Thank you for your welcoming messages guys.
Spent an hour at the dealer today running through the intricacies of the car. Let me say, the electrics, esp around the touch screen, are absolutely state of the art. And EVERYTHING is voice activated. For instance, to use the sat nav, don't bother typing in suburb and street address, just press a button on the steering wheel and tell "Siri" the address you want to go to, and the route comes up on the map and navigation starts. Press the button and say "temperature" and then tell "Siri" what temp you want to run the heating or a/c and fan speed and it just happens. And obviously all your phone operations work the same way, just say the name of the person you want to call and it dials. I was really blown away.
You can also customise the interior cabin colours on the gauges, door surrounds, etc through the controls on the steering wheel. Mine is a neon green at the moment but I'll be experimenting.
And how's this for a stunning touch. When you have the headlights on, a light under the side mirrors illuminate a pony onto the road or floor below (see pic).
Seats are fully powered, including wide range lumbar support and not only are heated, but have a cooling option for summer - if you are a fan of a cold bum!
Interestingly for convertible buyers, there are two plastic wings that you store in the boot, and when you put the roof down you clip them in to cover the retracted metal arms. When you want to put the roof back up you have to remove them before operating the roof. Which goes up and down in what seems about 5 secs (incredibly fast). While its very easy, to be honest, I reckon this is a bit of a pain and i can see people eventually not bothering and just leaving the arms exposed. In the photos I haven't put the plastic covers on, but it def looks heaps better with them on.
The stereo is a "Shaker' which apparently is an upgraded system. Again its all controlled by the touch screen or ever easier by voice activation. There is a usb port on the front of the stereo and another in the centre console box so good charging options.
But I think what really tops the car off are the driving feel options that are offered. i seriously have never seen this before.
The steering wheel has three "feel" option - and they all actually feel very different from extremely tight to quite loose. There are options for different driving conditions - including snow/sleet. My conv is an auto, but when you push it down from drive to sports mode, it becomes a clutchless manual using the steering wheel paddles, and honestly, the car sounds and drives completely differently. You actually get thrown back when the turbo kicks in. I had a clutchless manual option on my last car which I never used. I already know I will use this all the time.
Lovesny2001us, here are a few more pics for you.
I hope I haven't gone on too long, but thought some of you on here might be interested.
And austang, just to clarify, i never said the V8 wasn't a daily drive, just that the Ecoboost was a great option for me as a daily drive. For a start its $10K cheaper and on the basis of my three days behind the wheel, i'm very happy.