2013 Ford Fusion, Ford Flex To Get SYNC As Standard
As lifetime President of the “Auxillary Cable Fan Club”, it saddens me to see that Ford’s annoying system will be standard on the 2013 Flex and 2013 [s]Gamechanger[/s] Fusion, with Ford boasting that over 4 million vehicles have had SYNC installed since 2007.
My latest annoyance with SYNC came yesterday with the 2012 Lincoln Navigator (yes, it still exists). SYNC did not allow my passenger to pair their phone while the vehicle was in motion – ostensibly this is to cut down on driver distraction and any potential liabilities, but pulling over to a stop in rush hour is not possible, especially with “no standing” by-laws that prohibit idling in curb lanes. Pairing phones at traffic lights wasn’t an option either, was the system took longer to pair than the length of a red line, and as soon as the vehicle is rolling, SYNC automatically cancels the pairing. Oh yeah, the iPod integration sucks too.
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I honestly don't understand all the hate for Sync. Sync w/My Ford Touch, sure I understand why, but just standard Sync I don't understand one bit. I've had 4 Fords that had Sync and not one of them ever gave me any problems pairing my phone or my music. One thing I did discover, was that every time my old POS 1st gen iPhone would update the OS, the Sync system would take longer and longer to respond to my commands when using music commands. I think a lot of it is Apple not playing well with the MS software. It got so bad that I stopped updating my old phone just to avoid the Sync problems. I've since switched to a Droid, Droid X and Droid Inc2 and none of them have had any problems pairing, keeping the connection after the vehicle is shut off and left overnight, or playing music through the bluetooth. One thing I don't think a lot of people realize, is that you don't need a media player to have the system play your music. All you need is a thumb drive. Also, when using a thumb drive, the command to response time is almost instantaneous. My old 30gb Zune works great too. As much as I enjoy driving my wife's 11 Chrysler T&C, if you want to see a bad interface, Chrysler's Uconnect has to take the cake.
Got SYNC when I bought my 2012 Mustang last summer. I love it. Sometimes. When a call comes in, SYNC turns off the radio/CD whatever, I just press the phone button on the steering wheel to answer. When the call is over, SYNC turns on the radio. Works every time. But if I try to initiate a call by pressing the button and saying a name, even after SYNC transferred my phonebook, it never works. At first, I was using an old iPod touch First generation plugged in the USB port. Sometimes, it would connect, sometimes not. Then I got another touch, a Third generation. Now works almost all the time. Just don't try to use the voice feature though, stick to fiddling with the buttons. Try not to swear too much, girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other may not like that. The worst is updating the software. I registered on the SYNC web site. Got a message that the SYNC software needed an update. Read the update procedure. Oh boy. First, download the software update to a USB key from a PC, not a Mac. Then, get in the car, start the engine (yeah, right), plug the USB key, follow the instructions. When it says Done, it's not done! Wait for the second part of the installation! Don't shut off the engine because of the battery saver function! The update may need more than 10 minutes. Then, you look down, below the radio. There's a tiny plaque that says: SYNC by Microsoft. That. Explains. Everything.
I've never had any issues with Sync in any Ford I've driven except for ones with Sync and MyFord Touch. And the MyFord Touch systems were early ones before any updates I surmise. DK, what sense does it make to have your passenger's phone paired? It's the driver who benefits from, and has (and needs) the hands-free control of a paired phone when driving, not the passenger. There is, quite simply, no better system available in any other car, period!
STYNC didn't work with my iPod Touch because of an indexing problem. There is a patch you can install for Windows, but there is no patch for Mac (or at least when it wasn't working with our Fiesta back last Fall). It also didn't want to Bluetooth with my wife's EVO 4G. Voice recognition didn't work with the few commands it could recognize, assuming I said it in the correct syntax the system wanted me to say it in. The system is crap. But I digress. All of this garbage should be an option. Even an inexpensive one. Whether a car has intuitive pushbutton controls or some clunky touchscreen and voice command based nonsense is a deal breaker for me. If I have to navigate menus to change the AC fan speed, change radio stations, turn on the defroster, etc. I run. These systems don't make owning a car easier, they put you at the mercy of some computer sourced from a third party vendor with one size fits all code that is prone to crashes at inopportune moments. Not mentioning that as technology advances, car manufacturers will be putting more and more of this crap into cars because they think people want it... not realizing that some of us will go to great lengths to avoid it. I think that making SYNC, and systems like it, standard sends a message that car manufacturers think that crashes in computers that control vital systems within a car from some tiny unresponsive touchscreen don't really bother modern car buyers who seem to be more enamoured by the fact their cars have "voice recognition" and an LCD screen in the dash. ...and people wonder why the last new car I bought was a work truck with rubber floors.