maxed-out

I joined this forum a couple of years ago when I was seriously considering the purchase of a C-Max Hybrid. I ultimately went with an Escape SE with the 1.6L, and I've been very happy with it. Fast forward to now and I find myself in the Dallas area with a one-week C-Max rental from Budget. I'd like to say to all that the vehicle newly impresses me in just about every way, and also say that I'm getting crazy good gas mileage driving around town with this thing. The car has 16k on it, temps here are mild for winter (in the low 70s), and I'm getting right around 49mpg in mixed city driving, with no special effort on my part.

Relax valkraider. I'm sure that MFT will be supported for far longer than the service-life of your C-Max, and will continue to receive periodic software updates. You will have exactly the same ownership experience with your C-Max as you would have had otherwise. I hope you can see that. Certainly Ford had to move-on at some point. Otherwise their competitors will eat them alive.

Kostby #18 With regard to your lengthy rebuttal, I really don't think there was any "misinformation" in my contribution. Through August, C-Max sales are 23.5% below same time last year. If anything, you are the one trying to mislead about that. But mostly, I was simply lamenting the fact that the 2015 C-Max will continue to be offered here only as a hybrid vehicle, and without any of the considerable enhancements that will be present in the same vehicle across the pond, not to mention their wonderful engine choices. If I am considering a C-Max for purchase here, it matters little to me how many engine choices there are for the F-150. Btw.. I have never, not even once, seen any commercial on television that featured the C-Max. I do know however, that "it's truck-month at your local Ford Dealer", as it seems to be every month of the year.

So let me get this straight. The European version of the 2015 C-Max is getting a significant refresh, but the 2015 North American version is going to be (except for two new colors) exactly the same as before, despite sharply declining sales. And even with those sharply declining sales, it will still only be available as an expensive hybrid here, instead of having any of those delectable engine choices that the Euro's have, not to mention the availability of a manual transmission as well. It sure would be nice if Ford would pay more attention to this vehicle here in N.A., instead of just mailing out checks to appease current owners. The marketing effort on the C-Max seems almost non-existent (a joke really). My local dealers consider it an orphan vehicle, with only a token few on the lot for a prospective buyer to consider. My dealer has 3. They have 168 F-150's, 73 Fusions, and 54 Escapes.. so it's not too hard to figure out where that dealer will be putting it's efforts.

There will no-doubt be some changes, but probably only very subtle ones. C-Max sales are very soft because gas prices in the US are stable and cheap by world standards. The bad publicity resulting from the two mileage downgrades hasn't helped any. Too bad Ford does not market a gas-engine non-hybrid version here in N. America as they do in Europe. Sales would be far higher. Usually two to four weeks before they start to show at dealers. Expect incentives on the 2015 model, right from the start. To be fair about that, Toyota has to offer incentives to move the Prius as well. Hybrids may be green, but they make little sense from an economic standpoint.

Production set to begin 09-15-14.

That's great HD. Please consider posting a photo here.. or photos.

All good points, Ryan and HD. You deserve better. Does Ashley still monitor this website? Maybe she can send word of this problem back to the "Ivory Towers" in Dearborn. If memory serves, GM at one point (pre-bankruptcy), tried to make it so that customers who had ordered vehicles could watch those vehicles come down the assembly line while being built. I don't know for sure, but I think the whole thing just basically blew-up in their face when it became so problematic to actually accomplish.

The Compliance Recall 14C03 seems to apply only to C-Max's built on or before May 28th, 2013, so based on that there should be no delay in receiving any ordered 2014 model because of this. HendersonD.. your dealer was likely in error when they implied it would affect your delivery. They'll have to come up with a better excuse than that next time.

Apparently the stop ship has to do with Seatback welds. Also affects Fusion and Escape.

Nice photo Ryan. Good color choice too.

I hope that you guys who are on the verge of taking delivery of your 2014's will find the time to post some glamour shots when you get them. Otherwise we pretty much have to take your word for it, and that's no fun. Hey S70.. what's an NGR, and was there a reason given for why it took so long to build and deliver?

This can be partially explained by the fact that in Canada.. whenever the word "Gallon" is used, it's referencing an "Imperial Gallon". An Imperial Gallon is 1.20095 U.S. Gallons. So 67/city divided by 1.20095 = 55.8/city.. which is still way higher than the US EPA figure of 45. I'm guessing the remaining difference is likely attributable to the Government of Canada's different testing methods for Hybrid vehicles, which are clearly more generous.

The mileage figures may be "posted".. but that means little at this point. It's my understanding that the official EPA mileage figures for the 2014 C-Max have yet to be determined. The figures being used by Ford at present are simply last year's figures carried over to this year's vehicles.

I think it's far more likely that the reason the numbers are the exact same for the 2014 straight Hybrid C-Max, is because since they are finally on the verge of actually producing them.. and since they have to show something for MPG figures on stickers to sell them.. they are simply borrowing the final figures from the last model year C-Max as allowed to by the EPA. The figures are "conservative" at this point, and will likely change once the EPA tests are complete.