svjim

Not only does the mileage go down in the winter, the Prius has some sort of rubber bladder in the gas tank that stiffens in the winter and it cannot hold a full tank. I lived in Minneapolis for about 4 years, so I know what the winters are like. I would look at some of the early blogs on the FFH. It seemed like most of them were from the midwest and they test drove the FFH in Feb and March and were not overly impressed with the MPG. They all sort of noted that it was winter time and thought that winter may effect the mileage but didn't say much more then that. Jim

This must be a functionality tied to the Nav system. I have a FFH 501A and the 3GS works fully as an iPod when connected via the USB connection. One quirk, appears to be that you should have the 3GS connect over bluetooth before connecting it to sync via the USB connection. I've not only been able to use the 3GS as an ipod, I have been able to stream sound via MLB, Pandora, and WunderRadio iphone applications and still maintain the other functionality. One thing when you are streaming data on applications other then the ipod app, the application is terminated when the phone is used and needs to be restarted. Jim

There is a guy who just joined the sync forum (not syncmyride.com) and he is obviously a member of the sync development team. To your question he replied that the update for NAV users on Sync 3.0 was similar to the 1.3 update. He said it consisted mainly of bug fixes and minor enhancements. Look for post by Condor on the sync forum.

If you have the NAV system you already have turn by turn directions built into the NAV. Sync 3.0 provides a Turn by Turn capability for those who do not have a NAV system.

Thanks Jon for reporting back. I think you have pretty well established that those features only work in cars without the NAV, but that sync 3.0 will install on both cars without the nav system as well as those with the nav system. Jim

So Jon, From your post, it appears you have the Nav system and have installed Sync 3.0. Have you tried the new Sync Services to see if they work? I am talking about the Directions, Business Search, Traffic, and Weather? There has been a lot of stuff on the web, including syncmyride.com, that says they do not work with the NAV system - Can you verify that they do or do not work?

I am not the expert on the NAV, but I believe your only option is through Sirius. As far as I can tell, all the new options just out in sync 3.0 are dependent on getting the location from the GPS chip on sync and not from the NAV. It really isn't clear yet whether or not the Sync module on the 2010 vehicles has a GPS chip or not. If it does, I would think you should be able to install sync 3.0 and use it services. However I suspect that the sync module that is in 2010 cars that have a nav system is the old module. The reason I believe this has to do with the problems that I had installing sync 3.0 into my car that does not have the nav system and what eventually changed to make it work.

No, You will most likely have 2.0. 3.0 provides those services to cars that do not have the NAV system. It is all by voice command and no display like you have. I believe your weather and traffic is on a 6 month free period after which you will have to pay a subscription for it. The services with sync 3 are free for 3 years and after which there will be a subscription fee. Jim

If you got it to install last night, I don't see any reason for you to update it again. I think, and this is just an opinion based upon my experience today, that the only real change was to change the MasterReset_v1.X.CAB file. I am making a wild ass guess that the 1.0 file works with the Nav system and that if you don't have the Nav system that the _v1.1 file works instead. In the download early this morning, the MasterReset file was the 1.0 file, later on they ADDDED to 1.1 file. Ford hasn't been real clear about what type of support the new features will get on a NAV equipped system. The sync site is a real mess. I just went there and it indicates that I do not have version 3 installed, which I did and have even used. They are a real mess and it is about impossible to post anything there and use any browser other the IE.

I had some initial problems getting it installed. I am not quite sure why, other then the install package was trying to install an old version of an installation checker. After some time on the phone with sync support, I was told they would have to get back to me. I am a bit impatient on things like this and can figure most of the things out myself. So about after an hour after I was told they would get back to me, the list of install files changed on the website and I was able to install the applications. So for what good that did me, I can't tell because I cannot customize any of the applications on Syncmyride.com. I may have to use them intitially from the car. So it is back to the car to see if they work at all. **OOOPS - It took about a half hour for me to be able to activate the services. WARNING ** If you downloaded the files before 11 am PDT, I would recommend you download them again before trying to install them. They definitely changed on my FFH 501a package without NAV. It is just possible that the sync box on systems with NAV is the same as the older systems and that is why the masterreset 1.0 did not work with my car. - The message I got was "possibly not enough space for installation or wrong version. My final download of files had the masterreset 1.1 with it and it installed.

Right now, no smiles in Mudville. My install failed with "Possibly not enough space or wrong version." I did a factory resync and got the same results. Now to bug Sync support. I think this should be pretty straight forward for a car just out of the factory.

Your correct in your comment that mileage may vary based upon the dealer. I know each dealer comes to an agreement on specific cars with Costco and most of them will give you the same or similar break on cars that are not included in the deal. I am glad to hear that you left a comment with Costco as at least on the surface they seem to be interested in the results. BTW, was the dealer price for one in stock or to order one. I do know that even the guys that will give you $500 over invoice usually will not do that for a car already in stock. They are all to rare and in most cases they can get MSRP or better, but if you order it through them, then it is easy money.

You ought to be seeing a vin number soon, but I've seen a number of posts where it was at least 4 weeks before they got a vin #. For the manual, click under "Owner Guides" - find it in the left hand gray column under "Non-Subscription Resources"

If you are a Costco member, they have an auto plan that usually results in a good price and no haggling. I got my FFH here in California at Invoice + $500. For what it is worth the invoice price includes both the shipping and an advertising fee (I forget the name) Basically Costco sets up a relationship with the dealer and you get fleet prices which will vary from dealership to dealership.

Well May 26th has come and will fast disappear. The CSR on syncmyride.com that I messaged with today said that the 'offical' word he had was that it would come out in the first week in June. I don't quite understand why they are so secretive about a release date. I suspect they will have a lot of people who have older cars upset that they cannot get the new services and if the rumors of sync 3.0 not being compatible with Nav system are true, 2010 owners may be upset too.