How Much do You Love or Hate Your Ford’s Infotainment System?
When it comes your Ford’s infotainment system (or any other vehicle’s for that matter), there seems to be no middle ground on user satisfaction. Owners either love their in-dash mini-computers, or absolutely hate them.
Remember the days when there were a bunch of buttons on the dash, most of them completed only one function, unless you could push them in or out and perform a second action? Yes, now those suckers were high-tech! Well, things are very different nowadays, and whether you have a fancy and modern infotainment system like the one in the $70k Ford Expedition King Ranch shown here, or a more basic pixelated screen like the ones in the Ford Focus/Fiesta, they all have their pros and cons.
The actual word “infotainment” is a cluster*$@k to begin with, which says a lot. Looking to merge vital information with entertainment features, infotainment systems rely on touchscreens, track pads, turn wheels, click wheels and even steering wheel mounted buttons to operate. Some suck more than others, but in reality, just about all of them are mediocre.
Ford’s last generation Sync was actually one of my favorites, as it split the screen into four different quadrants, always showing you the information you typically find necessary, like, radio/media, GPS, climate and phone/bluetooth. You could then select which one to operate and go from there. SYNC 3 is now rolled out to the public, and it works similarly, but I feel like some of the straight-forwardness has departed.
While Ford’s system may be “OK,” there are others from General Motors, Volkswagen, and not to mention BMW that make changing the radio station or pairing a phone nearly as difficult as performing heart surgery. In some cases, BMW will require an IT degree to even let you set a radio preset (joke).
Our vehicles are being plagued with screens everywhere, in the gauge cluster, in the dash, and soon even in our key fobs (BMW), so these nightmares aren’t going anywhere, in fact—they’ll get worse.
Tell us, what do you love or hate about your infotainment system?
Chime in with your thoughts on the forum. >>
