Thanks for the responses. I'm going to keep Miss Pearl at least until her extended warranty runs out. 
BTW, I drove a Chevy Bolt (looking to possibly add an all-electric to the C-Max) and I did not like this car. It's very small and the seats were extremely uncomfortable. Went to a BMW dealership to drive an i3 but they didn't have one on the lot (they did have the shell of an i8, though, no engine). Then I saw a day or two ago where the i3 and i8 will be discontinued and replaced.
I had the same issue, I really wanted to like the Bolt but the hard-edged seats, narrower cabin and Fisher-Price plastics were really hard to swallow after enjoying the C-Max's perfectly proportioned thrones and entry-luxury-quality interior.
My C-Max is just about paid off, still drives nicely, and has a near-new transmission---every logical part of me says to keep it. However, after 72k mi in my C-Max there is so much creaking around the door frames, and a couple of squeaks inside and outside the car now too, that I have serious doubts about the long-term viability of the car---and I live in a sunny state where the roads are never salted. I'm used to German cars that are durable but unreliable. In the C-Max I have a car that's hypothetically reliable (now that we've served as guinea pigs through innumerable recalls and TSBs) but certainly doesn't seem durable. I wish there were strut tie bars or something available for it to improve the dishrag-like rigidity. No wonder the dealer gave me a lowball trade-in estimate.
In any case, if you like me are thinking of going more electric but want a bigger car, not a smaller one, consider the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It's an all wheel drive CUV on the large end of compact, with a spacious interior, lovely leather seats, and Apple CarPlay. It gives you 22 miles of all-electric range, then switches over to hybrid operation. The MPG while there's still charge in the battery is an impressive 74 MPGe. The MPG once the battery is exhausted is a dismal 25 mpg, the same as a typical NON-hybrid CUV of similar size. So the key question is what percentage of your drive will be on electricity. If your commute is under 50 miles, it is more efficient than a conventional hybrid CUV; but if your commute is 50 miles or more, a conventional hybrid CUV is more efficient. If your commute is 22 miles or less, of course, you could hypothetically use no fuel at all.
Edited by HotPotato, 08 April 2018 - 02:59 AM.
We will probably never know for sure.
