lordyourjosh

I just renewed my Sirius subscription. I received a letter in the mail today offering me one year for $77 (auto-renewing at the "current" rate after a year, so I'll be careful with that), but I felt that was a more reasonable price. The TravelLink/weather/traffic stuff was an additional $6/month, but I already expected that. After tax and fees, renewing both comes to $172 for a year, or $14.33/month. I find that to be an acceptable price for the services offered. They waived any re-activation fee. If you went radio only, it would come to just shy of $8/month after taxes and fees. To be honest, I did miss the sat radio a little bit. I listened to a lot of news/talk stations to keep up on current events. Also, after going back to standard radio, while I enjoy the better sound quality over the compressed SIRIUS signal when listening to music, I did miss the lack of commercials. Now I just have to make sure my car is on and the radio is in satellite mode at 12:45 so the re-activation signal kicks in.

Just as an extra data point - I have a 2010 Fusion Hybrid that I got in March. I have about 7000 miles on it, now. I definitely drive "harder" than most hybrid drivers (I think), and I frequently use a heavy foot on the accelerator. I've never seen any type of smoke coming out of my car, and no trouble lights so far. I don't usually see 40mpg with the way I drive, but I'm enjoying the car and still getting far better gas mileage than I did in my previous vehicle. Did you guys drive so gingerly at the beginning that the rings never seated, maybe? :D All kidding aside, I hope you get the issue sorted out.

I received the same letter from Sirius - $38.85 for 3 months. It didn't sound like a bad deal until I called and found out that is for the music only and doesn't include the Traffic/travel link things the car currently has (well, had, as Sirius was disabled at 11:45am this morning). Being that the letter said "act quickly to avoid disruption of your SIRIUS service" and mentions continuing the "introductory subscription", I think it's a bit of bait and switch. Adding the traffic/travel link is another $6/month on top of it, so actually it's about $19/month. All of the other deals they tried to offer me on the phone were just longer terms with "free months", but still more money for the other features. It's possible I might just be cheap, but I don't feel it's worth that much to me, especially when taxes and other fees are added in taking it to $20 or more. I would have gone with their "a la carte" plan which gives 50 channels (I only listen to about 12) plus the extra $6 for travel link (back to about $12 or $13/month) but, of course, the radio in the Fusion Hybrid "doesn't support a la carte". Nice. Maybe they will give me a better offer at some point, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

I'm starting to get concerned. I was about to start a thread about "worst gas mileage". I've commuted to work and ONCE gotten 34mpg (mostly highway driving but some city) but all other times I'm right around 30, even on a 50 mile mostly highway drive. I don't really see much higher than that in a city drive, either. This morning I shut it down and it was a terrible 26mpg after my work commute!!! I still love the car, but clearly I'm not doing very well with mpg and even though it's cold, 26 seems like a problem. I keep hoping it will improve since I only have about 550 miles on it.

It doesn't take much. I've had two rental cars (Both were not Ford vehicles, and neither were "low end" rental cars) that ended up with cracked windows from stones. I've also had cracks from a small stone chip in my Ranger. In fact, one small hit led to a crack that spread, so I replaced the windshield, only to have it get another stone chip 6 days later (which I had repaired before it spread). Moisture and temperature changes can also really contribute to them spreading. Maybe all of the manufacturers are using thinner glass or something. It's annoying and expensive, but I don't see it being a poor reflection on the quality of the car.

I priced out a 4-banger with equivalent options to my FFH, which means a FWD 2.5L SEL to get all of the power seat/dual zone climate control stuff. The price difference was about $3670. Before purchasing mine, I did come fuel calculations and decided I would break even around 3.5-4 years, without any thought to resale value.

I will agree with #3 - I test drove a FFH in very cold weather (ICE started up the second it was turned on) and I hit the heated seat button the second I got in. It heated up and there were no issues at all. I get my FFH in about two hours, so I'll make sure to test that feature on mine. Too bad I have to get it in the rain.

I know - I was talking about how the FFH is LIKE a traditional car with an alternator as far as the electrical system goes. I guess I should have added a disclaimer after I made that statement.

Well, there was clearly a delay. They missed the delivery date by a week. It came into the lot in Detroit on the 4th, but they didn't get it the last hour and a half to the dealership until this afternoon (by covered carrier, I hear). FINALLY, I get to head over there tomorrow to take delivery of my FFH! And I guess the wait was worth it in a way - all the snow is gone. :happy feet:

Everything is powered by the "traditional" charging system like on another car: battery, alternator, etc. Everything draws from the battery all of the time, though it's a bit more complex than that since, as you said you are constantly providing charge to the battery via the dc converter, when the system is running. Still, if the battery is somehow bad, it's going to cause problems in the system as it helps absorb momentary spikes in power draw that are much shorter than 6 seconds. Computers are especially picky about having consistent power.

I never shut the engine off in my Ranger, though it's a manual so I can just pop it into neutral pretty easily. Unfortunately I don't have my FFH yet sicne Ford missed the posted delivery date to the dealer (it's still sitting in Michigan somewhere). Had I gotten it Saturday I could have enjoyed 4 nice, sunny days. Assuming it shows up soon, I get to enjoy taking my first drive in the rain... so it's good to know about these carwash issues ahead of time.

So the "right way" would be to leave the car running (though the ICE would probably shut down) while you go through? Have other people done it this way successfully? I just want to make sure - I usually do my own washing, but it's good to know in case I decide to run through a car wash.

I'm not sure why you think the Prius is so "friendly" that you don't need to explain it. I have a friend with a Prius and he had several problems with people having issues with it when taking it to a car wash where they drive it around and in for you. Of course they have seen enough now that they understand how it works, but a "good design" is pretty objective. Anyhow, I'll take a nice looking car with a key over a car that has a start button and looks like a shuttlecraft from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Is the door 09/09/09, or just 09/09? They may not put it down to the specific day on the door itself.

It's hard to see if they are thicker in this photo, but according to the Ford website (go to build a Fusion), they have the "Fusion" logo on them. In my experience, the "premium" mats tend to be thicker.