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Yep; 1 per 10mph is plenty of room for lane changes to split the gap and in traffic, folks tailgate like mad in traffic (I learned to drive in rush hour traffic.). That's why 6 sec would be a minimum look-ahead distance, better at 12 seconds if you can see that far. Conversely, driving in heavy traffic is like birds flying in a flock, or a school of fish avoiding a shark; groups of animals sometimes move in a manner that seem inpossible without some sort of unseen communication... Have fun, Frank

I'm decades out of drivers' school, but did a points/insurance reduction course since then, and I think you're using the wrong units. The rule I recall was 1 car length per 10 MPH... - 65mph is 93.6 feet/second, so in 6 seconds you travel 560 feet. - 6.5 car lengths @ 15' average is 97.5 feet, or about 1 second. The latter is consistent with safe following distance assuming co-moving objects (i.e. the car in front will take time to stop) and attentive drivers (>1/2 sec reaction time), but I can't see a big aero benefit that far behind... +1 Have fun, Frank

4 & 9) I love the C-Max in snow, and it's not the handling that stole my heart, its visibility. I can see the road when it's snowing, and the fogs are icing on the cake. That said, where I live we get an inch of snow a day, so I have snow tires and that changes everything regarding handling. If your region is cold but not snowy, snow tires aren't needed, and visibility isn't as critical given you won't be going very fast when it snows. IF snow does get deep, or roads icy, the car allows you to turn off traction control so you won't wear out the brakes trying not to slip (and in so doing, prevent any torque to the road). Traction control is an oxymoron. 5) Mine's Ice Storm and I think it's the nicest color simply because it's metameric - the car is actually green, but it can appear blue under certain lighting. Confuse your friends! 6 & 7) As long as you get the block (immersion) heater too, get the winter package. The seats get hot a lot faster than the engine. That said, I just summarized my Winter mileage vs. last Fall and this Spring, for my two commute routes, expressway and rural back roads (not urban). The relative number of points tells you I took the expressway most of the Winter, primarliy so the engine wouldn't be idling all the time. You'll note that my mileage is at its worst on the rural route at 0F, because the engine was on the whole time.(MPG increases as you increase your EV miles, so if you can't EV, mileage tanks! Conversely, I'w up ~10% this spring year over last Fall Have fun, Frank

I just posted an update here. My highway commute mileage remains purely temperature dependent, but the back roads are giving me some love; 60+mpg @ 65F for a day and a half... average is more like 55mpg at that temperature, but that's still 13% over my baseline, and an extra 8% above the PCM update. My other changes have not shown a mileaage affect, including snow tires! Granted I've now got a lt more experience, but as I noted in the Best Engine RPM thread, I run a longer, 1.8-bar ICE burn when accelerating than I did before. HAve fun, Frank

So... what's your secret? How do you get the car to jump off the line like that? My car won't accelerate like this in EV unless I'm pointing downhill. From a stop, I rarely get across the interesection in EV, much less up to 10mph! Starting uphill, I need ICE to move. Conversely, my mileage this Spring is up 12% @ 60F over my baseline period last September... at least on the back roads. Expressway data is limited, but shows no sign of the improvement seen in rural driving. I've previously documented that the PCM upgrade was good for 5% above baseline, but I saw no change due to aero aids, increased tire pressure, switching to snows or blocking off the top two grill openings. What's different now? 1.8-bar burns... My baseline period was the second month of ownership, thinking the first month I was coming up a learning curve. I was using Jus's method, keeping ICE no higher than 2-bar to maintain charging while accelerating, but I was using the full 2 bars. This Spring, I'm targetting 1.8 bars so I get longer ICE runs coming up to speed, and hit EV with a higher SOC so I don't run out of battery as much. As temperatures finally warm to the point where I'm not wasting gas on "normal operation" it seems the car also glides farther. And it's not an artifact of undocumented side trips; three of the top four are consecutive commutes, averaging 60.4mpg at 65.7F. One difference might be city vs. rural driving - I see a lot of corn fields, traffic is quite light, and speed limits are 35-40mph. This is neither city nor highway driving. Have fun, Frank

