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Does anyone know what happens when hill assist is accidentally turned on all the time? My wife came home with the CMax one day - she got out of the car and I got in while the car was still on and I noticed she had hill assist on! Not sure if it was the entire trip or if she triggered it when placing the car in P. I did notice that her trip mpg was only 34mpg (I reset the trip mpg before she left from home - was curious what her driving style would yield in terms of fuel economy).

So that's a 23.8% increase over winter MPG. I wonder whether the CMax will show a similar % increase when the weather turns warmer. Only time will tell.

cover it up as best you can and seriously consider a clear bra.

JustACmax and JohnTrigger, Thanks for the advice. Makes a ton of sense. So basically I was focusing on the wrong thing - instead of the batt charge level, I should be paying attention to the road situation as first priority (whether coming up on an incline or decline and the degree of slope) in determining whether to engage in ICE or not when approaching lower threshold battery depletion levels. For instance, there may have been times when going downhill where I artificially stayed in ICE for longer than I needed to just to charge the batt to higher / full levels when I should have lifted off the throttle (having reached desired glide speed), engaging EV mode, and letting the engine rest. This is helpful - I think I over analyzed the situation. Thanks again! Hopefully this will help others who might be wondering about similar nuances.

re: keep heater or a/c off: I would also like to suggest: as an alternative to turning on the heater, use heated seats if available. Also, an open question to all - apologies to those not interested in the specific scenario but it's a bit of a burning question for me since I cannot figure this out myself: When the battery is near it's lower threshold ie. below 1/2 charge, is it better to: 1) Force the car into EV mode as long and as often as possible by letting off the gas, even if the battery is near the lower threshold, thereby forcing the battery to deplete to the lower threshold. In some cases this would cause repeated short cycles of the engine turning on to charge to just above the lower threshold, or 2) try to STAY in engine on mode until the battery is charged to a) at least half capacity b) almost full or c) at full capacity, then engage in a more sustained EV mode cycle? or does it matter? I've been debating this ever since I got the CMAX but have not had a long enough road trip to test out which technique leads to better fuel efficiency.

Well said, guys. Well said. I am in your camp - not going to be a safety problem on the road by driving too slow or an irritant, I drive fast when I need to, and am happy about close to 40 (39 mpg in my case). I can't take my eyes off the Enpower screen though. Actually I enjoy the 'Eco video game'. It's sort of like I enjoy any other challenge so there is a bit of competitiveness in me like I think most if not all of us have who read this forum, to maximize mpgs which is why there is a lingering 'darn I wish I can achieve 47 mpg' in me. I also expected far less than 47 (40) so I don't have any problems with the FE. There are of course some who will be upset purely based on the principle of the thing (the thing being that 47 is advertised, not close to actual for some). I respect that too. To each his own.

I hear you on the non-coverage of the left footrest! Drives me crazy that Ford did not cover that part on the rubber mat. My solution was to put 'carpet mask' on the footrest, which is essentially thick saran wrap-like clear plastic with adhesive on one side. My only concern is that the adhesive if left on the carpet too long may be difficult to remove from the carpet, but I plan to cut out a piece from my large roll of it and replace it once a month so that should be ok. At home I've left carpet mask on for extended periods of time (weeks) and had no trouble removing it.

Thanks for the replies on my quality control check question, Laurel and aschofer... makes sense.

What I want to know is: what is the quality check hold on the CMax about?

Speed6ing, The last 3 blocks back home are straight up a steep hill for me. Since I have 3k miles on the cmax, ev+ mode kicks in for me right off the freeway like clockwork. I can successfully stay in ev mode up the steep hill with a full load ie. with my wife and two kids in the car but only if I can/am willing to chug along at approx 20 mph. If there is a car following me, forget it. I engage ICE right away and proceed at normal speed to my house. Lastly, going up steep hills in ev mode will drain your battery very quickly. Even at full battery charge, by the time I reach my house the battery is depleted down to the lower threshold of capacity.

Finally hit 40 mpg on the latest tank - just over 3k miles now. 60/40 freeway/city driving, average temp in SF Bay Area is ~50 F, with mornings in the low 40s and on/off rain. To get 40, I had to really try - 60-65 mph freeways, near 100% braking efficiency, pulse and glide. Not sure if I will do this long term.

:) It's even funnier when your kids try their turns at kicking, then the adults. Apparently the sensor is even worse at sensing little feet.

I started a thread on this forum with the same problem weeks ago. Someone suggested two kicks and I've been living with that compromise ever since. I actually took my cmax back to the dealership - they spent all day looking at it and could not figure out the problem, so they ordered another latch mechanism for me. It's been over a month now and I'm still waiting for a call back from the dealership. My wife thinks it's not worth the hassle to bring it back, for them to take out the existing latch and to replace. I am tending to agree with her so if the dealership does not call back I give them a bad grade for service follow up but I may not pursue further. This is apparently a common problem.

Tdefny - can you elaborate on why you think it's better to jump in and out of EV less frequently? It make sense to me, but curious to hear someone else's thinking or common theory about this. I've been trying to figure out for myself whether to go in EV mode whenever possible, even if the battery is almost depleted (by engaging ICE just long enough to charge the battery ever so slightly, then revert back to EV until battery is depleted, rinse/repeat), or to sustain ICE mode until the battery charges at least 1/2 power, 3/4 even better, then dive into EV mode for a sustained period of time. Anyone else, feel free to chime in.

Thanks for the explanation, Mike - very interesting. So if the battery size & C rate dictates EV threshold, I would LOVE to know the cargo space tradeoff of a bigger battery allowing for higher speeds in EV! For example, I would be willing to sacrifice some incremental cargo space to get at 70mph which would boost my MPG. I do know that the cargo space give-up on the Plug-in CMax is too great a sacrifice for my needs, though.