I own multiple vehicles, and yes, go through them like crazy. It's really not even about being "hard to keep happy". I've actually liked most of the vehicles I've owned, throughout the years. I've had a lifelong love of all vehicles, and if I come across a vehicle that I really want, I usually purchase it. I just purchased my 2021 F-150 two weeks ago, and already have two other vehicles on order (they've both been on order for months). I've owned 10 plus vehicles during the course of many calendar years. I'm definitely not the guy who keeps vehicles like the average person does, for years on end. I get bored much more quickly. I've owned my 2016 F-150 for a year and a half, and that's being picked up tomorrow by the guy who purchased it. A year and a half for me is probably as long as I've driven any vehicle in at least 20 years. What can I say...I like to mix things up and have different vehicles. My wife doesn't allow me any other variety, so automobiles, it is

 

It's not even remotely comparable. If someone wants to sit and watch me for countless hours until the maybe one day a week or every other week, if that, when I use my keypad so they can get into my truck where my keys won't be anyway, then go for it. The use of the keypad isn't always because you are locking your keys inside, you just may not have your keys with you at all.

Then maybe they just hang out in a large, 300 car parking lot at popular beaches waiting for someone that DOES lock their keys in right? Okay, so now you need an angle on the keypad without other cars or the person in question blocking the view, need to have a Ford owner that actually uses the feature, and so on.

The actual cross section of people that use the keypad daily and in repeatable and obstruction free ways for this to be possible is next to non existent. It's like saying my keyboard is a security hazard because I type my work password into it 20 times a day and someone could conceivably be looking through my window with a telephoto lens and capture me typing it. The odds of anyone investing that much time and energy and even being able to make out what is happening is not even worth discussing.

Now, keypads at a home or outside an office building? Yeah, you have to be cautious there. That's a very public place and a static security device. Someone could point a video recorder at that keypad and leave and come back in a couple days and review footage of all the times someone used it. And the house doesn't move unlike the vehicle.

Just saying that the keypad isn't a security threat, even if you remove the far more obvious move of just busting out the window and when the truck alarm goes off turning it off with the key fob that would be inside. Infinitely quicker and you end up with the vehicle.

 

I'm in the "functionality & reliability over design" camp as well. This is my first ford and didn't realize how handy the key pad entry would be for my use cases.

- If needing in the garage, I've used the keypad entry to open the truck, so I can press the Homelink button. (FOB is in the house)
- Youth soccer club... Shared access to the truck to retrieve soccer gear, ice chest, ect. (FOB is in my pocket)

enigma869, curious your thoughts on the antenna? To me... the antenna drives me nuts. I hate the looks. It accumulates ice and creates wind noise. I hate it. To the point that I have just removed it completely.

 

I don't always have my phone with me.

I don't always want to get my phone out, unlock it, open the app, wait for the app to connect, then wait for the app to unlock the car, even if I do have my phone on me.

I want other people, at my choosing, to have the code to be able to unlock my truck without me having to be available to do it.

The entry buttons on the side are not replaced by anything else and I do use them and do want them.

 

So then don't use the button when you are out in public, "every time" you get into the truck. Or, be secretive and cover it.

The keypad is often used without the FOB already in the truck.

Telephoto lens from a roof across the street? lol

I doubt many people use the keypad when they go to home depot, and I also doubt many people go to home depot so often, and park in the same location, and come out at a predictable enough time, and use the keypad without obscuring what they are entering from a known angle, and have somebody with a telephoto lens who is secret agent spying on them who sets up on a roof next door and watches and waits to copy their code for later use.

But if that's you...cover up when using your code when you make your daily run to home depot

 

Ah yes, that awful antenna. That thing is straight out of 1985...just like the dopey keypad. The antenna thing is even more baffling to me. I've owned a lot of trucks over the last ten years, and the Fords are the only one that even still has that ridiculous whip antenna. Most other manufacturers have been building them into the windshield forever. I will tell you that anytime I purchase an F-150, the antenna is usually removed within the first 24 hours of me owning it. I just bought a short, stubby, 6 inch antenna on Amazon to replace it, and my reception isn't any different than it was with Ford's ridiculous antenna. It's time for them to do away with that thing, as well! Even though the short, stubby antenna isn't as offensive to look at, I'd still rather not see an antenna, at this point.

 

It looks the same because it works and works beautifully.

We have a "modern" set of buttons on our Explorer. You can't even see them until you use them, they are digital/LED/touch screen/whatever.

They suck. They take five times longer to use because you have to get it activated before you can press the buttons, and they often don't work with gloves or work well with this that or the other on your hands.

It kind of sounds you probably just shouldn't own a truck, it's not trendy and hipster enough for you.

You need something that people probably haven't heard of until you tell them about yours

 

I can assure you that I'm neither "trendy", nor a "hipster". I'm an old *** football coach...who is in my fifties, who has never cared even a little (at any age) about being hip or trendy!

 

Then you shouldn't be worried about the "dated look" of the awesomely functional and reliable keypad Ford uses on a truck

They are also good, BTW, for making sure a vehicle is locked. When you don't have the keys. Like, your brother's. Dad's. Mom's. Wife's. Them checking yours. Just hit the two buttons to make sure it's locked after you all got out in the parking lot of ___ and the last person finally got the folding chair out of the back/etc/whatever. Or just walking by it in the driveway at the family get together. Or locking your other's vehicle in the driveway in case they forgot. Just pop the last two quick.

It's not all about getting in.

 

I like my keypad and use it a fair amount. I always locked my keys in the truck while at the gym so I didn't have to have my clunky ring of keys on me. Sometimes, when I'm in the driveway, and want to check in the truck for something and I don't have my key or phone on me, I'll use the key pad. I spend a lot of time hunting, and don't always like to carry my keys in. (I walk in about a mile and if my keys were to fall out of my pocket, I'd be lucky to ever find them.) And if my hunting partner wants to get in my truck for any reason (lunch, got cold, shot a deer, I got injured) he could do that easily. It literally could be a life saver.

I hope they keep it.