“Ford tumbled from a fifth place ranking in last year’s J.D. Power Initial Quality ranking all the way down to 23rd this year,” Peter Valdes-Dapena reports for CNN Money. “Ford Motor Co.’s luxury brand, Lincoln, dropped, too, but not quite as far. Lincoln dropped from 8th place in the survey last year to 17th this year.”
“Much of Ford’s trouble has to do with the latest version of its Sync entertainment and phone system, said David Sargent, vice president of global vehicle research at J.D. Power. The latest version of Sync is incorporated into a complex new interface called MyFord Touch,” Valdes-Dapena reports. “‘People were finding several problems with the system in that it would crash, freeze, black out,’ said Sargent. ‘Beyond that, people complained that it was more complex to use than they would like.'”
Valdes-Dapena reports, “Ford has said that it is working to fix the bugs in the MyFord Touch Sync system created in partnership with Microsoft…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft makes Ford buggies confusing. Who’s surprised?
MacDailyNews Note: The J.D. Power and Associates 2011 U.S. Initial Quality Study (.pdf) here.
Related articles:
Ford: Apple iPhone compatibility coming to SYNC AppLink-capable vehicles in early 2011 – December 23, 2010
When crap collides: Ford and Microsoft team up for in-vehicle operating system – December 29, 2006
My mom’s car has SYNC… Unfortunately, the voice recognition has a low degree of success. It often takes her several attempts until it calls the correct person, when the voice control included with iOS works the first time.
Awesome idea, but the execution needs work.
Always seems to work flawlessly in their commercials and in Fringe episodes.
😉
LOL so true. People actual believed that something from MS actuallly works flawlessly. Haha!
That’s Hollywood for ya!
“Beat up Martin.”
“Eat up Martha.”
“Bah!”
/crashes into tree
I think the first version of Sync was getting good reviews. I guess MS messed it up by trying to do too much. And the name “myFord Touch”? Can’t they come up with anything original?
I guess they didn’t think of iFord touch. THAT would have been very original.
It worked great in my girlfriend’s SUV until iOS 4.
I finally updated it using a thumb drive and got better results, but still seems a little buggy.
…and this would be a surprise how?
Ford, wake up. Get Airplay in your car. Problem solved.
This is so good, I do not know if there is any room for improvement to the article. LOL
Just a very funny thought,
en
“People were finding several problems with the system in that it would crash, freeze, black out,’” In other words, working normally as far Microsoft is concerned.
So now it’s a Black Screen of Death. Very tricky Micro$loth! Very tricky! A BSOD by any other name….
Nokia are you reading this?
My Jeep with UConnect works great with my iPhone 🙂
I have a 2011 Ford Edge. I have to pull the fuse that powers the radio/SYNC every once in a while to get it to work with my iPhone periodically.
Love my Ford; don’t love the SYNC!!!!
“I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I … dzzzzztttt.”
Were night rider powered by microswipe…
I own an ’08 Focus with Sync. It works great. Now, this was the first version, when the system was first launched, so maybe they’ve tried to get cute with a bunch of stupid features in the past 3 years, but I have always loved the system.
Microsoft is a Confusing Buggy.
I have owned Fords most of my life, but will never buy a new one again if it has Mimeosoft software. No friggin way.
Ford makes a number of interesting cars. Unfortunately, most of them are made and sold in Europe like the Mondeo. We only get the boring Fusion counterpart. But even a Mondeo I wouldn’t buy with Sync.
I’m reminded of a high-end BMW from a few years ago whose electronics were controlled by a Microsoft OS. The poor (albeit rich) fellow got stuck in his car when the OS wouldn’t allow him to unlock the doors. Emergency personnel had to be called to get him out.
I rented a Fiesta with Sync. I will say the Bluetooth audio worked really well. But the controls are really confusing. The menu system is weird. It did download all my contacts from my iPhone well, but the voice control was useless. Halfassed for sure, but could be something good.
