/novel on
In my quest to learn more about Zune Car Audio solutions, I decided to go to the Ford dealership today and check out Microsoft Sync with my Zune.
I arrived in my Expedition and parked in front so the salesmen could see me and I could walk away looking aloof. I headed in the direction of the ONLY new big SUV on the lot, a Lincoln Navigator. Sure enough a 20 something kid in a suit and tie came running out eager to help me.
I ask him where all the Expeditions where and he said .. no demand no shipments. I told him I understood and that while I loved my current SUV, I was interested in a newer one with sync and promptly displayed my 120. He said well let me show another SUV with sync(Ford Flex - VERY nice pearl white on the showroom floor) we climbed in and he flipped the ignition to ACC and it came alive. He opened the center console and said "plug your USB in here
| luckily I had it in my pocket
|
|
. I told him I read you where not supposed to use the USB and he assured me that it was ok... I hesitated and plugged it in figuring I was about to either get them to buy me a new one of it was going to go in for warranty work.
To my suprise the SYNC synth-voice exuberently stated that it had detected a new device and started to provided options! about 5 seconds into it the display in the car went blank! I figured well I was right and atleast my Zune was safe and thier $40k ride was in need of a new system! Turns out the battery died.. 4 showroom cars later we found one with a good battery. He told me people using the stuff in the showroom cars all day with out them running the car kills the batteries.
We then climbed into a new Focus and pluged it in! Synth-voice stated Device found > Generating playlist > Available commands.. I stated "Play artist 50 cent." and BAM it started bumping "In da Club" I hit the button again and said "play artist Pantera" and "Mouth for War" starts playing!
So this is all old news to some of you... what is news is he then tells me "You know... if you really like your truck and you like Sync... as of last week for $500 we can install sync as a aftermarket product in your car." I was quite impressed! He did know a ton of details, (to be expected but he was doing a great job so far) like if it was Ford only cars or if they would ship to non-Ford resalers but he promissed to call me with the details. He also did not know if they could be combined with the video/Nav headunit or we could get video out with aftermarket sync. He did tell me if would work on Ford cars for sure and not only did it do all that but it also has a onstar-ish safety feature of calling the police if you were involved in a accident. There are other great features sync has but it is unclear what options are in the aftermarket solutions.
I will be heading back over there next week with a video camera to document it once we get a little more info and he is ready to look like he knows what he is doing.
I have not been able to find anything else about this on the web, so I will consider this "You heard it on
zB first!"
Sorry for the Novel... hope it is a good post and you were board anyway.
Charlie
/novel off
Sync: Voice-activated mobile phone and digital music system for your car
Microsoft Sync aftermarket for your car audio solution!
on 
