this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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Until recently, I had a Ford Flex.
The only thing I didn't like about it was the proud "powered by Microsoft" emblem (and its implications).
The entertainment system might run something windows based, but there are dozens of microcontrollers that do run linux.
Sure, and for the eight years I owned it before it broke down beyond being worth repairing, I had no problem with those. The infotainment system did kinda suck, but it was a 2014 so I think it would get some leeway for that even if it weren't Microsoft powered.
The emblem just offended my sensibilities. I never pulled it off, though, because the friends who rode with me all knew how passionately I feel about Linux (they mostly also work with it - I try not to proselytize to the disinterested) and found it funny.
According to KBB, the car was worth $8k when it broke down. I put almost double that into repairing the same part of the engine at three different mechanics before giving up. Sadly, for some silly reason, Ford no longer makes the Flex. I think the Explorer is pretty close, but I couldn't find one close enough to test drive. I would have loved to convert my car to an EV, but I wouldn't trust my own work on that front and didn't want to pay as much as would cost to have a professional do it.
Every time I get into my new vehicle - a 2024 Ford Edge - I think to myself how much I miss the Flex. That said, I did get a great deal on the Edge.
That's so painful and I feel for you. I had the same situation with a Honda Element. (I've heard of people going to Flexes as a more recent but similar body haha)
Except for me, I broke it myself, and it was a VERY PARTICULAR bolt that nobody wanted to touch. Thing was leaking oil all over the place and nothing could fix it.
Turned a ~$4000 sale price to $800 junker haul-away. :(
But I got 219,000 miles out of it, so...
Here's to those roomy boxy brick cars everybody called ugly but were absolutely awesome and refused to die...until they did. 🍻
Honestly, it was a car, a thing; I can't claim legitimate pain. It makes me a little sad on occasion, but overall in my life it won't matter. My mom, who loved aphorisms, would have said "by the time you've been married twice, you'll forget all about it." I plan to maintain my first and current marriage, but the sentiment fits.
I am very sorry for the loss of your Element! I was only in one once, but I loved the way the dials worked. Perhaps this humorous lyric from the song "Swagless" by Spose might provide some comfort:
219,000 is pretty solid for any car. I think I bought my Flex at 83,000 miles and sold it at under 100,000. Maybe the starting mileage was 73,000, but somewhere in that vicinity. That included using it as my primary transport vehicle when moving across several hundred miles (which, TBH, is probably what killed it - but I appreciated that I was able to use it and its vast cargo capacity.)
With reference to the toast at the end of the comment, I've always loved boxy vehicles. As a kid, my favorite vehicle was my dad's 1984 Toyota Celica (though his was maroon, unlike the picture). It's also the car in which I learned to drive a manual.
They don't make many boxy cars anymore. The first time I saw a Flex was on the highway and I said to my passengers "what was that?! I want one" then several years later I had referenced it so much my wife said to me some form of "FINE, shut up about it and go buy one." Several hours later I drove home my favorite vehicle so far.
Thanks for the response!
Whether it was <17,000 miles or <27,000 miles, if you put that little mileage on a car in eight years IMO you should reconsider whether you need to own one at all.
It's worth noting that much of that time was during a lockdown and subsequent years involved working from home. Also in the intervening time I bought my wife an EV, which provides most of my transportation.
The gas vehicle is used about once a week to pick up heavy or large things or to take large boxes to the recycling area; plus there are occasions where my wife is out in her EV and I have to go somewhere. During these occasions I am grateful to have my own transportation.
It's true that I don't get much use out of the car, but I live in a fairly rural area. The closest non residential building that I know of is 2-3 miles away and I have limited mobility due to an injury. There's no presence whatsoever of any Uber type services; I don't even know of a taxi industry, though there likely is one. If I didn't have reliable transportation I would be pretty screwed. Even during the week or two between when my Flex broke down and I replaced it, I had to cancel two doctor appointments and miss other things I wanted to do.
I probably would survive if all we had was my wife's car, but I would lose to a lot of convenience and my schedule would definitely get more complicated.
SYNC 4 is QNX, the next gen units like the one in the new Lincoln Nautilis is QNX + Android with some Linux on other ECUs. MS is firmly gone from Ford vehicles.
This is useful information and the depth of your knowledge is impressive. Not that I expect operating system expertise from a car salesperson who has no reason to have any, but my salesperson told me it was still Microsoft. Thank you.
Suddenly I miss the Flex just a tiny, tiny bit less.
There's zero MS in the stack on anything with SYNC4 and newer. Your salesperson is wrong. Even development is largely done on Ubuntu. SYNC 4 has two front ends, one's Qt which has some Panasonic outsourcing baggage, the newer one is web based. The latter is what's in the Mach-e. Since about 2017 all of this has moved in house. Ford hired the whole BlackBerry mobile R&D org in late 2016 - people, offices and everything. It's had an honest-to-god software org since then.
Your Flex probably had the older SYNC iteration that was MS developed. BTW I'm not sure if it was Windows based or whether it was QNX with MS devs creating the software stack on top of it.
Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of ~~science~~ infotainment development?