2021 Mustang Mach E4 X

 

Car Tech Blog

2021 Mustang Mach E4 X

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Our Youtube Channel Two Guys And A Ride - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOv1hbnEZ4z-325HdFjXHzQ

Full Review of the 2021 Mustang Mach E4 X -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TioQS76FaY

POV Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSZvBqnF3Yg

How To Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6yWyoYsjZo

We finally got to drive the new 2021 Mustang Mach E4 X today, and man what a thrill!  It was a lot of fun to drive it, and pressing down on the accelerator brought instant torque to the wheels, which was exactly what I was hoping for.  The drive and ride were very good and the SUV was quite responsive in terms of steering and handling in general.  Now the title may confuse some readers as we normally just hear about the Mustang Mach E.  The number “4” refers to the AWD and the “X” refers to the extended battery range this particular model had, there, no more confusion!  

My walk away impression of the vehicle was that, OK, I just drove an all electric car, and yet, all the controls from the window switch’s, mirrors, and lights all seemed natural, and that is because Ford made sure that all our familiar controls would still be present in the same places as other ford models, and would function in the same way.  It made driving the Mach E, very natural, in fact had it not been for the absence of engine sound, I might have thought I was driving a gas powered car.  I think that if a person is determined to buy an all electric car, but have never driven one before, this would make an excellent choice, as all the basics would be familiar, they could just get in and drive.

The Drivers Information Screen is a 10.2” rectangle and although it presents good information, is not customizable at all, other than you can switch the background to “Auto”, “Day” or “Night” mode through the infotainment system.  So let’s talk for a moment about the information it did display.  Over on the far left your battery range is displayed, just to the right of that, your Turn-by-Turn Navigation was displayed.  To the right of that was your Driver Assist stuff like cruise control, Lane Keeping etc..  Just the right of that (and now we are of the very right side of the screen) was the Vehicle specific information such as the speedometer.  On the very right edge on the top of the screen you have Driver Assist Messages such as your cruise control on indicator and just below that your gear selector.  

At the very bottom, starting on the left, was a compass/ambient temperature window, followed to the right by an Information bar (shows things like if you have the one pedal drive mode engaged) and on the far left of that, the odometer.  So although not customizable, it contained all the basic information a driver could want.  So things that we are use to seeing in the Drivers Screen such as Media, or Phone, were present only in the infotainment screen but you do have controls on the left side of the steering wheel that manage volume, and skipping stations or tracks, plus you have voice command which will open any app you would like (phone, Navigation, Radio etc..).

I very glad Ford decided to put in a Drivers Information Screen and put all the basic driving info in it cause it works, it just does.

Moving on to the Infotainment system which is a Sync 4 system, it has a 15.5” screen mounted vertically and has wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto, Bluetooth, AM/FM and HD Radio, along with Sirius XM 360 Radio and a 4G LTE Hotspot.  The sound system is a Bang and Olufsen, 560 watt, 10 speaker sound system.  

In general the Sync 4 system is a huge upgrade from Sync 3.  It is much faster to respond, has much more memory capability, and is a learning system.  So as you drive it, it learns where you go, on which days, what music you like and so on.  Ford does say it will not sell your information, so thats a comfort.  The great thing about it is that when you get in the car and start it, it will pop up on the infotainment screen a list of suggestions for you based on the day and time, so for instance if on Tuesday you always go to work, but stop at Starbucks on the way, it will suggest that in the Navigation, and you can just push the icon, and it will map the route for you, plus it will suggest your favorite music stations that you can just click on.  Kind of like having a butler in the car.

The sound system itself had two interesting items, first was the center speaker which was right on the edge of the dashboard and stretched from one side of the car to the other.  The second thing was the subwoofer which uses the cars cabin to help produce the sound which Ford says takes up 80% less space than a traditional subwoofer.  The sound was quite good if you were wondering.

The Information presented on the screen was well thought out, well placed in terms of where everything is, and was very responsive in terms of reacting to touches on the screen, and using voice command.  So here is how the information is laid out.  At the very top you have Two Icons, one is a picture of the Mach E (on the right), and the other is a Personal Profile Icon so it can be what ever you would like it to be.  On the far top right there were some of the basic icons such as wifi signal, cell phone signal, and the time.  Immediately below that was the largest section of the screen and it showed what ever app you were currently on.  Just below that were 3 cards (icons in the shape of cards) that showed the 3 most recent apps used, and you could slide those over and view 3 more of the most commonly used apps, so a total of 6 cards.  Now just below that was your climate control (which is all run through the touch screen) and is constantly on, it never goes away.

Basically if you own the car, you would want to set up a Personal Profile and then click on that every time you entered the car, because everything you wanted would then be right at your fingertips.  Think of the Personalization button at the top as your Personal Home button.   This system has no traditional home button, but I think Ford designed it that way so every Personal Profile screen can be unique.  If you clicked on the Mach E icon, that took you to things like Settings, Safety Systems, Ambient lighting etc, you get the picture.  

One of the neat tech things was when you switched driving modes, the cars ambient lighting could be set to automatically change as well, and that is the first time I have seen that.  Although I drove it during the day, I can only imagine what it would be like at night, kind of sets the whole mode if you know what I mean.