FoutsNC

hmm... I would probably try and catch it on a recording when it does happen so that you can show them. I have found that recording it in action is a much better action than taking it in. Whatever it is, it seems to correct itself on the way to the shop every time ;)

I have found if you just quickly pull on the lever and release it, the wipers will not move. If you pull back for about 2 seconds or so, the wipers should come on. If they aren't, take it in to get checked out :headscratch:

Yes, the Escape jack worked. Since it was the front tire and the car was really low to the ground, I did have to drive the car up on 2 2x4's to get it high enough to put the jack under. The Escape spare tire fit perfectly. The diameter of the tire is extremely close to the C-Max. It's actually quite a bit smaller than the Escape tires though. I hadn't really thought about taking them along until you just mentioned it. I would suppose I could throw them both in the back and I may just do that if I need to. I have towing through my insurance and now have full road hazard through Discount Tire, so I do feel a bit more secure driving around.

Does the "new software" happen to be the 3.5.1 Sync update?

My lease is $244 with all fees and taxes rolled in. The Toyota service is a joke in my area, so that would be of NO benefit. When we had our Sienna van I had their service plan and I waited in dealerships more for those 2 years than I have my whole life. If I were to purchase another Toyota, I would be asking that they not provide that and that they just give me the credit. NC also has annual property tax that must be paid within the lease payment each month. I forgot that SC also requires the same thing now, I think it changed a since the 90s when I had a vehicle there. With that, the numbers would be (($244*24)+$5000)/27000 which equals .402 per mile. That is 33% higher than your per mile cost, but I don't think the numbers would be that far off today. The similar equipped Prius was more expensive for a 2 year lease when I purchased the C-Max in November, and by quite a bit. Either way, I am happy paying what I am for it because it's a great car. That's a deal in comparison to what I was paying :) When you come to make that choice, or when anyone does, check out both cars and all finance options and choose what is right for you.

I did not know about the rating, yet I thought the hazard coverage was a cool thing to pass along. Like I said, I am not sure exactly how it was covered, but it surely helped me out :)

I haven't had any extremely cold temps, yet I have not had any issues with sounds like that. From my understanding though, I don't think there are any belts on our car. So, it would be really odd if you had that issue. I personally would monitor it since it went away. If it happened again, I would take our my cell phone and make a recording of it and take it in to Ford to check it out.

I usually trade cars in very frequently and that's why a lease makes more sense to me. I turn in the keys and walk away at the end of the lease. A 60 month 0% purchase would be $443 a month compared to the $410 you calculated (have to take out property tax from the lease payment since purchase agreements don't include them). In 2 years with a purchase I would be up for the whole trade negotiation again that can be a pain, especially on a 1st gen car. Ford Credit is also known to do early buyouts and they usually forgive much more than other lease providers out there in my experience. Your 2010 Prius IV also had a lower sticker price than the C-Max or the newer Prius offerings too. I checked the same setup on a Prius before I purchased the C-Max and the lease was much more expensive (like around the high $400s). I can't seem to even get a lease calculator up on the Toyota site anymore though. If you can find it, do the online calculations to check. With all taken into account though, my current lease will work out to be 37.6 cents per mile with 27,000 miles. Your 2010 lease works out to 30.1 cents per mile at 45,000 miles. That doesn't sound like a good thing for the C-Max until you take into account the difference in sticker price and 3rd year depreciation. Yours was (ballpark) $26,550 and my sticker price was right at $30,000 with the discounts I received (Not sure what discounts Toyota gave you on yours). That's an 11.5% difference which would bring my price per mile to 33.2 cents per mile. This is without taking the 2 versus 3 year difference and local cost/tax differences. I don't think it's too much of a difference at all, but that's my opinion. I wouldn't suggest that anyone rule out the C-Max when comparing it to the Prius by the lease cost alone. Look at all the numbers closely along with the difference in the driving experience. I think C-Max will surely stay in the running from my experience and from those I have personally spoken with about it. Drive them both and get the sales managers from both lots to give you their best lease/purchase offers. I believe that the C-Max would hold up quite well in that type of a comparison.

