valkraider

OK, they say its fixed again. Heading back to the dealership... It's not like I have anything better to do anyway, right? /sarcasm

Two days at the shop. Dealer calls me to say its done, I come in to pick it up and the system is locked up with an SD card error. Back into the shop she goes. Fix Or Repair Daily

This happens with all kinds of my batteries. Tools, phones, game controllers... I used to see this as a kid with battery powered toys or flashlights. Batteries would die, I would let them sit, then they would have more juice after a while. It's usually just a tiny bit, but it's most likely related to temperature and some "settling down" of electrons. It's most often almost an illusion as the increased SoC goes away very quickly.

Summer blend fuel can have an impact. Also there is less drag in warmer air than colder air which will mean better highway economy. Heaters in the cMax consume more energy than AC. Usually less wind in the summer as well. I dunno, all of these things may combine?

Just be prepared for it to fail and lose your car overnight... It seems to happen a lot, based on my unscientific sampling of this forum. ;)

My update failed. Car is sleeping at the dealer.

I had to do this for a truck I bought in a single plate state then i moved back to a double plate state. I bought a rivet gun from Harbor Freight for $15, and bought an OEM front bracket for my truck off eBay for another $15. The truck bumper had two tiny dimples - almost completely unnoticeable - where you drill small holes then used the rivet gun to attach the OEM license plate bracket. Dealer wanted $60 parts and $80 labor. Took me about 10 minutes and a trip to harbor freight...

Physics dictates that no, hills will not save gas. Due to conversion losses - it will always cost more energy to climb one foot than you can recoup by descending one foot. However, having a battery means hills in a hybrid will consume much less fuel than hills in a standard ICE. In the normal ICE all of the gravitational energy is completely lost while our batteries allow us to recover at least some of it.

The state will most likely keep the front plates - I bet the bill fails. Take off the front plates and photo-radar becomes less reliable and photo-radar is a huge revenue generator... Also police like the front plates for aiming laser guns at. It's a nice flat reflective surface for good laser results. Also a large revenue source... I have gone back and forth from states with front plates and states without. (Nevada actually has a law where if your car has a front plate bracket you are required to have a front plate but if your car does not have a front bracket you do not have to have a front plate... A stupid law, what's the point?). I usually just keep the front brackets and in states without front plates I put my Oakland Raiders novelty plate on the front...

Most states already tax the trucking industry on a per weight basis. (Sometimes a weight-mile tax). These would be taxes applied only to light or medium duty vehicles - there could be a GVWR cut off which changes the calculation system for vehicles designed to carry large amounts of cargo.

Weight damages roads. Not type of power train. :) I would propose this: Starting in 2014 for all registered vehicles regardless of type: Annual fee: 1 cent per pound following this formula: Curb Weight + (GVWR - Curb Weight)/2 (In English: GVWR would not be fair to trucks and Curb Weight would not be fair to cars - so split the difference. That accounts for some loads to be carried by trucks.) The tax shall be minimum 1¢ per pound, but also indexed to inflation. So if inflation happens the tax goes up accordingly to account for increased costs with regard to labor or materials. 100% of this tax restricted by law to pay for road maintenance; no greenfield new construction or expansion projects allowed. Only to maintain what we have already built. Fees paid at normal time of registration payment. My motorcycle would cost $8 a year and my truck would be about $70 a year. My CMax Energi would be about $50 a year. My utility trailer would be about $3 a year. There. Fair. Adjusted for inflation. Used for maintenance.

Worth noting that list doesn't detail out bug fixes. Remember, MFT 3.5.1 has been out on most other Fords since November. There are lots of details about it in other Ford forums... They did miss one big one: "sucks less than before". :)

This is MFT 3.5.x Yes, it would show on etis. If you have MFT 3.5.x you won't need this update.

Requires Flash. So much for that idea. Hey Ford: it's 2013!!! 2008 called, it wants its website back...

I have MFT, lift gate, and GPS updates scheduled for Thursday. Fingers crossed.

