FoutsNC

35MPG is not very good at all for Florida driving. It is much cooler with hills here and I drive with a lead foot and you can see my numbers below. If you are really getting 35MPG with normal driving around Florida, you might want to take the car in to get it checked out. On the other hand, if you had a Venza that averaged 32MPG, you might want to pay a large sum to get it back! The 2009 Venza had a EPA 21MPG combined! Toyota might pay a hefty sum to use that Venza to do some marketing! Seriously though, you should surely see better numbers than 35MPG in normal Florida driving without any fancy tricks. If you were expecting 47MPG all the time, you are going to be disappointed. Hybrids, in general, are very prone to MPG differences between drivers, speeds, and conditions. On that point, if you are doing mainly Interstate driving in Florida and surpassing the 70MPH speed limit by a good amount, 35MPG might be expected. When I was playing around on my last trip, 75+ MPH really hurt the MPGs as it would with most cars on the road today.

They do work great. I used one for quite some time on a garaged Cobra and never had an issue with it. If we were to be leaving a vehicle in the garage for a while, I would be breaking it back out again. http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Tender-021-0128-Plus-Charger/dp/B00068XCQU $48.63 from Amazon shipped free with Prime Membership.

Have your highway miles been around 75MPH or something? It's been discussed quite a few times on this forum already, but the EPA estimates are very optimistic in comparison to real world driving. Their highway numbers are derived from driving speeds around 55-60 MPH. The hyrbid system, in general, does get poorer milage in the cooler temps than it does in warmer temps. It uses the engine to warm up the cabin if you are using your heat, which most of us do. It also seems to run to keep it warmed up a little even when you don't use the heat. If you go to Fuelly and look at other hybrids (Prius, Camry, Sonata, etc) you will see that they all suffer during the winter months. With that said, I still think 47 is going to be difficult for most people to maintain in this car. I think the more realistic numbers will be around 44/40/42 from my experiences so far. If you are driving mostly highway miles, make sure you check the PSI in your tires regularly. The PSI will make a decent difference in milage. The door says they are supposed to be at 38. I keep mine at 42 and the difference in feel is very well tolerated for me. 42 is well within the max sidewall pressure for the Michelin Energy A/S.

Turn the dial all the way to the right past the headlight symbol. That's the automatic headlight setting :)

I did the same thing last month and I saved about $250 after trading in my 2011 Explorer for the C-Max and my wife's BMW 7 series in for the Escape. It feels really nice to have less in payments and much less in fuel costs each month. :happy feet:

Call it bias or just an observation... Either way, the numbers are what they are. To be honest, I did not think that the C-Max was gonig to come out as good as it did due to my own MPGs.

Very good point Darrelld! If I try to speak slowly and clearly, it doesn't seem to work as well as when I say it quickly and abruptly as you have pointed out.

We have the same thing from a previous car that I take out of the glove box from time to time. If you get the phrasing down properly, it usually works well. I have had a couple of cases where it was very difficult to speak the address, but those are rare. I have been using the MFT now for over 2 years with different vehicles and I has Sync with voice for 2 years prior to that. They don't always work the way you might think, but mine usually works. For example, saying "go home" won't work for me. If I say "Navigation Destination Home", it will bring it right up. http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/navigation-by-voice-sync-myford-touch

I bought one of those safety flashlights a while back and put it in the slot to the left of the driver's seat. With the glass hammer, seatbelt cutter, and flashing LED's, I feel that it's a good option to have around and it fits nicely in that spot too. In the center console, I have a lint roller, Aleve, and a few other items just thrown in there. I wish they had put a coin holder in there. You would think they could have found a spot for it in that space :)

In my numbers, I did exclude the high numbers that are probably from the Energi drivers that haven't created one under the Energi section. I also excluded a couple of 80+ MPG Prius V's that probably have battery packs or something added on. I did not exclude many of the 50+ MPG Prius V's though. I just feel that the Prius programming allows for much better hypermiling. It also helps that users have been playing with it for quite some time to find the sweet spots on the Prius.

Another good way to look at it. I was just trying to get December data from both cars though. 38.5 isn't too far off at all though. I truly think the real world average annual numbers are going to be around the 44/40/42 numbers of the Prius V with the current setup. That's still amazing milage overall. I purchased a 2013 2.0 Ecoboost Escape at the same time for my wife. My wife's overall milage right now is 22.1 MPG, and she has a really light foot. The insides of both vehicles are VERY similar. The C-Max's ride is much more refined, yet the Escape has a little more trunk room. She almost regrets getting the Escape instead of another C-Max, especially since we paid $6,000 more for her car!

