Joining a new tribe...
 

After having owned a '08 TCH since new - and which is staying in the family - we purchased a '16 FFH SE in Ruby Red with the charcoal 'appearance package' interior (dark fabric, red stitching). Calling the car Persephone because of the leaves growing when getting the optimum fuel consumption - figured any vehicle that grew leaves had to be named after the godless of plants ;). And Persephone sounds so much cooler than the Roman equivalent Prosperina B) .

Closed the deal late on the 17th, took delivery on the 18th. So, after the first weekend of driving and roughly 270 miles, a few quick impressions:

Driving experience is excellent so far.

• Drivetrain integration and responsiveness feels 'spot on', with excellent response and good mid-range torque for merging on the highway. Ride/handling compromise is quite good.
• The car is quiet on most roads - there is a concrete surface bridge which is a notable exception. No remarkable difference relative to the TCH - except the newness translates into fewer rattles. We'll see how that holds up.
• The in-car feedback is fairly intuitive - but I'm still digging through the manual for various 'extended information' features. The little vineyard of leaves is too precious by a half - but it did inspire a name, so there's that. :rockon:
• Not sure how close to reality the in-car fuel consumption estimator is, but if it's close, I'm a happy camper. Without having it broken in, in-car is showing 41 and change in decidedly mixed driving, something close to 70% suburban surface streets with A/C use. My TCH didn't hits its mileage stride until 10K miles, so... :thumbsup:
• The stereo (MFT 'basic' in the FFH tech package) - I specifically didn't want Ford's nav after our experience with our '15 Explorer. No regrets overall, but it's decidedly 'meh' - not really bad, but the sound is a decided step down from the TCH JBL unit in terms of sound. Wish I could have had a unit that didn't shove satellite subscription into the equation - the Sirius thing is not getting renewed when the 6 months is up. I would have appreciated a bit more power/better speaker a lot more than the wallet-bleeder that subscription radio is. Besides, with Pandora (et al) being 'free' for now, what's the point of another non-portable subscription?
  MFT integration with the phone is pretty decent - even though my device isn't on Ford's officially recognized list (BB Passport). Most functions work well enough, as does the Bluetooth player.
• The lack of a 'real' spare is a sword of Damocles hanging over the wheels - which I'll be 'dialing for doughnuts' with the local wrecking yards to remedy. There are too many types of tire failure that the inflator/sealer won't do any good with. Kind of annoying, and an extra expense, but at least it seems that putting in the temp spare is possible. I suppose with Ford's motor roadside assistance some may not bother - but I don't like waiting around.
• There are some strange packaging decisions with the FFH, particularly in the trunk. The left side around the 12 volt seems like a bunch of wasted space, and the goose-neck hinges kill a couple of cubes by themselves. The current cargo hold is adequate, but better packaging and hinge design could have made it exceptional.

Overall, I cross-shopped brands TCH, HSH and HAH, and the FFH came out ahead. Liked the new TCH XSE - but the price point and forced option and tires (HATED the Bridgestones in that package) kind of soured me on it. The HAH was nice - but Honda's taking 2016 off for the HAH, which makes me wonder about their hybrid commitment. The HSH felt like it needed another generation to gain parity - and what's up with the old school stepped transmission in a hybrid?
Also looked at the FFEnergi - and the deal-breaker there was the lack of cargo space. The economics on that one are dicey with $2 gas - but it would have been a good 'safety belt' to be able to do my normal commute without gasoline.

Overall, good job, guys. Or is that "buen trabaho", given it was made in Mexico? :salute: