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kostby

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Everything posted by kostby

  1. January 2016 combined sales totaled 987, with 637 C-MAX Hybrids and 350 C-MAX Energi Hybrids sold. As always, prior month charts and table are removed because the current month update contains all prior data. https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2016/02/02/january2016sales.pdf http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ http://www.hybridcars.com/january-2016-dashboard/
  2. You must lead an extremely difficult and stressful life. Succeeding in making other people's lives miserable does absolutely nothing to solve your own issues, and likely causes you even greater stress when others react negatively to you and your own negativity. Sincerely hope you find whatever it is you're so desperately searching for.
  3. I worked for an independent Property & Casualty insurance company in the 1990's, and although I worked in Information Technology, I took several free insurance classes to understand the products the company was selling. End-user auto insurance pricing is one of the dark arts, and some companies and agents do their best to keep these details obscured behind cutesy commercials, obtuse policy language, pricey add-on coverages that offer little consumer benefit while boosting company profitability, duplicate coverages that might be cheaper from another source, unintelligible vehicle ratings symbols, and coverage exclusions that even an attorney could have trouble deciphering. IF the average consumer believes that it is 'too complicated' to understand, they need to trust their local agent to sell them coverages they truly need at a fair price. The lowest price is not always the best value. The true value of insurance isn't apparent until a claim is made. Fair, efficient claims handling outweighs everything else when you have a serious accident or loss. Trustworthy independent insurance agents (and most of them are trustworthy, thankfully) do their best to sort through the quagmire and get insureds the best value available among the competing companies they represent. But not every company has the same products at the same prices, so taking time to shop before renewing, MIGHT save you a few dollars. Independent insurance companies may reward the local agent with incentives, including trips and other 'prizes' for sending 'good business' to the company. Sometimes independent agents 'move their whole book', that is, rewrite all their existing insurance business with a different company in order to 'win' these incentives. 'Good business' is defined as 1. customers who always pay premiums on time, 2. have no recent loss-experience, and no major losses, ever, 3. have a good driving record with no at-fault accidents, 4. have multiple policies with that same company (because more premium dollars are there to offset a loss) 5. ARE NOT high-risk because of multiple at-fault accents, DUI, or very young 6. have a good or great credit rating. Notice that none of these factors includes what vehicles you drive, how many miles you drive, where you park at night, how 'safe' your vehicles are, or how many are stolen each year. If you want a peek at an old document that details some of the factors that affect auto insurance pricing, take a look here: http://www.casact.org/education/rpm/2009/handouts/boison.pdf
  4. After all the dead battery incidents, it's safe to assume that ANYTHING that happens with this owner and this vehicle will be treated by the owner as 'that darned car acting up again', and by this same dealership as 'that darned customer acting up again' instead of searching for a logical, repeatable events and actual solutions. The original dealership ABSOLUTELY has failed miserably to do their part to diagnose and remedy the dead battery incidents using the TSB's and Customer Satisfaction resources available, BUT I think there's a logical explanation for the noise. At max fan speed, you'd swear a 747 was taking off in the next lane. Sounds to me like the heating/cooling system was on either MAX Defrost -- if that car is physically located in Illinois where air temps in the teens or lower this weekend (or if in the south, MAX AC with the temp set at the lowest cool setting). That causes the fan to run at full speed automatically until the desired cabin temperature has been reached. In extremely cold temps, the desired setting might not occur, so the fan would remain at max speed. Way back when, to get heat, you turned on the car, let the engine warm up a few minutes, set the temperature slider to High, turned on the fan to High, and if it got too warm, turned down the fan and/or the temperature setting, or maybe opened a window. With a big V8 heating the coolant, most 60's and 70's cars achieved the "too hot" setting in a few minutes, even in very cold temps. Although it SHOULD be simpler, the C-MAX climate control includes an AUTO setting, dual temp digital controls, an infographic of which direction the airflow is going, a MAX AC and a MAX Defrost button, and a 6-step fan control, with the capability to automatically adjust (decrease) fan speed as the designated temperature is reached seem 'complicated' to older generations. Rotten egg smell occurs occasionally on most every catalytic converter-equipped car I've ever driven, and it's highly unlikely that the smell is related to what I assume to be the HVAC fan noise. OPINION: A key part of "customer satisfaction" is understanding that older folks (like me, but frankly anyone who hasn't purchased a new car in a decade) require TIME and PROPER, PATIENT INSTRUCTION from a sympathetic, knowledgeable person -- dealership Customer Tech trainer (larger dealers have at least one), friend, child, grandchild -- who takes all the time necessary to explain and demonstrate the sophisticated 'smarts' built into C-MAX systems, and HVAC in particular. The 'PATIENT' part of that means letting the customer push the buttons, fiddle with the settings, and see for himself/herself what happens, then let them ask questions and try it again, if necessary until the customer truly understands how it works and how their input affects what it does. Yes, that can take HOURS, and there is a real cost to a dealership who attempts to do this. Yes, the dealership NEEDS to INCLUDE a REQUIRED class and list "Training" as an item on the bill of sale. If the customer thinks they're paying for training, they're more likely to value it. If it's assumed to be free, they'll value it less, and not pay attention. While helpful to 'the younger generation', watching a video of someone else doing it isn't enough for us oldsters.
