Consumer Reports response on My Ford Touch

[vangonebuy]

At the NY Auto Show today.

Saw the booth for Consumer Reports.

Asked a few questions and was introduced to the Director of Auto Test.

Took the opportunity to ask a My Ford Touch question.

I questioned him, is it the screen interface or other troubles, they so bitterly dislike.

 

To me, Consumer Reports on the MFT system has always been vague. Stating only that they don't like it.

Never a fact of a bad part or a unresponsive button. Anything!?!

 

His face cringed and he told me that so many MFT interfaces have been replaced so far.

"It's the number one complaint, By far from all Ford owners to CR."

I explained that my unit has been reliable and while I would like a easier to use interface.

I consider it to be a very good package. Better than many others at the show.

He very briefly went on about some unreliability of unnamed parts and reboots.

But, basically just gave it a look of udder disgust. And no more answers.

 

Am I looking at a ticking time bomb in my dashboard......?

I haven't seen big complaints posted on this forum.

The few I read were fixed by Ford.

 

Does anyone on this forum have these MFT horror stories?

And, have they reported them to Consumer Reports?

[corncobs]

Sounds fishy!

I agree we should see and read a lot more horror stories on this forum ( and others) if it would be really as bad as CR makes it sound like.

[inco]

As with anything new, there is always a learning curve and maybe Ford was a little lax on understanding that. Or was it Microsoft? Probably a lot of both. The concept was good, the execution, not so much. It took a concerted effort to 'adjust' to this new world - er MFT.

 

Personally I like MFT - now that it is set up for my preferences and to be honest, I don't delve too much into it, liking what I need and leaving it alone. However having the old buttons for the radio and heating systems will always appeal to many folks - the KISS formula and I understand that, but I also like the uncluttered dash that MFT allows. Caught between two worlds, the old way isn't always the best way, however it was understood and easy to navigate. The new way requires learning and to some extent a distraction when trying to adjust anything while driving.

 

Software is our future. Perhaps it will make for a better world down the road. Maybe even the folks at CR will come to like it - and the Edsel is coming back too.

 

Happy Easter everyone - hopefully the bunny was with you! :)

[SteveB_TX]

Failure to provide specifics/facts throws suspicion on anything CR has to say about ANY product. I don't trust CR to butter my toast, let alone review a car!

[hermans]

^ ^ ^ +2

Edited April 20, 2014 by hermans

[acdii]

Show of hands, how many have had their MFT replaced?

 

BTW, if you look at CR, majority of their reports are outdated. If you look at appliances and tires they review, most are already end of sale. Since the last update of MFT the problems with it have been reduced greatly. The only bug that people have noticed is the ambient lighting changing colors. The reboots, black outs, and delays have all been greatly reduced, none of the 3 I have(had) have had any issues.

 

What shows here is that when pressed for answers, he clammed up, which to me means there is a direct bias against MFT because it is beyond their comprehension. If it takes a learning curve to figure something out, they deem it too complicated and therefore bash it. Same probably holds true for the Hybrids they test.

[James Sentman]

I did look through the CR car reports while deciding to buy a car, all of their problems seem to have been at least partially if not completely addressed by that last software update. They made no reference to the update and haven’t retested or looked at anything since the update as far as I could tell. I bought the car in spite of CR barely bothering to test it at all. Some of the best things I’ve ever owned are ones that CR didn’t even see fit to include in their test lists. They have very strange criteria for things sometimes.

[DeeCee]

CR seems to have a very sharp bias in favor of foreign made vehicles and a real negative bias towards Ford in particular.

[lolder]

JD Powers looks at problems per car. Most new cars are running 0.8 to 1.6 problems per car. Ford is 1.31. You can see if a large percentage of a model need a software update, it's a huge factor. CR may use similar sampling.

[Waldo]

The fact is MFT really was that bad. You know how they say "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". Well CR isn't the only one who saw the bad in MFT and isn't ready to give it another chance yet. There stance is legitimate, but outdated.

[acdii]

Definitely outdated, and they have not revisited it, which gives Ford a black mark even though the updated software has made MFT a much better system. I remember the MFT in the first Fusion, it was 3.5 something and it was horrible, I wanted to punch the screen several times it pissed me off so bad, but not once has the new version caused me grief. All it takes is a simple foot note stating Ford has an update that resolved a lot of the issues.

