3.5.1......Anyone? Anyone?

[HannahWCU]

Has anyone else noticed a decrease in the EV+ distance with the 3.5.1 update? I have noticed that EV+ won't turn on until I am are closer to my destination, it appears I've lost about 1/10 of a mile range. When I got my car back all the EV+ destinations were erased.

 

 

Mine were erased and have not come back yet.  However, when I did have it under 3.1.3, I had noticed that the location of EV+ coming on was slightly dependant on my battery level.  If my battery was almost full, it would go into EV+ alittle further from home and if the battery was really low, it would go into EV+ mode closer to home.  The difference being a couple of hundred feet maybe.  I don't know the distance from my home I just notice the landmarks where it would cut on.  And it only made a difference if the battery was really full (~80%+) or really low (~20% or less).  Anywhere inbetween and it cut on at the same place (+/- a few feet). 

 

As I am typing this I am wondering if your issue could be due to the GPS having a more (or less :doh: ) accurate location of where "Home" is after the upgrade?

[Edsel]

Mine were erased and have not come back yet.  However, when I did have it under 3.1.3, I had noticed that the location of EV+ coming on was slightly dependant on my battery level.  If my battery was almost full, it would go into EV+ alittle further from home and if the battery was really low, it would go into EV+ mode closer to home.  The difference being a couple of hundred feet maybe.  I don't know the distance from my home I just notice the landmarks where it would cut on.  And it only made a difference if the battery was really full (~80%+) or really low (~20% or less).  Anywhere inbetween and it cut on at the same place (+/- a few feet). 

 

As I am typing this I am wondering if your issue could be due to the GPS having a more (or less :doh: ) accurate location of where "Home" is after the upgrade?

 

You're right about the battery level.  Came home today and it turned on as normal.  The A/C blasting all the way home has effected the distance of EV+. (as well as my MPG :sad: ) 

[GreenChicago]

Mine were erased and have not come back yet.  However, when I did have it under 3.1.3, I had noticed that the location of EV+ coming on was slightly dependant on my battery level.  If my battery was almost full, it would go into EV+ alittle further from home and if the battery was really low, it would go into EV+ mode closer to home.  The difference being a couple of hundred feet maybe.  I don't know the distance from my home I just notice the landmarks where it would cut on.  And it only made a difference if the battery was really full (~80%+) or really low (~20% or less).  Anywhere inbetween and it cut on at the same place (+/- a few feet). 

 

As I am typing this I am wondering if your issue could be due to the GPS having a more (or less :doh: ) accurate location of where "Home" is after the upgrade?

I'm not sure how this works, but supposedly after 2-4 weeks your CMax knows where you live and uses EV when you approach your home from a certain distance. Maybe your EV+ changes have to do with the proximity to your home, and not the software upgrade at all? I read that in the OM somewhere.

[salsaguy]

in another thread they stated if you turn on and off your car at your home location 11 times it will learn it sooner for EV+

Edited June 7, 2013 by salsaguy

[mtb9153]

Got mine upgraded Tuesday. Took an hour and a half for the upgrade plus oil change. Super simple. I do like the new software. I feel like it is closer to how the car is supposed to operate. I don't know how much I will use the hybrid display, but in general the software seems faster and less buggy.

I don't understand why it worked so easily for you and mine failed 4 different attempts or so they say.  It has been 72 hours and I've heard nothing from the dealer.  I'm a little more than concerned about the silence.  No contact unless I make it and the last time no one actually spoke to me, I just left messages which haven't been returned.

[mtb9153]

Got mine upgraded Tuesday. Took an hour and a half for the upgrade plus oil change. Super simple. I do like the new software. I feel like it is closer to how the car is supposed to operate. I don't know how much I will use the hybrid display, but in general the software seems faster and less buggy.

can you take a picture of the home screen which shows the flow of electrical energy to the motor vs. the ICE?  I'd like to see the CMax picture behind the energy flow diagram.  I have a Focus pictured right now after my failed attempt at the upgrade

[salsaguy]

mtb, time to change dealers.

find your dealer and

check their rating here:

dealerrater.com/rateus

or at yelp.com

Edited June 8, 2013 by salsaguy

[mtb9153]

Weeeell, another 4 hours in the dealership and still no phone sync with upgrade. Tech did a master reset and still nothing. Now he has to email Detroit for ideas. Interestingly, I seem to know more about this car and its current issues than he does! He's been a Ford tech since 1991 but this is his first cmax.

GreenChicago, I feel your pain that you as an owner feel you know more about your CMax over the supposedly trained Service expert.  I don't understand why this upgrade should be so complicated.  Seems it would have been much more efficiently done by allowing owners to download the upgrade themselves using a thumbdrive or external hard drive after a download from Ford's website all of which can be done by using a USB cable which most people have in this digital age and are computer savy enough to accomplish the task on their own.  At least then I would have felt like I was in control instead of like now not knowing when my SA is going to contact me so we can get on with this crazy upgrade. 

