SmilinJim

I agree. I believe the handling the original poaster experienced has more to do with the condition of the tires than the actual vehicle. The vehicle is new and probably still has nearly all of its tread available to help channel away water. 10k miles from now, I would be willing to bet that it will be like almost any other vehicle after the tread starts wearing down.

Actually, I figure that it is mostly due to the weight distribution with the big battery pack. It is weighted a lot more like a mid-engine car than a FWD.

And time may prove me wrong, but I know hydroplaning. That wasn't really the effect that I was indicating. My experience, particularly on the Florida trip was hitting a wall of water with one tire. Having it bite hard and yet not create rotation in the vehicle platform. The tires will have an affect on it, but so will center of gravity, suspension, driver reaction, etc.

If it was just the tires, these are the best factory supplied tires I've ever had. Kudos to Michelin.

hey Jim the car is a mudder ! - is there an ECO button or were you hypermiling ?

Just going easy on the throttle in the bumper to bumper lines threading around because of the closed roads. The (ICE) engine was off most of the time and just coming on to recharge. I went this way for at least a couple of hours. There were probably 20 ways home normally and only a couple were not flooded out, so there were lines of Woodstock (or whatever the biggest traffic snarl you can think of) proportions.

Okay, I admit that I love my FFH a lot!

But the thing that I love most about this car is the balance and the wet weather handling. I have had it in two extreme storms now and I continue to feel safe and in control no matter how bad the roads are.

My first long trip in the car took me to Orlando and in the middle of a Florida thunderstorm I hit a puddle doing 70 MPH. first the left side and then the right. The car tracked beautifully. It scared the wife silly , but the car was stable as a rock.

This last week, the skies over Atlanta issued for some seriously sustained downpours. We saw about 2 feet of rain in three days and everything flooded. :titanic: During the rain, I was commuting to work on the interstate, pushing water off both sides of the air dam and in full control. On the way home, because of all the closed roads, it took four hours, but my gas consumption wasn't much higher than on a regular trip thanks to ECO mode.

Okay, you might not think much of my driving technique, but you gotta admit that the car is a mudder! (a term for racehorses that perform well on a wet track)

I ordered mine on March 31. I have been told that it is "on the ramp" here in Atlanta on May18! I should be able to pick it up in the next day or two!!! It is an Ice Blue hybrid with a 501A option pack and leather seats.

:happy feet: :happy feet: :happy feet: :happy feet:

:party2:

A lot of what you learn or don't learn about the status of your car will vary greatly with the CSR that you speak with. I've had them tell me they can't find anything, then it was built, then lost, then built and released. Then in Tuscon, but today it was back in production ...

It sounds like you have done a fair amount of calling. From my understanding, manufacturing info is only updated on Thursdays. Does shipping information update daily?

PLUS, I have no idea of the status of my FFH. The dealer isn't so hot at responding to emails in a timely manner.

Well, I'm still overseas, I still haven't been able to contact the dealer and have struck out trying to get through to FCS, BUT... cars.com lists my hybrid as being in my dealer's inventory now!

Does anyone know how that database updates and what, if anything this might say about the status of my car?

I don't know if anyone from FoMoCo actually reads in these forums, but the company would be in a better place if they could offer those of us that have Ordered new vehicles a way to check the status online for ourselves.

Another consideration is this. I am currently out of the country and use Skype to phone back to the States. The Ford Customer Service number will not put you through to a service rep if you do not have a touch tone phone! I realize that most people have access to TT phones, but there are still instances where you might not. How about either a voice recognition interface or at least having the call eventually transfer to a live operator. Right now it just drops the line after a few menus.

PLUS, I have no idea of the status of my FFH. The dealer isn't so hot at responding to emails in a timely manner.

Ordered mine on March 31st at the end of the day and just got my VIN on April 29th. I thought they came out on Thursday/Friday, but the dealer gave me mine on a Wednesday.

Newby question, will the production date show up at https://www.fleet.ford.com/maintenance/VIN_tools/default.asp or is there somewhere else I need to go?