solas989

I second (or third) the 3M clear bra - [ WOO HOO CLEAR BRA's. ] Nonetheless, the are life savers. Brother has Maxima with it and a rock hit the front hood and exploded onto his windshield. Yes there is a nice dent in the hood BUT the clear bra did NOT break and thus no issues (other than a dent). And it looks way better than the 80's bra's - ick! Solas

Not my baby!!! NEVER!!! I could never do that (even though I could possibly fit it inside the Edge)

That I think is a problem - more so than the spongy brakes. I agree the brakes are spongy but have not had time to look in depth at them - heck - we have had the car for 2 days and one of those days was the superbowl. I had a Ford Contour that was spongy too. Replaced the flexible lines with SS ones and it helped a lot imo - semi easy to do - but not for faint of heart since brake are very important. During the upgrade, flushed and replaced the fluid - night and day. On my Mazda 3, I still do have the stock flexible lines and no spongy feeling. Just my thoughts Solas

I have not personally had this experience however (and if you have not proceeded with this): 1: Was it a brush or touchless carwash. I avoid brush (contact with car) carwashes at ALL COST because the brushes are cleaning with other cars dirt. I only use touchless in winter time to get salt off when it is freezing (I use the heated carwashes - cost more but open during freezing weather). 2: Most car washes clearly indicate somewhere that you enter the car wash at your risk - thus you cant go after them - at least around here they do. 3: You always have a risk of paint not matching. However, if you find a really good body shop, there wont be any issue. We had a 2000 Cavalier that was quite faded from Original color - and my body shop matched it PERFECTLY - to the naked eye anyway. We did not have any problems with the paint - just keep it waxed and clean. A lot of scratches can be polished out - try that first. 4: I like independent bodyshops myself because that is all they do. Note: This is not saying Ford body shops are not good either and the independent shops are better - do your research. Note: I have heard it is harder for shops to match the new ford colors - this is a rumor and i have no data to back that up. Good Luck Solas

I can not comment on the Edge MPG as I just bought one (only 58 miles on it so far and still breaking it in). I do know for those that have auto climate (I have dual zone), that when I place it on 60F, it kicks the AC on - even though it is 25F outside...odd, but that will kill MPG. 65F does not kick it on, but is still warm to me. Another thing is I noticed is there is no engine splash guard. While they are annoying as sin to work with when doing Oil changes, it does help the air flow under the car - I am curious if anyone could fabricate one. I do want to say, the Brand of gasoline DOES matter. I did tests in my Mazda 3SP during summer months. I used BP, Shell, Speedway, Clark, Citgo. My testst were 10 fill ups of the same station same pump and driven as similar as possible (first two fill ups not counted and used the last 8 fillups in calculations). Average miles per tank (14.5G total capacity) was 363 Miles with an average fill up of 12.8 US Gallons. I used regular octane and started at 2604 Miles on the engine. I suffered as much as I could during this test but I did use AC at times, but noted that. (I am anal if you did not figure that out). Note: I did lots of mixed driving. My Mazda now has 68542 miles on it (bought in May 2005). I do not drive like a bat out of hades, but will Zoom Zoom when I need to. I have a 5 speed manual. The best gas mileage by far was Shell (my location is Ohio). It averaged 1.8 MPG MORE than BP (second best). Shell: 29.765 MPG BP: 28.048 Speedway: 27.495 Citgo 25.457 Clark 25.023 I tried my best to keep variables constant - but keep in mind this is not 100% accurate. Variables such as type of station (heavy or little usage), temperature, driving style, regional location (yes gas formulas are different for regions), winter gas, and others affect MPG. Basically the moral of the story is buy good name brand fuels. Again, this is my $.01 so take with agrain of salts Solas

I hate when people do not signal - it drives me bonkers. However, there are times I dont use it too - I am not perfect. Buy I try to use it all the time - especially in heavy traffic. I also hate excessive use of the horn. My father abuses it and it is annoying. Most people that the horn is aimed at people dont hear or ignore the horn anyway. However, it annoys everyone else. I just get up and get around them. I dont mind the loudness of the turn signals - it could be MUCH worse - I have had some cars that it was just intrusive to use the signal. Solas

We were just looking - trying to decided between Dark Ink Blue and Blazing Copper exterior colors and Stone and Camel interior colors. We saw both that day and the Blazing Copper with the Camel interior just looked the best. The blue was blue only in direct sunlight and otherwise it was black. The Stone interior was just too blah and boring. We had zero intention of buying that day. Brought no documents with us - nothing. But the dealer was SOOO nice and gave us an EXCELLENT experience, and best of all, a deal we could not refuse (XPlan but with an excellent price on trade in). Now we are proud owners of a Blazing Copper Edge Limited with BAMR and Power Liftgate. This is a HUGE upgrade for my wife (her vehicle). Her previous car was a Chevy Cavalier Base. She went from no power no frills to power everything and a huge vehicle (in comparison). Of course I still love my Mazda 3SP more - but that car is my baby that I can whip around corners much quicker than the Edge. Solas

IT would be nice to have LED tails too. Heck, my wee Mazda 3SP has them (factory)!!! But I digress - it is a want - not need. Still, it would look really nice - especially with HID on the front! I am sure eventually someone will fabricate LED tails for the Edge at it is in the correct market to get a good deal of aftermarket options - eventually IMO. Ford - make it so! Solas "Begin to see the world behind the world you see and you too will believe"

I second that K&N is just taking your money. When looking at air filters EXTENSIVELY for my Mazda 3SP, I found several places that examined their filters. Yes, they "can" see more MPG and more power, but the amount is so small of a gain. T Yes, they last a long time, but have you recharged a K&N? It is not as easy as a new filter drop in. I would rather drop a new filter in every 12K miles than clean a K&N every 35K to 50K miles. But simplicity is my means of existence. They get the performance gain by using less pleats which allows more air to be pulled into the engine. What comes along with air - dirt. Which in turn wears the engine quicker. No thanks. Now this is not to say it is a bad filter, especially if you plan on not keeping the vehicle more than 4-5 years - as you probably wont see any damage from dirt in that time. But, since I expect cars to last a minimum of 8 years and 175K miles, every wee bit of protection is important to me. When I was looking for filters on my Mazda 3SP, the OEM Mazda filter from the dealer was FAR superior to ANY other filter. Granted it was restrictive per say, but it protects. If that is that same for Ford, I dont know. Just my $0.01 Solas "You must take my babbling with a grain of alcohol"