Told my wife too, and she said... "I don't care how it does the little starty thing as long as it starts.... "

 

I noticed the other day that my 06 FEH actually does rev up somewhat if I step on the gas in nuetral. It doesn't rev like a normal car would, but it does respond & rev up a little bit.

This kind of surprised me because the 05 FEH I used to own gave no reaction whatever when I did the exact same thing???

~John

 

I am disappointed that the shifter waste all that space between the seats. Its only a switch that could take almost no room but NNOOO!! they have to waste all that space so it looks like a normal car.

 

That is essentially already built into the keys with the Integrated Keyhead Transmitters (IKT). They are programmed to your specific car so that only those keys that are so programmed can start it. The only thing different is that Ford still makes push the button to unlock it and stick the darned thing into the ignition and turn it to start the vehicle. It would probably be pretty easy to do without the keyed ignition if they wanted to, but they chose to keep things the old way for some reason.

 

That is how a Prius works (my mother drives an 06 Prius), it is called a "proximity key"

~John

 

Those things sound great until someone figures out a way (and they will) to get them to spill their guts to a transmitter carried on someones pocket... then someone will be opening your car and driving away, and they won't even have to pickpocket you first.

Thats why I laugh at those Express Pay things on credit cards. Yeah.. thats what I want... a way to have my credit card info transmitted over a distance. Sounds safe to me. Its only supposed to transmit a few inches but that can always be overcome with some work, and encryption is never unbreakable. Soon a theif will just walk through the mall with a "reader" and everones credit card will be dumping their info to the thief so he can go rip you off later.

After all... the express pay is soooo useful. My wrist gets sooooo tired of swiping the magnetic strip all day, I just can't handle all that extra work..

 

LOL, good point ;-)

I've always felt that was rather stupid myself.

~John

 

Thats a good point! Why not go back to the old push-button transmission. I think the old Chrysler or Buicks back in the 60's used to have that??

 

To me, the shifter is in a perfect place for FE driving. I kept my right hand on the shifter and my elbow on the arm rest and constantly shift to the position that will give me regen (L), acceleration (D), and coasting (N) when I need it. It's very much like a stick shift vehicle when you try to get the most MPG out of it. Everything fits like a glove to me and I never have to look down to see what position the shifter is in.

GaryG

 

But remember they have to sell to the masses (or try to) not you or its not cost effective to develop the thing.