I expected tires to make a difference, certainly between OEM "Energy Saver" tires and Michelin X-Ice3 snow tires. Not so. I see no evidence of increased rolling resistance between X-Ice 3 (purple)and Energy Saver A/S (green), both set to 51psi at 35-40F ambient temperature. One can also see that without a fuel economy advantage, I chose to drive expressways all winter. Getting 30mpg at 8F, I still was cycling the heat, and this with top and center grills blocked. Far easier to take the highway, which kept the engine and occupant temperatures in the operating range. And I'll note that I took the snows off mid-April, and since then, tank average is close to 50, and round trips have hit 60mpg. I think I'm exceeding my baseline, without slowing down - improved technique??? HAve fun, Frank PS I named this wrong; no Summer 14 data here! Just snows vs. last Fall data.

I inherited this car from my wife's family, so I didn't choose an SEL with 302A and the pano roof, and I admit it took a while for some of these things to grow on me. With that in mind... ...the only option I miss is the immersion (engine block) heater. Michigan is colder than Upstate NY, cold is not good for hybrid fuel economy, and heater retrofit is not cheap. ... and there are now several options I'd not expected to like that I'll not willingly give up, per kostby's excellent comparison: - rain-sensing wipers (just plain cool) - hands-free "kick" lift gate (love at first use with hands-full) - Homelink (no garage door opener needed) - keyless entry/intelligent access (wonderful, when it works) - premium audio (upgrade is problematic, so buy what you want) ... and some standard features that should be optional or not automatically reset when disabled - traction control (bad idea in Winter... really bad) - roll stability control (I don't want a car to brake without driver input; RSC is dangerous, unlike ABS!) - Sync/MFT (research what's driving the low quality rankings if you have doubts) But the biggest plus is the space - this thing is as close to a Tardis as you can get in the real world! HAve fun, Frank

+1

There's a fourth spec you need to match, offset. For the stock wheel, a 17x7 H2 +55mm: - diameter: 17" - width: 7" - bolt pattern 5x108, as you note - offset: +55mm Note that offset will have to change as you change rim width or the wheel moves inboard or outboard. The difference is half the rim width change. A 6.5" rim (1/2" or 12.7mm narrower) with the same wheel location will be 55-(12.5/2) = 49mm offset, like the 16x6.5" steel wheels on my snows. HAve fun, Frank

The only good thing about growing old is that it beats the alternative... aches, pains and all! Frank

It's really not that hard to keep it under 70mpg.... I think your wife would have to be an amazing woman to beat 40mpg; my car's lifetime mileage at receipt (8K miles) was 38mpg, and after ~7.5K on on the PCM update, I'm at 37.8, with only 5% EV (yes, 360-some EV miles on 7,500 total miles - winter sucks!). While I've been hitting 50+ for a few weeks, and the current tank's at 49.2, that's on back roads with 35mph speed limits. Expect a lot closer to 38 in your wife's commute. HAve fun, Frank

You may want to look again, Plus... there are TWO jacking points on each side, each marked by a triangle in the rocker molding. I also used a floor jack, installing and removing snows, and the only odd thing is how far under the car you have to go to get a solid jacking point. I learned long ago to use these points and NOT lift two wheels at a time. You can bend your frame if you choose unwisely. Far safer to lift an axel, if it's accessible, but then very hard to rotate tires... seems like two jacks are prudent for yoru need, albeit one with a very light load! HAv efun, Frank

Looking at my car's data, my regen miles are about 3-5% of the total mileage, and that at 95% regen. Presumably, you'd have to try very hard to get 50%, and few of us have the test scenario to detect 1.5% change in mileage. So significant? No. But still important for charging and getting the most out of gas invested in hill climbing. Have fun, Frnak

