Ford Focus MK3 (pre facelift) infotainment system old or new style?

[shiwarrior]

I remember someone telling me that the early MK 3 still have the infotainment system from Mk 2.5

how can you tell if the car has the new version or not ?

Thanks

 

[JW1982]

Early MK3 vehicles did have the old Bluetooth/Voicecontrol connectivity system.
From approximately 07/2012 the SYNC 1.0 connectivity system was used.
From approximately 04/2014 the SYNC 1.1 connectivity system was used.

Apart from the production date of the car the connectivity system can easily be identified by the following characteristics.

* The Bluetooth/Voicecontrol system supports Voicecontrol of the phone, media (USB, bluetooth Audio), radio, CD-player and satnav funcionality.
* The SYNC 1.0 and SYNC 1.1 systems both only support Voicecontrol of the phone and media (USB, bluetooth Audio) functionality. The radio, CD-player and satnav funcionality are no longer supported.
* The SYNC 1.0 system does not support track info for bluetooth Audio.
* The SYNC 1.1 system supports track info for Bluetooth Audio.

The support for the Bluetooth/Voicecontrol system stopped at the end of 2012. The support for the SYNC 1.0 system stopped mid 2014. Since then both systems became outdated. The SYNC 1.1 system was used in several other Ford models until approximately 2018. Mid 2018 the support for the SYNC 1.1 system also stopped.

In my opinion the SYNC 1.1 system is currently the best of these systems. Because it was supported until 2018 the SYNC 1.1 system does not suffer as much from compatibility issues with newer phone types as the older systems.

Bluetooth/Voicecontrol has different wiring and modules from the SYNC 1.0/1.1 systems. Because of this the Bluetooth/Voicecontrol system can not be upgraded to the SYNC 1.0/1.1 system.The SYNC 1.1 system is technically identical to the SYNC 1.0 system but has a different APIM (SYNC) module. SYNC 1.0 can easily be upgraded to SYNC 1.1 by replacing and configuring the APIM module.

[shiwarrior]

Thanks

 

so if im looking at buying a mk 3, which one is best to get ? are there any visual differences ?

 

i noticed the buttons on the steering wheels are different , older ones (2011) have OK on left and right of their wheel, but later (say 2013 on) has OK on the left and voice button on the right

[JPW]

But with a few modifications you can most certainly upgrade even the original bluetooth voice control to either Sync 1, 2 or 3: 

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/124705-how-to-focus-mk3-pre-facelift-sync-1-to-sync-3-upgrade-for-late-2012-2013-and-2014-models

[JW1982]

3 hours ago, shiwarrior said:

Thanks

 

so if im looking at buying a mk 3, which one is best to get ? are there any visual differences ?

 

i noticed the buttons on the steering wheels are different , older ones (2011) have OK on left and right of their wheel, but later (say 2013 on) has OK on the left and voice button on the right

 

At 04-10-2012 Ford changed the layout of the steering wheel buttons.

Cars produced before 04-10-2012 have the SWC (Steering Wheel Control) switch with VOICE button at the right hand bottom side of the airbag (at the opposite side of the Cruise Control switch). 

This type of steering wheel is used on all Bluetooth/Voicecontrol based Focus MK3 versions ans early SYNC 1.0 based Focus MK3 versions.

 

 

From 04-102012 onwards all SYNC 1.0 and SYNC 1.1 based Focus MK3 versions have the SWC switch at the right side of the steering wheel airbag.

 

[TomsFocus]

Go for the later one imo, the wheel button layout was better, the quad cluster display held all the relevant info (distance was left off the earlier ones) and they come with a low screenwash warning.

Only thing is any without Nav lose the larger cluster screen on the later ones, so make sure you get one with Nav.

[shiwarrior]

thank you all

[shiwarrior]

On 5/9/2021 at 1:27 PM, JPW said:

But with a few modifications you can most certainly upgrade even the original Bluetooth voice control to either Sync 1, 2 or 3: 

https://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/124705-how-to-focus-mk3-pre-facelift-sync-1-to-sync-3-upgrade-for-late-2012-2013-and-2014-models

nice !

 

just had a look on AT, looking at (although i think i want an auto tbh)

manual 1.6 ecoboosts are Titanium X are like £5K ish for a 2011 / 2012 year

going up to 13 on , your looking at 8K (facelifts start around 8K)

 

id want to spend around the 5K mark (upto 6K)