The losing connection with phone part might be the phone. I have a Samsung Epic. It worked great with my old car and Android 2.1. Sprint pushed an upgrade to 2.2, and it all of a sudden wouldn't stay connected for any predictable amount of time. I love my epic, but this simply won't do. I even went and upgraded to a Motorola Photon (Less phone for more money in my opinion,) and it worked great. I sat there with my new phone in my hand and got more and more pissed. It worked fine, but why should I have to buy a new phone when I love my old one, paid a bunch for it, and have had it almost exactly a year? If Sprint hadn't pushed a faulty update, I'd be happy. Well, I did some investigation, and I'm now refunded on the Photon, and am using my Epic again with 2.3.4 installed. Connects every time, and stays connected.
As for the delay in voice working, yes, that's normal. It takes time to load.