Edited April 21, 2014 by acdii

[LASooner]

My problem with MFT has always been that it's a less capable system that costs more money than the standard Sync system that has Applink. Before the update it rebooted on me 3 times, since the update it hasn't rebooted once. But I haven't felt pushed to replace it. As long as it works with whatever phone I have, it does what I need it to do.

 

That said, if anyone came out with a turnkey head unit with mirrorcast I might be enticed to change.

[hybridbear]

I agree that his response is very suspicious and shows the CR bias.

[vangonebuy]

Great Discussion..

I'm beginning to believe your on to something inherently wrong with Consumer Reports testing methods.

It's limited to their test vehicle. Period.

 

Since CR will base most of its results on a early MFT release. (Before software upgrade.)

They could be missing out on our experiences. Until the next full test.

 

I did some further searching online to other Lincoln MKZ or Fusion websites. Hybrid and non Hybrid.

Not one replacement of the MFT module reported.

Some reported software reboots. Most seem in earlier software versions.

 

My MFT unit, Rebooted once. In 13,000 miles. And one year of service.

Took about 1 minute to complete.

I am also a very long time Consumer Reports subscriber.......1978 to present.

Not looking to bash CR.. They have done some excellent work over the years.

 

I really want to focus on his statements.

 

How many MFT interfaces have been replaced so far?

How many have reported this replacement info or reboot info back to CR?

[Bryan Burch]

There is something to be said with having it work like it should, out of the box. Ford intercoursed the canine when they released MFT with all the crashing and bugs. Hell, even 3.6.2 has bugs--the clock is an hour off if you have it set by satellite (worked in previous version). How Ford can let something so simple go unnoticed is beyond me.

[Waldo]

The clock doesn't account for DST. If it worked in a previous version, then it was actually a big in the previous version because it's never automatically accounted for DST. It used to have a DST button, but all that did was manually offset the clock by an hour - you still had to go in and press the DST button every spring and fall. Most people were confused by this, thinking a DST button would automatically change for them in the spring and fall, so Ford just decided to delete the button and let people figure it out on their own. It's just as easy to hit the + button on the clock as it was to hit the DST button and less confusing.

[corncobs]

The clock doesn't account for DST. If it worked in a previous version, then it was actually a big in the previous version because it's never automatically accounted for DST. It used to have a DST button, but all that did was manually offset the clock by an hour - you still had to go in and press the DST button every spring and fall. Most people were confused by this, thinking a DST button would automatically change for them in the spring and fall, so Ford just decided to delete the button and let people figure it out on their own. It's just as easy to hit the + button on the clock as it was to hit the DST button and less confusing.

Agreed on the other hand how hard can it be to adjust the clock based on the cars location or from the linked cell phone?

[Waldo]

Agreed on the other hand how hard can it be to adjust the clock based on the cars location or from the linked cell phone?

 

A lot harder than you think. Not all locations observe DST, so the map database would have to have a parameter added for that. Also the date that the change happens can change (remember it did just a few years ago). What happens in 10 years when software updates are no longer supported and they change the date of DST again?

[Bryan Burch]

Aside from the 'set time from GPS satellite' bug, there is also the ambient lighting bug where the light will reset itself occasionally. And how about when you stream music through bluetooth--why does it not show the artist and title on the gauge cluster? Why doesn't the album art database look at the bluetooth stream and display? Where's my applink? SDK for developers?

[acdii]

What is interesting is that the clock changes with the time zones as you cross them.

[corncobs]

What is interesting is that the clock changes with the time zones as you cross them.

Are you sure? If yes then there must be a setting because mine didn't change to and from FL.

[SteveB_TX]

Are you sure? If yes then there must be a setting because mine didn't change to and from FL.

 

Yup. Page 2 of Clock Settings - Auto Time Zone Update on/off :)

[corncobs]

Well it looks like we have another case of crazy Ford logic or I'm blind. If you have it on your MKZ and acdii on his HyTi.

I for sure don't see a button or a page 2 on my MFT?

 

[Texasota]

There seems to be a lot of agreement here that, in general, CR is biased against Ford. It was only 2+ years ago that CR raved about Ford reliability as being world class and they raved about the 2010-1012 FFHs. So what happened in the last couple of years that has caused CR to now be so biased and untrustworthy in their testing?

[GrySql]

Yes, my MFT has the Auto Time Update on page 2, it changes the clock automatically as we cross Time Zones.