ptjones

It's blatantly obvious they drove it like a regular car which is interesting, they liked CMAX ENERGI.

RaPieR I am working on a very nice and simple installation using Lexan. Most people won't even notice it. What you are looking at is a proof of concept to see if anyone is interested. I'm still looking for someone to try it out to see if they get the same results.

From my testing so far it looks like Premium has given my best mpg twice over no ethanol gas and 50 cents cheaper.

l-world results of road testing by Green Car Reports and ConsumReaer reports indicate that neither the C-MAX nor the new Ford Fusion Hybrid live up to their EPA mileage ratings. I just got a new record 608.6mi with 12.8gal of premium for47.3MPG 80%Hwy and I used my center grill cover. I believe I will get good enough to reach 50mpg the way things are going. I currently have 2800mi so I still think I'm in the break in mode. My Escape Hybrid took 10-15k before it leveled off. My overall average is 45.4mpg and climbing. The bottom line is your MPG is determined by your driving technique and motivation.

I would change gas station, I had it happen to me once and I think the gas station pump was off by 8%. All my fillups have been within .3gal or less. One fillup was off by more than a gal.

l-world results of road testing by Green Car Reports and ConsumReaer reports indicate that neither the C-MAX nor the new Ford Fusion Hybrid live up to their EPA mileage ratings. I just got a new record 608.6mi with 12.8gal of premium for47.3MPG 80%Hwy and I used my center grill cover. I believe I will get good enough to reach 50mpg the way things are going. I currently have 2800mi so I still think I'm in the break in mode. My Escape Hybrid took 10-15k before it leveled off. My overall average is 45.4mpg and climbing. The bottom line is your MPG is determined by your driving technique and motivation.

RedlLdr1 what MPG are you getting? You on Fuelly? I just fueled up with new record 608.6mi on 12.8 gal., 47.3mpg. I used Premium and my center grill cover. I.m looking for someone that drives 70+mph to see if it improves MPG. I show 4-5mpg increase with the cover. MikeB it will be nice to see your Energi when it comes in and see what kind of MPG you get. There is someone on Fuelly with an Energi thats getting 21.7mpg hurting the overall average for CMAX's. There is another one getting 38.1mpg. Let me know when we can get together. paul@star-instruments.com is my email

Well the initial testing on my Plastic Center Grill Aero Cover are in and we are looking at 5.1 mpg at 70mph. That's 40mpg vs 45.1mpg with the cover on at 65 degrees F. and 37mpg vs 41mpg with the cover on at 45 degrees F. I also noticed you lose about 1.5mpg for each 10 degress colder the outside temp. is. I did several test starting with cold ICE and temps from 45 -65 degress with the cover on and off. My route was .5mi to Fwy accelerate to 70mph set ECO cruise for 6mi to next off ramp turn around same procedure back on Fwy and off at my exit back to my shop and record the results. Total mileage of 14.1mi. with about 2mi. EV. I'm working on simple to install kit that only takes 10-15 minutes to install. I'm looking for another CMAX owner that drives a lot of 70mph fwy speeds to test this cover out in the greater Atlanta area. My current average on this tank is 47.1 mpg with 404mi. and premium fuel. I should make it to 600mi on this tank.

Well the initial testing on my Plastic Center Grill Aero Cover are in and we are looking at 5.1 mpg at 70mph. That's 40mpg vs 45.1mpg with the cover on at 65 degrees F. and 37mpg vs 41mpg with the cover on at 45 degrees F. I also noticed you lose about 1.5mpg for each 10 degress colder the outside temp. is. I did several test starting with cold ICE and temps from 45 -65 degress with the cover on and off. My route was .5mi to Fwy accelerate to 70mph set ECO cruise for 6mi to next off ramp turn around same procedure back on Fwy and off at my exit back to my shop and record the results. Total mileage of 14.1mi. with about 2mi. EV. I'm working on simple to install kit that only takes 10-15 minutes to install. I'm looking for another CMAX owner that drives a lot of 70mph fwy speeds to test this cover out in the greater Atlanta area. My current average on this tank is 47.1 mpg with 404mi. and premium fuel. I should make it to 600mi on this tank.

Last night I made a 139.8 mi round trip on the freeways around Atlanta with speeds between 50-80 mph averaging 65 mph. As you can see I averaged 48.8 mpg with drafting about 75% of the time. That is better than EPA claims. My average fuel mileage since new (October 18, 2013) is almost 45 mpg and climbing. I notice on fuelly that you are in the top 5% on best fuel mileage for Prius V so obviously you are a very good hyper-miler. I would guess that you would do a better job than I would with a C-Max. I would STRONGLY suggest you test drive a C-Max. Numerous previous Prius owners are commenting how much better they like the C-Max. As I mentioned before, I have driven my daughter's 2011 Prius on long trips and the C-Max is definitely an improvement in performance, handling and has a much roomier and comfortable interior. IMHO you would provide credibility to this forum's members if you would simply bite the bullet and test drive a C-Max. We're waiting to hear your observations after driving a C-Max!

You never said whether you were doing any drafting. It's worth at least 5 mpg at 70mph otherwise I get 39mpg. At above 63mph continuously EV is going to be less than 10%, below 64mph I have been averaging between 50-60%EV. Big difference in MPG.

Lets see if we get more interest.

