bluspikez

I've noticed this one too - I believe it has something to do with the key fob for intelligent access either being detected or undetected within the vehicle (not too sure which, though... ).

Do you have a lot of music on your iPod? Indexing takes much longer when using a source with a large amount of music (the system needs to build the voice grammars for all of the items that are there). I'm not sure of the frequency of the indexing, but I know it will re-index more often than you'd expect. It's not an excuse, but it is the reason why it happens. As a workaround, I have about 7GB of music on a thumb drive that I use in my car and I don't have the indexing issues. When trying to use an external HDD with around 100GB of music before that I'd run into the indexing errors. Of note - you can still browse through the touchscreen interface while indexing happens (again, not an excuse, but more of a workaround). I've also had the issues with the BT Stereo playback stopping when plugging in to USB after the stream already was established. With my setup, this is caused by the phone, not the MFT system. On the phone, there is a setting (I believe you get to it by using the airplay/playback icon) that will allow you to pick what interface it outputs the playback over (BT vs USB/dock connector). I haven't looked into it enough to find a way to turn it off - I just plug in first before starting a BT stereo stream.

For what it's worth, I also have a 4S, and I rarely have issues (I won't say never - but they are extremely few and far between). Mine is up to date on the latest iOS (6.1.3). Like Bailey, Bearcats and kirby I don't have any of the issues you're mentioning. I can understand the hate on the system if the problems were happening to everyone, but the vast majority of MFT users I've talked to lately aren't having trouble. For whatever reason, though, they still take the stance of "it sucks, I hate it, blah blah blah" - it's almost like hating on MFT is a cool thing these days, even though the system has come a long way. People need to get their heads out of their asses and get informed (not directed at you lgbeach, I'm complaining about our society in general. Sounds like you might have defective hardware, which would be covered under warranty). Back to the topic at hand, I haven't seen any updates available for me yet (on v3.5.1 right now). Interestingly, when I go to syncmyride, I'm unable to select my Fusion - a different vehicle I have listed shows up first, and when I goto switch to my Fusion it just never switches...

Did a bit of looking and didn't have any luck, but I can say that the 17" wheels with snow tires that I have for the car are around 45lbs (wheel+tire). I'd imagine the stock 17"s would be around there, if not a big lighter.

I'm sure the torque converter is playing a part here, but I doubt it is the only player. It seems like shift logic combined with torque converter slip or lockup (depending on the timing) causes what I'm seeing. Doesn't really cause a problem, just makes me curious.

Since the temps have warmed up and my car has broken in, I've been seeing quite solid numbers on pure highway trips. Where I would see 28-30mpg in the winter with my snow tires, I now see 32-34mpg with the all seasons back on (70-75mph freeway type driving, same trips). I even had 80-100mi of 2-lane highway on a trip, and with the cruise set at 58mph for the stretch I got 36.3mpg. I don't have a similar comparison for the city or mixed cycles, as my car has always done pretty well on those, but the highway cycle has shown some improvements with the temp changes, wheel/tire changes and break in (likely the tires being the biggest difference, my Altimax Arctics have a ton of rolling resistance).

I've been pleased with the Sony system in my car as well - it could always be better, but it's good enough that I don't want to change anything. To add to the list, I'd suggest Pioneer or JBL (or any Harman brand really) as more good brands of gear. Like others have mentioned, you'll likely want to leave the stock head unit and change out or add speakers. This will keep compatibility and the standard features/look, while allowing for an upgrade.

Thanks for the suggestion TurboTi - I've since done the same route in "S" mode and it didn't make a difference. Seems to just be a decision that was made with fuel economy in mind. If I get frustrated enough I just use the paddles anyway, and I much prefer doing that over driving in full auto mode anyways.

I bought the Ford ones for my car and put them on myself (were $90 or so I believe for all 4). They are made of a very nice hard rubber material and molded very well for the shape of the car. They are rather low profile, which helps with looks, but isn't so helpful for utility (though they still do a pretty good job of keeping the crap down). They went on quite easily using all existing holes and fasteners (a mixture of the wheel well pushpins and included bolts that replaced the ones already there). There is one bolt on the fronts that is a pain to get in by yourself, as there isn't a good way to get a driver on it - would be helpful to have a second set of hands on this one.

I'm right there with ya RRF985 - I don't get it either. For a while it seemed that only the Ti 2.0L would get it (before the cars were available), but that didn't end up being the case anyways.

Agreed - it doesn't seem like anything is wrong, persay, it's just different shift logic than what I would prefer. I know our Fusions get torque vectoring (drags the inside brake to pull it back, for those who aren't aware) just like the Focus ST does, but this is really a cop-out in my opinion and not a true fix to the problem. It would be nice to have some sort of mechanical fix included, but so far the torque steer has been manageable for me so I don't have much to gripe about. Of course crisp means one thing with a slushbox automatic, and that's completely different from crisp in other trannys...

Glad I'm not the only one sarcastic6! Here's to a quite crappy iPhone video I took on the way home today of this happening. This wasn't as bad as I've seen it sometimes as I came in a bit slow (just short of 30mph), but you can see that I'm in 3 going into the corner, it then kicks down into 2 and starts to do the weird CVT-like shifts into 3 and 4 (RPMs stay between 2500 and 3000), finally giving a normal shift into 5 as I lifted off the throttle.

I've been noticing some interesting behavior under certain conditions with the way the transmission will shift in my car and was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same. The situation is always the same - to start the trans is in normal "D" mode, and you're cruising at, say, 35-50mph in 4,5,6 gear (normal suburban driving type situation). Then, you'll need to slow down, to say 15-20mph, for traffic backups or a corner or something. As you get back into the throttle (moderately, of course, if you hammer it it's less likely to happen) after clearing whatever it was, the trans will kick down to 2 or 3 as expected (but usually 3), but it almost acts like a CVT as you get up to speed, with short, sloppy shifts, keeping RPMs around 3000. This will happen for whichever in-between gears it decides on, until it finally drops into 5 or 6 when you're at 40-50mph again. If you slow enough (to maybe 10mph or below), the trans will pick 2 and shifts will be normal. This strange CVT-like behavior only seems to happen when you're in that in-between speed range where (in my mind at least), it should really take 2, but ends up taking 3 and lugging things quite a bit. I haven't tried this with the gear select in auto "S" mode, but instead I find myself driving in manual "S" mode using the paddles quite a bit to avoid this. This is about the only situation I've found where the trans acts kinda funky for me - otherwise, it seems to do a pretty good job. I'm hesitant to reset anything to possibly get it to forget this weirdness, because it's finally learned how to shift crisply and I don't feel like waiting for it again.

My car makes the same noise too, and I've wondered what it is. I don't have a definitive answer, but here's my theory... The turbos for the EcoBoost motors are oil and water cooled, and obviously the mechanically driven cooling won't be happening after you turn the engine off (off go the oil and water pumps). Water cooling will continue, though, via thermal siphon (mentioned in this Ford article), so my guess is that this sound is some sort of valve or diverter in the coolant plumbing that's adjusting flow as things cool down. I only ever hear it after driving it for a while and then parking it, and it will happen intermittently as things cool down, so it seems like a logical guess.

I borrowed a friend's 2013 F150 this weekend for some moving I was doing and the leather on that wheel was much more like what I would prefer on a wheel. That being said, I've handled a sample of the leather used for various surfaces in the Fusion at work, and it is definitely real leather, the finish on it just makes it feel very similar to the vinyl with the same grain pattern that is used on other surfaces in the Fusion. Maybe this was the goal?