Jus-A-CMax

Excellent, that is what a new car experience should like - delightful. Trust me when I say you will have even more fun when you master all the controls and pedals and catch the mileage game.After hanging around this forum for such a long time, you've digested a ton of stuff which I am sure you are eager to unleash...be the Queen of the MPGs. See ya when you do the 600 and join ptjones and I :happy feet:

Ron - put up your impressions, please. I think we can all learn something here...SBGrad did his and it would be worthy to add your experience. What I put down was not everything that happened, its still digesting in me as to what they asked and said - it was pretty pertinent and direct - their questions. I'll update as once I digest and make sense of their questions. I'll throw something out - the MFT services, this is different as its "cloud" based. For example, the search by business, if you use services, it will search the cloud. If you use the Nav destination it will use the SD card data. I know the SD card data is not the latest, it does not even have my Costco Pacoima which has been there for years. Also, the weather forecast is cool as well. I really need to explore the services more, its another worthy door to look into as see what we can find.

Ron, lets see the variance... r u next ;)

No, I read this article earlier as part of a series of posts as they travelled - unless they did another one...its a good & interesting read anyway :)

Yeah, thats at least $90+ in value. I should get my wife to drive and give that ticket away, we're both season pass MVP@Mammoth already :)

Thanks for the links but this is an old article/thread, saw this sometime ago. In my experience, I don't agree...my numbers don't reflect anything that bad and I have nearly 7,500 miles on the odo. I drive everywhere and all surfaces including 3 trips with 1,700 accumulate miles from 500 ft to 7,800 ft to Mammoth and back fully loaded and temp varying from -3F to 45F. Even at speeds greater than 65mph, I am still seeing some pretty good MPGs due to the ICE High MPG mode and I only do these speeds coming back from Mammoth. Know your vehicles strengths and drive to it and have fun playing with it. I always look forward to outdoing my last run. I have no problem calling my CMax a 47MPG car, and right now my tank is 48MPG and my last 3 tanks have been at 47MPGs. YMMV, of course :)

Woah..ANOTHER new ad...2nd new one....this one is about a woman in blue talking about loading her White CMax and going to Mammoth, loaded with skis and stuff - PLUS Ford is offering that if you test drive a CMax, you get a free lift ticket to Mammoth. Geez....wonder whos been going there?!?! Anyone else seeing these ads? Or are they just targeting the CA market here?

So now you opened another can of worms.....everyone will be saying..."wheres mine?!?!?!?" :)

Hey WELCOME Lotsa Tales! Thanks! What time was your meeting and what color was your car? I was the White Platinum in Bay 20 at about 1PM. Did you do the drive with the engineers and what was that like? I think it would have been so much more awesome if we drivers got a chance to meet and greet and shared our experience in person - I think the coming Michigan meet up will do that....mind you, keep posting your experiences here as well as a lot of other drivers can learn from each and every one of us. You'll be amazed by the depth and knowledge this forum can provide as well - like the hot issues with the dead battery, up coming 3.5.1 MFT update etc. Yeah...the marketing guy was p*ssed at me for not giving his section a 10 with respect to the Sync...I gave him an 8 as well...ha...he's got to learn. I think we have the same exact gripes as well - the turning circle is not the best but by golly - does this car excel in the drive-ability.

Welcome to the forum - check out the Fuel Mileage section, there are lots and lots and lots of tips there. Based on my experience, the eco cruise is best set to 60mph and just leave it there. However, we tend to be lazy and there are at times where it makes sense to turn off the eco cruise (using the bottom left paddle) temporarily and let the EV kick in, for example, battery is 75% and you know there is a slight down grade - kick it into EV by turning off the eco-cruise and then turning it back on immediately using the same paddle (or double tap the "-"). If the car does not feel that it is a downgrade, you'll lose speed quickly and kick in the ICE, otherwise if you read the road correctly, it should cruise EV using the batteries until it drains down to about 30% and then ICE will kick in to recharge). Downhill EV - this is where its most optimal to use the EV. For starters, don't ever use 100% of the EV in the EMPOWER mode - I mean don't kick the EV power to the maximum double bar. You want to maintain a speed say 60mph, just kick in enough EV juice to keep the car going at the speed, typically this might be 1/2, or 1/4 or even less when in the downhill. How much run time in EV? It's up to you and your strategy. I typically run my batteries as high as possible - charge to the max and let it run down to no less then 1/2 and then its pulse & glide to recharge (with the slow pulse to maximize the recharge). I find that EV below or at 30%, it has no mojo in it - and this was confirmed when I talked to the Ford Engineers at the Irvine Pow-Wow last weekend for 4 hrs. So, if its me, keep the batteries high and monitor your eco-cruise to maximize its effectiveness. Also, when you get more advance, look at the ICE High MPG thread that I wrote up and so did some others - the secret is the battery, there is no way to explain but lets call this "magic" when going more than 65mph and you just keep enough throttle to get ICE to start registering 42+ instant MPG (going as high as 55MPGs). Its quite fun but becareful, this one is somewhat more dangerous as your eyes are glues to the left gauges and not watching the road or traffic.

