GaryM

My wife had a Prius hatch and now has a Prius C. It is quite funny when My C-Max is parked next to the Prius C. Look across her car to mine, WOW, they are almost the same exact shape, just the Max is bigger all the way around, like a big blue shadow around her red car. I will have to get a picture of it to post. My wife does not bother to drive her hybrid any different, just drives with traffic and let's it fall where it may. Her MPG ranges from 44 to 48 since she got it. I can easilly get 50ish on any normal trip in it. My C-Max is definately a different car. I do think about energy management, but I am not crazy about it, I keep up with traffic, like to accelerate to merge, and I like to corner at speed, but once in traffic, I do use a few hybrid tricks and will keep it in electric when possible. So I have been averaging 47+ on my last tank as well. It sure is a lot more car to get that close to the same mileage. The Prius is a very good car, but I do like my Max better. My office is full of tech heads, we have several Toyota and Lexus hybrids, a pair of Chevy Volts, and a Hyundai hybrid. My C-Max is the first Ford hybrid in the group, but I do not think it will be that way long. Quite a few have taken a ride and even tried driving it. All the comparing of the cars has been very pleasant. The only semi bashing is about the guy who drives the 8 MPG dually quad cab truck, always alone, with just one small case for cargo.

I have to burn close to 2 gallons before the gauge falls below the full line, but it does have about 2 bars above full. I see about the same, 4 gallons burned is down to the 3/4 full line. I have been running to 11 gallons burned and it is then at about 1/8 tank on the gauge. The gallons burned on mine is about 7% off. On each fill it has taken a bit more gas than the computer said I used. My last tank which I topped up a bit early, said I only used 10 gallons, but it took 10.7 to top up. The trip 1 screen said I had gotten 45 mpg using 10 gallons to go 450 miles, but since I really used 10.7 gallons, the real MPG came out to just over 42 MPG which is still quite good. I am very curious how this next tank is going to come out. I am averaging 48 MPG so far with 2 round trips to work and a few small side trips. It was showing as high as 53 MPG in the first 1/4 tank. Using my same 7% error, I figure my real world MPG on this tank should be 44.8

I was in a tough decision spot when I started looking for a car. My 9 year old manual trans Camry was still getting a solid 30+ mpg if I had any open highway driving, and would still net better than 28 on almost every tank, even when I got stuck in bad Los Angeles traffic. So I knew it was not going to be easy to do much better and still have a roomy car. I almost bought the new Camry hybrid, but the handling stunk. The new Camry SE handles great, but only has the insane 7 or 8 speed auto trans that shifted so many times per mile, I thought I was having a seizure. The Prius was too small, and the Prius V corners like a dump truck. Then I saw the ads for the Fusion hybrid at 47 MPG and I had to check it out. Equipped how I wanted it, it was well over $30,000 and when I checked, it would be nearly 50% more to insure, OUCH!! I also drove a Dodge Dart and a Cruze eco. Both 1.4 litre turbo non hybrids with manuals trans. I almost got the Cruze, but again, just a tick too small. I am sure I would have no problem getting 40+ highway, but I get stuck in traffic a ot, and the hybrid just kept calling me back. I then had to try a Chevy Volt. Wow, that is one amazing car. One of my co-workers got one, and he plugs it in ech night, and his drive to work is just 20 miles. He can sometimes make it home without firing the engine, but usually has to for a mile or 2. Not counting the electricity, he is getting a silly 95 mpg on the little gas he does use. I was very tempted, but I just could not justify the $42,000 price tag. Then I saw the C-Max. How can it be so much cheaper than the Fusion? And when I checked, it turned out to also be far cheaper to insure, only a tiny bump up from my current 9 year old Camry. The cargo carrying is different, but more than capable for my needs. But I did get delayed when I started seeing all the bad reports. I talked the dealer into letting me take a longer test drive, and I actually got over 40 mpg without being a slug on the road. I drove it a bit harder, and WOW, it handles and brakes, and the big one, it can accelerate too. This thing makes my wife's Prius C feel like a slug. Doing some quick math... even if I just get 40 average, I will be happy with it. I have now had it for 3 weeks. I did not reset the lifetime average MPG which was at just 22 when I got it, but I did reset the main display average. The car had 125 miles when I got it. My first tank wasabout 40 mpg as I had a bit of fun around town. My second and 3rd tanks were a round trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix and back at 75 mph with the A/C on. That pulled my average since I bought it down to 39 mpg, but the lifetime was still climbing to 36. 4th tank was local driving again, in some traffic, and another shorter trip, 300 miles at speeds from 55 to 75. That tank was at 42 mpg when I decided to fill it up again, I had just under 1/4 tank left. The 5th tank is now just at 65.4 miles and still showing just above the full mark. Those miles were a little in town here, down to my office, out to lunch, back from my office, and 3 short in town trips. This is a very good even mix. I hit 70+ on the freeway, was in stop and go a bit, and in local traffic as well. This tank is currently at 47.5 mpg. To me that shows the EPA test to be right on the money. There is a huge difference between the C-Max and the Prius. In a Prius hatch, you do not have a choice on how to drive the car. You must drive it like the slug it is. It does not corner or brake hard enough to carry any speed and the acceleration is so slow, it just never burns the fuel at any rate. The C-Max has a completely different personality. It CAN accelerate, it CAN corner, and it CAN brake very hard. This makes it feel like you should drive it harder, and you can and have a lot of fun doing it, but, if you do drive it harder, it WILL use more gas to do it. As others on the many MPG threads have said, your right foot has the choice on how much you want to trade of MPG for fun driving. When I have gotten the battery up to 85% or more charge, it will easilly cruise on level ground at 70 mph with the MPG bar floating at near 50 mpg. If I slow to 64, I do see it go into full EV mode for over a mile before it must fire up the engine. The only bad part being that it ends up dropping to 23 mpg while it is pushing the car AND charging the HV pack. It is annoying to see that, but on the flip side, this short time of crap MPG is offset when you get that energy back and run EV or even in blended cruise getting 55 MPG on the I5 here in Los Angeles. As my car breaks in, I am seeing the MPG climb for each tank. I am also getting a bit better at making it drop into EV mode at will. I hope to get better at managing the ICE/EV blended mode as that does seem to be the trick to good freeway mileage. So far, I am getting pretty good at the eco Cruise and using the double down tap to make it go into EV or go from rev and charge to coast and maintain. My normal drives have a few big hills and I am really working at making it use the battery on the way up so I have a near dead pack to suck up KWH on the long coast down. I keep seeing it charging the main pack on the climb, so I keep forcing it to EV mode just to make room as the drop from the top of the pass into town is more than enough to top up the batteries. Once they are topped off, any further braking has to go into the friction brakes and go right to heat. I will have to drive it a bit more to be sure, but it is starting to look like I just may do 47 MPG in my combined city/freeway.

