Does anyone have any experience and/or comments between the generation 1 version of sync at the new version in the 2010/2011 F150's..?

The reason why I ask is because I had a Gen 1 in my 2008 Ford Explorer Limited... And to be perfectly honest with you I think Ford rushed this into the product line little too fast before working out all the bugs... And I want to know how the newer version compares to the Gen 1 version...?

For example some of the features that were less than positive in the Gen 1 were

- It would never index all the songs and the iPod, even though everything was filled out
- it would not connect to a few versions of the BlackBerry
- I had to constantly repeat my commands over and over and over again, and if I heard "please save command" or "xxxx command is that correct" one more time I was going to choke my own radio..!
- 50% of the time it would lose the USB signal to the iPod
- I was unable to play DVD movies even while parked
- it had a limited capacity of I think 10 or 20 entries to store GPS locations... Which I hated...
- The microphone was installed underneath the rear view mirror by the windshield... I'm not sure what bright engineer thought of that one... But he or she should be forced to talk to my wife for 3 hours straight..! And let's see how they like it.

I'm sure there are probably a few others I can't think of right now... But I wanted to hear everyone's comments on what they like or don't like about the sync system... Or what you would do differently.

I think the new versions allow for unlimited GPS storage, the maps are more up-to-date and I think the microphone is been relocated as well..

Let's hear your thoughts...

 

Go to the sync website. There's updates you can download so your sync is current. Or you can take it to the dealer. It takes them 30 mins. I'm pretty sure every sync system is able to be updated so the 2011s won't have anything sync wise the 08s and up don't have.

 

Hey Logan... Maybe I misspoke, I'm not looking to update my sync system, from what I'm told that the dealer it is up to date as it can be. And to your point, I was told at the dealer that the GEN1 sync is not upgradable like the generation 2 and above.

My question was more around... What can I expect to be different (i.e. better than the earlier version of sync)... And what has been everyone's experience for those of you that have 2010 or 2011 F150's...

 

Oh I'm sorry. I had no idea there was hardware differences...I'm actually going to the dealership to get my sync updated tomorrow. All I can really tell u is the mic is mounted in the roof liner to the right of the sun visor. Other than that I can't really think of anything else they could change other than the programming. Hope I answered your question.

 

No...Not a problem, I appriciate the help...

 

I had an 08 explorer sport trac and the only problems I ever had with the sync was that it had a hard time finding my music on my ipod, but i attributed it to the fact that I had over 3000 songs on it. Also the POS ipod kept locking up and I had to reboot it all the time. I started using usb flash drives instead of the ipod and found them to work way better with no problems, however i didnt put my whole music collection on there either, figured less songs would make sync better able to find the song i wanted and it seemed to work. Have had no issues with the 2010 version of sync but I sill use flash drives instead of crappy ipods.

 

I just bought my F150 less than a month ago so I am still trying to figure out the Sync to it full potential. But I can comment on my experiences so far. I don't use an ipod for music, I use my Iphone and Bluetooth the music and it has great sound quality, very happy with that feature. I just used the turn-by-turn navigation for the first time 2 days ago and I was very impressed by the accuracy of the directions. (I don't have the touch screen version.) I even pulled into Wendy's drive-thru and it immediately noticed I was off course and asked to pause the route, then instantly detected my movement back on course and picked up where I left off. I am sure it uses the GPS in my phone since I don't have the built in GPS. I simply had my phone sitting in the cup holder in my center console.

When talking on the phone via hands free, I have asked the other party several times if I sound clear and the answer is always yes. The mic quality seems to be very good and seems to be placed in the right spot above the driver by the sun visor.

The only initial problem I had was getting my iphone to charge/play through the USB with Bluetooth off because Bluetooth does not show any song info on the screen, but USB does. I found out only last night that my USB cord doesn't work for some reason in the truck. I tried another cord and it worked fine. But I think I am going to add the 2nd USB mod and hide the new flash drive in the glove box that way i don't have to worry about chords hanging from the front of the radio.

Hope my comments help.......

 

I should add that I agree with the above poster, when using the phone hands free in the 2010 ive asked people also and ive switched back and forth to handsfree and the actual phone and they said I was very clear and they could not detect when i was talking on phone or through truck where as in the 2008 sync they could tell, probably microphone placement more than anything.

 

I took my truck to the ford house today and they said $90 to update the sync?

 

One thing I wish Ford/Microsoft would do with SYNC is allow loading of music to the Hard Drive through a computer or something other than ripping from a CD. Who buys CD's anymore?