pupk

I was able to pick up a brand new '17 Platinum for about $1K more than that once you factored in all of the factory, dealer, federal, state, and utility incentives. That knocked $14K off of a $41K sticker and I got a 0 miles car and a fresh warranty. And that was 5 months ago, so if there are still any '17s left, you should be able to do even better than that.

When you go to your account at owner.ford.com, does the recall show up under Recalls/Field Service Actions? Mine still doesn't even though it's a 2017 built in Mexico and covered by the public notices. I also tried calling my dealership, but after looking up the VIN, they said it wasn't showing up and they wouldn't perform the fix. It sounds like Ford either populates that data once the letter go out (I read they were going out first week of May) or for some crazy, unadvertised reason, mine isn't affected. I also tried another local dealership and they said they wouldn't perform the fix without the letter. That's why I'm surprised to hear that other dealers have been accepting the cars that some folks have reported here.

I agree. It's a great party trick to show folks who haven't seen it before, but in my opinion, it takes too long to 1) hit the button, 2) indicate, 3) pull up far enough and slow enough while watching the screen for instructions on when to stop. I could have been in the spot by then using muscle memory on how to parallel park.

Oh, don't get me wrong - I honestly think we're 20 years away from being able to eat a burger and read forums like this while behind the wheel, so I would never consider taking my eyes off the road or my foot very far away from the brake while using Ford's current system. But I was a little disappointed to see it not perform at all in that one situation where it was a straight stretch of freeway, bright daylight, all traffic in their lanes, continuous stop-and-go, etc. That said, I prefer the smooth, consistent motion that I'm able to give my passengers and fellow drivers around me over the more herky-jerkiness that the ACC sometimes delivers - a lot of that because the driver in front is driving that way or because someone cuts in front of me. I also wonder how much the brake lights are going on and off when the car slows. I've heard that in ACC mode, slowing activates the brake lights. If that's the case, I would think that could be somewhat of an annoyance for drivers behind me. I personally try to only brake when necessary or to inform the drivers behind me that they'd better do the same, not just when gradually slowing.

Re stop-and-go, I believe there is a 3-second "timeout". That is, if traffic doesn't start moving after a complete stop within 3 seconds, you will need to press the Resume button on the steering wheel to re-engage. If traffic moves within a few seconds, the vehicle will automatically resume. I love the feature as well, but has anyone encountered a situation where the car did not (or I should say, was not going to stop) and therefore you have to quickly manually brake? That happened to me once during stop-and-go traffic. Because this feature is so new to me, I keep my foot hovering over the brake when cars are stopped in front of me, so I was able to catch this at the last minute, but it was a hard stop that should not have been. It keeps my trust level from being 100% because of that.

I agree with @4cylinder on his comments about '17 models. However, I would add that you shouldn't discount looking at new '17s, and here's why: Yes there is a large depreciation the day these cars drive off the lot, however, there are strong incentives on these cars due to 1) factory trying to dump remaining '17s, 2) dealers trying to clear their lots of '17s, 3) financing, 4) federal tax credit for PHEV, 5) state reimbursement for PHEV, and 6) utility company reimbursement for PHEV. Adding those all up, I was able to pick up a recent '17 FFE Platinum for $14K off the sticker. Doing the math, that's a 34% discount off MSRP. That's not quite the 40% quoted above, but it's close enough for me to want to go with a brand new vehicle.

Recall was just announced today involving the potential for the steering wheel to come loose. I just tried to schedule service at the dealer, but they don't have any of the parts yet and apparently we have to wait for the official letter from Ford stating they're ready to make the repairs. Until then, hold on tight to those wheels! https://jalopnik.com/ford-recalling-nearly-1-4-million-fusions-and-lincolns-1823762842

Not sure if this is a problem or not since I just took delivery of this 2017 FFE Platinum. I noticed that the backlighting on the climate buttons were not illuminated when the headlights were off. This makes it hard to see during normal daytime driving. Strangely, they are illuminated nicely when the headlights are on as you would expect. So, it's not like the lights are not lighting up at all. Also, the dimmer works as expected with the headlights on, but when headlights are off, the dash responds to the dimmer switch, but those same climate buttons remain off regardless of the dimmer setting. This seems odd because we also have a 2017 Explorer and those buttons are always well lit and respond to dimmer whether the headlights are on or off. As a point of comparison, I'll attach a picture of the Explorer's center stack as well as the Energi's center stack - both with the headlights off and the dimmer all the way up. Just wondering if anyone with a similar model can confirm this behavior as normal or not. Thanks!