I had ran over a metal object yesterday on the road and it surely won. My front passenger tire was completely blown out, the rim has some good cosmetic damage, and there's some scuffing on the front bumper. I actually limped the car back to the house and used the wife's spare tire kit from the Escape and took the blown tire up to the local Dicount Tire shop. I had called ahead and they said that the tire was around $220 out the door. I wasn't thrilled, yet I didn't have many options. When I got there, they came out and pulled the tread depth. I thought that was a little odd, since there's a HUGE hole in the sidewall. Who cares about tread depth at this point.... Well, I was pleasently surprised a few moments later.. The guy at the shop tells me that Michelin provides an automatic road hazard warranty on all of their tires for the 2/32 of the tread. The Michelin Energy comes with 9.5 tread, so 7.5 or above is covered. I was thinking that this must be a Discount Tire thing or something, yet he goes into the store and calls a Michelin Claims Line. He told the rep that I ran over an object that blew my tire out and that they were OEM Michelin tires. After a few questions, the rep gave him a claim number. The warranty covered 55% of the tire price! This dropped over $100 off the price :happy feet: I do have to disclaim that I don't know exactly how this warranty service works and I cannot seem to find any information about it, yet if you should need it, it seems like the info is out there. On another note, you should have seen the 4 technician's faces while they were trying to figure out where the spare tire was supposed to go back to. :headscratch:

I know there are a least a few on here who draft the big rigs to save a couple of MPG from time to time. This video might make you think twice about the trade offs involved in this method of saving a few cents. For me, it's just not worth the risk

I usually always install the wind deflectors on our vehicles as well for the same reasons you do. I have found that WeatherTech makes some really nice deflectors in comparison to most other brands. The thing I like most is that they use the actual window channel to install. Unfortunately, they do not have them just yet. I have emailed them and it looks like they will have them before too long. I think their setup will probably cause just a little less drag than the Ford setup. They do look good though :)

http://blog.sfgate.com/topdown/2013/03/11/2013-ford-c-max-%E2%80%94-an-alternative-to-the-prius/ A good review of the C-Max on SFGate.com. Here's the conclusion:

I also choses to lease mine. I do tend to trade my cars in every couple of years though. The Ford lease on the C-Max was extremely appealing when I got mine last year. They had a high resale value on the C-Max, which made for low payments. It really comes down to how long you think you will stay in this car. My wife likes to keep her cars a lot longer, so we purchased hers at the same time instead. If you are considering trading the car in for a new car or newer model within 3-4 years, a lease through Ford may be really appealing. I have never had an issue at the time of trade in with a lease. Actually, each time a lease has come up in the past, I usually get hammered with offers from Ford Credit to turn it in early with all kinds of offers along with it for a newer model. Whatever choice you make, I am sure you will love the new car :)

I cannot speak directly to the question for long term use like that, yet I have done that same thing for hours. The setup of the system works really well for that type of thing. I would think that as long as you aren't putting miles on it, the warranty will cover most things that could go wrong due to sitting like that. Since it has worked so well for me as well, I will not think twice about using the car in this manner if I need to. I will disclaim that I do not expect to keep this car for more than 2 years and my concern might be less than those who expect to keep it for much longer.

Well, I did finally poke my head down there and replaced the fuse. It was the one for the 12V port and it was clearly blown. I have no clue what caused it, but it's been working since. Once I removed the fasteners to the felt-like panel and pulled it completely off, it wasn't too bad to see up there. There's actually an LED light in the area that does provide a little light from the ambient lighting. Hopefully I wont need to go back down there again. The 12V Socket hasn't had an issue since.

Here's a pic of the last Ford tester that held the right button down ;) To answer your question though, I tried it and it does nothing... I was really hoping for another set of cool stuff to come up :)

The car was on :) That was the first thing I made sure of. As dtorres pointed out above, I think I have to pull that felt-like cover off. I still haven't made time to do it. I just wish that it was a little easier to get to the fuse panel than it is.

