CarpeNivem

I'm a little nervous about the CMax's ability to handle snow, as I generally am with every car I own. So I usually buy the best reviewed all-season tires I can. This time around, I decided that was the Continental PureContact with EcoPlus Technology. I know, a long tire name, right? Well, turns out, that worked to my benefit... I went to the local Discount Tire Direct, and ordered a set of four Continental PureContact with EcoPlus Technology tires. I also asked if they had any interest in buying the tires that were on my car already, since the car was still quite new, and the tires were therefore in excellent condition. They offered me $50 per tire, and with that, said the new tires would be $460ish, installed. Sounded good. Do it up. That was last week. I had the tires ordered then. I had them installed yesterday. Turns out, they installed Continental ProContact with EcoPlus Technology tires instead, which is NOT what I ordered, despite how similar they sound! I calmly explained that I wanted the PureContact, not the ProContact, and that I definitely said that when I ordered them. They clearly misunderstood, and ordered, then mounted, the wrong tires. Turns out, the PureContact tires cost $30/ea more per tire. But, the shop felt bad about the mistake, so they waived the difference! I'm now waiting on my PureContact tires to be delivered (some time this week), so I can have them mounted on Saturday, for no additional cost! Sweet, huh? :yahoo:

So, where did you wind up mounting them? Can we see pictures? :)

Interesting approach. Remove the screws only to slide the headlight assembly forward slightly, but not actually remove it. I'll have to remember that!

Oh, excellent. Thank you. So then, the chains I linked to earlier will fit. Good to know!

Nokian makes an excellent tire, so kudos on that selection, by the way. But what I really wanted to discuss was the first post in this thread, which mentioned that the owner's manual does not recommend using chains. Do you think the manual says that only because they mean traditional chains, which would be too large for the limited available space in our wheel wells? I assume so. And based on that assumption, I bet something like these would be alright... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HZA2LK ...any thoughts?

I went with these as well (although I opted for grey, instead of black) because I think the DigitalFit mats look too... I don't know... industrial, I guess, is the word? These look more like they belong on the floor of a car. The others look they belong on the floor of a factory. I definitely thought about it a lot, since my wife and I are avid skiers/snowboarders/campers, so we definitely get a lot of snow and mud on our feet, but in the end, I just couldn't get over how intense looking the DigitalFit liners are. I think they distract from how "nice" the CMax looks otherwise. This is strictly a matter of personal taste, of course, but since we're on the subject, I figured I'd share.

Haha, like that even matters. What's important is how well they fit in those cubbies. ;) Seriously though, I don't know yet. It hasn't rained since I bought them. They do open up to be what seems like it will be adequately large though, especially for just one person, so they'll probably be fine. I hope so. But we'll just have to wait and see.

They might be sold exclusively by Walgreens, in store, not online. Here's the best I could do... http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/west-loop-auto-open/close-umbrella/ID=prod6185851-product

Walgreens, of all places. I wasn't even looking for them, I just stumbled upon them. 'll see if they have a name on them somewhere; maybe it'll be possible to find them online.

The size is an absolute perfect fit, and the color is really close too. I couldn't resist buying two.... Yay! I love them. :clapping:

So, here it is in the car, btw...

Here, if you don't happen to have Sprint... ...however, if you don't have Sprint or Android, then I guess you're outta luck. ;)

I decided the other one is too busy once I actually put it in the car. Darn. So I'm going to try something simpler, like maybe this... Conveniently, we have Sprint, which I'm not a huge fan of or anything (I mean, they're alright), but their logo is yellow, so I figured, might as well.