Hope you didn’t leave all your contacts in the Sync system when you returned the car.
Works great in my 2011 Mustang…however, I didn’t get the Electronics package with the touch screen for this reason.
Synch still works with the standard radio..but is limited to voice control (radio and phone). Loaded my iPhones adresses and music…and my iPod touch plays my music via the USB port (so playlists and song info is displayed on the radio).
In looking for a new car last year, MS Sync was one of the reasons we avoided Ford. I knew anything connected with Microsoft would be F’d-up.
Was in Kauai diving a few weeks ago and rented a Mustang. I was enjoying the ride through beautiful landscape when I spied the “Powered by Microsoft” label below the radio.
I immediately had ill-thoughts.
And I’m a Ford shareholder.
Ford has said that it is working to fix the bugs……
If Ford is smart, the “fix” would be to drop SYNC altogether…. wonder how long before antivirus software will be a necessity on SYNC….
If they really want to increase things…. mount an iPad in the cars…. hell, I would rather have an iPad attached with velcro than some SYNC crap.
I think you are on to something…
INSANITY: Doing the same thing exactly the same and expecting different results.
How in the world the ford guys didn’t expect that form a microsoft product if they ar famous for that?
The inventor of the “CTRL+ALT+DEL” combination said once “I just created the procedure, microsoft did famous”
I just purchased a 2009 Ford Taurus just out of lease with all the bells and whistles including Sync… and I can tell you it’s confusing as all hell. It works great for basic voice calling with my iPhone but don’t try anything more complex and DON’T forget to specify which phone to call if your intended contact has multiple phones. Sync will say “Call John Smith, press 1 for cell, 2 for home, 3 for office.” on some occasions with no explanations in the manual… and on others it will say “Press the arrow keys to select phone you wish to call” if it finds multiple matches and you have to watch the display on the dash board to see what comes up. It took me three weeks to figure out that it meant the radio station select buttons for the 1,2, etc., which is a stupid means of selection for a voice control system. Why can I not simply say “Cell” in response to the choice the way my iPhone works? Why do I have to remove my hand from the steering wheel and reach for the radio??? Similarly, I cannot increase the radio or phone volume with voice control… manual only and it’s not on the steering column controls… even though there’s a perfectly good +/- button there. Talk about obtuse controls.
When Ford approached Apple to integrate SYNC with iTunes, Apple said: “Hmm, Don’t let us rush out with a half-baked system. We need time with a fool-proof system”.
But Ford was impatient and it approached Microsoft for a solution. Microsoft said: “We can give you a system in a month with Windows”.
I recently bought the 2012 Focus with Sync/My Ford (not touch). No crashes or black screen (yet). Pos: works pretty seamlessly with my iPhone via BT (phone and music) and an older video iPod on USB. Neg: had to cover up the Microsoft badge in the console with black tape!
FORD = Fix Or Repair Daily – at least that has stayed the same! Holy mackerel, to have your ratings drop that far because you coupled with MS should be a good object lesson. As smart and clever as Mulally has been, and I give him plenty of credit for what he has accomplished, coupling up with MS was a totally moronic move. This was inevitable and will only get worse.
F.O.R.D. some say stands for “Found On Road Dead”
S.Y.N.C. some say stands for “Stink-up Your New Car”!
Microsoft ‘sinks’ Ford.
Was wondering how long before this popped up on MDN…
Was at a cookout a month or so ago and pulled up to see a number of Fords with the hoods popped up. A guy there told the unlucky Stync owners that a hard reset of the shitware could be accomplished by disconnecting the battery. It does work until the next episode.
No USB connection is the Micro$oftopoly Stync version of the BSOD.
Translation: No iPod or iPhone for you!
Just to be an ass & make a point to some there whom I warned about the M$ software, I launched the iHeart Radio app on my phone and walked over to my VW and started it. The audio promptly streamed over the system, the console promptly displayed all the iPhone stuff right on the dash and then called one of the onlookers from the iPhone address book display on the car.
