Adrian_L

I was going to suggest a wet/dry shop vac, but removing the panels is probably the way to go. Clean everything with bleach afterwards. I spilled a parmesan cheese casserole on the floor of my old Audi. It smelled like vomit for weeks, even after scrubbing the carpet. I finally resorted to "Nature's Miracle" which did the job (works great on cat urine as well). Adrian

I was always "taught" that the recirculation setting is basically for a traffic jam in a tunnel or when you're stuck behind a nasty diesel bus. What advantage is there to having recirculation on? Is the school of thought similar to a forced-air furnace (warmer air from the room is pulled down and re-heated rather than colder air pulled in from outside)?

I remember reading that Ford's engineers decided against driving modes--Eco, sport, etc. that the Prius has. They (Ford) felt that they were both gimmicky and unnecessary. Which is pretty much how I feel about the EV+. Unless your trips are remarkably short it really shouldn't affect your mileage very much.

I wouldn't read too much into it. We just ate in a restaurant where the moist towelettes had "For Your Convenient" written on them. Probably a huge factory in Asia somewhere sending millions of these things around the globe and they couldn't find a fluent speaker to proofread? Tellable.

Trouble is they tend to make the new one's so darned big! The new mini? It's about twice the size of the original! I guess Fiat sort of got it right with their new Cinquecento. They did come out with a prototype for the "new" VW Type 2/bus but the thing looked horrendous. I remember the negative comments on the Type 2 forum at the time, when I owned a '79. Not crazy about VW/Audi engineering and reliability, but I am tempted to try throwing an electric system in an old Bug or Karmann Ghia. There's an outfit in California that sells kits for about 7 grand and they can be installed ('theoretically') in a weekend. Even includes regenerative braking.

Like the (admirably restrained) Plus 3 Golfer last week, I'm not prepared to get into a juvenile spitting match with you. Keep on insulting people and you'll get kicked off the forum a second time.

Good points, and useful graph But I found the (bolded) comment condescending. Nobody appreciates being told what they "should know". Please.

Ditto in New Westminster (British Columbia). The meter maids all have C-maxes now. Can you still say 'meter maids'?

Gee, Diesel, that was super helpful. And thanks for reminding us that we must all live up to your high standards. I think 90% of the questions on the forum could be answered with "read your manual" or "read your policy". I'd be on that forum about 10 minutes. For those who actually know the answer to Scubadad's reasonable question, feel free to respond.

Exactly. Wire the second battery in parallel and the charging system will just see it as one huge 12 volt. I'm a huge fan of the Cole Hersee smart isolator because it will not connect/engage the batteries unless the starting battery is strong. But folks with twin battery setups have been using non-smart relays for years (they're about $20--RV dual battery "relay") and they simply connect the batteries when the car is on and disconnect when it is off. I'd wire in an on/off switch too. 3 amps is pretty impressive for a 12v freezer.

There was a guy putting a Tesla inside a Vanagon (or rather in two Vanagons welded together). I think he ran into a few hurdles but if you're interested check out: http://cafeelectric.com/stretchla/ Viva los excéntricos......

I'm just curious, wouldn't the check engine light or something else come on when the injector failed? (for those of us who don't have Scangauge) Adrian

Electrical efficiency? Really? I'm guessing that thing probably pulls 6 amps of DC power. Let's say you have two 6v Trojan T105s, a pretty common choice for RV deep cycles (and 120 pounds in weight). You can only discharge them 50% to ensure they stay healthy. So basically you're looking at 900 minutes for a 6 amp drain. That's 15 hours before you have to charge those big boys back up to full capacity. Did I mention those batteries are big? 10"(l) x 7"(w) x 11"(h) A quart of LPG will keep a Dometic fridge/freezer running for a week or more. Also, it makes no sense to run a 12 volt appliance from a power inverter when you can simply tap into the coach battery/car's 12 volt system directly. Why add an unneccessary step when your inverter is probably only 85% efficient?

My camper fridge doesn't work very well on 12 volt, but is amazing on LPG--and uses very little gas. You might be able to find a small marine ammonia fridge that runs off LPG--attach it to a small cylinder and it would go for days. I remember seeing one a few years ago that ran on 120v, lpg or 12v and it was the size of a large cooler.

Seriously? I previously had an Audi with premium Bose surround. My wife and I could not decide whether the Sony was better or worse. After a year I'd have to say the sound is slightly less full/warm but the details are crisper.

.06 G/m sounds more likely. You'd go through a tank of gas in 3.5 hours of the ICE running. We've got an environmental 3-minute idle limit in British Columbia. I know Colorado has strict laws. I suspect California as well. Even if you have no ethical concerns about leaving a car on all night you could easily get busted by the cops if there is a bylaw.

Absolutely correct. The maximum rated tire pressure is there for a reason--safety. I wouldn't go higher than 44 psi on the Michelin eco tires. http://www.wheels.ca/over-inflated-tires-are-a-bad-idea/

There are a few 2013 SEL models with low mileage (10,000-15,000 miles) around my neck of the woods, going for about $10,000 less than I paid. I drove the SE and the SEL and the choice was clear--I just had to have the SEL with all the goodies except parking assist. We haven't had a problem in nearly a year. MPGs fall in the cold, but I can live with that.

With my luck, I'd probably electrocute myself on the HVB doing DIY work. I'll stick to fiddling on my GMC camper. Would like to try to install one of these in an old Karmann Ghia (or VW Thing, or MGB GT) http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=220 But that's a post for another time...

Yeah, and warranties and insurance are both a complete waste of money if everything is as it should be.

Would be interested to hear if anyone put an AGM deep cycle in there after repeated problems and what the result was.

Driving in pairs? Side-by-side on the highway? And they say romance is dead.

We had a discussion about the climate control last year. Long story short---if you want to keep the settings you had when you turn off the climate control, one of the vent options must be on (i.e. floor, face or defrost arrows) If none are selected, it defaults back to the auto setting. In my case, I noticed that the A/C was always "on" when I turned on the climate control, even though I always turned it off when driving.

That's true, but there are positive and negative terminals under the hood in front of the driver. They are probably just linked to the starting battery with 0 gauge wires. EDIT: while washing the car last weekend I noticed the said wires are fairly thin--probably 6 gauge at most.

You are a slippery old snake. Haha I finally understand. Good fun. I didn't actually watch the video until today and I have fallen into that trap before (a drug dealer got shot to death about 30 feet from my front door a few years ago--we were not home at the time. I said to my uncle: well the chances of that happening again are astronomically small. The reality is that the chances of someone getting shot near my door are absolutely the same as they were before the guy got shot). Where I was coming from is this: consumers are not patient. If their car lets them down 10 or 12 times. If they have had headaches with the dealership or service departments, it sours their experience of the brand. It isn't the customer's responsibility to find out "what" the problem is. It is Ford's responsibility to make a reliable car. If I know of several people who have had lemons---and let's be honest, there have been plenty of folks with C-max lemons---I start to get nervous about a)my car and b)Ford in general. You say I wrote that one should not date another woman if one has had a bad experience with a woman?!?! I did?? Even if I had a terrorist pointing a gun at my head I wouldn't type that. I merely pointed out the chances of getting a bad one were the same as before. Having said all that, I admire your patience and your free time. Before two kids, I dotted on a VW bus and put up with endless problems, breakdowns, rust, a lousy heater, leaky fuel tank, you name it. No more time for that.