Well, it's still true that you can get a suitable filter (meant for your furnace) from Home Depot or any such place for a few bucks, and cut several cabin filters of exactly the right shape and size from it. (Make a template, and store it for repeated use.) Not a pretty filter, but it gets covered up. The one I got was wire-reinforced pleated paper, and marked with its MERV rating.

I do like the car, but am down on Ford. If they were even a minimally responsible company we wouldn't be left on our own to go through this.

 

I thought a rectangle was a trapezoid; a special type of trapezoid.

 

Actually it is a convex pentagon. I didn't know that till I opened it.

Reply from www.fordaccessories.com: "I am sorry but that is what Ford called for. I do not know what else to ship you."

 

I wonder who at Ford we could even email. Mary Ann Wright (chief engineer of the Escape Hybrid) quit Ford just this past summer, and took a job now at Collins & Aikman.

I wonder if Keith Takasawa, chief program engineer for the Escape, is still around???

 

Of course, but, as the French are supposed to say, vive la différence.

Joking aside, it really is appalling that you can't seem to get the shape through to them. I also think it is appalling that they peddled the car without a filter, having made a provision for it. In their quantities we're talking about a buck or two. They could have made it a $5 option, factory installed, but instead they decided on a coverup of the apparent fact that they bungled the spec.

 

Well, that is an important point that goes far beyond the cabin filter. We've all had lots of technical questions about the car, legitimate when we are talking about a completely new set of concepts, and there is absolutely no one at Ford designated to answer such questions. I think that is a disgrace, and disgusting behavior on their part.

I did long ago write a constructive letter to Mary Ann's replacement, suggesting that they set up a web site devoted to whatever information they are willing to disclose, and the letter was never even acknowledged, let alone answered. I finally found a back door, a guy willing to cite papers they had actually published, but nothing more, and he soon tired of me and became unresponsive.

I think it would be good for all us owners to unite and pressure Ford (perhaps even go the the industry gossip sheets, which they surely read) to set up a technical customer relations site, as most reputable companies do. True, it's often staffed by dunderheads, but at least it's a way past their moat. If we all united on some proposal, they might conceivably take notice.

BTW, I didn't know the new one was a pentagon. My old rectangle with a furnace filter is working just fine.

 

Unfortunately, Ford (like most companies) is set up such that you and I aren't their customers. The dealers are the only customers. If you and I have a question, that's the dealer's problem, not Ford's.

The reality, is that the dealers themselves have no way to ask such questions, on our behalf.

If I can go on a parallel... I was surprised that my '07 MMH didn't come with the overhead console. On the Mercury website, there is a picture of the interior of the '07 MMH which pretty clearly shows it. I really pushed my dealer to explain the discrepancy. They apologized for it, but it was clear to me there were was no one at Mercury that they can even ask such a question.

If they can't get that answered, it doesn't surprise me that we can't get answers either.

Possibly, the only path for the Cabin Air Filter, is to insist that the dealer lets you personally have a chat with their factory service rep, the next time they are at the dealer's service center. I am sure that you will have to lead him thru it (have him order/get the P/N listed, and "discover" for himself that it doesn't fit). That will certainly take up a lot of time, but hopefully yield an answer.

 

Let me throw out a theory that I just thought up. I have the explanation as to why the don't sell the car with the cabin air filter.

See, if they sold the car with a cabin air filter already installed, most people wouldn't know it was there and would never change it. It would eventually become clogged and ineffective. So, they are actually doing anyone who cares about having filtered cabin air a favor. Now you have to learn how to install one yourself and after discovering how easy it is, it will become part of your maintenance routine. Ford is looking out for us.

I brought my 2001 Focus in for service once at around 30k miles and they told me the cabin air filter needed to be changed. I, to that point, was unaware I had one and told them to go ahead and do it ($60 charge). To this date I have no idea whether I had one to begin with, whether I had one when I left, or whether they even changed it.

Next new car I buy WILL have a filter in it before it leaves the lot. I guarantee it......

 

The other thing is that the airflow into the cabin is FAR better with no filter installed. I dont really care about breathing filtered air in the cabin but I do care that I get a good flow of air so that I dont have to run the AC or put up with a lot of fan noise. I am very glad that they did not put the cabin filter in since it saves me from having to take the filter box apart to remove it.

 

Unfortunately, the vent system is pretty badly designed. Not only is there no filter, but there's no sort of screen or downward-facing intake to prevent large debris being sucked right into the cabin. It was after getting leaves and later a bunch of fluffy pollen stuff blown all over the interior that I installed the filter.