valkraider

Ford sold 1,259 C-MAX Energi plug-in hybrids

Green Car Reports 2013 Best Car To Buy Nominee: Ford C-Max

Every car I have had for the past 10 years has said that chains were not supposed to be used. I have used chains just fine on all of them. You do need to get low clearance chains, and make sure they are on well and not loose. Your mileage may vary, use at your own risk.

The LEAF even has a 12v regular car battery.

C-Max is also less aerodynamic, due to being both taller and with styling made to not look exactly like the Prius & Insight (whose shape is completely designed just for aerodynamics). In my opinion the C-Max drives nicer and looks nicer. The Prius gets slightly better fuel economy in some situations.

No kidding. And think of all the complex and random variables people expect cars to work flawlessly in. Heat, cold, humid, dry, snow, rain, fog, dust, dirt, bumps, hills, high elevation, low elevation, salty, fast, slow, long highway miles, hours in city stop&go traffic, rarely used, used all day every day, hauling a load, towing a trailer, ice, pollen, leaves & pine needles, bright sunlight, heavy braking, loud noise, in a crash or impact, etc etc etc etc. And if the car makes one little burp, people freak out. Cars are made better and tested better now than at any point in automotive history - while simultaneously being more complex, safe, luxurious, and fuel efficient. I am not giving any auto maker a free pass. We pay a lot of money for these things. But I am also asking people to stop and think and have a little perspective...

Wow, Ford recalled 90,000 vehicles. That's a lot. Sure, it's not as many as 7.43 million Toyotas, but hey who is counting, right? I think 90,000 is still smaller than another 2.44 million Toyotas - which is around 9.5 million Toyota's recalled in the past three months!. Could 90,000 be lower than 1.7 million? But Honda wouldn't make poor quality cars, right? Should we forget the 12 to 14 million recalled Toyotas during the various 2009-2011 unintended acceleration recalls (which actually killed over 80 people?). Maybe we should mention Chrysler's recent 900,000 cars recalled. How about Toyota recalling 150,000 trucks this year? Is that on the radar? Lets see, there are a whole host of recalls for other vehicles too. VW just recalled a bunch of 2012/2013 New Beetles. Jaguar and Mercedes both just made recalls. Here is a whole host of GM recalls: including 3500 Verano, Cruze, and Sonic models; 4000 Chevy Malibu models, another 4700 Sonic models and just before that a whole 44,000 sonic models, 500,000 Cruzes in June and 14,000 Cadillac XTSs. But yeah, everyone just focus on Ford. Man, I am not even a real Ford guy. This will be my first Ford in over 20 years. But please, can we be realistic here? Cars have hundreds of thousands of parts made by thousands of suppliers and companies build tens of thousands of vehicles PER DAY. A recall is a GOOD THING because they have identified a problem and are fixing it. I find it funny that people will expect auto manufacturers to have zero issues when they produce complex machines thousands of times every day - yet the same people probably make mistakes and have problems at their own jobs. Look I work hard, but some times I have to correct mistakes and sometimes I don't do as good a job as I had hoped or would like. I can only image the same holds true for the million people in the world building cars. As long as they handle them well, as long as they fix the problems and treat customers well - I have no problem with a few recalls here and there.

Because EPA tests don't reflect real world driving? I don't get EPA numbers in my truck either.

Some years I drive more than others, but I have broke 50k easily in a few. Heck, just this past year I had a 3 month gig where I was driving 150 miles a day, 5 days a week for 3 full months. I have traversed California completely North to South many times, and done so at varying speeds. I have done it fast and I have done it slow. No problems either way. Most recently, on the same trip mentioned above, we drove from I-40 in the south all the way north up I5, and dis so at 60mph in a moving truck towing a car, followed by a camper towing motorcycles. Not a single problem. I probably saved 500 dollars on my cross country trip by keeping the trucks at 60mph instead of 70mph (as it was I spent $3000 in fuel crossing from the SE to the NW - ouch!) On an all day journey, yeah maybe cutting an hour off the travel time can be nice. But in most every-day driving there will be little difference between 60 and 70 - especially if there is traffic at any point in the trip. I used to drive a lot faster, but Oregon roads just are slower - and people here drive a lot slower in general. I adjusted. I have noticed that my travel times don't increase drastically but I save a lot of money in fuel and also reduced stress as I just cruise along without needing to worry about speeding tickets.

It's perfectly OK to drive 60mph on the freeway, anywhere in the USA. Many states have laws that trucks or vehicles with trailers or RVs etc. have lower speed limits. Heck, some states don't even have speed limits over 65. Our state max is 65 and some of our freeways are 50mph speed limits. Many vehicles don't cruise well over 60. When I was towing a boat I would never go over 60 because of trailer sway. Heck, I drove across Texas in a moving van toeing a car at 60mph just fine, and TX has the highest speed limits in the nation. I don't understand why people feel it is impossible to drive 60. As long as you stay in the right hand lanes it is perfectly OK.

Or just use your smart phone.