[mtb9153]

mtb, time to change dealers.

find your dealer and

check their rating here:

dealerrater.com/rateus

or at yelp.com

Salsaguy, thanks for commenting and the reason I'm leaving it in the hands of my purchasing Ford dealership is because I have a personal relationship with the Service Manager and my Sales Manager since my family has bought a half dozen Ford products from this dealership over the last 10 years.  We are considered to be part of the dealership family as I'm reminded every time I drop by.  I'm about to tell them this family member is growing very impatient.  I will be dropping by come Monday morning and force the issue upon my dealership family a week after this personal hell began.

[Noah Harbinger]

can you take a picture of the home screen which shows the flow of electrical energy to the motor vs. the ICE?  I'd like to see the CMax picture behind the energy flow diagram.  I have a Focus pictured right now after my failed attempt at the upgrade

 

[Jus-A-CMax]

Salsaguy, thanks for commenting and the reason I'm leaving it in the hands of my purchasing Ford dealership is because I have a personal relationship with the Service Manager and my Sales Manager since my family has bought a half dozen Ford products from this dealership over the last 10 years.  We are considered to be part of the dealership family as I'm reminded every time I drop by.  I'm about to tell them this family member is growing very impatient.  I will be dropping by come Monday morning and force the issue upon my dealership family a week after this personal hell began.

 

I would have done that the day after - by you waiting & stalling is causing you more frustration. It is completely unacceptable and its incompetence on the technician end, and the dealership should take ownership for this f*ckup. Now that you disclosed they are a "close" dealership, that makes matters worse as the expectation, from my viewpoint, should have been "hey we screwed up and since you're a great and long time customer with us - we are going to fix it and while we're learning to see how to fix this, heres a NICE car to drive in the interim".

 

Galpin (Jaguar & Ford) would have done that and I am not as close to Galpin as you are to your dealership.

[salsaguy]

mtb sometimes your family will stab you in the back sooner and deeper than your friends. and when they know they have you locked in they don't work as hard as a new dealer would to impress you especially if you told them about your bad experiences at another dealer. the new dealer would normally go out of their way to impress.

remember the old dealer wants to get new buyers of cars not satisfy current customers who already spent their cash.

ever get cable or internet? New customers get the sweet deals while the 10 yr loyal customers get squat and higher bills.

 

 

 

 

Salsaguy, thanks for commenting and the reason I'm leaving it in the hands of my purchasing Ford dealership is because I have a personal relationship with the Service Manager and my Sales Manager since my family has bought a half dozen Ford products from this dealership over the last 10 years.  We are considered to be part of the dealership family as I'm reminded every time I drop by.  I'm about to tell them this family member is growing very impatient.  I will be dropping by come Monday morning and force the issue upon my dealership family a week after this personal hell began.

Edited June 9, 2013 by salsaguy

[GreenChicago]

Salsaguy, thanks for commenting and the reason I'm leaving it in the hands of my purchasing Ford dealership is because I have a personal relationship with the Service Manager and my Sales Manager since my family has bought a half dozen Ford products from this dealership over the last 10 years.  We are considered to be part of the dealership family as I'm reminded every time I drop by.  I'm about to tell them this family member is growing very impatient.  I will be dropping by come Monday morning and force the issue upon my dealership family a week after this personal hell began.

Mtb and others,

I honestly think that the techs are shadow boxing on this one, because Detroit has obviously prematurely released an upgrade that wasn't ready for prime time. So regardless of your relationship with the dealership, I don't think they can help you solve the issues if the roadblock is with the software engineers. It seems like Detroit leaves the techs high and dry, and dump the customer service issues on the dealers.

 

I am also experiencing increasingly buggy and funky issues with my 3.5.1, so I really do feel your pain. Maybe let the family friends the dealer off the hook on this one, and tell them to pressure Detroit to do more complete testing before releasing things? I hope you get some resolution, and would sure appreciate your posting your updates here. Best of luck!

[mtb9153]

Thanks for the picture, looks like mine but it is a CMax

[mtb9153]

Wanted to share some news I got from my dealer regarding my botched upgrade.  I spoke directly with the Tech who does the software upgrades at Frontier Ford,  Apparently he didn't attempt my upgrade because he wasn't aware of the problems I was left with nothing working and I told him I have a Focus pictured on my main screen instead of a CMax.  He agreed it was messed up.  He said he has other upgrades which have failed and I'm not alone with these problems.

 

He explained to me that there is nothing that can be done to remedy this download problem until their IT guy returns.  It seems the techs have been attempting the download using a WiFi connection and this upgrade is a huge and lengthy download, so if the WiFi signal drops out there goes the upgrade and why they tried 4 times to do it on my CMax.  So until the IT guy can drop a length of CAT5 cable to hard wire the PC they are using.  Nothing can be done.  So its anybody guess when that will happen.  I told him I will be bugging them and checking in weekly to see if any progress has been made.  So expect to be tired of me coming around. Pretty sad that this is the way the techs link to the Ford Servers

[ScubaDadMiami]

That's no fun.  Since it could be a while, and since they did mess it up so badly, maybe they can find another dealer that has a hardwire connection for the upgrade for you.  Besides, you can bring a warranty repair to any authorized dealer.

