Jus-A-CMax

Ah! Yeah!!!! I forgot about those....this car is worth the additional premium of a custom gas pods!!! Nice reminder Monsieur.Nicklaus :victory:

Its funny that this thread is out. I had a buddy just emailed me about this CR report on the Energi. Good stuff wab....that is a damning as it gets :finger: . Congratulations Consumer Report - you are well publicized now. Good thing about the 2013 and onward - it's called SOCIAL MEDIA. Enjoy the coverage CR ;)

...I was thinking I got some spare gas pods at the moment that will probably improve the MPG somewhat too ;) That will add some tech to this car :rockon:

:lol: I had a huge laugh on this one Nick...nice post mate :clapping:

Its been a bad day. I was in pain and I had to schedule an emergency physical teraphy to relieve the stiffness for my back and neck near the end of work. Throw in a couple of curveball from here into the mix, I was not a happy camper. ...but I did find some some smiles in this and I thought I would share it, for those who are down in the dumps, just play it and let your heart melt..."The Chech" :) Edited the title, make this into a positive thread for those in the dumps. I'll add more cutesy & funny YouTube finds. Its a jungle out there for sure. So if ANYONE here has a positive or funny YouTube worthy of us Maxers, post the links here. Lets make this a HAPPY THREAD instead...what say you? :rockon:

Adair, he knows. Hes posted on that thread. I had enough of fotomoto aka doug. First there was the Thursday remarks and now this. He remains unapologetic and not sure whats up with him targeting me but its not acceptable. I hate to think about his manners at a funeral,the things he'd say. So I am IGNORING him. Congrats Doug and have a Happy Life.

Why me? I ain't Top Dog...ptjones. >>Jus, do you feel something on your back? It's a target! And again, thanks for the INCREDIBLY SENSITIVE remarks since my back is frozen and I have physical therapy this afternoon to relieve the strain. Forgive me if I do not cheer you on after your a$$inine statement...oh insert smiley here.

Go! Run it dry fotomoto.... :skateboard:

I wish I could play more Frank but -alas- as I told Nick, I was getting so excited...that day I had a 78.4MPG run to work and I had scored a 65.3 run and I was so looking forward to pulling Maxine into the garage to see how she performed on the Freeway with the Pods (heading mostly upslope) but alas ended up in the ER that night instead.....thats jus life. I'll let you figure out how with Susanne & her team, and I know you're more civil and more productive back and forth with her than the other forums - thank goodness. I'd like to know how. However, I know what I am seeing and feeling especially in the EV - its subtle, not in your face but it's incrementally enough and it will eventually add up. What I also didn't say is that my MPGs are very high and I doubted it could get any better with these pods. 13b07 seemed to take some MPGs off and I feel like these Pods added the MPGs Ford removed. Time to bed, its been a long day for me... :)

You're welcome​ :) . Yeah it was mate but it reflect the frustration that I and others felt as being muzzled because of the fear of the controversy. I toned the part down a bit after your post. Thus I moved away from that thread to start my own with my own stats for some backup.

Updated :)

I was hesitant to post my results and when I initially did, it was a secret post, kinda and that was because of the attitude and pedantic nature that thread was taking. This is my thread and I will do what I want - hence this is my take on these Pods. I just find it amusing that slapping on some lexan wheel covers are totally accepted science while deturbulators such as this which work on aircraft is voodoo science. Yeah...I did the best I could and all I am saying is here it is, here is what it is is FOR ME. And yes, I am keeping mine on as well....lol, when I have Maxine back. I did a 50/50 City/Freeway on my last run before the crash and I pulled up a 65.3MPG going from Woodland Hills to Santa Monica Blvd and again, these things are better for the EVing as they seem to reduce the resistence from the rear and its showing up in how I can EV further. I was headed south on the 405 from San Fernando to Santa Monica (those who live here know exactly what a climb that is)...and I was getting so much EVing on the way down Sepluveda Pass. Look it ain't my 1st time EVing down the Sepulveda Pass but it was a 1st for me with the gas pods, the car seemed to roll forever with very little input from the EV....I was amazed and like I said, I ain't seen this performance from what I remember. I truly enjoyed passing all the other cars with their gas engines running and even pass many number of Prii who I know were gassing it....yaaah!

