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Amen, Brother, Amen! In your case, Jus, you were just in the wrong spot when someone failed the alertness test, as his vehicle was certainly empowered to avoid the crash... which means he's one who needs front crash protection, or better yet, an alert, trained chauffer!! HAVe fun, Frank

Your pics were taken under the ideal conditions to show the car as BLUE... which it's not. I'll wager you were facing East shortly before sunset. The tree (and presumably your house behind you) shades the car from any direct, full-spectrum light, so it's mostly blue skylight illuminating the car, and lo and behold, it's blue! I trust you bought it during the day, so you know that Ice Storm is green, but a pale, metameric green with a cameleon-like appearance, that also doesn't show dirt like some colors. Enjoy! Have fun, Frank

Welcome! And what color did your wife want? As you're not a Ford guy (I wasn't), you may not know about these two sites: - ETIS gives you lots of information about your car, including "outstanding field service actions" aka recalls, and a very complete list (under minor features) of options you do and don't have. - http://support.ford.com/ give you access to dealers, coupons, service data, and with a cell phone link through SYNC, access to Vehicle Health Reports sent from your car's diagnostic system. On the forum, you'll find both praise and complaint, and a lot of information on what this car can do, and how to make it do what it can. I've been amazed how much my own driving style has changed, as a result of a car that tells you how it wants to be driven for economy, at the expense of very little else. The only thing this car doesn't like is cold weather, not an issue in Flroida! HAve fun, Frank

At 70 mpg, you're well into MPG hypersensitivity territory. Tiny changes in actual fuel usage will drive large changes in MPG, simply because you're using so little fuel in the first place. That's one reason mileage is misleading compared with fuel consumption; at 70 mpg, a given change in fuel used results in twice the MPG change as that same difference in fuel use at 50MPG, but only half the effect you'd get at 100mpg! No magic, just the math of inverses... miles per gallon is the inverse of gallons per mile (or more typically, gal/100 miles, or liters/100 km). And yes, Porter still has VGs on the sides where tuft testing showed some potential benefit, along with grill blocks, air dam and side skirts... I'm convinced I don't give any test parts long enough to show their effect given all the noise factors, the biggest being the nut behind the wheel most of the time. That said, my trip to Baton Rouge last February convinced me that there are stronger factors than driver, fuel (octane, % ethanol), or even ambient temperature... I tried several of them, with a temperature rise into the mid-70's, but what made the difference was turning around... coming back, the prevailing winds were at my back, not in my face, and mileage was up 2.7 mpg, tank after tank, over the return portion of the 3271 mile trip. HAve fun, Frank

So, you're THAT Paul Jones!

I knew there was a reason I liked you... RocheStar Fest starts tomorrow, and I do much of the cooking... my freezer is full of brisket, pulled pork and beef BBQ, with a quartet of turkey breasts in the refrigerator that will spend the night under brine for smoking tomorrow. Frank

How could your VIN not be in Ford's system? Assuming it's a covered item, and with the recall that may not matter, you should b e covered. I'd contact one of our Ford reps, Rebecca or now Crystal by PM (so your personal data isn't in the clear) as they're here to help with just this kind of thing! HAve fun, Frank

The computer's accuracy varies, to be sure, but on my 707 mile tank, the pump and the computer agreed to 4 decimal places... far better than needed! Go figure! I try to be consistent in my fill-ups, but... Frank

I've seen this on conventional drivetrains. I think it's due to use of soft pads, that don't wear the disk so much as they wear themselves. If you want, try braking hard for a while, scores of 25% and less, and see if the added mechanical braking changes the pattern. At most, I'd expect the outer speckled pattern to war off to something more like the inner circumferential marks. HAve fun, Frank

Check received here, too. Dated Friday 7/18, received 7/22. Getting better mileage than ever! Battery issues are nowhere to be seen, but I did take a chunk out of a sidewall, turning into a plaza of all things! Mentioned to my wife that I'd consider trading in her '12 Elantra on an Energi, given her shorter commute and inability to get anywhere close to the Elantra's revised EPA ratings... She reminded me that function wasn't everything... she doesn't like the SUV-style body, and Fusions aren't being discounted as heavily, given their sales volume. We remain a mixed household of updated EPA ratings. Frank

Just to make things interesting, my wife managed to get me three shirts that I'd term grey, blue and green. Based on this thread, you'll understand my delight that the green shirt (which I am wearing now) is darn close to Ice Storm, so much so that I have to dig out the blue one to convince her (a color conscious graphic designer, btw) and my daughter that I'm not wearing a blue shirt. Seems green to me all the time now... and so does the car! Frank

Thanks for the recalibration, Matt. I suspect driving style remains the biggest driver... It is YOU! To Kelleytoon question, if occupants need heat, you're going to run the engine (or discharge the battery in a plug-in) to get it. Here's an idea of the temperature dependence I see in expressway and rural/suburban commuting. Note the vertical scale is different. I need to add more e-way data from Summer_14, but hate seeing the tank mileage tank at higher speed. I suspect I'm way above the baseline data now, but my baseline period started Sept. 1 last year, so we're still filling things out. Next winter, I'll try the block heater... installed in Fall so I have a warm weather comparison. I love the "my media" reply menut button! Frank

