2014 FFH Notes vs 2013 FFH and 2013 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid

[williape1]

So after waiting for month my 2014 Fusion Hybrid SE finally arrived. It's Sterling Grey with 502a (Luxury), Technology with MFT, 18in Luxury Wheels, Reverse Sensing System, and Sunroof. I messed up a bit when ordering this car by underestimating the price. I should have ordered a Titanium, it would have been within a few hundred dollars according to my fleet manager. Oh well. . .

 

I was in a 2013 FFH rental for three months while I waited for my car to arrive. The rental was similarly equipped and I picked it up with only 2k miles on it. When I returned it, I'd driven it over 10,000 miles. So far I've noticed a lot of differences between the two cars and model years, some good and some bad. I'll list the differences below.

 

-One item that really annoys me that's different is the turn signal stalk. The stalk in the 2013 was similar to the one in my BMW that's fully electronic. When you press it, it has an indent to let you know that it's engaged but it returns back to the normal position. The signal then electronically tracks the angle of the steering wheel to determine when to disengage. My 2014 has a traditional stalk that clicks into place when pushed down and then is mechanically released when the wheel turns past a certain point. As trivial as this seems it really makes a big difference both in feel and practicality. The electronic version almost always disengages at the perfect point, the mechanical one often turns off too soon or not at all. The electronic version also feels thoroughly modern and upscale.

 

-Touch sensitive light controls. I know that this is discussed on this board some but I really hate that they did away with the touch sensitive controls. I think I hate it more that they replaced them with such ugly buttons. They could have at least done a better job with the design of the new buttons.

 

-Sound system. I don't know if this is because the 2014 has MFT and the 2013 didn't but the sound is noticeably better. It's still not great but at least it's bearable. The 2013 was absolutely atrocious, it sounded really cheap and hollow. The bluetooth microphone also seems to be much better. The 2013 had so much road noise that I couldn't use the handsfree system at all, in the 2014 it's still noticeable but at least usable.

 

-The tires on the 18in luxury wheels are much better than the Michelins on the 17in wheels in my opinion. Not only are the tires much quitter, they also ride better. The ride has a much more refined and slightly softer (not really the right word, perhaps smooth?) feel.

 

-Fuel economy in the 2014 hasn't been great but I've only had it for four days and driven it for 800 miles. I'm getting about 36mpg now, I was getting about 46mpg in the 2013. I expect a slight dip because of the wheels but I'm hoping that this gets better.

 

-The dash in the 2014 is slightly different. On the 2013 there was a line of foam at the base of the windshield, unfortunately once you saw it, you couldn't stop seeing it. This is fixed in the 2014 as the dash hides the foam.

 

-MFT- MFT is absolutely the worst consumer electronics product that I've ever used. I read many of the complaints online but assumed that people just weren't tech savvy. I really liked a lot of what MFT had to offer so I made sure to order it. While I still prefer it to the base head unit, primarily just because of the way it looks, it's absolutely awful. With 2 miles on the odometer MFT began crashing every 5 minutes, without warning it would just reboot. It continued to do this until I pulled over and did a master reset, that dropped the crashes back to every 20 minutes. I found that unplugging my iPhone from the USB cable would allow it to go even longer between crashes, hours even. The odd thing is that I use the same phone and cable in many rental cars with MFT and MLT, I've never had an issue. MFT crashes when giving directions, when connecting to Sync services. Finally I pulled the fuses and did a master reset. This seems to have stabilized it for now although it does still occasionally reset when using bluetooth or Sync Services. Even when it's working the design is awful, small buttons on a touch screen in a car?!?! It's also quite slow. Chrysler has a really great infotainment system with Uconnect, it's blazing fast, the buttons are big, and it's stable as hell. Ford should have cut their losses with MSFT and abandoned MFT.

 

Comparison to the Lincoln

 

I actually had the fortune of renting a MKZ Hybrid in California recently for a week. I was really excited about it as I really wanted to see the "luxury" version of the Fusion. I was quite disappointed. The main gripe that I have is that despite being a brand new car with only 300 miles on the odometer when I picked it up, the car felt old and cheap. It's odd. I think the FFH is one of the most modern and well built sedans in its class. It has a very European feel to it, the Lincoln felt like an American car from the 90s in some places. The Lincoln had some nice features, primarily the headlights, dash design, and rear end but the finish was below that of the Ford in many places. For example, the steering wheel. I think the Lincoln version is hideous compared to the Ford's but to each his own. However, the steering wheel controls on the lincoln were tiny and cheap feeling. I think it's just a product of making the buttons smaller but it still made a huge impact. The car also had a lot more wind noise than the FFH. Not sure if the CD isn't as low on the Lincoln as on the FFH but it was very disappointing. The only thing I loved on the Lincoln was the sound system. It was much better than the base Ford system (obviously) and even comparable to a much more expensive system in my other car. That being said I would never ever buy the Lincoln over the Ford.

