Put 100+ miles on Jennay today running around the backroads, here are some thoughts.
The suspension is kind of…sloppy? to me. It definitely needs those leveling blocks; the front end is real bouncy like a stock gen 1. I am used to mine being on mid perch and progressives though, but it plants better.
Haven't been real off road but running hard on the snow pack rutted streets I don't think it is any better than the gen 1.
It's snappy but it needs a tune. Again, I am used to my gen 1 with tune and pedal commander, but I feel behind on the throttle all the time. I think that my gen 1 could take this in the ¼ because of the throttle response.
And you get on it and it sounds like...a v6.
The brakes are spongy to me, it stops, but seems like a lot of pedal travel to get there.
The problem I have with all the terrain modes is everything is decided for you, 4wd in sand and shit like that. Rock crawl mode, shifts into 4lo, no shit, glad I needed some ******* engineer at Ford to figure that out for me. Really haven't played with it or looked in the book to see if you can override certain things in each mode, like 2wd in sand mode, I’m sure you can.
I prefer the gen 1 where you start from zero and select what you want instead of getting it selected for you then taking the things out you don’t want. I could see why the millennials like this, no thinking required. With the snow packed roads, I sure don't like not being able to lock the rear in 2wd.
The stop/start ******** is kinda weird, default is on but you can shut it off like the traction control, needs to default off-on if I want the stupid shit. Driving through downtown the other night I was in the direction that I hit all the lights. It was annoying that it shut down every block. It shut down as soon as I stopped, maybe you can add a delay, haven’t looked yet because I don’t like it.
Not to mention the sound system SUCKS.
There are things I like that I wish my gen 1 had and there are things that I think are more gee whiz then practical. The tech junkies would probably appreciate it more. In my opinion this lane departure, collision avoidance, blah, blah, blah just creates lazy drivers, let the car drive for me so I can text and play games. That adaptive cruise is the shit though.
And I am sure a lot of it is that I am used to my gen 1 and have it set up the way I want and this is new. Plus, I am old and set in my ways. I think someone who has not had a Raptor before would be impressed, but to me Jennay is not WOW, knock your socks off.
Overall, it's good.... just different, not necessarily all good different.
Kept missing my gen 1 all day.