Part of the answer depends on where you live in Michgan; some areas get extrememly cold, and some get heavy snow on a regular basis. The former kills mileage as the engine must run to heat the occupants, and you might miss AWD if you live in areas that get frequent deep snow. That said, we average 96" snowfall here, and FWD with good snows is more than enough to get through. I find the car is a delight in a snow storm, as you have visibility commensurate with your traction. As a Ford owner, you may have heard of ETIS; look up the intended VIN to see if it has an "immersion heater" aka block heater. Mine is listed as "less immersion heater" and it shows up in winter mileage. As to cost, my ownership average over the last 11 months is $0.10/mile, but I'm running more like $0.08/mile on my last tank of mixed driving, with a low of $0.07/mile. Assuming your wife now gets Wnuk's 27mpg, at $3.72/gal gas price, she's spending about (27 / 3.72)= $0.1377.mile, about a $0.05/mile difference. Savings depend on how far she drives; $50 savings occurs at 1000 miles/month, $70 savings at 1400 miles/month. She might be closer than you think! Have fun, Frank

I have to make a distinction between capability and achievablity... I find the car capable of exceeding 50mpg easily, but I have a hard time achieving 50mpg over an entire tank. Only done it once as I close out my first year in the car. I may stay on back roads with this tank just to get a second one... I'm getting 55-60mpg on my rural commute, averaging ~30 mph over 15+ miles, doing round trips so no net elevation change. My best tank was 53mpg, because I don't just commute, and at 150 miles/week, we're talking months between fill-ups, not fill-ups per month. When you know the roads, and know the car, Jus' and Paul's achievements are within reach, albeit with some modifications to the car (OK, I've done a lot...), and a more modest average speed. Conversely, at 8F last January, the same rura route yielded 30mpg, partially because I needed heat. Remember, the top mileage guys live in temperate climates! My lifetime may never make 40 for that simple reason. HAve fun, Frank

Two things I'm doing differently: get rolling in EV, and stay below the discharge threashold. The first is obvious, the second perhaps not so obvious. Depending how hard you accelerate, and battery state-of-charge, the car may charge or discharge the battery. ICE + motor is how Ford gives us 8-sec 0-60 times. The secret to the 2-bar acceleration limit is that you continue to charge the battery while speeding up. But 2-bar burns are close to the discharge threashold, when the drivertrain starts draiing the batter rather than the gas tank. This Spring I started experimenting with the tradeoff between engine RPM and "burn" duration. A 2-bar burn from a stop would get me up to speed by a certain point while charging the battery. Switching to a 1.5-bar burn rate, it took longer (and farther) to reach the same speed, but, since the engine runs at lower RPM, the fuel usage rate is slower and the battery has more time to charge. I am getting longer glides for the same fuel investment. This is the idea behind SDM's video, but without the burst of full 2-bar burn, which can be very useful in traffic. I find that the lead-foots behind me fall away because I continue accelerating after they level off. Of course, they catch up on the glide, but by then, it's time for another burn. Add in a slight downslope, and it's amazing how far you can go without using fuel. I hit 60MPG again this morning, with a roughly 30 mph average speed (15.3 miles in 30 minutes) partly due to luck (hitting green lights). It's typically more like 58mpg, maybe 56 on a bad day now that the weather's nice. Don't ask about Winter HAVe fun, Frank

Because we fall for complexity as a surrogate for quality, while "simplicity is prerequisite for reliability." Anyone can count, few can evaluate. We buy the car with the most features (How many airbags does your car have?) without asking if the resulting reduction in reliability is worth it (Are we safer when airbags fail more often?) As long as we, the consumer, want more, the only sure result is there will be more stuff to break. HAve fun, Frank

At 9.27 gal, I say keep going! You're good for 700 miles with that mileage.

At the risk of repeating myself... Me, too!

With a referal like that, how can one resist! After all, there's nothing obviously amiss with the iTunes app of that name, although my employer's web filters prevent me from reading the urban dictionary's definition beyond Google's blurb, which is enough to understand your recommendation... Frank

As I've said before, ETIS is a wonderful thing! Even when I don't like the answer... "less immersion heater" is one I'd really like to say "with" but Paul's priced it out and a retrofit is not in the cards. Frank

I must have gotten in before the change. Now, if I tell Fuelly it's a "Hybrid SEL" I get the wide range of unavailable engines. I wonder who has the "Hybrid Gas L6?" Imagine a 3.0L in this drivetrain! And I don't see a way to make any changes and still get back to what's listed now. Any selection under "Submodel" and the correct "Hybrid Gas L4" option disappears. My peave is that they split my account when they upgraded. I have two e-mail addresses, personal and work. They dropped all the data from the more-appropriate personal address account . I now have this one place that uses my work address, which will retire one day, and that day is coming... HAve fun, Frank

Experience is the best teacher... an unforgiving one, and that's what makes the lessons valuable. If you don't learn from your mistakes, experience will continue to teaching until you do! As to impact on mileage... my kids observed long ago that Barenaked Ladies' Brian Wilson was good for at least 5 mph! Rock Spectacle came out when my oldest was 12; it became popular on roadtrips, if only to see how much faster I'd drive before the song ended. As noted elsewhere, the C-Max has mellowed me quite a bit... Frank

She picked a good day to pass from this world... my Mother waited until Spring; albeit in 1985, but you get the idea. And welcome to the small group of folks who didn't buy the C-Max for themselves. We inherited ours from my Father-in-law, Porter, so naming it was easy. I didn't like the car much at first, but my wife wanted us to get it from the estate, yet didn't want to drive it, so it became my "science project" in her words. Little did she know... When folks marry, I usually offer congratulations and condolensces, as few know what married life will actually bring. In your case, it's the reverse; condolensces on losing the love of your life, and congratulations on finding a long-term reminder of what you shared with her. HAve fun, Frank

How? I see no facility for altering an existing car's charactreristics. Frank

I see a conversation like this the next time the car's in for service. Owner: The "vent" command isn't working Dealer: We'll look into it. Dealer: Well, we checked out the ventilation and it seems to work fine Owner: It does? Then why am I still frustrated after venting? I know, don't quit my day job! Frank