Won't that mess up the visibility of all the digital stuff inside the car? Most vehicles I know adjust brightness / color schemes based on whether it is night or day. When the headlights come on they usually change the brightness of the screens and often change the color scheme of the menus and navigation maps to make them more night-time friendly. If you cover the sensor, they will think it is night time all the time and maybe be to dark and hard to read in sunlight. Also - all of your internal "mood" lighting will stay on all the time. Up here in the pacific northwest, DRLs are really really helpful because we have MASSIVE trees all over the place. Especially on bright sunny days, cars "dissapear" in the shadows and DRLs really help that. I also ride motorcycles so I appreciate being able to see other cars... The smaller LED versions on some of the fancier cars now still work well in this scenario. It is just about not letting the car disappear in shadows I think. If they are out in the sunlight, the lights don't make all that much differences. Just my experience. YMMV

Well, under the EPA numbers on the window sticker it does read this: "Actual results will vary for many reasons, including driving conditions and how you drive and maintain your vehicle."

Ford posts sales up 6%, touts small car, big truck gains The article does not break down Hybrid model vs. energi model numbers...

Sorry, I didn't realize there would be a difference in that. I thought it was part of MFT/Sync/MFM...

Check Lemon Laws in your state. Each state does them differently. I missed a Lemon Law buyback by one month because I didn't know the correct process to follow, and I got stuck with a vehicle which was buggy...

I'll let folks read the article. ;) As a note, I believe there is also a "B-Max"

The Blue Candy is not that dark. I think over a certain temp, it doesn't matter what color your car is. My experience in the desert southwest and the tropical southeast is that all cars get hot in the sun. Most recently I had a navy blue VW and a silver pickup. In Mississippi, both would burn my hands when I touched them. :rant2: We took a drive through death valley a couple years back. It was 120 degrees in death valley, and 112 degrees in Las Vegas. We were in a very light tan vehicle (probably same darkness as silver) and we could cook eggs on the paint. Hot as hell is hot as hell, no matter which color. Might as well at least enjoy yourself, eh? I found the bigger benefit was tinted windows. ALWAYS get tinted windows. They make a massive difference.

*yet*. ;) Software is always being enhanced, and the C-Max has a built in 3G modem, so who knows what my be possible with version 3.5 or other future versions? :rockon:

If you can't put your foot on the brake when shutting down Ford is going to have a hard time with this one. Every single drivers training program for the past 50 years has been teaching people to have their foot on the brake when they put the car in park and shut down... This is an absurd thing if it is indeed true, and Ford will have to change it. No matter what the person does with the brake, shutdown button, or parking brake - the battery should not die overnight. Nor should on a 2013 model year vehicle a door or reading light being left on kill the battery. I have not owned a car since 2000 which didn't shut off the interior lights after a period of inactivity. That is standard now, even my 2008 bottom-of-the-line no gucci features fleet model pickup truck does that. The C-Max would be the first vehicle in a decade to not shut off the interior lights automatically to prevent a dead battery. Things connected to the USB system should not either. Most vehicles cut off power to the USB or 12v accessories after a certain amount of time - but even if they don't, only one night should not be enough drain to kill an auto battery unless you are powering a hair dryer from it... Once a cell phone or some other small device is charged, they barely take a trickle of power. I have left a GPS device plugged in and turned on in my camper 12v system for over a week without killing the battery. It's just not that much power draw unless something is broken... If a car that is only a month old has the battery die there is something wrong. This should not happen, ever.

Jinx Jinx you owe me a coke, 123456789 10! ;) Yours had more content in it though!

The EPA doesn't actually test cars themselves unless they have reason to believe the manufacturer is off. The EPA test are a set of test instructions and requirements which each manufacturer performs themselves. The EPA generally will check here or there but it is mostly just the manufacturers running the prescribed tests. But in some cases if the EPA gets complaints or there is a lot of press, they will test cars themselves. This is what happened with Hyundai.

Model: C-Max Energi SEL (303A, 43P, Z9) Date Ordered: Friday, 11/2/12 Promised Delivery time: 6 to 8 Weeks VIN Available: 11/08/12 Window Sticker Available: 11/21/12 Scheduled Build Week: 11/26 Scheduled Build Date: 11/27/12 Actual Build Date: 11/27/12 Released from Factory for Shipping: 11/28/12 Rail car ID available: 12/06/2012 Estimated Delivery Date: 12/17/12 (as of 11/29) Estimated Delivery Date: 12/23/12 (as of 12/7) Actual Delivery Date: TBD State: OR EDIT: updated with more info

Don't think of it as "beyond" what we are getting. Think of it as "to" what we are getting. ;) The article called it "version 3.5" but we will see in a couple weeks when it gets released to the first batch of customers what it actually is (the electrified vehicles don't get the update until 1Q next year). Since so much is computerized in these vehicles, I think we should just be expecting a software update to be a common occurrence . MFT needs to be continually improved and enhanced to stay competitive. Since the updates can be downloaded from the internet and installed via USB there really isn't any reason not to release updates - at least on vehicles that you are currently still selling.

Ford to upgrade, extend warranty on MyFord touch-screen system