Well, I found all of mine via Google Images, by searching for the individual scenes I wanted.... So, like for the first quadrant, I decided a rotary phone would be nice. I went to images.google.com and entered "rotary phone". Then I clicked on "Search Tools" and selected "Color", then clicked on yellow. This gave me a huge selection of yellow-tinted photographs of rotary phones. I found one I liked, copied and pasted it into MSPaint. I wanted to capture as much of the rotary itself in the picture, so I rotated the image 90 degrees from how I found it. Then I resized and cropped accordingly. My process with the next images was pretty much the same. First I tried searching "map", but those were boring, so I searched "map with compass" instead. I did the same thing with Search Tools as well, selected green, and there were my choices. That image, I was lucky to find, because it was perfect. Then I searched, "concert", selected red, and found that one immediately. And for the last one, I went through a few options. First, I searched "clouds", but they were pretty boring; they needed something else, but I wasn't sure what. For inspiration, I tried searching "Climate" and found lots of pictures like tornadoes, icebergs, polar bears, etc. I almost used a glacier, actually, but after I had it cropped into place, I felt like it didn't fit with the others. There was too much whiteness in the image. Finally, I thought to search "wind farm" and wound up finding what you see there, which I think works quite well. If I may say myself, there's definitely some effort and creativity involved, in so much that you need to have an idea in your head of what you want the final product to be, so that you can search for the correct terms. And then once you're faced with a huge selection of images, you need to have an eye for finding ones that will look cohesive when placed next to each other. The technical skill, however, in my case at least, wasn't much at all. I didn't need to actually edit any colors, which would've required PhotoShop. Since I was only moving, resizing, and cropping, everything was possible in MSPaint. And lastly, imgur.com makes uploading/sharing images incredibly simple, so I used that.

I just finished making this. I haven't actually copied it to the car yet. I hope it looks as nice there as I think it does here... What do you guys think?

Ohhhh! Okay, SFE, not SPE. Okay, I found it... I still can't find pictures on Ford's own website, but for those curious what the wheel covers look like, here... http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/1204_2012_ford_focus_sfe_first_test/photo_01.html (...and it stands for "Super Fuel Economy" package, btw, I also just learned.) Anyway, yeah, pretty ugly. I'll deal with whatever drag our spoked wheels introduce. And, really, considering they're on the Electric Focus, and the Fusion Hybrid, I assume they can't be all that bad.

I don't know how to find the SPE package. I've looked, but I don't see that anywhere. Could you link to it for us? Thanks! :)

The electric Focus (which I'm guessing is the most efficient) seems to have the same exact rims as the CMax... http://www.ford.com/cars/focus/trim/electric/ And the Chevy Cruz Eco also looks like it has very similar rims... http://www.chevrolet.com/cruze-compact-car/specs/trims.html So, uh, what do you mean, get rid of our spoked wheels?

Part of me feels like, if I'm going to be carrying around a tire anyway, maybe I should just get a full-sized tire... :-/

I can't understand what's happening here. Did you have to make a hole in the cover for that strap to pass through? :-/

...and make no mistake, 114 < 430, so I'm not trying to imply anything about how expensive that is. Comparatively, it's very cheap. I've really gotta get myself a similar setup!

Total: $114.74 (for those wondering)

I also have AAA roadside assistance, and had been planning on racing AAA against Ford if I ever got a flat tire. I fully intended to just call both and see who shows up first. In my experience with AAA, they've always arrived very quickly, so Ford definitely has their competition cut out for them. But if the car comes with Ford roadside assistance, and not a spare, I figured I might as well call. It certainly can't hurt. Maybe they'll get there first, and then I'll just call AAA back and say never mind. But that was before. Now, reading this thread has made me wonder otherwise. Possible lack of cell service is now a large concern I can't believe I didn't consider before. Meanwhile, my other concerns, about how and where to store the tire and jack seem completely addressed. The jack above this post fits perfectly into the cargo area floor compartment, which is fantastic. Those tire covers match the Light Stone interior, so that's great. Now I feel like that's the way to go.

I did the 3.6.2 update myself, and syncmyride.com even says so. Nevertheless, syncmyride.com ALSO says that I need the 3.6.2 update, and I have to go to the dealer for it. Additionally, I received that letter today. Wth, indeed? I suspect that Ford released it as a DIY update at first, because it totally could've been, but then changed their mind, possibly because too many people had problems with it, so they decided it would be easier to just send people to dealerships. Basically, tech-unsavvy people ruining it for the rest of us. I bet when 3.7 comes out, Ford won't even consider giving us the option of downloading/installing it ourselves. :sigh:

Also, we can now reasonably assume the shelf fixer things will last at least as long as the drivetrain. :) (...although no warranty is actually promised.) ;)