Installed one last weekend. The trick is to start the bend with pliers, so it bends at the base of the tab. You don't bend far this way, just enough that when you take a hammer to it, you can get the whole tab to bend back. It lost paint, but not primer. Hoping for minimal rust... Looking at pic #5 in post #1, his problem is the bend started too high. Start it with pliers and bend at the base; just 10-15 degrees is all you need to give the hammer a weak point to exploit. I have ramps, but only used them so I could use a creeper. I'm also curious how one might use phone books or a jack to position the hitch, as I had to start off-center, angle it up then shift it toward center while lifting to clear the center hanger. Good upper body workout... And make sure the drivers' side threads are clear before you try to hold the hitch in position with one hand while threading a screw into clogged threads with the other! Have fun, Frank

I get the same behavior, but only when GPS is turned off. I'll point out that Carpe's not seeing the "No GPS" icon. It would be on top of "S. Olive St." so GPS is on, and this is a different problem. Any chance you've tried pulling the SIM card (po/po the Nav system) to see if it reboots in working order? I've had it work for the "No GPS" issue. HAve fun, Frank

30 mph is 44 feet per second. We tend to think 30 is slow, and it is, but it's instructive. 12 seconds at 44 ft. per sec. is 528 feet, 1.75 football fields. At 60 mph, it's half that distance, but still a lot farther than you think. And remember, this was an autocross technique, intended for use at speeds in the 30-70 mph range, right where we do most of our driving. Have fun, Frank

You may want to review the late Dick Turner's autocrossing videos... the egg is attached to your foot, regardless the pedal it's actuating. This, and learning to look ahead (12 sec. per Roger Johnson) were the critical skills of the autocrosser that translate directly to street driving. Any top endurance racer already knows how to drive a hybrid... Have fun, Frank

We never know where our life lessons will appear, but it looks like you found one when you needed it. Condolenscenes on your loss, but congratulations on your parting gift! My Father died when I was 12, so I made the most of my Mother's passing, 18 years later. No regrets then, and lessons learned as we've just done the same for my in-laws. I'm driving my Father-in-law's car. HAVe fun, Frank

I recall this... it's a warranty extension for the module that runs Sync/MFT. There was some sort of odd problem and this just insures that it's covered under warranty, beyond normal coverage, because they know some of these are bad. HAve fun, Frank

Will you guys quit complaining about the warm weather! Some of us haven't seen 50mpg in 6 months!!! Frank, who's finally seeing 50mpg regularly!

foto, you're nuts, but I love you! Regen should always be active. After all, it's the same as engine braking with a manual tranny, sans idle, and with a reservoir to store the energy. Given the seat of my pants tells me we regen-brake at less than 0.1g, 9% seems reasonable. Have fun, Frank

The old metaphor is to imagine an egg under your foot - then don't break the egg! Enable Brake Coach, so you have feedback then find the "near 100%" point then apply the brakes at the "near 100%" level as soon as you see a stop coming, modulating up or down so you stop where you want Set the left screen to "Empower" display, so you have feedback then find the "still charging" point when running ICE (battery has a "hat" or "^" above it) use ICE at the "still charging" point whenever possible; EV if less is needed, hybrid (ICE+EV) when more is needed The trick is to use ICE under high load, when it's most efficient in converting gas into energy, then store the energy as motion, height or battery charge. It looks something like this: Have fun, Frank

Me, too, but I did the Torque Lift, no-drill version. No idea why Curt didn't go this route... only problem was undercoating in the unused bolt threads. Have fun, Frank

I've seen this many times. The first time was spooky, as I was driving to work on the expressway route, but the GPS had me driving the rural route, just passing the dealership... The few times I've needed GPS, removing and reseating the memory card reset the nav and brought the GPS radios back on-line. It's on my list for the dealer, just before Intelligent Access denial (13-12-13/14-0078) and after seat backs (14C03). Please keep us apprised! Have fun, Frank

Like any other expense, if you get something for your money, it's worth it. You're happy, so it's worth it... Now live long and prosper until they regret the lifetime offer!! Have fun, Frank