You can drive an electric vehicle 10 to 20 miles** on just the electricity it takes to simply refine a single gallon of gas. And if we clean up one power plant we instantly clean up every electric vehicle on the road who uses that power plant. **depends on the efficiency of the EV and how the miles are driven, etc etc

I use AC when temps are in the 70s, and I'm in Oregon. I also have tinted windows to block sun an heat. I hate being hot... If room temperature is like 73 and house thermostats are generally between 68 and 75 then using AC with temps in the 70s is not unusual. When it is 75 outside temps in the car can break 90 easily. Open windows don't work too well if there is heavy pollen (spring time). I both want to breathe AND don't want the inside of my car completely yellow...

Ours has so much clunking it is crazy. I assumed it was the regenerative braking doing it. Maybe I'll have the dealer check it out...

Pardon my grammar - my phone auto-replace is on hyperdrive this morning.

Let me go on a little bit. I understand that the "problem" with delivering the update may be a problem with the PCM for vehicles built before mid February. But I also have an extensive history modding cars. I have built and flashed custom tunes on everything from pick-up trucks to motorcycles. I have done racing tunes and off-roading tunes. I have even used custom transmission programs. It is a simple process to re-flash the PCM, in any car made in the last decade or two. If there is a problem flashing the PCM, then there is a hardware issue that they should replace. I have not dug in to how they set up the hardware in the C-Max but in my Chevy trucks for the last decade the computer has been simple to unplug and replace. I even accidentally bricked a friend's Chevy controller by installing the wrong tune. We simply unplugged the computer, mailed it to the tune company, they re-wrote it with an OEM program and sent it back, we plugged it right in. Finally - I want to be clear - my main problem is with Ford's handling of the issue. They flat out don't care about the annoyance. They hassle. This is a thousand dollar option on a $35k+ vehicle. The very least thing they could do is something like: "yes, we know there are problems and we are doing our best to come up with a solution. We know its hard on you, our valued customers, so here - have a few free service appointments, or maybe free car washes for a year, or something to at leader show we give a crap about you". In two weeks I will have had 6 full months of Ford saying "there is nothing we can do right now". That's unacceptable.

Also, I am in IT. I know how software development works. I even recently worked for three years in Automotive software (changed jobs in December - now not in the automotive industry)

The dealer won't do anything until they try the update first. The response from them, the regional tech guy, and the regional customer service is that since there are known problems with MFT and the update is due "any time now" that they will not spend any effort until we at least try the update. The problem is that they have been saying that for 5.5 months now. "Any time now" has been me living with this junk in my $35k car for 5.5+ months. I don't want anything special. I was patient until Late February - but when cars started shipping from the plant with the new software and they still won't update ours, that's when I get really irritated. I don't want anything that I didn't pay for.

It's just such a black mark on an otherwise pretty good vehicle. If it were something else, if probably would just be an annoyance. But the MFT is used *all the time* in almost any way we operate the vehicle, and was of course an expensive option (we paid *extra* for this crap???). It is just impossible to overlook when the system will lock up every other day when you put the vehicle in reverse, it constantly loses phones or won't reconnect or re-pair, and we have to jump through ridiculous hoops to restore our previously programmed radio stations. Random lock-ups every couple weeks for no reason are also very annoying. Those are just the bugs. The interface itself is just plain poorly designed, the system is slow and unresponsive compared to other manufacturers (my 2008 Dodge UConnect performed better and had more functionality!). The GPS is some times inaccurate and the stupid white flashing circle is mind numbingly annoying. And forget it if you are in GPS mode, get a call and cross under an overpass at the same time - the combination redrawing the map for night mode and answering a phone call will take the system 10 minutes to figure out. External music devices work right only 10% of the time with MFT while my VW and GM vehicles worked fine with any device we ever tried. They took a great plug-in hybrid and routed the second most used interface in the car directly through a steaming pile of excrement.

Well, I spoke with the regional customer service person maybe 20 minutes ago, and her exact words were "I am sorry but there is nothing we can do at this time." So - excellent customer service there.

Ford doesn't care. We paid for the car, they have our money (or the bank's money) so they ignore us. Never again will I buy a Ford. This is my second and last Ford. The first one was garbage, 20 years later an almost decent car except for the MyTouch crap and Ford's complete lack of concern.