So, I go to connect my phone charger to my 12V outlet and nothing happens. I figure it's gotta be my charger since nothing had ever been plugged into the outlet. I then grab my wife's charger, and nothing... No big deal, it's gotta be just a fuse since I have never used that 12V outlet before. So lets take a look.... I reach down on the driver's side to the "usual" fuse panel location to find a second OBD port. Very nifty, but not what I am looking for. After a little more searching, I figured it was time for the owners manual. I remembered the images, but I didn't remember the notation of the location. So I am sitting in the car with my manual. I turn to the page for the fuse panel and it states that it is located below the glove box. I glance over and notice that there's not a whole lot of room over there, but that's what it says. I poke my head down there and take a look. Nothing... I don't see a panel, or anything, just some black felt-like material covering the bottom of the fuse box. It couldn't be under that, or could it. So I strain my neck a bit further and pull the felt-like material to the side so that I can see behind it. You've gotta be frickin' (PG version) kidding me!!! :censored: At this point, I am in the oddest position in the passenger's seat with my legs contorted with a flashlight underneath the glovebox and I can barely see the bottom of the fuse panel up against the firewall! A moment of joy comes over me, until I try and figure out how I am going to pull a fuse out to check from this position and how exactly this felt-like material should be removed. I couldn't even tell what the numbers were on the panel. So, to make this long story a little shorter, I didn't fix the issue. I am figuring that I am going to have to come back with a dentist mirror and some bent needle nose pliers to get to the fuse I need to see if that's even what's causing my issue. If I am overlooking a much easier way to get to this, please help me out before putting me through this.. :doh: I am actually considering going to the dealership to have a fuse checked! This is nuts!! :confused:

So.... Did they go any faster? :shift:

The calculator online can help you get an idea. I put $5000 down for a 24 month lease with 13,500 milage allowance. My payments are $244/mo. In NC, they include property taxes and licensing fees that most states don't. I think it was around $215 without those fees. On that topic, the Ford lease worked out to be a whole lot cheaper than anything that Toyota could put out. I am not sure if Ford is beefing up their residuals to sell more ofthe C-Max or if Toyota just doesn't want to lease cars. In either case, it was interesting to see that the difference was about $250 per month more for a cheaper (no frills) Prius V on the same lease. I can't seem to bring up the Toyota lease calculator now to verify the exact numbers, but it was around there. To do it for the C-Max, just select the option to build your own and the payment calculator will come up on the bottom. Click on it to change your options to a Lease and then adjust the numbers, the payment amount will change as you adjust your options. My payments were pretty close to what that calculator shows. I negotiated the price down, and then had to add the costs back for the state fees. Good luck with your purchase!

That brings up a neat thought... So you can Start the car from the App. Can you also Turn the car off? :) It would be a neat option to be able to call the police and tell them where the car is and have the power to turn the car off once they were behind them. If that were the case, I would so invest in a cam just for the slightest of possibility of that happening :angry2:

I had the park assist on my 2011 Explorer and it is quite freaky the first few times you use it. I can completely understand how this happened and I am sure that you are not the only one. The great part is that the Park Assist really does help get you in to tight spots quickly. In our area, we NEVER need it. When we used to travel to cities I wouldn't dare try and parallel park unless it was long enough for a bus until I found Park Assist. After you get used to it, you will be able to whip into tight spots quickly, without damage :) There were a couple of times that I parked the Explorer in such a tight spot that it was more nerve wracking getting out of the spot for me! And for the video, the C-Max version is from the European model, but it might help a bit. I guess the most important part is 0:26. By the way, notice the HID headlights :drool:

Valk - You have the other type of FOB. The Energi has the built in remote start funtion built into the FOB. The SE and SELs do not. I wish they would use the same remotes though. I think the FOB that I have is a lot easier to mistakenly push buttons without knowing.

It's a timing belt. http://www.wholesalefordparts.com/showAssembly.aspx?ukey_product=8756144&ukey_assembly=1126143

I had the keys, but didn't know where they went. All the FOB remotes from Ford that I have had before were the other style that had the slider to get to the key. I had just assumed that we were supposed to keep those keys around somewhere, but didn't refer to the manual to know that they fit into the FOB. Thanks for the info and heads up!