My full size SUV goes all the way to 11!

[Meow What?]

Hey all. I've had my Star White ST for a few months now and I still just love it! What a joy to drive! I've had it long enough to compile a short list of cheers and jeers.

Cheers!

1) The massive amounts of torque at all RPM levels that translate into huge grins. Just pure s&%t and git!

2) The handling in the mountains. It's a full size SUV and I have no fantasies about keeping up with the sports sedans and coupes, but I'm faster than the family cars sooo. It manages to booger up the tires just as well as my vintage (it still has carbs) KTM 950SM and that's saying something.

3) My dogs love it. They're getting older and they don't miss the leap into my Power Wagon. Easy step up from the side door and then a hop between the Captain's chairs (I removed the center console and replaced it with a Carhartt pillow.) into their spot in the back. Except for Emily who prefers the passenger side chair. She's a little gimpy in her right hip so I'm guessing she'll dig the heated seat come winter.

4) It's white and an Explorer so those folks who like to plant themselves in the fast lane with their cruise set to the posted speed limit tend to get out of the way.

5) The seats! Particularly the air cooling. Combine that with the massage feature, which my semi-wrecked spine really appreciates on longer drives, and I'm now in no danger of getting swept up in a truck stop massage parlor raid.

Jeers :-(

1) It's 2021. Why is the Sync 3 system so laggy and glitchy? Glitchy to the point that I have had to pull over and do a complete shutdown and restart 'cuz the source was stuck on AM with no ability to change anything but the volume. Does anyone listen to AM anymore? I haven't selected an AM station in 30 years and yet Sync 3 will randomly select it. Maybe it's just feeling nostalgic and forcing its will on me. And it's laggy. Really laggy. I would even say dangerously laggy as it compels me to take my eyes off the road longer than necessary. Are you listening Ford? Maybe you can fix this before you have another Firestone thing.

2) Some of the default settings are just annoying. I have a mental post engine start check list similar to the written check lists I couldn't help but memorize (you're not supposed to memorize the check lists except EPs) during my military helicopter flying days. Nothing that can't be resolved with FORSCAN I'm sure. Just need to find the time. Until then? The checklist. Also, if you are a Mac household, I'll be posting in the FORSCAN Forum here (is there a FORSCAN Forum here?) about a budget rugged dedicated FORSCAN PC.

3) It was whisper quiet. I did not like having to look at the tach to see if it was running. Hello. Check one two. Is this thing on? I'll be posting a cautionary tale about the Magna Flow exhaust in "Ford Performance Parts". Suffice it to say it was a really expensive mistake.

4) Throttle pedal lag. Or is it turbo lag, and why is it random? Gonna need to resolve this. Good thing I have this cool ass forum to go to for info.

Anyway, thank you all for the great and informative posts I've read so far and those to come.

 

[TMac]

Nice post!

To address a couple of your points (1) I have to say though that it depends on where you're coming from. My previous ride was a 2012 Jaguar XF supercharged. The Jaguar system wasn't laggy, it was glacial- as in unusable. The backup camera view normally would appear after I shifted into drive and I'd get to see the scenery slowly recede before it figured out I was no longer in reverse! The Nav system was so slow as to be useless. Each part of an address accessed its hard drive to try to predict your input. Say you want 1143 Joe Blow ave. Type the first "1", and after a 5 second pause while it accessed its "database" for the thousands of addresses beginning with that number, showing the first 5 on the screen. Type the second "1" and it would do the same 5 second pause while it whittled the list down...and so forth. God forbid the address was in a different state, because that required a completely different database. Also, the "state" search was buried about 5 submenus down in a completely different area. Took me a couple months (really!) of frustration to find it. Owner's manual on the NAV was worthless in all regards. Whoever programmed that crap was working on an emulator about 10,000 times faster than the processor in the car.
(2) For me the only prep is to turn off that damn auto-start stop. Probably great if you're sitting in big city traffic, but I can't stand it.
(4) Each of the "drive modes" affects the pedal response. And yes, it's a bit laggy in Normal but fine in Sport.

So to me the Ford is light years ahead.

 

[Meow What?]

Thank you for the reply! Good stuff I can use. I am diggin' this forum. I'll do my best to give as much as I get. Now it's time to go for a drive and do a thorough check on throttle response in different modes. Ruff day for me.