etc. Well, that phone broke and since I was paying for a data plan that I was not really using I decided to buy a Smartphone with Android so I could take full advantage of my plan. Well now I can make and receive calls but that is it. Even though I installed apps on my phone that will do what the car won't do, SYNC doesn't allow the apps on the phone to work when its connected. So now I have a $1500 bluetooth car speaker phone and media player. USELESS!! Now I can point my finger at the phone manufacturer or the car manufacturer and keep going back and forth.

 

Here is my thought. If you are going to sell an item as upgradeable and customized via a website and you scroll through the menu in the car and see the words Install APP you would have no reason to think the system would be obsolete so soon. You would think that the manufacturers would work together to make their products work. Microsoft provides developers information to companies that make our software and hardware work. Why isn't Ford doing that for those of us that DO NOT have MyTouch?

[JFreakza7]

Let me point out something that you guys don't seem to understand. Ford Sync and MyTouch support industry standard bluetooth profiles that support things like reading text messages and displaying contact photos, streaming audio, etc.

 

The reason these new smartphones don't work with sync on these features is because the CELL PHONE MFR chose not to support the industry standard bluetooth profiles. There is nothing Ford can do about it other than urge the cell phone mfrs to support it. Ford can only offer the feature - it's up to the cell phone to use it or not.

 

911 assist and several other features were just recently added to Sync so it's not like they haven't provided any updates. I think your expectations of new features and new releases are a little too high.

 

I'm sure the new applink feature will provide a lot more functionality.

 

$1500 package? Yes, my expectations are high. Thats more than I paid for my home computer last year.

[Oldguy16]

You are right. People are buying the product but what happens when it isnt compatible or doesnt work. Those with MyTouch probably will not have as much of a problem since Ford is in the process of opening a developer website for that product. I would love for my Garmin to give Navigation via bluetooth as stated by Oldguy16 but it doesn't and there is no customization on the SYNC website for that. Or how about a more pleasant voice? I would love to be able to customize that but I can't. How about the car telling me that based on my driving habits and travel for the next day I should fill up before I go home instead of wait until tomorrow? (ridiculous, maybe.) Oh, that would require an upgrade and I can't do that either.

 

Here is my particular issue and it is simple but adds to my fustration of what I paid for vs. what I got. I had an old LG Rumor 2 cell phone. Worked great with the car. It told me who was calling, notified me of text messages, autodownloaded the phonebook etc. Well, that phone broke and since I was paying for a data plan that I was not really using I decided to buy a Smartphone with Android so I could take full advantage of my plan. Well now I can make and receive calls but that is it. Even though I installed apps on my phone that will do what the car won't do, SYNC doesn't allow the apps on the phone to work when its connected. So now I have a $1500 bluetooth car speaker phone and media player. USELESS!! Now I can point my finger at the phone manufacturer or the car manufacturer and keep going back and forth.

 

Here is my thought. If you are going to sell an item as upgradeable and customized via a website and you scroll through the menu in the car and see the words Install APP you would have no reason to think the system would be obsolete so soon. You would think that the manufacturers would work together to make their products work. Microsoft provides developers information to companies that make our software and hardware work. Why isn't Ford doing that for those of us that DO NOT have MyTouch?

I could not agree with you more. I'm talking more simple things, like outputting the gps sound through the car. But, It wasn't a must have option for me, it happened to come with the V6. I believe it is a $1500 feature though, like you said, seems a bit much, for something that has potential. I have a feeling there are many functions that sync can do, that aren't, for lack of a better term "unlocked". My touch is nice, used it at the dealer, but again, much more potential than it actually has. I think of it this way, imagine a rollercoaster at the top of a hill, full of potential energy, let the rollercoaster down the hill, turn that potential into kinetic, but keep the brakes applied so it goes down the hill at 5mph, restriction I guess is the term I'm looking for.

[Oldguy16]

$1500 package? Yes, my expectations are high. Thats more than I paid for my home computer last year.

Never thought of it this way, but you could build an insanely good computer for $1500, you think Ford could put a usable computer in the car for that much money? Maybe even a 60gb hd which would cost them a whole $10 per car to do.

