CoalMiner

The FordWarranties.com website, (Lombard Ford in CT) has two rental reimbursement options, "Drop-Off First Day Rental" and an "Enhanced Rental", both with an upcharge to their base extended warranty cost. Likewise, MyFordWarranty.com has a First Day Rental" option. This seems to be the lowest out there. See related discussion here. However, I do not see locate those two rental options offered on the extended warranties on the standard ford websites (MercuryVehicles.com, flmowner.com, etc.) So, are these two rental options part of the standard Ford ESPs, or are these add-ons unique to FordWarrantys.com/Lombard Ford, or MyFordWarranties.com (Flood Auto Group) ?

Re-opening this to ask if anyone else got a half price offer? And if yes, did they come by snail mail, or a tele-marketing call? And how long did you have to wait past the renewal date to get this? I've been sitting on a six-month renewal paper bill, for a few weeks now. And deciding whether or not to renew. Side note: amazingly, no phone/tele-marketing calls at all this time, ... that I was home to answer, maybe they did really take my name/number off their lists last renewal time.

I don't think you're ever going to get it for less than the $199 on NavTeq' website. I am saying this because I follow the standalone GPS market pretty closely, and map updates for OEM installed devices are almost always more costly than similar map updates for standalone devices, Garmin, TomTom, Navigon, etc., etc. BTW, it's not just the map updates you're getting, it's more the POI databases that are updated. That is supposedly how they justify the high cost of updates. One 'strategy' to address the high cost is this: Only get the updated every two years. In doing so you spread the higher cost over two years. Of course, weigh how long you'll own the vehicle and if you're willing to live with whatever is missing (new POIs or new roads or streets) or is incorrect for 24 vs. 12 months. Having been through map updates for various (i.e., many) Garmin and Navigon standalone GPS devices, don't tget your hopes up that a brand new road or a recently opened restaurant, store or other commercial facility will appear on an update. The updates don't work this way, sometimes new retail/commercial facilities appear, and sometimes stores that have been open for five years still do not appear. In my experience, it's a piecemeal/hit or miss proposition.

I have a 2009 Mariner Hybrid with the 4WD. Had it for almost a year now, and at first (during the spring, summer an fall) I doubted if the rear wheel drive ever engaged. However, after three months of the winter of 2009/2010 in the Philadelphia area, I'm certain it is working as expected. When the first plow-able snow hit, I purposely drive it around a town that had not yet plowed it's streets of ten inches of snow (that was in late Dec. '09), and it was obvious it was working in more than 2WD. For the record, I've owned 4WD dodge pickups, the kind you shift into 4WD manually inside the cab. Two more major snow storms (called blizzards by the local media), further confirmed that the 4WD works and you never hear a thing (from the transmission or from the rear wheels) or notice any indicator or indicator lights. One of those snow storms was a big one, local media called it a blizzard, and I drove 80 miles in NJ and PA over roads unplowed of 10 or 12 inches of new snow, I'm talking interstates, toll roads and major city arterial roadways, it was at the height of the storm and I had no choice but to go as far as I could. I had absolutely no problems whatsoever with the traction, and in hindsight I was more than pleased (let's call it super pleased) on how it worked in heavy snow. And this is with the OEM stock/factory tires. For comparison, I've been in some AWD Subaru Outback Legacys that some friends have owned in the past, and the Mariner handled as well as those subbies did in snow and on snow covered roads. I wasn't really sure what to expect in driving in snow, but it has exceeded expectations in the driving I've done with it.

I have an 09 MMH, and also have read the manual. I haven't seen any reference to this in either the vehicle manual or the Sync manual. Reading about it, I wish it was available.

Nice. Any pics of the interior, including the console and dashboard?

I heard the lifetime subscription is only good for the time that you own the vehicle, i.e., it is does not transfer to a new vehicle? I also had a few surprises when I got the hardcopy renewal bills, so I thought I'd update the original post. Contrary to what they told me, they did bill the Travel Link and the station/channel fee in one bill. But the bill was very unclear what the charges were for. Had I not known ahead of time what the 6 mo. fee for Travel Link was going to be, I'd have never guessed what line item it was on the bill, it was labeled as "Sirius Service", nothing more, not Data or Travel Link Info, just Sirius Service. There also was a Music Royalty fee, $11.89 for six months, that they never told me about in the never-ending tele marketing calls (nor when I called to ask about pricing, and I do remember asking specifically for the final total cost...). And more, the billing period dates on the bills didn't make any sense. For example on the bill for six months of service, the bill showed Account Summary from 8/23/09 to 8/23/09. I guess you're supposed to infer the coverage period of time from the prices? And it got worse, a few days after I send in a payment by check, I got another bill, obviously (it seemed obvious to me, anyway) sent before they received the check for payment. This bill said it was for 8/11/09 to 9/11/09, and it did not have the line item for the Travel Link service, but the fee was for six months of service. It makes you wonder just how mixed up Sirius really is. In any case, they have cashed the payment check, and as of yesterday both the radio channels and the Travel Link still work. I'm hoping it stays that way, from what I've read, if the billing or payments get screwed up, it's a major hassle to get it straighten out.

