I urge everyone that might have the urge to go off site and register your displeasure with Edmunds about the PATS Security issue to please please not drop your membership here with GH. This is an important issue of trust between us early buyers of Ford's new and pioneering hybrid. Those who are now buying the second edition have protection while we early brids do not because of the cost of retrofitting. I reprint below an email from Edmunds where they seem to say if we just say so they will press the issue with Ford they will alerrt the Mass media. I normally do not want you to go off-website to do a chore but I have spoken with, email to Ford Marketing, emailed to Mercury Marketing, and stressed out completely, and made no progress, so help me out with your numbers of protest. If the numbers fail I will agree to be happy with what i have been given.

Here is the reply from Edmunds:
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Hi Mike,

If there's any way you can persuade other Escape Hybrid owners (in other forums) who have experienced the security problem to post in your discussion at Edmunds.com, that would be great. We had a lot of success getting the press to catch on to the Prius software problem - in fact, once we alerted the press to the activity in the Forums, we had more press requests about the issue than we could fulfill.

A lot of the "big" media come to Edmunds looking for people to share real-life experiences because we've got a large membership base, and a track record of providing Forums members as contacts for their stories. The more people we can get to share their experiences in your discussion, the more likely it is that it'll be picked up. If we get a few more posts about it, I'll alert our PR staff.

Thanks,
Kirstie_H
Roving Host
Host, Future Vehicles & Smart Shopper discussions
Forums, Edmunds.com | InsideLine.com
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Mike

Mike Maline - Sdctcher
2005 Ford Escape Hybrid Owner
California School Teacher