Sorry to hear you are not happy with your MPG performance so far. The MPGs will be lower during the winter months with a Hybrid, no matter who builds it. The Dallas area has had some cold weather this month. With an average monthly high of 58 and low of 38, I would expect your averages to be in the high 30s, possibly low 40s. I am not here to convince anyone, yet I feel that my MPGs have been pretty good so far and I am getting into the high 30s overall with my current tank. I do feel that Ford can tweak their programming to add some more MPGs pretty easily though (5-10 more with very little change). The EPAs site has an average that almost matches up with Fuelly at this point. Similar Hybrids are getting similar MPGs per month. I personally feel that the EPA rating should be closer to the Prius V's 44/40/42 rating. I doubt that Ford "fudged" the numbers. I just think they may have tweaked the programming to meet the EPA tests, much like a bodybuilder oils down and pumps up prior to a show. The most informational site I have found so far is http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/ They go into things beyond just saying a strategy, they actually put them to the test. The site itself was created and is run by a highly respected hypermiler. Even he has had difficulty with the C-Max's numbers, yet he believes that it can do much better in real world driving with some tweaks. He is working with Ford and has some extended testing and trials setup for January. I wouldn't be suprised to see some changes come out after that time.

For futher disclosure, I added in willspeed6 35.6 December MPG and here's the results: First 26 entries C-Max - 39.67 Prius V - 38.58 Even using the first 25 results from the Prius V (since entry 26 is 35.1 MPG), the C-Max comes extremely close.

Yea, I didn't do that to purposely exclude anyone, yet I did disclose the fact. There are several sub-30 entries without an image and I found that using the pic would just be an easier way to differentiate between the ones that are true and the ones that are fake or just have one entry. With the C-Max being so new, and with so few entries on Fuelly, I found this to be the best measure. If Fuelly made it easier to go through the information, I would gladly plot it out further. The only way that I was able to do this was to go into each and every entry and pull the milage for December. Once I started getting into the non-image entries, I started finding some obvious fakes that needed to be excluded. There are some legit mid-30s, but mid-20s seem to be a little more hard to believe for me.

Just looking through Fuelly today, I came across some very interesting data. I have been a little bothered by the Media's use of Fuelly and other sites siting it as the end all for MPG discussions. I am also bothered by the fact that the filtering of data is very minimal and the fact that there are clearly some C-Max's on there that are fake. I can only assume that those entries would be from other make/model Hybrid owners or by other manufacturers. Anyways, with that said, here are some interesting findings: Since the earliest data for the C-Max was in October, the data from the October and November timeframes were very minimal. I am only considering the entries that have an image of the C-Max in their profile. At least I feel that these owners took a couple extra moments to put a pic there. Those fake entries are mainly found without images. For example, look at the P.O.S. profile. Enough said. There are currently 25 C-Max entries with images that have reported fill ups in December. There are over 100 2012 Prius V's. There are no 2013 Prius V's with images. Here's the average of the first 25 or both models for December of 2012: Prius V = 38.72 C-Max = 39.84 And just for S&G's, I went on to try and help the Prius V beat the C-Max. I averaged the first 50 and came out with....... 39.21. Still short of the C-Max numbers. With this said, there are some things to consider in these numbers. Of course, we all know that we are heading into winter and Hybrids don't perform their best during this time. Beyond that, the C-Max's are mostly still being broken in. I would say that a good number of the new drivers are new to Hybrid technology, myself included. The C-Max outperforms the V by a good measure. The C-Max is much more comfortable. The C-Max weighs more and is most likely better rated in the IIHS testing (To be seen). The C-Max also uses Li-Ion battery packs, which have major environmental advantages over the Ni-MH packs in the Prius. The C-Max is new off the line and is a new product for Ford. I am sure with some tweaking, the MPG's can be much better. The Prius has a loyal following and many "hypermilers" that have tweaked them to get the best MPG possible. If you look through the Fuelly entries, you will see all the additions in many of the profiles (battery packs, foam inserts, etc...). As C-Max owners, we are still trying to figure out these little things. There will also be many more buyers of the C-Max that don't have MPG as their main concern. It's a great alternative to the Focus, Fusion (non-hybrid and hybrid), Fiesta, and even the Escape. I was one of those buyers. By the way, it's built in the U.S.A. and not one of them will be made in in Changchun, Jilin, China! Now, don't get me wrong here... I still think the 47/47/47 EPA ratings are going to be extremely difficult (even for the best drivers) to maintain with the current C-Max setup. I think the FMC Engineers need to brainstorm a bit more and make some changes to the programming. I am not a hypermiler by any means at all, as you can see with my current MPG. Before this last Friday, P&G meant PUNCH and GO! After doing a little browsing, I have picked up a couple of techniques from some hypermilers out there. I am guessing that my next fuel up will be in the lower mid-40s from what I have been getting over the weekend. This is without changing anything in the car, except for the way I am driving (and a little compensation for some oversights from Ford engineering). If it does continue to work out, I will share the strategies on this forum. I hope this information helps to keep the MPG rants under control a little. We need to understand that there is a large audience out there that wants to see this car FAIL! The hype is helping them out and Ford's responses have been horrible, to be completely honest. I love this car and I think it has a ton of potential. If Ford wants this to take a large chunk out of the Hybrid market, they need to pull their heads out of the sand (or whereever they are) and start talking to the owners and making some tweaks and hitting the competition head on. P.S. - If you are from FMC, I am always available to talk ;)