All over BT. The secret? It’s not by M$.
It’s worse than Stync. Ford took the whole M$ Kool Aid and use Microsoft Windows Auto which is a mod of their “smartphone” mobile OS. It isn’t just Ford either, Toyota, BMW and others are using M$’s Bullshit.
When I was car shopping in April the very fact that this shitware encompasses every electronic nook and crevice of the Fords pit them out of the running. My Golf TDI is a great car, has no M$ shitware on board, and looks like it was designed for someone older than 21 years old. The Tokyo by night dashboards with the bling is a scourge upon many cars these days.
The worst worst part is that they put a big ugly badge in the lower part of the dashboard with Mircosoft’s name on it. That depressed me every time I got in the car. So I bought a Chevy instead. Whew.
Microsoft= ” Fix Or Repair Daily”
Apple doesn’t make in car entertainment systems. Maybe they should……
I love my Sync. I wouldn’t buy a car without it.
Have a 2011 Charger with uConnect system and it works like a charm with my iPhone and has great built-in voice control. In auto reviews, it surpasses the Ford SYNC system.
Ditto! Hey Barry, is that you from the Charger forums?
Let’s not pretend this is only a Microsoft problem. I have a 2009 Acura TL and the voice recognition on it SUCKS. 75% of the time it cannot recognize what I’m saying. And Apple is no better. When I plug in my iPhone 4, half the time the car thinks I’m going BT, despite the presence of the iPod cable plugged in to the phone. After I manually switch it to connected mode, half the time it will still switch back to BT on its own, and despite manually re-setting it to cable, switches back again. Maddening. No rhyme or reason.
Solution to ford and sync as follows:
Dump Ford POS and get a chevy.
Ipad2 with double sided tape.
All better now……
What was Ford thinking, teaming up with MicroStupid. We own a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid (pre-Micro$oft) and were interested in trading it in for a newer model until we found out about this crap they put in their cars. Now we are looking else where for our new car.
My experience with SYNC on my son’s 2010 Ford Escape. My son’s iPhone 3GS won’t work with the USB connection. It recognizes it and the drops the USB connection. For my iPhone 4 or my iPod, it works. Of course to get it to play is a multi-step process. Plug in the iPhone/iPod. Click a button, turn dial to select USB Connection, click button, SYNC says that it was unable to sync the entire playlist, scroll dial to select Play Menu, click button, and finally music plays.
On my Acura TL and Hyundai Elantra, plug in iPhone/iPod, radio switches to iPod mode and begins playing.
Which would you rather do? Which would you rather hassle with while trying to drive? Thanks Microsoft!
We all know Microsoft’s track record. However, it wasn’t just Sync that has pulled Ford down in the rankings. The much-ballyhooed Ford “resurgence” was accomplished in no small measure due to cost-cutting in areas that shouldn’t have been. Engine and transmission issues were specifically mentioned as well as electronic entertainment crap.
Note also that J.D. Powers’ initial quality survey only measures the first 90 days of ownership. More problems will come out of the woodwork. Also note that the typical Porsche buyer is way pickier and will naturally report more problems than, say, a Kia buyer. That’s a natural bias in these surveys.
Summary of survey:
Lexus, Honda, Acura grabbed top three spots
Mercedes Benz improved in last few years to achieve #4 rank
Practically tied for 5th place are: Mazda, Porsche, Toyota, Infiniti, Cadillac, GMC
Note also that Chevrolet tied with BMW and outranks several luxury marks, as well as all Chrysler and Ford brands. Perhaps GM still does know how to build some solid cars.
If Toyota is so amazing, then why does its Scion brand consistently rank at the bottom of quality surveys, right next to Dodge?
A
Get in bed with Microsoft and you catch Microsoft Cooties.
DUH Factor.
One day last week I had to pull the battery out of my Windows laptop to unfreeze it … and I had to disconnect the battery on my 2011 Ford Focus to unfreeze Ford Sync. On the same day!
Thanks a lot MicroCrap!