Hey guys,

I hope this is the right place to put this in. Does anyone have Ford Sync on their car? How does it work and is it really worth the upgrade? Thanks for any information.

12/13/2010 8:06:57 PM

I have Ford Sync on my 2011 Mustang. I like it.

I have my iPod Classic connected using the USB cord. I can control it using the steering wheel controls, the Song/Artist/etc text is displayed on the stereo screen.

If I hit the Sync button I can say "Artist: Foo Fighters" and it will start playing Everlong (or whatever FF song it picks). Same thing with song titles, album titles, playlist names.

I even tried the voice commands with my friend's band, saying "Artist: The No-Good Biscuit Thieves" and it played the right MP3s from my iPod.

I also connect my HTC Incredible over bluetooth. If someone calls me while I'm driving it will pause my iPod music and ring over the speakers until I answer using a button on my steering wheel. I can talk using a speakerphone mic built into the car, with the phone audio coming through the stereo. When the call ends (either person hangs up) the stereo will unpause my iPod music at the same spot it stopped earlier.

The voice controls work well with my phone too, I can hit a steering wheel button and tell it to "Call Mom" without having to dig my phone out of my pocket and hold it up to my head.

I usually have the Bluetooth transmitter on my phone disabled to save battery (shortcut on my Android home screen) but supposedly if I'm in a call when I start my car it will transfer the call to the car speakers/mic midway. And vice versa, if I walk away from my car with the phone during a call it will transfer it back to the phone. I haven't tested this yet, but I do know that as long as I have Bluetooth enabled on my phone the car will automatically sync every time I start the car.

I don't think Android phones support the text-message reading/dictating feature yet. I'm not sure what phones do support that, but apparently some do.

My car doesn't have OnStar, but it does have 911 Assist. If I have my cell phone connected via Bluetooth and I get in a wreck it will call 911 on my phone for me.

I think there is a feature where your car and send a Vehicle Health Report over your cell phone connection which you can then read on your Ford website account. Haven't tested this yet.

12/14/2010 1:47:49 PM

I've got Sync on my '10 Fusion.

Basically everything Duncan said is correct.

The voice controls for most music functions are incredibly accurate and quick, but it does seem to struggle with bands/albums with really short names.

It does transfer calls from the phone to the car using bluetooth. I used to have a basic sony ericsson flip phone and the text message reading was pretty cool. Since getting an Android phone, I've lost that text message reading feature, and the bluetooth connection can be flaky. Not sure if that's a problem with the phone or the car, but sometimes it loses connection or refuses to connect at all. I think it's the phone though, cause I never had a single issue on my old phone.

I've done the vehicle health report a couple times, kind of cool I guess to see how your car is doing from your computer. There is also a ton of stuff built in for getting voice directions using GPS (Sync has GPS built in) as well as things like gas prices, movie times, etc. Once I got the Android phone though, I kinda stopped using all that.

12/15/2010 7:36:02 PM

I sometimes use it to stream Pandora from android phone... obviously audio quality suffers, but it is a nice change of pace

12/20/2010 7:20:49 PM

I have it in my 09 F-150, integrated into the touch screen nav. I absolutely love it. As others have already stated, the voice commands are very accurate. Seamless nav integration is definitely worth it if you have the option, voice controlling the nav and climate is pretty cool. Voice climate is not really more convenient, but it's cool, and helpful if you're in a driving rainstorm or heavy traffic where you need to be really focused on the road. Really well done by Ford and Microsoft, IMO.

12/21/2010 2:51:24 PM