Yep, I agree. Sometimes the engine is warmed enough..then drive EV and its cooled and needs to be warmed up again. Happens to me all the time, especially when temps < 50F. No big deal, the ICE has got to do what it has to do...unless you get ptjones grill covers.

Could be worse, in my ole Camry - I would roll in neutral down a steep hill and then accidentally push it to R instead of drive. Now it killed the engine but it started fine - did that twice. In the CMax, accidentally pushed it to R...nothing happened, cool. Ole bad habits die hard I guess :runaway:

IMO, yeah - but as you both will learn - sometimes it is not necessary to use all of the EV power up to the threshold. In the EMPOWER mode, you will see a double blue bar and in the EV+ mode, this double bar will be a little "higher" than normal (as compared to the non-EV mode when you will see a smaller double bar). Now - the trick is to "feather" touch the accelerator pedal with just enough EV to move the car at a slow speed. Not burn it at high speed and most probably at a very slow speed. I have to climb 2 gradients back to my house and my EV+ bar is typically a tad over 1/2 to 2/3. By feathering the pedal, I have just enough speed, typically 15mph, to go up the 2 gradients and into my garage. EV+ typically kicks in 1/4 mile or less from your home. However, if you have someone behind you, you may want to change and burn some gas but as its a residential with lots of kids, I go slow - stuff the guy in the back. PS Using minimal EV also helps at higher speeds in non-EV mode as well. The mistakes I made when I got my hybrid at the start was to burn the EV at its maximum - so the battery did not last and it took forever to recharge. By using just enough to keep you at the speed (and you will learnt to feel this with your driving), you conserve the EV and again, IMO, keeping the batteries high has much more beneficial (aka bang for your bucks) use than say 1/4 battery. As a side note, I discussed this with the Ford engineers at the Irvine pow-wow and they had a big smile.

1st new one - Sketchy ad. Woah...just doing my report here and guess what popped up...looks like there is a Part 2 to the CMax "sketchy" blue ad (ala my avatar) - this one is different - it talks about more passenger room than the V. Same flow, background music with an added touch of real people inside the CMax. 1st one is apparently the "CMax say whee", its here: http://www.ford.com/cars/cmax/gallery/videos-and-demos/ ...but not the new one afaik. I have not seen this one but if you find the link, post it.

We all a check at the end of the day and a goodies bag: The waterbottle is really cool. The brochure is the same one that I scanned and put up. The sticky post it notepad is cool as is the CMax labelled pen - and to sweeten the deal, a nice packet of M&M candies, wife got half and me the other and she grabbed the t-shirt as well. :)

Nice review SBGrad - DOH - I missed that test drive and interview! I would have luv to see the numbers they were getting. I know they downloaded some stuff off Maxine while she was stationary. Hope you got a better t-shirt, my kinda suxor, it was for a girl and I gave it to my wife, she luv it.

Adair - something to look forward to - it was a cold one here in Los Angeles this morning 40F. Maxine is at 7,200 miles on the odometer. The first part from A from west to east is along the 118 Freeway (approx. 13 miles) and at speeds 65-70 mph cause I was running late. I noted the Avg MPG along the 210 remained around the 48.0 to 48.1 MPGs (which is what I started with from home). The north-south is surface street at 45mph and at the end of this run, TRIP came up to 48.7MPGs at the 41F temp. So be patient with your engine, it will break in and this is possible at speed. And yes, we do get the "cold" ones but not insanely cold - California cold ;)

As much as I dislike the reboot, its probably a good thing. At the Irvine meeting, I asked the MFT team for a reboot option in the next version of MFT (as versus Master Reset), lets see. It seems like the MFT only does its own reboot when things are really, really bad but a user initiated "cautionary" reboot might be the trick until the next version is stable enough (and even then, I suspect MFT will find a way to crash).

Oi...you're talking to a transplanted SoCal resident here where warm & sunny is the order of the day...by the way, I have some good news for you - keep an eye out in the Fuel Mileage section ;)

CR says that is not possible :hysterical: :rockon: & :happy feet: :) - whatta champion!

Hee... you need to put up a warning, :redcard: don't try this without a spare 2 gallon in the back I took mine out unless I am on my last run, the fumes were getting to me. Looks like I'll cap the max at 13.0 gallons on the readout then. 35 miles past zero is insane - thats how conservative Ford has made its estimation. Hey did you get any weird or unusual MPG readings when you are near low? For instance, one 12 mile run I always do I know I can get 55-60MPG consistently but that one low tank run, it came up with something insane like 70MPG and I did nothing special - anything like that happen to you?

That is a great suggestion!

Thanks SBGrad - exactly right! Yeah...I parked normally and was then told to park with the middle in line - very observant :worship: Adair SBGrad, did you do the test drive with them - and if so, how was it? I was prepared and all but I just ran out of time and it was starting to get real cold. PS I luv that lock and unlock by swiping rubber thing front or back - that is very, very cool - much better than pressing the remote button.

ptjones...mate...you have a good scuba gear there, hard to breath in all that sweat my friend ;)

zhackwyatt - great idea :)