I picked up my C-Max on November 20th. I have really enjoyed the new car, yet the mileage is a little lower than I was hoping for so far. It's been quite cool in this area and I have a lead foot, so I don't expect the 47/47/47 that's touted. Although, I was hoping for 38/38/38. We will see what happens over time. I see that several people have said that they haven't seen any others around them. Coming into work today on my 9 mile commute, I actually saw 3! I have been seeing them quite a bit around the area here and think they must be selling well.

Oops... @FordCMAXHybrids is the correct handle. The CMax one is for the European C-Max.

I have yet to have any battery related issues (knocking on wood), yet I do have a suggestion for those that are having these problems. Use Twitter! Company's are paying close attention to their Social Media presence. I am sure they are watching these forums a bit, yet the major Social Media outlets get much more attention. Want to see it in action, just tweet about your next airline delay and tag the airline. Facebook pages are also helpful, yet they do not get the close attention that Twitter does due to the viral effect of Tweets. Make sure you tag @fordservice, @fordcmax, and @Ford, and @ScottMonty. Scott is the head of Ford's Social media. I can assure you that I will be tweeting up a storm if something like this happens with me. It also helps if you have a large following on Twitter. If you don't have a large following, build a small one and start tweeting. If you are tweeting about your issues, link the tweets here so that others can RT them for you and help spread the word. I think there are some kinks that still need to be worked out and I am not sure that Ford is hearing us loudly enough yet. I would also suggest some calls to their Media Relations department. Good Luck!

There are a few out there still in business all around the country http://www.drive-ins.com/ Many of them are now situated against a less often used Highway. In their prime, most of these were put up prior to the Interstates coming through. I know of several around our area that have closed over the years. There are a few owners that own several theaters around the state or region and they are trying to do what they can to keep them up and going. If I didn't mind being broke, I would probably love to run one :)

Yes, they do :) There's even one around your area: http://www.cascadedrivein.com/ We have to drive about 50 minutes to the one closest to us, but we really enjoy it. When we lived in upstate NY, there were quite a few up in that area.

I haven't had any issues yet (knocking on wood) with my battery, yet I have to second what valkraider is saying here. Don't just jump the car, call Ford Roadside Assistance and have them jump you. If nothing else, I would call and log the issue and then callback to cancel the call once you jump it. You may also want to call into your local Ford Service Department and let them know. If they don't know what's going on, they can't react to it. Ford wants their hybrid line to be successful and I think they are doing what they can to make it right.

We have taken several trips in the C-Max so far. The longest one was about 12 hours over a weekend. The leather seats are very comfortable for us. I traded in my 2011 Explorer for this and I feel that the seat comfort is very close. I have seen reviews stating that the back seats are hard, yet my wife loves the back seat comfort. We also sat at a drive-in double feature in the front seats. The total time that evening in the seats was about 7 hours. The hybrid setup makes drive-ins much nicer too :) Good luck with your desicion. I am sure you will like the car if you make that choice.

Just playing around, I turned traction control off, dropped it into L and took off. I was quite impressed.

Nice review. I do like how he includes the response from Ford about the MPG With these figures, my 38-39 MPG lately with 30-40 degree temps mainly at night with lights on with less than 2,000 miles should be good. My goal is 38+, which is double the 2011 Explorer I traded in. I am pretty sure that will be easy to achieve. I am pretty excited to see how 70 degree days are once the car is fully broken in.

Yes, they still haven't updated the version for the C-Max yet. I didn't hear anything about the SD Cards, yet I wouldn't mind a free GPS update too :) I know that the maps on my 2013 aren't any different than they were on the 2011 for the area I live in. An Interstate Loop opened up near my home in 2010 and it's still not on my Nav. I am now hopeful that there will be a Nav update!