Me like! Go :spend: fotomoto!!!!

I decided to take a look at these Gas Pods after a couple of other owners here tried them and reported positive results. I wanted to check these out myself and BANG someone here posted these were deemed "snake oil" by the GOD MIGHTY AUTHORITY of another forum. Huh? So...let me get to the point - these Gas Pods are controversial. Google them and there are some very nasty, nasty attack postings about them on various forums. They have been called anything from :airquote: snake oil to scams. Mostly from those who have never used them. You spot the occassional one post or two who claim to have used them and it was a waste of them with no other information and data associated with them. As a mod here and with Adair, neither of us will tolerate any attacks or nastiness which may come from people posting their comments and usage on this. So if you think you can come in here as a :noobie: and start lambasting away at this or any other issue on this forum - watch out. Now we got the formalities out of the way, lets get back to this. My Initial Thoughts Right up front, I thought they would not work. Even with my wifey, she bet me $5 these would not work. Yeah, she read those forums too. I know for a fact, mtb is a driver here who struggles to get any decent MPGs, ptjones is another who is always tinkering and so was catsailor. All 3 are long time posters here and all of them reported positive results. That had me rethink. However none of them seem to provide any figures. What figures any of them did post were soon jumped upon here as not being "scientific" enough, no baselines. If that's the expectation jus stop reading now and go to another thread because the rest of this post won't meet your high expectations or standards. I am not in the business of scientific research field and probably 99% of the posters here aren't either so don't hold me or others up to those standards. Cool....disclaimer #2 out of the way. So why did I get these? Because I can. I am curious. I really don't care if they work or not and they look cool anyway. So I have no skin either way if they work OR NOT. About Me I owned my CMax since Dec 2012. I have over 20,000+ miles logged on my fuelly.com (Jus-A-CMax) and my Avg MPG is pretty darn high with a running MPG of 54.7s and an Lifetime 48.6 MPGs. I have since got 3 x 800+ miles per tank and a ton of 600 and 700s. So yes, I am a hypermiler who regularly beats the Ford 43MPG or Consumer Report 38MPG touted for the CMax. Yes, I didn't get the memos from either Ford Motor Company or Consumer Report - I did check with my secretary and we are positive this :rtfm: memo was not sent out and received by us....bad Ford and bad Consumer Report :finger: Ordering Ordering was easy. I also decided to join their "test" program. And sent them my lat 2,000 fuelly.com miles. For that I received a 20% discount on the order and if I submit my next 2,000 miles, they rebate another 20%. Cool, no loss there. The postage at $9 something was expensive. I could have driven to Santa Barbara and picked these up myself and still have money left for an ice cream on the beach to enjoy the rolling waves and sand. My package arrived in about 4 days, nothing special in that. USPS. Package I said this before and I will say it again. The Gas Pods arrived in a USPS box and in a brown paper bag. Along with a business card and also a color print of someone's black CMax and where to position it. I looked at the picture and all it had were some lines and that was it and some verbiage to follow the curvature. At least they could improve the documentation here with a photo of some actual gas pods on a CMax to visually show it. But no. The brown paper bag was a shocker. I just paid nearly $55 for these Gas Pods and they came in a brown paper bag. Susanne replied that I was the first to complain about it - hell yeah, I spent this money at least you could package it - even just a bit, nicer. Susanne's comment was that it was eco-friendly. Yes, it is eco-friendly but even other sellers who pacakge their product in similar "eco-friendly packaging" still made it look professional. Initial impression is everything Baselines - of sorts. I use my CMax everyday to travel to work, go to lunch, head to the golf course, head to the golf shops, gym and then head home. My route from home to work is pretty consistent as its the most efficient route for a hybrid to take. Minimize on traffic, long stretches of blocks to run EV with a slight downgrade. This is Los Angeles and although we have a pretty much f*cked up city (IMHO), we are blessed with consistent weather. It does not rain here and 99% of the year, its windless or just the gentlest of breezes that roll west over the Santa Monica ranges into the San Fernando valley. Traffic. This is LA. It's busy here all the time especially during peak hour. But consistently busy though. I take the surface streets, and its trouble free most of the time. Yeah, I spend more time in the car but hell. Below is the map of my "To Work" route: NOTE: This is not the exact route to protect my privacy, I have tweaked the start and end points but the middle sections are true. Stats This is my stats. I marked off the "To Work" section in gray. This is the exact same road I travel in my drive to work so you have, somewhat, apples to apples comparision with the pre-gas pods vs. gas pods. About the To Work 10/09 to 10/14 I did