Check out photos in my Gallery. I am going to continue to do more testing to determine what mpg improvement I'm getting. Stay tuned! Last night I made a 110mi. trip with two stops. I was averaging between 65 mph and 70 mph with speeds from 55 to 80 mph. I had an average of 46.3 mpg when I started with 100 mi on the tank. When I finished I still had 46.3 mpg average after 110 mi with drafting 75% of the time. My EV % went from 60% to 45% for this tank. This morning I tried out my TOCGO mod on the hwy setting the eco cruise for 70 mph and went 12 mi. hwy /2.2cty. My average for the trip was 39.8 mpg with no drafting 2.1EV mi.,.5 regen mi. This shows that drafting at 70 mph is worth at least 5 or more mpg. Also I checked again at 100 mi. on the tripometer the GPS had 101.5 mi. so I'm doing 1.5% better than calculated or +.5 mpg.

RedLdr1, I'm also in Atlanta area with C-MAX SEL. Maybe in the future we could organize a C-MAX get-together so people in the area could compare experiences. Is anybody else interested?

I have been trying to figure out when the shutters are closed. It appears that the shutters are closed any time the car is stopped in EV mode and the engine would only run if it was cold and if the AC is not on. I'm guessing that the shutters would open when the engine is running and temps are high enough. I don't have an easy way to check this out. I have rough cut a clear plexiglass center grill opening cover and I'm trying to figure out how to finish out and attach. Will post pics once I get it done.

Diesel is $4 a gal here and Reg is $3.16. The economics don't work unless you make Biodiesel.

Stranger267: Check your odometer first with a GPS. You might be a getting 1 MPG better than you think. Mine is off by at least 1.5% which means I gained .5 mpg. Doesn't look like you are drafting on the hwy.The two 70 mi. trips I took averaged 50 mpg drafting between 55-75mph. Colder temps can really hurt your mpgs. Yesterday I made my usual 35 mi trip mostly 55 mph and averaged 49 mpg. This morning I did the same trip and got 41mpg with the only difference being about 20 degrees colder. I just filled up with 8 gals of No Ethanol 90 octane mid grade gas, we will see how that goes.

The dealer put Premium in for my first tank and I did get my best mpg. I'm guessing a 1-2 mpg improvement and might try again when I've tried everthing else. Total avg 44.6 mpg and 50% EV. For this tank 45.5 mpg and 60%EV. There are a few stations in the greater Atlanta area that have ethanol free gas and charge more than premium for it. I might try that too.

Recumpence with further checking you are right,I couldn't get my fingers in the grill to see if the shutters moved. I manually closed the bottom shutter and the top one closed too. Mine is an SEL but I'm sure their all the same. I did determine that the shutters only close when the car is on. There is a humming sound when the sutters close when the car is turned on. Scientifically I'm trying to determine why my TOCGO mod is improving my MPG by 1-2 mpg. Most of my driving is between 45-50mph so aero improvements will have little effect on MPG. It would be a different at 70-75mph. People have commented about MPG going down because of cold weather which is also the case with Escape Hybrids. This morning I drove to work 2.5mi and the shutters were still closed when I got to work getting 32mpg about 1/3 time EV. One possible scenario is that the sutters close in EV mode and open in engine mode. TOCGO mod would make engine run warmer and improve MPG. I will do somemore testing and see if I can figure this out. Paul

After three fillups it seems tobe very close.

I have a trip 4 times a week about 17.5mi each way, hilly and several signals and speed limit is mostly 55mph. I think my technique works for shorter distances or congested Hwys.I have made two 70mi trips around Atlanta FWYs at 55-70mph and was able to get low 50'smpg with some drafting. It sounds like on longer trips and higher speeds your technique works, were you doing any drafting? Generally I don't go faster than I can draft on the fwy unless I'm in a hurry. If you put my TOCGO mod on your car let me know how much it improves your MPG on HWY driving. Other people were saying not using cruise control improved HWY MPG, I never use it. I currently have 44.6 avg MPG, 45.6mpg this tank.

Kechair, I'm sure weight has an affect on MPG. Have you checked your odometer with a portable GPS yet? Put my TOCGO mod on your C-MAX, look at previous post and you will probably gain 1.5MPG just from those items. I do recomend safe drafting which means far enough back so that if the peason in front of you slams on their brakes you have enough time to react and slam on yours. SEMI's are great drafting partners because they punch a big hole in the air. You can get farther back and they can't out brake you. One note about drafting behind SEMI's, they can kickup rocks from running on the side of the road so you want to stay to the left side of your lane to avoid getting hit by rocks. Next you want to get into EV mode as much as you can, the higher the percentage EV to engine mode the better your MPG. Do not use cruise control as you can do a better job than it can. Finally it would appear that most people are improving MPG thru the combination of improving driving technigue and the breakin period for the car. It's a challenge to do better each time you drive and then the car tells you how good of a job you did. WOW! machines are running the world! Good Luck

Recumpence if you look at your lower grill opening you will see the louvers. The center opening is closed off from lower opening and has no louvers. I did the same thing with my Escape Hybrid and gained 2mpg in the winter time.

You are probably OK to do it as long as your are not using your AC. We are having simular temps here. I just noticed iam up to 59% EV on this tank.

Here's a photo of my "experimental" TOCGO (Tape Off Center Grill Opening) mod. I just used heavy duty clear packing tape; one strip on the top opening, one strip on the bottom opening and the third strip overlaying the top and bottom strips. It is still open on both sides for a little air flow to the radiator. I did this to my 2010 Escape Hybrid and got a 2mpg increase during winter months. I'm trying to come up with some type of removable cover in the future.