Kelleytoons

This is the one I bought (more pricey than I remember, though). http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KIXSXWQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 While it's kept its charge (at least according to the readout) fantastic (about one bar down from five over the last six months) and while it's only supposed to need two bars to start ANY car (and ours should be even less) I really can't tell you how it works since I've never had to use it (that's kind of the thing when it comes to insurance -- if you're lucky, you never need it). Gets good reviews, though.

Actually, the only sure thing is that future forecasters are ALWAYS wrong. Always. Look it up. What happens is that out of the blue things change in ways NO ONE could ever have predicted (which is why movies that take place "in the future" are always so funny watching them even 7 or 8 years later -- and movies 10 or 15 years ago showing "the future" are just plain silly). There's even some kind of term or phenomena about this, but this old man can't recall what it is. So, yes, ICE may or may not still be around when I'm not (not too long from now) but whatever has replaced it won't be ANYTHING you can have foreseen coming. Trust me. (Heck, it may even be horses. Seriously).

The battery problem can definitely be a concern and there is no one here who can give you an assurance you won't get stranded. And there is no one at Ford who could do it either. There are some things you can do to help the situation. First and foremost, get a battery jumper, the kind that are powered by a li-ion battery and give you a status of the charge. These things don't cost a lot (I got ours for around $50) and can hold a charge a long time (I bought ours six months ago and it still has 4 out of 5 bars of charge left -- two will jump start nearly any car). Having that and cables in your car will reduce your odds of getting totally stranded to less than 1% (there are still times you may not even be able to jump start the car, or any car for that matter). Next read the threads here about all the TSBs and fixes that need to be considered. They are many, and some of them aren't obvious even to the most competent of dealerships. You want to be armed with as much information to give them as possible for the next time it happens (if it never happens again the effort isn't wasted -- think of it as insurance). I understand how you feel about needing reliable transportation (at my wife and my age it's even more important than your dog :>) but with those two things above taken care of in advance I would think you could rest assured you will be able to handle it. It may require a few more trips back to the dealership to work through those issues, but as long as you remain calm and know that you can always get your car going yourself if worse comes to worst you should be all right.

Yup, as he said. But I will post one contrary opinion -- while I don't impede traffic, I also don't go as fast as some. For me it's not only MY TIME that's more valuable than money, it's MY LIFE. Folks often drive at unsafe speeds and "going with the flow" isn't any safer just because the flow is insane (just make sure you stay to the right and let the idiots pass you).

Yeah, and all seriousness aside, drought is not going to be a factor for folks living in California unless their industry revolves around the use of water. If anything, it will make real estate more desirable, since they won't have to fork over the money to maintain expensive lawns and other greenery. Now, if you are looking to buy farmland then you might have a good chance of getting something cheaper (although right now the drought isn't affecting farmers, as the idiot governor there is holding them outside of the rationing, despite them being the entire issue).

But what would you drink then? (Sorry, couldn't help. My daughter lives in the Bay Area and has not noticed any lowering of prices -- just the opposite).

The problem is the "battery" on our cars doesn't do nearly as much as batteries on ordinary cars. It really just gives enough juice to turn the electronics on, so it could indeed still be dead or dying and a jump start is nothing more than a trickle just to get things going (on a conventional car a weak battery, even jump started, won't be enough to keep the car running -- once ours get going everything is powered from our HV battery and you might even be able to disconnect the 12v -- folks here would know for sure). I guess what I'm saying is you may well still have a battery that needs replacement -- repeated starts will indicate that. If you need more than another one if it were me I'd insist the dealership replace yours at the very least (at the most, with a replacement, you will need then to start tracking down the very basic issues delineated here in many, many threads).

Hopefully that "distress" passed and had a good resolution (I always cringe when I read something like that -- at my age the kind of thing that would cause me such an emergency trip would involve health of someone near and dear to me).

I think somewhere in this lengthy thread someone mentioned you don't need to use BBB in the lemon law process, but even if so it's good you have another example to prove the point. And good for you for getting satisfaction.

The update on MFT was something you needed to initiate (and, yes, it would be loaded from a call through your phone). Mine updated and didn't affect much other than my background wallpaper is gone. Climate control auto mode, AFAIK, will be affected by how you set it up and then turn it off, so if you've changed the venting to come out from the floor and then turned it off the next time it comes on auto it will be that way. Mine did this as well until I changed it back to come out from the dash. It's possible that when you did the MFT update it went back to the defaults. None of that should have affected your battery, though (again, AFAIK).

Yes, my experience echos this, albeit only nine months instead of ten (and I'm in Florida as well).

