CarpeNivem

As a word of warning, window tint will NOT solve this problem. It will make the problem worse! Plasti-dip does lessen the severity of the problem slightly, my wife and I have learned, but not really a whole lot, and so we peeled the dip off. What helps the most seems to be keeping your windows and mirrors as absolutely clean as possible. Seriously, that helps more than plasti-dip.

I love the speed limit display on the nav screen by the speedometer! I really wish it would display over on the big screen too, though. It seems silly to me that it doesn't.

I put LED lights above the license plate and in the rear cargo area. I haven't any SERIOUS problems. I did have one problem, but I don't consider it serious... First, though, in the cargo area, to be clear, absolutely no problems at all, and the illumination back there looks fantastic now. If nothing else, I absolutely suggest you do this. Alright, moving on, the license plate lights, they look great, and haven't produced any error message or errant behavior, BUT, it is a little weird how they remain on, even after you've turned off the car. They're suuuuper dim, but they're still on, as if there's residual electricity in the line or something, which wouldn't be enough to illuminate a traditional light bulb, but is just enough to light up an LED, albeit just barely. They will completely turn off eventually, but it takes several minutes (I don't know exactly how many). I'm not worried; they're not wasting any more electricity than was already flowing through the wires anyway; you can just see that electricity's presence now, is all. And, as I said, I really can't emphasize this point enough, just SO, SO barely. When the car is actually on, and the license plate lights should actually be illuminated, they look beautiful. I, too, really prefer LEDs, and wish the car had been outfitted completely with them from the factory. I'm surprised it wasn't, but oh well.

There's a fuse-puller tool inside the cover of the fuse box under the hood. I know, right? Brilliant place for it. Nevertheless, it IS there. Just, FYI.

I'll try to make four this weekend, and get back individually to those who expressed interest. :)

I just assumed an amp and replacement speakers could be added after the fact. I've never considered the stereo in any car while choosing between trim levels. It wasn't until reading of HotPotato's troubles that I even questioned swapping in the Sony. However, upon closer listening in my own car, I'm really starting to think that the stereo isn't the problem nearly as much as SiriusXM itself is. Other sources sound fine.

Yeah, the Sony radio comes in the SEL, while us SE people don't get a name brand. I might consider the Sony headunit, and all the speakers, amp, everything, IF the cost of doing so wasn't insane. I don't know how much I'd need to replace, but it should all fit pretty easily - easier than buying totally different speakers altogether, at least. I figured if anyone would've looked into the possibility, it'd be you.

I could cut another piece, apply the adhesive, and ship it to you. You'd just need to peel the backing off the other side of the adhesive, and stick it on. It's very simple. In fact, I could do that for anyone who wanted. I have plenty of extra material (since I bought a whole sheet of plexiglass - the smallest size available, but still - and a whole roll of adhesive). Actually, come to think of it, if I were to sell these, I should do a better job, and sand the corners a little. They're kinda sharp right now. Hmmm, would there really be interest in this? Should I really make more?

That's an excellent idea, actually. Yeah, I should see how much that costs.

Hmm, good point. I will definitely keep that in mind, and possibly rework some connection ideas accordingly. Thanks.

My wife and I are drastically different heights, and so a power seat without memory is more annoying than it is useful. It takes far too long to adjust a power seat, we both think. If it could memorize our positions, and switch between them with the press of a button, then okay, but to hold the "slide backwards" button down for half an hour while the seat slides from full forward to full reverse... meh. I'd rather just slide it back myself. It's much faster. As for the sunroof, that's an available option on either the SE or the SEL, so it's not a deciding factor between models; it's its own decision, about whether you want one or not. For us, we think it's beautiful, and would've opted for it in a heartbeat, until we learned it doesn't open. Now it just seems silly, and considerably too expensive. I bet Ford made it sealed so that it would be aerodynamic, so I see the logic, but I'm just not interested in it, so we opted against that. If it cost less than $1k extra, maybe, but for that money, and to not be able to open it, no thank you. As for the MFT system, we love that, absolutely love it. But again, that's an option on either the SE or the SEL, so that's not a reason to choose between models either. That's an option to elect for or against. We elected for. We also opted for the power lift gate and ambient lighting. In other words, package 203a. We could've opted for heated mirrors and heated seats as well. Again, that's not an SEL exclusive. That's available on the SE, but the CMax we found which offered 203a and heated mirrors/seats was red, and we really wanted blue. The blue CMax we found had 203a, but not heated seats/mirrors. We also found a blue CMax with 203a and sunroof (they are out there), but as I said earlier, we decided against that. It would've bothered us to no end that we weren't able to open it. That said, the actual non-optional differences between the SEL and SE are really: leather, foglights, push-button start, kick sensor under bumper for power lift gate, rear view camera, front bumper sensors that beep (the SE offers these in the rear, but not the front), the Sony edition of the MFT system instead of whatever non-Sony version is in the SE, and the chrome stripe under the windows. None of these choices are available, even as options, on the SE. And they're nice features, for sure, but they cost a collective $3k, and we deemed them not quite nice enough for us to be willing to spend that. $3k is a lot of money, which feels like even more still when it means the difference between spending under $30k or over. Most of what we wanted in this car - excellent fuel economy, decent power, extremely quiet ride, and a spacious interior - came with just buying a CMax at all. The options, for us, don't make or break this car. So we think, yes, the SE is the better pick. For us, at least.

I would like to mount LEDs in the foglight-delete panel on my SE model, and in fact, have already done a test fitting. I think they look great so far. What I need to do now is find an accessory wire under the hood which is live whenever the car is on. I plan on drawing power for my LEDs from that wire (since these LEDs, like all LEDs, consume an absolutely tiny amount of power, so there's no problem piggy-backing them off something else, anything else). I also plan on wiring in a relay so that whenever the headlights are on, my LEDs are off. That part is simple. Really, the hardest part, is finding a wire that's live only when the car is on. I'm not sure which to use. I could run my own wire, I suppose, from the battery (the 12v, of course) to the cabin, and then put in a switch, but it'd be great to avoid that step, if anyone knows how. Any ideas? Thanks!

HotPotato, do you know if we can buy the Sony factory system after-the-fact, and install it now? I'm pretty sure that was only an option on the SEL model. We SE owners never had the chance.

Has anyone actually completed this install? I'd love to know more about which wires are which under the hood.

So, I cut up some plexiglass, got some black adhesive, and... ...the contents of my glove box actually stay in place now! :)