The free six month of free Sirius Radio and TravelLink on my 09 MMH is about over. I called today to renew, after endless tele-calls to renew in the past weeks. Footnote: When you purchase a new vehicle, be wary of the phone number you give to Ford, or more specifically the one your dealer records on file for you. Ford passes this on to Sirius, and you get lots of calls to renew. In my case I gave them my daytime work number. Calls sometimes twice a day. Although now that I'm within a week of the renewal date, all the calls have stopped. I decided I was going to renew, but I was wary of doing do for one reason. All the stuff Sirius sends you states 'you agree to automatic renewal for additional period of the same length as the plan you choose, at the current standard rate'. Also, they cannot bill for the Radio and TravelLink together, they need to do it in two separate charges. And you cannot renew both online, after a few minutes trying to do so using the online billing screens, I see this message, "If your SIRIUS service also includes SIRIUS Travel Link call 1-866-889-7474 to renew." And so I called, asked for prices, which I already knew from answering one of the tele-calls, and state I do not want automatic renewal. And the friendly person says, the only way we can set you up to not automatically renew is to put your CC info in after the trial period expires. I think, that sounds like a subtle way for Sirius to throw up roadblocks to do this. I say, OK, I'll wait. Sirius person evidently is reading from a script, and the script anticipates that a hangup means a possible lost subscription, Sirius person they says, well we can also mail you an invoice 6-10 days after your renewal data. I say OK, and ask if there are any additional charges for this. She says $2, but she'll waive that fee. I say OK, and will await the invoices in the mail. This is part report of my experience, and a few questions for anyone who has renewed after an initial 6 month free trial. Q1: Do you accept the automatic renewal, and just let 'me bill you every period? It sounds like the majority of people do this. Q2: Has anyone ever gone the paper invoice route? Thus avoiding automatic renewal? Q2b) Did you have uninterrupted service? Q3: For those setup for automatic renewal, have you ever canceled, and was it a clean process? Based on their relentless tele-calling to go beyond the first six months, I'll guess they hound you? Comment: It was their relentless and constant tele-calling that raises the a caution flag with me on this.

I don't think that's the situation. See the paragraph in the manual right before the one I quoted. I think there are no maps updates yet available from NavTeq for the '09 Nav Units, and *maybe* that also means there are no Gracenote updates available from NavTeq. But before closing the book on this, call the Ford parts number in that preceeding paragraph, (• In USA: 1 (800) 392–3673) and ask. I'll be curious what you find out. I know for example my nav unit doesn't know about new stores that have been open for over one year, and it says the addresses for those stores are not valid. So I'd liek to get an update when one becomes available. Speaking from experience with hand-held GPS units that have updatable maps (Garmin and Navigon, but they also use NavTeq map data), that is the norm, .... new POIs and new street addresses 12 -18 months old are usually not present.

According to the Nav system manual, available here, P. 108: SYSTEM SOFTWARE UPDATES NAVTEQ offers system software updates for purchase. You can call 1-800-NAVMAPS or go to www.navteq.com. You will need to specify the make and model of you vehicle in order to determine if a map update is available. Updates for the Gracenote database (CDDB) that contain CD song/artist/title/album art are available. There is no charge for the data, however, there is a nominal shipping and materials fee. Mapping updates will be available yearly. Gracenote database (CDDB) database updates are complimentary when a map update is purchased. I checked the NavTeq site for map updates (for an 09 MMH), and none are available. Let us all know what you find out about the GraceNote database updates, what the shipping fees are, etc.

I have a slightly expanded take on this, and your last statement confirms the idea. 1.)The warranties are transferable to a new owner (for a $75 fee), and optionally, you can get a pro-rated refund when you and the vehicle part ways, ie, when you sell it. That makes two things work in your favor when you sell the vehicle: You remove any reluctance a buyer might have on the "used vehicle/might need a lot of maintenance" syndrome, and you can command a slightly higher price when selling to a private individual. For example, two identical used vehicles are listed on eBay or CraigsList, one is described as "well maintained", and the second one described as "well maintained, comes with balance of extended warranty". Which one would inspire more trust if you were buying? 2.) The original poster did not specify that he bought a hybrid escape. In my case, I did. There's a lot of technology in these vewhicles, even excluding the 'unique hybrid components' (which are warranted for 8/100 or 10/150 depending on which state you live in), and IMO the extended warranties are a good deal on these.

Sounds like you have a specific need, and so I don't think they look that bad that I'd not get them. Be cautious of the color, sometimes they look good in a contrasting color, and sometimes not. Look at side window deflectors also. I've had trucks off and on for 15 years, and these deflectors do a great job deflecting the moving stream of air just outside the window when you're crusingf along doing 55 or 65 mph. They also do a nice job of deflecting rain, you can open the windows a few inches when it is raining and no drops get in.

Good advice above. I wish it were more exacting when they say: I can read a lot of different variations of 'speed changing' into that. How frequent is "frequently"? Every 5 minutes, every 10? Every two minutes? OTOH, it's clear driving 1000 miles at a constant 65 MPH is not what they want you to do.

Compare the so-called "at his cost" price to fordwarrantys.com. More info on this thread: http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums/index...showtopic=30415

And the instructions for it are here: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i8910.pdf