I am still a fairly new owner. My car is only 3 weeks old, but I have already put 2100 miles on it. Too bad my first week included a trip from Los Angeles to Phoenix and back, in 110+F heat so I had the A/C on and the speed limit was 75 most of the way, so I got just 39 mpg on that round trip. Bu tI will also admit, I was not even trying and it was not even close to broken in with only 200 miles on the clock before I hit the road. I just started my 5th tank of gas, filled up last night near home, and reset trip1. I drove to work, took a few people to lunch, drove home, drove 3 short trips in town, and got this when I got back home. 65.4 miles total, going over hills and in varying traffic, speeds did hit 75 mph, and also had stop and go, so this is a solid all around all conditions average 47.5 MPG! I would say the 47 combined is dead on without having to work at it. That is with the A/C off, but with the windows full open, even at highway speeds. I even punched it into the yellow a few times and have no trouble merging into traffic. My wife had a 2010 Prius hatch and now has a 2013 Prius C. It may do a tick better MPG in the same drive, but the C-Max is so much more fun to drive and a whole lot bigger too.

I have only had my C-Max SE a couple weeks and have not had any issues at all, but I have to admit this thread does make me nervous about it. Is there any easy way to tell what firmware versions are in the car to know if mine needs the update? My build date is 02/13 and it had 120 miles on it at he dealer when I test drove and bought it. I always lock my car and all the lights are out before I walk away. I do have the large MyTouch screen. I do have a 12 volt jump starter pack, I think I will be leaving it in the car for the time being.

Ok, I figured it was something like that. 11 times, wow. I think I would get some odd looks pulling to the side of the highway at the top of the Newhall pass 11 times to make it an EV+ location.

Does anyone know or sure if EV+ works without the factory NAV system? It let me turn it on, but I have only driven home twice since I did. I am also wondering if I can manually add locations, or does it just try to figure out your common places? The car is quite eager to run on the battery, so even with EV+ off, I was getting to places with the battery below 50% from time to time anyways, which I feel is certainly good. Even well below 50% I can drive it out of my driveway and to the exit from my development in EV mode. Then when I get on it to merge onto the main street, it fires up and run for just a mile while I am moving so it does not hit my average MPG much at all to warm things up.