these runs before I got the Gas Pods. On 10/21 I redid the same run after I got the gas pods. The 78.1 is not unusual, it does happen but that day I had the right sequence of lights running. If you look at 10/15, I had a similar run with the Gas Pods. Lets put these 2 down as kindness from the MPG Gods. However, note the consistencies of the other 4 "To Work" runs in both the Pre Gas Pods and Gas Pods. Those are my figures from the car, but when I do the actual driving, when the car is in between 33 and 45 mphs in EV - I definitely feel the EV use (at its most minimal in my glide phase) returns the most :airquote: bang-for-the-bucks. The car seems to go further for the same EV use. As I said, I know my routes and traffic, and the gas pods days do seem to have the car go further when I use the EV. I am going to say this but I also feel acceleration from 15mph to 35 mph is a wee tad quicker with gas pods than none. No, I did not have another driver sit with me with a timer. However, my Gas Pods day stats seem to show some improvement there and these 2 areas are what I see and feel as the driver. About Total for Day The miles travelled here have more variations because I would sometimes head to the golf course, or head to the gym or head to Glendale, after work. But I always head home and I try to keep the same roads as possible because I really know that road. While the To Work road is from top to level, the route from work is level back to the top. Again, the pre Gas Pod days looks pretty consistent for the 4 out of the 5 days. Even the 10/11 the total for the day MPG was not stellar, being only 61.50. However, look at the same Total for Day in the Gas Pod period. Even when I travelled 63.1 miles, I finished with a consistent 63+ MPG. Well...you can say "what do you know, you're no professinal driver". True. But I have clocked over 21,000+ miles in this car in 9 months and working as an appraiser where I did a TON of miles over a lot of terrain and roads, I probably know a thing or 2 and spent more time with my car on these LA roads than you have spent having dinner & washing up afterward with your wife/girlfriend over this same period. So I know every whine and noise my car makes and I know what it can do on the City streets and Freeways. Not bragging but I don't wish the hours that I spent in this car on anyone else but it is what it is. Some of my 800+ mile tanks, I have recorded 45+ hours over a span of 3-4 weeks. My thoughts When I started this, I was as skeptical as the rest of the Internet world - thats jus healthy. But I wanted to prove it to myself. If you asked me NOW if these Gas Pods work or not? Yes. They work for me. They work for my style of driving. These are my stats and I happy with the consistency shown without them and with them on my car. To me, the most stand out thing and physical thing I feel is that with these Gas Pods on, the CMax seem to glide further and I am able to maximize my EV use much, much more. This is where I make my MPG mullah - how I use and optimize my EV as much as possible. I also learnt that the improvements are, imo stellar but they are NOT Galactic. To put this in prespective, given NO Gas Pods and with a well timed traffic light and right traffic, I can beat the average of my gas pod stats right now. However, given those same conditions and with the gas pods on, I can trump that.... ;) From what I have seen, the improvement is around 5% to 7% with the Gas Pods on. Thats consistent with what I believe the Aerohance team are saying. So for now and for me: they plain work :dance: I am collectin.... my wifeys $5 :thumbsup: For all the things we can to our CMax without breaking out the drill or tape such as inflating the tires, I would rank the improvement here above inflating the tires to improve your MPG. Do these Gas Pods keep the rear clean? One of the issues with the CMax is that it seemed to suck the dirt to the rear bumper bar and the liftgate. If you are asking me does these Gas Pods forever keep the rear clean - NO, they do not. My finger test still had the same dirt. And No, I am not going to post a picture of this, you get the idea. Now, does it help reduce the dirt. From my use so far and from what I am seeing jus washing the car, probably reduce it a tad but nothing GALACTIC in the reduction. So don't have your hopes up for this. As a note, others CMax gas pod owners have said they do reduce but I beg to differ - may be my LA air is jus plain dirtier than other cities, lol...I should not laugh....oh no :nonono: Food for Thought One thing I know for sure 13b07 was a BAD move for City drivers like me. I could get better MPGs back then but I cannot now, its a struggle to get even in 60, 61 as a total MPG for the day. Perhaps I tweaked my driving style too much or not but I can say, the old pre-13b07 without gas pods would have given the post 13b07 gas pods a real run for the money. When I did my 833.8 miles tank (the 1st Maxer to break the 800 barrier, I was averaging over 63MPGs total for the day and I finished that tank with 64 MPG). Also, I know for a fact, these gas pods stay on in a bad accident also. Those magnets are strong! So Aerohance - fix up your packaging and your documentation and you have a finer product to at least make the buyer feel they brought a professional product for their money. These pods aren't cheap so I hope you take up this advice. Happy Maxing guys..... :flyaway:

I tried and could barely get a pulse out of the meeting...I know you tried as well. Who knows, may be people aren't that interested, after all, its just another car to them unlike the many regular posters here such as yourself and ptjones who I regard as connoisseurs of the Maxers.

Sssh...another NDA so I will have to keep it fairly high. Well it was a small meet. I was the only CMax driver there, all others were other Ford vehicles. I flew out the best & worse of our car - even brought up the dead battery issue which I personally have not had but I wanted Ford to hear about it along with the MFT issues - seems like we aren't the only ones with the MFT bugz. I espoused the amazing tech this car has with the updates which most posters here feel blaise about it (don't know why) but I have never seen these type of tech updates in ANY other manufacturer car - perhaps thats jus me and oh, thats my opinion and observation of this forum. Yes, I talked about the lawsuit and the reasons and consequences of it - none of the other Ford owners knew about it. I was stunned but I - like all of you as well - live in a CMax bubble. Again - these are public topics, nothing secretive about it. It was a very cosy meeting and I am thankful that I was invited to comment OPENLY in a live discussion. Yes, I did blow them away with my MPGs and I got 63.5 driving 50/50 City/Freeway from work to get there. Amazing car, Amazing Pods.

At another CMax survey/focus group tonight. Thus one is sponsored by Ford :)

Welcome to the forum :rockon: First - jus drive the car. Don't worry about being a :airquote: Fuel Efficient driver at the start. Get to know your car, how it handles, the power, eco-cruise and the layout of the buttons, My Ford Touch. And enjoy the car. Its only so :airquote: involved only when you want to and make it so, there's nothing to compel you to make this complex. However, when you are ready to :airquote: play, then read on and educate yourself. I am a 1st time hybrid owner and have moderate success with my CMax but I didn't become a FE driver overnight. It takes a lot of road time and education and understanding the car. One huge tip: When you are ready to play the FE game, pay attention to the road. Its too easy to get engrossed on the gauges. Safety first, MPG last. Enjoy the car and enjoy the forum...lots and lots of fun things here and :congrats: on your CMax. :)

Observing the daily traffic here day-in-day-out at peak hours, I see a LOT MORE SUVs on the roads in this Prii city. Gas is under $4 a gallon here. When it was > $4, all the Priis are out.

accepted and I modded yours and my post, lets move on...we have some BIG MPGs to catch and fry!

nvm

watcha-talking-about-willis? I don't even have scangauge...let alone know what code is what....you think I am one of those :twister: nutcase hypermilers :superhero: obsessed with the instant mpgs? :headspin:

LOL, that +1 for the brown paper and -1 for the brown paper bag...not that I am counting. In regards to the Gas Pods keeping the rear clean....it must be the crap air that I am driving here in Los Angeles as I swear my finger test with the gas pods still show junk & dirt accumulating in the rear. I didn't see any difference between it being on and off as far as the dirt test go. I'll keep an eye on it for the rest of the tank and see how much "less" dirt it will accumulate. Sorry but I have no "dirt" meter to measure this... ;)

I like, very clean :thumbsup:

I don't think the rest of the forum under how HEAVY the traffic gets around here at peak hours when I drive and I am not even talking freeways or the 405, just the surface streets so I can stay away from the main congested freeways. Its baddd...... :swear: