shiggins

With AWD Edge the best I've gotten on long highway/freeway trips is 25, 24 is about normal. Exclusive city driving can be as low as 14-15 mpg. The average combined freeway/highway/city day to day driving seems to be about 20-21 mpg.

Tempered glass is a strange animal.....it's quite a bit stronger than regular glass, but when it fails, it tends to fail spectacularly and suddenly but safely (into those small chunks). It has great overall strength but a lot of potential energy. Just search the web for causes as to what can make it spontaneously fail. Deep enough surface scratches to the more common edge damage can set it off. The glass is in both tension and compression and when you eliminate the compressive stress on the outside of the glass enough, failure occurs.

It's likely impossible to say for sure, but in a new vehicle on roof glass....one would think there was a defect in the installed glass - perhaps a gouge or nick on the edge or some anomaly within the glass panel itself. Otherwise you'd have heard and seen a pretty large impact on your roof prior to the shattering. I'd suggest doing some research on how tempered glass fails and presenting it to Ford/dealership in an effort to show them it might very well be a defect. IMHO if you have spontaneous destruction of tempered glass due to an impact of a foreign object, you'll know the object hit it. Roof glass failing like that, to my non expert opinion, is a failure in the glass beyond your control.

The simple fact comes down to if there was as easy and simple of a way to throw in a K&N filter on a car and get a 2 mpg increase in fuel economy, every manufacturer would do it. It's that easy and not really even debatable. MPG is that huge to car makers - CAFE standards and all.

And don't even bring the argument about they don't do it because Joe Sixpack can't be bothered to do the extra maintenance in cleaning and oiling the filter. K&N recommends cleaning the filter at 50k miles so it would be easy for a car manufacturer to say air filter changes are required at 50k intervals and the filter costs $50 per time. That's way longer than the standard recommended interval anyway. Not one single person would complain for a 2 mpg increase if they had to pay $50 every 3 years for a new air filter versus $12 every year or every other year.

Like everyone has said, MAF sensors negate the MPG increase due to a minor increase in flow, not to mention no one has yet to prove on this forum that the stock filter is actually restrictive enough to choke the engine off from the amount of air it needs to run at peak efficiency.

How about this analogy - by the same argument many are using about restrictive flow, putting a piece of regular window screen in place of your air filter will flow great, but a piece of chicken wire will even flow more air.....does that mean your engine will make more HP and MPG with chicken wire for the filter over window screen? No, because both are capable of flowing more air than the engine requires. Same for stock filter versus K&N....neither is a significant restriction in airflow for what the engine requires.

Stock disclaimer:

High performance, tuned, or racing engines are likely a different matter.

The internet is a good source for people who have done some pretty decent empirical tests on the issue. Here is one example:

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/airfilter/airtest1.htm

The simple answer is it'll flow more air and filter less particulates than a stock filter. The real question is the added air flow potential of any benefit and is the reduced ability to filter particulates of any detriment to the engine?

My research and very finely calibrated butt dyno basically led me to the conclusion that a K&N filter is more of a perceived benefit than one that can be empirically measured. Added intake noise is right up there with the best of them for making a car feel faster - even better if it's a turbocharged car.

Modern vehicle airboxes with stock filters are no longer a restriction and are capable of flowing more air than the engine would ever need. In the quest to wring every ounce of efficiency, from mileage to power, out of modern engines the engineers have long since eliminated easy fixes such as airflow restrictions from an undersized or overly restrictive stock air filter.

K&N filters certainly let in more dirt than stock pleated paper filters, but does it cause engine damage? Who knows. I had one on my GTI for probably 70k of the 99k miles it has and it still runs just fine and doesn't burn oil. So I haven't seen any negative effects at this time.

Basically at this stage I'm just buying high quality paper air filters for all my cars and change them yearly since I didn't ever notice any real improvements in performance or mileage from the two vehicles (one turbocharged one normally aspirated) I've used K&N filters on.

So for me, I decided why would I want to use a filter that is less effective at the main job they're there for - filtering air if at best it's getting me a few added HP I can't even feel or measure?

Of course this is based on passenger vehicles......high horsepower, high revving, tuned, high performance engines are probably a whole 'nother deal.

And here is a photo of the WeatherTech rear cargo mat.......of course it fits excellent and is high quality as WeatherTech is known to be.

I've been searching for some quality after-market carpet floor mats to replace the cheap stock mats with their inadequate coverage. I found some manufactured by Lloyd Mats that looked like they'd fit what I was looking for - high quality and greater coverage, including the dead pedal area. Thanks to some help and answers from wonderful members on this forum in a previous post, I decided they were indeed what I wanted and went ahead and ordered the Lloyd Ultimats along with a WeatherTech rear cargo mat. Here's my review in hopes that it'll help others looking for carpeted mats.

First some photos comparing the size of the new mats versus stock:

Now the mats on their own:

Here is the back side of the driver's mat showing the hook system that uses the two pegs on the floor and also has a velcro attachment for the dead pedal. The velcro is two pieces and you are seeing the white covering over the stick back on one half of the velcro.

And finally pictures of them installed in the vehicle:

Driver Side

Passenger Side

My thoughts on the new mats versus stock:

1. Carpet quality is better - it's thicker and more plush by a significant amount.

2. Coverage is much better and covers some important areas the stock ones left bare.

3. Fit is excellent on the passenger side but the driver's side has two minor issues. The mat hooks to the pegs underneath the mat which makes the mat bubble a bit over each peg. On the left side of the mat in the foot well just ahead of the door there is a place where they should have curved the mat inward as that's what the plastic foot well wall does so it makes a minor bubble again. I anticipate both issues to become less as the mat breaks in and conforms better to the car.

4. The velcro sticker doesn't exactly line up with the plastic covering in the dead pedal area - part of the sticker will be on carpet. As of now, I haven't peeled the backing off and stuck it down yet......not sure I even need the velcro as the dead pedal carpet mat portion lays just fine on the dead pedal area.

5. The mats are true black so they are a bit darker than the grey black stock carpet. The camera flash makes it more noticeable than it really is and frankly I kinda like the slight contrast and extra dirt hiding ability.

Overall, the mats are a vast improvement over the stock mats and I highly recommend them. If anyone has other questions or needs further pictures, just let me know.

One would think that since they are all auto magazines, the test drivers would be at worst, enthusiast drivers with plenty of practice in the testing methods used and thus give far more repeatable and consistent results than the average driver. So I'd say driver induced deviations are a small if not insignificant factor in the tests. I would assume most of the variations between the tests from various sources is due to ambient conditions such as pavement, weather, etc.

At any rate, I'd say it's pretty safe to assume that while the 2011 Edge braking has been improved, it's still not where it should be versus some of the competition. So far, after 600 miles on our new Edge I haven't felt that the brakes are inadequate but it's still too early to form a final opinion as I baby it when driving it during the break in period. At the worst case, I'd imagine a simple pad change to some more aggressive after market pads would give a decent improvement if needed (like with most vehicles I've owned).

I would be very worried/concerned about any future work that dealer does to your car. The hitch/bumper is one integral piece. If they removed the hitch, the bumper came with it. If you want I can take pictures of my 2011 tow package underneath so you can understand just how negligent they were. There's no confusion or even judgement to what they did wrong. You take the hitch off, the whole metal rear bumper and thus protection goes with it. Short of some serious cutting with a torch and rewelding of some metal plates, the metal rear bumper cannot remain with removal of the factory hitch.

So when the dealership agreed to remove the integral hitch/bumper and reduce your price by the $395 tow package option price.....did they also remove the upgraded radiator/fans and trailer wiring which are also part of the tow package? I would definitely be watching very carefully any work that dealership did on my car if they didn't even know what the tow package included and was willing to remove just the bumper/hitch and give you $400 credit. Good for you for getting $400 credit but the dealer seems to be clueless in the whole deal, at the expense of your safety no less - evidence removal of the entire rear bumper/hitch assembly without replacement of a bumper. They should have known you can't simply remove the hitch. Anyone even taking a cursory glance at under the vehicle can tell that, no matter what their mechanical aptitude. It's simply that obvious.

SyncMyRide is available right now. I just had 2.7 installed at the dealer last Monday 4/4, which is showing up as a confirmed installation. It says I have an update, but dosen't show what the update is.

Same here....except I'm still on 2.4, but still doesn't show what update is available or how to get the update. Good thing Ford updated the servers to make them even more cryptic than before. At least before they updated the servers, it showed no update available (even though I knew 2.7 was out) so I could pretend to live in blissful ignorance that I was current.