[corncobs]

What a write up! Nice summary.

 

The only thing that I will never get are the griefs with MFT. It sounds awefully annoying that the unit is rebooting constantly.

Knock on wood mine as never done that.

[trvlrschick]

Funny, the electronic turn signal was one thing I HATED in the 2013, and I love that they brought the mechnical back in the 2014. To each his own. If your MFT is truly crashing every 20 minutes, you should take it back to the dealership and see if they can do something, because that's not normal, sounds like a bad software install.

[hermans]

Wind noise? My FFH is very quite, but my MKZh is even quieter.

[williape1]

Yea, I haven't taken it back to the dealer yet as I'm certain that they're going to chalk it up to an incompatibility with my phone/music. As any IT guy will tell you, this thing is absolutely designed terribly if a malformed file name can cause the entire system to crash. It should be able to ignore the issue or at least isolate the device. I have an appointment anyways to see what they say, I'm just not very hopeful.

[B25Nut]

After 13 months of ownership, I have never had MFT crash. I know it's not near perfect, but since it is so much better in controlling the functions of the car than any other vehicle I have owned, I find it hard to criticize MTF.

Like Trvirschick, my primary complaint during my first month of ownership was the turn signal. I've never had my turn signal on more without me knowing it than during my first two months. I have gotten used to it, but I still occasionally think I'm turning it off but end up getting it to flash in the other direction. I'm very glad to hear the 2014 has gone back to a mechanical system; however, I know one day the electronic stalk will have it's quirks fixed and be the superior method for turn signals.

Thanks for the great report Willi. I also really like the touch sensitive light controls. It will probably be a while before your 2014 catches up on the MPG since your experience with the 2013 was during warmer months.

Edited December 8, 2013 by B25Nut

[djminfll]

I have never had a crash on MFT either.

The only thing I've ever experienced is occasionally some of the music files will have a prompt on the screen that the file cannot be identified, but the song still plays, and the prompt goes away pretty quickly.

And occasionally, if I press the MFT button on the steering wheel, nothing happens. I end up having to go to the Services Screen to access MFT.

[hybridbear]

-One item that really annoys me that's different is the turn signal stalk. The stalk in the 2013 was similar to the one in my BMW that's fully electronic. When you press it, it has an indent to let you know that it's engaged but it returns back to the normal position. The signal then electronically tracks the angle of the steering wheel to determine when to disengage. My 2014 has a traditional stalk that clicks into place when pushed down and then is mechanically released when the wheel turns past a certain point. As trivial as this seems it really makes a big difference both in feel and practicality. The electronic version almost always disengages at the perfect point, the mechanical one often turns off too soon or not at all. The electronic version also feels thoroughly modern and upscale.

 

-Touch sensitive light controls. I know that this is discussed on this board some but I really hate that they did away with the touch sensitive controls. I think I hate it more that they replaced them with such ugly buttons. They could have at least done a better job with the design of the new buttons.

Glad you got your car!

 

I love the electronic turn signal stalk. When I drive our Prius with its manual stalk it is really annoying. When I've driven other Fords while our car was in the shop it was really annoying to have the manual stalk. I've gotten used to always pushing up to turn it off when needed and then end up trying to do this with manual stalks too. For me it's easiest to always push the stalk up because of the position of my left hand on the steering wheel. It's nice that I can be signalling right and push the stalk up (right) and have that turn off the turn signal.

 

I agree about the buttons. Our Job1 2013 had the touch-sensitive buttons which we loved. Our current Job2 2013 has the buttons. I keep touching the light to try to turn it on but that doesn't work!! I imagine that with time I'll get used to the buttons, but the touch system sure was nice!

[aaronj1159]

I've had some issues with my electronic turn signal stalk here and there, maybe that's why they reverted back? It's nothing major, but sometimes I'll turn on my signal (let's say I'm waiting at a light right now)... even without moving or turning the steering wheel, the signal just randomly shuts off sometimes. I've sat there and turned the signal on 3 times only for it to go off on it's own (and I know I'm not just activating the lane change feature, I'm pushing up/down all the way for sure). Until it just decides to leave it on. Again this isn't a constant issue, just a random thing.

 

Like a lot of people I haven't ever had a MFT crash. I can't speak for the navigation features but everything else has worked to my satisfaction. I've never had an infotainment system in a car before MFT though so I can't compare it to anything.