All seriousness aside, it does depend on how hot it is outside (forget the cold -- never gets really cold enough here to bother either using the heat or using it much that affects mileage). Yesterday I drove round trip about 44 miles and averaged 55mpg with the outside temps in the low 80's and the A/C at 73 degrees auto. While that did surprise me (I was averaging around 45mph as there are equal stretches of 55 and 35) as a rule I would have expected to come in at around 52 or so. But... when the outside temps get into the 90s that will drop, as the A/C will work harder. I can still get close to 50 then but it's not easy. I assume you already know about keeping the recycle on (don't have outside air coming in) and lowering the fan as much as possible (I rarely run it more than two bars after the initial cool down).

It's in the little compartment between seats, right where you put your USB media in (you can actually use the SD slot for media but, of course, the NAV system won't work then).

Yeah, I picked up A5 for around $30 or so about three months after it was out. I suspect the same will be true for A6 (I'm not in any hurry for it, though, as A5 works fine for me).

Yeah, I normally never do that, but a friend sent me one I fell for and I thought... well, we're all friends here.

That's it -- I'm through! I HATE this car! I've about had it up to here and am deciding to trade it in and get a Prius (although the trade-in value is so low I might as well junk it). My list of complaints are way too long to list all here, but here's just a few: it has such a terrible turn radius I have to back up and redo it just to make any sort of left turn at all, it won't get much over 50mpg when I run the A/C and/or heat, it doesn't have the cargo space my Durango had, and even though I don't intend to sell it I couldn't even come close to getting what I paid for it. I also hate that the MFT system doesn't know what I mean when I think of my favorite song but can't remember the name. Oh, and yes, I now remember what day this is... Sorry, nevermind.

They only operate when the car is put in reverse, just like a backup camera. They work fine at sensing anything behind me even including high curbs but I haven't tried them with kids toys (depends on how big the toy is, I suppose). I suspect you'll find they work fine for what you need them for. I doubt whether they could possibly make a radar sensor go off, although it's been years since I've had one (or needed one -- if you are as old as it seems I don't think you need one either, as you should have a lot more sense than to drive that far over the limit anymore).

If Rebecca is still watching this thread... What's *really* wrong about MFT is the various media sources don't all have their own volume controls. If your USB device isn't online it will default to the radio station, which on mine IS REALLY, REALLY LOUD! (Or, conversely, you might say that my USB device input levels must be very low). In either case, the need to balance inputs is something so essential I can't believe it was left out (it also kept me from even considering using Sirrus, which was also way out of volume balance).

Yeah, I was a little upset I didn't get a backup camera (I actually thought I had the package that had it) but the backup sensors are *really* useful, much more than I would have thought.

Yeah, we have 9 months but only around 6400 (guess I just don't get out as much, although I'm trying :>). But all is well so far. I just hope this isn't the punch line of that joke about the guy who thought he could fly and so he jumped out of the Empire State Building (around the 30th floor his friend asked him how it was going and he said "So far, so good!")

Yeah, I'd take that deal right now and we already have Maximis (but my wife would love one of her own!). Congrats!

I think +3 nailed it with why resale value has gone down so far. While buyer's remorse can strike anyone with anything, those who buy an evolutionary vehicle in its first year are certainly taking a big risk. I applaud those of you who were willing to take that chance, as I certainly wouldn't have done so. Heck, it was nervous enough buying the second year vehicle I had heard so little about. But to turn around and then bemoan the lack of resale value is a bit shortsighted. Going in you HAD to have known that was a very real possibility, with no track record to judge otherwise. I would assume anyone making that leap of faith would have to be in it for the long run, or at the very least know they could get burned and deal with it accordingly.

Agree 100% - I've said it before, but the voice commands are the most impressive feature about MFT and apparently even the base SYNC stuff as you point out. I *love* the fact I can have it play any album or artist with a simple to remember command, but I can also set the temps and do things that in the past always required me to take my eyes off the road (like turning defrost on and off) by just a single touch of the paddle. I test drove a lot of other vehicles with different systems and I do think Ford gets an undeserved bad reputation for what is a superior control system.

You have to repair your phone(s) -- that's part and parcel of the process. I also lost my wallpaper, but it didn't appear to lose my radio presets (I don't listen to radio much, but the default FM station my wife likes was still playing when it rebooted). I *hope* it didn't lose my favorite destinations (didn't check but will do so tomorrow).

Really? I'm not sure I understand -- don't our vehicles have the same MFT system in them? Or are you saying that he doesn't get a new update because of some monetary consideration? If so, can he not just pay to get it? I'm just trying to understand here -- if the MFT system is the same then you'd think it could run the new OS (kind of like having an older iPhone run the new iOS). I could understand he might not get it for free, but he ought to be able to get it somehow. And if it's different I'm curious as to how that is (did Ford change the mechanics of the MFT system along the way?) I haven't seen any differences since I updated the system, but I need to find the time to sit down and go through the various menu options just in case there's something worthwhile.