I do believe the factory hitch is integral to the metal rear bumper - they are not detachable from one another, so if they took off the factory hitch, that would mean the metal portion of the rear bumper came off too. Why a dealer would do this is beyond me.

To do the job properly, they would have to install a new metal bumper without the factory hitch option in it's place.

Ordered the Lloyd Ultimats for the front and a Weathertech cargo liner for the back today. If no one else gets to it, I'll post some pics once I get them.

Awesome, thanks for answering the questions Chino......much appreciated. I will definitely be ordering this weekend.

Those mats you linked are gorgeous! I might have to consider them. I didn't look closely enough to see if they have the factory securing holes in them. The quality looks good though.

Another question I have and forgot to ask....will they have the two holes that 2011s have? I may have to email them to find out I guess. Perhaps Chino Girl will let us know what year Edge she has....her post was quite positive about the Lloyd mats.

I agree, the mats look like very high quality for a reasonable price so I really hope they work. For sure if I do order them I'll be posting a review with full photos so everyone can see.

I went through AutoAnything.com and got the Lloyd TruBerber Floor Mats for the front and back. They don't have the Edge on them but look really good, and cover the front driver and passenger foot area completely. I have the medium light stone cloth interior and the light carpet shows everything. I was looking for full coverage from side to side in the front and they deliver it. I also picked up the Canvasback cover for the back. Velcro sticks to the back of the rear seats and all the way around the back area. I was looking for something to keep my pups fur at bay and this is also full coverage in the Hawaiian black & white.

Thanks for the answer, that's a big help.

So one more question - did they cover the dead pedal area also? I really feel the factory floor mats leave a lot to be desired and am really looking for more coverage on areas where I'll likely be resting my feet - like the dead pedal where they offer no coverage. Sounds like the Lloyd ones do indeed cover more but I saw one picture on their website that looked to be Lincoln MKX mats and they appeared to have a piece that covered the dead pedal.

triple post

double post

Great attitude! I've still got hope too.

Of course the fact that I've been trying for the last hour to log onto syncmyride.com and keep getting an error that their system encountered an error isn't making me feel too hopeful.

I'm looking to purchase some carpeted floor mats for our new 2011 Edge for summer use. I'll be buying Weather Tech mats in the fall for winter use, so these need to be high quality summer only mats with carpet and not fully plastic/rubber. I'd like better coverage than the stock floor mats - in particular something that covers the dead pedal area. Also, I'd really like something custom fit for our Edge. Anyone have any suggestions?

I am looking at these, as they seem like high quality and have custom fit. Anyone have any experience?

My link

Just took delivery of our new 2011 Limited with the standard 18" "chrome clad" rims.

:soapbox:

Let me first state that I've always thought that chrome rims were the USA's gift to tacky automobile add ons....basically our version of fart can mufflers......wait though, didn't we invent the fake hood scoop too?

Anyway, definitely not something I wanted on a vehicle, but at least the spoke design was tolerable versus the 20" optional rims.

So anyway, my wife and I weren't excited about them to begin with, but little did I realize until I got it home that they were nothing but basically plastic chrome covered hubcaps over aluminum rims. WTF? On a $40k vehicle this is considered acceptable?

This is my first US manufacturer car since a used 1986 Buick back in college so I guess I'm a bit naive to the tacky cheap tricks that are now used for "upscale" bling on premium trim levels. Granted, after two days of ownership I love the Edge, how it drives, My Touch, and most everything else about it, but it just shocks me that I now have a $40k vehicle with glorified tacky chrome plastic hubcaps stuck on rims. I've been researching Edges for a couple years now and some how managed to completely miss the fact that premium "chrome clad" rims meant that Ford bonds on a cheap plastic chrome hubcap. To me, no use of plastic on rims would be the premium version but I guess I'm obviously behind the times. Shame on me I guess.

I haven't decided if I'll point it out to my wife or let her live in blissful ignorance in thinking it's all metal.

Well, the good news is they'll likely be regulated to winter tire duty next winter with a new set of tasteful non "chrome clad" aluminum rims and summer tires for the non snow months.

On a side note, now if I could just find some nice after market quality carpet floor mats to replace the stock ones that don't protect the carpets as much as I'd like.........anyone have any suggestions?

Wow! Just wow.......

I can't believe that is the actual cargo cover. Glad I saw that before we order our Ltd next month. That's simply embarrassing.......like something I'd expect on a 13k econo car from 1993.