[dabige]

Here is my particular issue and it is simple but adds to my fustration of what I paid for vs. what I got. I had an old LG Rumor 2 cell phone. Worked great with the car. It told me who was calling, notified me of text messages, autodownloaded the phonebook etc. Well, that phone broke and since I was paying for a data plan that I was not really using I decided to buy a Smartphone with Android so I could take full advantage of my plan. Well now I can make and receive calls but that is it. Even though I installed apps on my phone that will do what the car won't do, SYNC doesn't allow the apps on the phone to work when its connected. So now I have a $1500 bluetooth car speaker phone and media player. USELESS!! Now I can point my finger at the phone manufacturer or the car manufacturer and keep going back and forth.

I have a similar problem. I had an old Motorola V365 that had much more functionality with my SYNC than my current HTC Aria "smart"phone. The 5 year old "brick" could utilize SYNC to it's fullest extent...calls, read text messages, etc. Not so with the "smart"phone. Phone calls and contact/address book only. Turns out, it's because the Aria's Android OS can't handle text-to-speech conversion directly...you have to download an App for that until HTC/AT&T get their act together and upgrade the OS. Touch-tone calls are also out of the question.

Edited January 17, 2011 by dabige

[akirby]

I think you guys should immediately trade in your crappy Fusions with the horrible software and go get another vehicle that does exactly what you want. If it's so damn easy then it should be available from all the other manufacturers, right? Let us know how that works out for you.

Edited January 17, 2011 by akirby

[dabige]

I think you guys should immediately trade in your crappy Fusions with the horrible software and go get another vehicle that does exactly what you want. If it's so damn easy then it should be available from all the other manufacturers, right? Let us know how that works out for you.

I'm not sure if you're including my post in your comment, (and I apologize if I am misinterpreting you), but I am far from upset with Ford, Microsoft, or SYNC...my frustration is with the phone manufacturer. One would think that in five years there would be some advancement in phone technology, not the opposite. Aside from the aforementioned Android OS, I only have myself to blame---for not reading the phone ratings closer off of the SYNC website before I switched phones.

[con_fusion]

I spent some time going through the forums at syncmyride.com because of issues with my iPhone 3GS and 4 as well. There were a lot of iPhone users complaining about problems. The SYNC team kept telling folks to be patient and an update from SYNC 3.1 would be coming this past summer. That never materialized. I'm not sure what that status of that "update" is. So yes, there are a lot of SYNC owners who feel they haven't received the support they expected from Ford. Take a look at the forums on syncmyride.com and you'll see comments like that all over.

Edited January 18, 2011 by con_fusion

[akirby]

I'm not sure if you're including my post in your comment, (and I apologize if I am misinterpreting you), but I am far from upset with Ford, Microsoft, or SYNC...my frustration is with the phone manufacturer. One would think that in five years there would be some advancement in phone technology, not the opposite. Aside from the aforementioned Android OS, I only have myself to blame---for not reading the phone ratings closer off of the SYNC website before I switched phones.

 

No - it wasn't directed at you. You understand it's the phone, not sync. There are a few others who don't get that or just don't care.

[merchjo]

I kinda agree with Freakza, I mean sync is nice and all, but I feel it has so much more potential that Ford hasn't tapped into yet, maybe because of costs, competition etc. But I just got a new phone, Droid 2 Global, by Motorola, and with this phone it does a few new things that my old phone didn't. For instance SYNC will now read my text messages aloud, which it didn't do with my env touch. BUT here's what I wish it did. All Droids, have a gps app, even from the factory, I wish the phone could output that sound via bluetooth and use it with sync, it's a simple thing but it seems Ford didn't want to do that. I haven't fully used Bluetooth media stream, but the time I tried it, it seemed to work fine, I usually like to use USB. I say, give SYNC a few years and then it will be something worth paying for.

 

 

I have the droid x and while playing my music over bluetooth audio, the Google map will talk over the bluetooth as SYNC picks it as media. This also works while using the Pandora and XM apps. Try using your music over bluetooth instead of USB, both sound fine and the other features work well.

[Oldguy16]

I have the droid x and while playing my music over bluetooth audio, the Google map will talk over the bluetooth as SYNC picks it as media. This also works while using the Pandora and XM apps. Try using your music over bluetooth instead of USB, both sound fine and the other features work well.

You know I never thought about a media stream, I'm gonna try that. Thanks!

[chris00gt]

I also have an 09 SEL and SYNC works very well with my Iphone 4 and Ipod classic. I plug the Ipod in via the USB cable and I connect the Iphone to sync via Bluetooth. I can control the tracks with the stearing wheel via Bluetooth, and it's nice to listen to music and have my Tom Tom app working and giving directions through the cars speakers. The voice controls work pretty good, so I think I got my money's worth out of it.