 

Even if you are loyal to the dealer, you can just do something like this on a one-time basis.  It could be a while for them to get the connection made.

[mtb9153]

That's no fun.  Since it could be a while, and since they did mess it up so badly, maybe they can find another dealer that has a hardwire connection for the upgrade for you.  Besides, you can bring a warranty repair to any authorized dealer.

 

Even if you are loyal to the dealer, you can just do something like this on a one-time basis.  It could be a while for them to get the connection made.

Yes you are right ScubaDadMiami, if they would let me I could run them a length of CAT5 from their server since I did that sort of thing for my last company before they laid me off in 2007.  I'll give them another week or so and then I'll start checking the other dealers in the area.  This is inexcusable and dropping the ball in my mind for a dealer to have no hardwired connection to their download computer.

[Jus-A-CMax]

I woud never go back to that dealer, sounds like its a ma & pa shop that they are running - one IT goes on vacation and they are all stuck along with the customers and they can't run a CAT5. Seriously? Wow, professional indeed. Sorry for you MTB but this is a sad sad tale with this dealership - friends or not, their IT and service department is very, very poor.

[salsaguy]

yes that is pretty sad. in my work we call that a "person dependent process" meaning the whole process dies if one person goes on vacation or gets sick. very dangerous to run it that way but it close IT is a very specialised job and not much cross training happens.

hope they can take care of you soon.

Ford really needs to create the infrastructure to support the C Max / Fusion with training of techs / service reps on how to do all the techie stuff and make sure they have the tools and equipment on site. the tech issues will only get more and more as cars get exponentially advanced in the future.

[Jus-A-CMax]

They certainly do - I know, down here, the Galpin are very well train and their IT department is pretty big from what I gather. From a customer experience point of view - that tech would have been fired for this debacle as its completely embarassing and I don't see the dealership extending any help to mtb with a loaner in the interim.

 

I think this dealership is just lacking - sorry mtb to be so hard on your dealership but I hate to see you suffer due to allegance when you deserve better and you so much enjoy your Cmax.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[salsaguy]

they need to post some bad reviews about this dealer for sure on yelp.com or dealerrater.com

[mtb9153]

Thanks Jus, Salsaguy I never really looked at it that way but you are entirely right to think that way.  It does seem very unprofessional that they would allow this to happen.  I guess I'm just blind sighted by the fact that my family has so much history with this dealer after buying 5 other Fords from them in the last 12 years.  But there are plenty more dealers in the area one which is closer to me.  But I haven't been wanting to go there because it is on what is referred as "Auto Row" with all the big 3 manufacturer's there plus a huge Toyota and BMW dealership and a KIA.  I bought my GMC Typhoon at the GMC dealer there and from the word go after buying the Typhoon I vowed never to do business at that dealer again.  Plus bought my wife's Pontiac GrandPrix and my Saturn Vue Redline on this Auto Row.  All with very bad service experiences which is why I vowed to never do business there again.  There are other Ford dealers a bit farther away from my house but I've not done business with them and maybe that is a good thing.  I know at least one other owner on our forum bought from the dealer in Sunnyvale.  I think we have a poster who owns two identical gray CMax and I think they were bought from Sunnyvale Ford .  I should try to contact him to see what his feelings are toward them?

Edited June 11, 2013 by mtb9153

[salsaguy]

sunnyvales track record speaks for itself over at dealerrater.com

unfortunately the higher volume dealers like the ones on auto row have less time to help and deal with owner details or issues as they need to churn out all the incoming cars that day in service. so if you can find a lower volume dealer that has the time to care that's what you want just don't go to a dealer that is dead and has no business as they will cheat you for sure.

Edited June 11, 2013 by salsaguy

[Bill-N]

LOL, at least it not nearly 50 miles off like mine.

 

IMHO, regardless of what the owner's manual says (nothing is displayed) and the Ford engineer's response to dealer (SA is to provide a copy), if the values are displayed they should be correct.  IMHO, it's a safety issue as one might give the Where am I coordinates in giving directions in case of an emergency.  BTW my I-Phone coordinates are spot on.

 

If I understood the response correctly when the SA read it to me, it's about software not updating the coordinates frequently enough to be accurate.  Of course, I doubt my car (in it's 31 miles from to me taking possession) was in the middle of a National Forest 50 miles East of my home and 85 miles from the dealer.  But when I used Sync Voice Navigation, the directions where spot on, the lat. and long. were updating but the longitude was always about 50 miles east.

 

Once I get everything together I will open a case with Ford CS and see what happens.

 

Any joy?

[otbiker]

Watched my dealer struggle ALL DAY trying to install 3.51. System said it already had the latest software, but still showed 3.13. After numerous calls to Ford, they asked if a USB drive was installed. Yes, I had a MICRO USB thumb drive plugged in. Apparently this F...ed UP the entire process. Supposed to be ready tomorrow....