NV Rick

After reading your post, it got me to thinking (which can sometimes be dangerous). If you have a child in the back and have the childproof locks engaged, that is a good thing. However, if you have them engaged when adults are in the back, it could lead to unintended consequences. If, God forbid, you were to have an accident where the driver is incapacitated, the rear seat passengers could then be trapped in the car. It may be a pita to engage/disengage the child proof locks as needed, but it is something to think about. It would be more convenient if the locks could be engaged based on passenger weight, wherein if a passenger weighing more than, say, 85lbs would disengage the locks, or at least be able to do so from the driver's seat.

Was that "The zig that zags" or something? Or was that the Catera?

Puppy? I thought that was a horse. Just kidding. I've always thought that boxers were a very elegant looking breed.

Glad no one was injured. BUT, we need puppy pictures!

When (and IF) I ever update my ver4, it will be to see if the POI list has been updated. There are many POIs that are not listed, and more annoying, POIs that have moved or never existed where they are listed. The other day, I was looking for an ATM. I was directed to an address that I doubt ever had an ATM there. Garmin is much better, and a smartphone just can't be beat for being up to date.

I had the juke box on my 2009 and 2011 MKS leases. They were a major PITA to load (each CD had to be loaded individually). In my 2014 MKZ-h, I have my songs on a thumb drive, which is easier to load from my computer. It has all the advantages of the old jukebox without the misery of having to load it up. I believe you also have the option of playing songs from your smartphone by using bluetooth. I actually don't even know if my CD player works, lol.

In the picture, the front end looks way out of proportion to the rest of the car.

Where do you keep it so it's handy?

Looks nice. But one of the main reasons I bought the 'official' one from Ford/Lincoln was that one of the segments is designed to hold the cooler bag. This comes in handy since we live over an hour away from the Costco in Las Vegas. I drop in four freezer packs and so when we get home, any meat, cheese, fruit or other perishables are nice and cool, even in the insane heat in southern NV.

What brand of tire needs replacing? Have they been rotated at the recommended interval? Have you over/under inflated and checked the tire pressure regularly? The answers to these questions will help others to make suggestions. The Camry, with a six cylinder engine has more weight on the front end which will increase traction in snow.

Thanks for the idea Ken! That's what I like about these fora/forums. Little things are mentioned in passing, and someone comes back with an inexpensive solution.

Hey, I think I deserve some of the commision on that sale! Just kidding...The organizer and cooler will serve you well. The only niggling criticism I have is that I wish the bag was a little taller. It would make the zippers easier to close.

It will only fit in the main area. If you need room for something that won't fit in it, it is easy to collapse and store flat on the trunk floor. I had a cargo net from previous cars, and I keep it attached so when I go to buy 5 gallon water bottles, I simply collapse the organizer and lay it on the trunk floor. I can put two bottles of water in the net to keep them from rolling/falling. By the way, it is not necessary to use the tie-down straps attached to the organizer. It has never moved around, whether empty or full.

$25 for the cooler bag. $80 for the cargo organizer. Both seem to be well constructed and should last forever. The size of the organizer is such that it should fit in the trunk of any reasonably sized car, so if you ever get a different brand/model (but why would you? lol) it can be used there as well. Just to clarify: the bag fits in the far right side partition of the organizer. that leaves three other partitions for groceries or whatever. The cooler bag is especially useful when we make our runs to Costco in Las Vegas. The trip home is about an hour, and in the summer, I wouldn't want to have meat sitting in the trunk for that long without being cooled. My wife gets medication in the mail/UPS that has freezer packs to keep it cool. We throw four of these in the bottom of the bag--they cover the bottom perfectly--and the packs are still frozen when we return home with the bag filled with meat, butter, fruit, or anything else that needs to be kept cool.

I have the Ford/Lincoln organizer. It doesn't slide around, whether empty or full. The cooler bag is great. Just throw in four freezer packs and meat and liquids stay cool even on the hottest days.

I have a '14 Z-h and it has the temp reading and time displayed on the right hand monitor. I don't understand why Ford/Lincoln removes handy info items. I kind of miss the elevation reading in the navigation program that was in my '09 and '11 MKS's.

Spoke too soon. Drove through the 'drop out' area yesteday and had, you guessed it, drop outs.

I've gotten as much as 56mpg. Mostly, I get in the low to mid 40's, but most of my longer trips involve driving through mountains so that accounts for the lower mpg. Driving from home to Las Vegas involves a 3000 foot elevation change, but I still get about 42mpg on that trip. (And I live at an elevation of about 2700ft.)

This 'update' happened this morining. On the way to the wife's doctor, I noticed we didn't lose the transmission in the usual spots. I didn't even consider that there was a connection. I'll monitor to see if this is permanent. Funny, but I never had drop outs in my previous two MKS leases, and the drop outs only started a short while back. I thought maybe the sats had moved and the signals were now obstructed by some power lines.

Heather, before you buy from Lincoln, check your local Ford dealer. When we bought ours, our Lincoln dealer didn't have any in stock. They told us to go across the street to the Ford dealer. The same exact organizer and bag were both a few bucks cheaper at the Ford store. Of course, ymmv.

The first thing we did after getting the car was to get the cargo organizer. Although it is relatively expensive, it is something that will last a long time and can be used even if you were to get a different make or model in the future. We also got the insulated bag that fits inside the right hand segment. It is great for our trips to Costco since we live about sixty miles away. No worries about meat getting hot since we throw in four refreezable ice packs. We also have a cargo net from previous cars, and leave that attached as well. When we go to get five gallon water bottles from The Home Depot, we collapse the cargo organizer and we can fit two five gallon bottles in the net, which keeps them from rolling around or falling over. The organizer and insulated bag are well worth it to us. If you can get a discount coupon from Ford/Lincoln you could maybe save a few bucks, but even at full price, I found the convenience of keeping groceries stable to be well worth the price.

Congrats! What options did you get? Inquiring minds want to know.

We leased our 2009 MKS at Desert Lincoln which was on the west side kind of close to Rainbow (on Flamingo,iirc). That dealer was closed and we were 'adopted' by Team Ford/Lincoln. I was kind of surprised they closed a stand alone dealer and kept a Ford/Lincoln franchise open as there are plenty of Ford dealerships around. We leased our 2011 MKS from Team, but when we started looking into the MKZ-h, they didn't seem that interested in us. We stopped in to express our interest but never heard from them. Alan Rothenberg at Findlay took us seriously and kept in touch until we could 'early bird' out of our 2011, never giving any pressure and actually had us wait an extra two weeks until Lincoln offered 0% financing back in July '14. So, kind of surprisingly, there are only two Lincoln dealers in Vegas, one in Henderson and the other on the far northeast side of Vegas.

I don't know if my dealer has the volume to become a Black Label dealer, but they did win the President's Award last year, which my salesman was extremely proud of. I get free car washes anytime I want, and when I went in a few days ago, they even dressed the tires! I can't praise Findlay Lincoln in Henderson, NV enough. My salesman, Alan Rothenberg was a great help during the time leading up to our purchase--kept in contact, but never pushy. The service dept is friendly and the service advisor will personally come into the lounge to let you know when the car is ready. Free soda, coffee and juices, free use of wi-fi, computers and printers, and two tv lounges make a wait less than a pain.

My previous '09 and '11 MKS leases never changed on their own either. I can deal with it twice a year. For the first time I can remember, I didn't realize the 'leap ahead' thing as Sunday and was confused when several clocks (that don't change automatically) showed different times.