  5. Could be something about being located in Ontario. The link works correctly for me without being signed in to Amazon. Try this link (same destination as above, but without the tracking/reference link back to what you clicked to get there) http://www.amazon.com/Warner-Robert-Ford-C-MAX-Hybrid/dp/B019DAI5JK/
  6. 837 C-Max Hybrids and 579 C-MAX Energi Hybrids sold in December 2015 for 1416 combined sales. https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2016/01/05/december2015sales.pdf http://www.hybridcars.com/december-2015-dashboard/ http://insideevs.com/monthly-plug-in-sales-scorecard/ As always, prior month charts and tables are removed because the latest update contains all prior data.
  7. Full details expected on January 5th 2016 at the Consumer Electronics Show. 2016 Ford owners with the QNX system will have an opportunity to upgrade "later in the year" Teaser here: http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/04/ford-sync-3-android-auto-carplay/
  8. As reported elsewhere, a big concern with self-driving cars is that THEY ALWAYS obey the pre-programmed rules, such as speed limits and 4-way stops. Human drivers do not! http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2013/10/robocars_do_they_need_speed_limits.single.html
  9. So I just deleted my poll vote and re-voted to reflect that after 9 months without any additional incidents, I do believe that the software update and wiring inspections performed on our car in March 2015 were indeed the 'cure' for our C-MAX 12-volt battery issue. Prior to that, we had 3 incidents of a dead-battery-overnight in the first 12 months of ownership. We have yet to have the latest customer satisfaction program CSP 15B04 applied. When you only need one oil change per year, and aren't having any issues, it's easy to postpone. For the record, we have 2013 C-MAX Hybrid SE with Equipment Group 201A, born April, 2013, purchased new in March 2014. Current mileage is 8740.
  10. For a quick idea, this is the sales chart overlaid on a US retail price Gasbuddy chart. The major problem with this view is that the gas price chart does not include a 0 value, so the price swings are greatly exaggerated compared to the C-MAX sales. In general, C-MAX sales to appear to increase when gas price increases. http://www.gasbuddy.com/Charts Follow the link because the Gasbuddy chart is customizable to include states and major cities. You can also custom order extremely specific extracts of Gasbuddy gas price data for a fee.
  11. Sync Services is free for 3 years with new C-MAX SEL and C-MAX Energi SEL models to the original owner. As mentioned, registration and renewal is free, but required to maintain service. For C-MAX SE models, it's $60 per year from the beginning. https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/how-tos/sync-services.html https://owner.ford.com/tools/account/sync-terms-and-conditions.html
  12. November 2015 sales update: 815 C-MAX Hybrids and 639 C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrids for a total of 1454 sold. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015/12/01/november2015sales.html http://insideevs.com/november-2015-plug-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/ http://www.hybridcars.com/november-2015-dashboard/ As always, prior month charts and tables are removed because the latest update contains all prior data.
  13. ;) My armchair anarchist take on all this is that vehicle emissions standards are very close to requiring that the air exiting any internal combustion engine must be cleaner than the air that went in. Are there real measurable long-term health consequences caused by excessive pollution in all forms? Absolutely. Did Europe create economic policies favoring diesel-powered vehicles before the full health effects of inhaling concentrated nitrogen oxides from diesel exhaust were known? Possibly. Were government bureaucrats inhaling nitrous oxide when they made current vehicle emissions standards? Probably. One way to deal with governments who churn endlessly to create mindless policies and needless layers of conflicting regulations and use them to thus legitimize ever growing government bureaucracies, to allegedly ensure compliance, without regard for the drag on the GDP that all this creates, the actual time and testing required to develop the precise technology needed, the actual measurable health benefits to the population, and cost of the arcane solutions eventually concocted to meet the requirements... is to "game" the system that created them. And that's what VW apparently did. Successfully. For years. Eventually the pendulum of over-reaching over-regulation by political figureheads, plutocrats and their government shills may swing the opposite direction. In the best case scenario, there will still be humans alive to see it and enjoy it. :yahoo:
  14. I'm not in the market to buy a second C-MAX just yet, but a website I've visited a lot recently is cargurus.com. The site provides a relative price guide, though the criteria they use for "High Price", "Great Deal", "Fair Deal" etc. is based on their calculation of a fair market price, and prices are always open to debate. Most helpfully, the site shows the number of days the car has been listed online, and any price changes recorded during that time. Most vehicles listed also have direct links to the dealer selling the car, so you can verify details without use of their website.
  15. 1607 Combined C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid units sold in October 2015, a decline of 18.1% from October 2014. 912 C-MAX Hybrids sold, 695 C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrids sold At 43.25% Energi models, that's the highest mix of Energi to Hybrid yet. Previous high % was in October 2013, when it was 43.1% As usual, prior month charts and table are removed because each monthly update contains all prior data. https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2015/11/03/october2015sales.pdf http://www.hybridcars.com/october-2015-dashboard/ http://insideevs.com/october-2015-plug-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/
  16. Don't forget to include that extra hour you'll waste at a local judge for "instant justice" when some local yokel making his quota gives you a ticket for 7 mph over, and makes you appear and pay a huge fine on the spot, because you might not come back for a court appearance. ;) Happened to my then-65-year-old mother years ago in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin which was a notorious speed trap at that time.
  17. They did. It was called the Escape Hybrid, and was sold from 2007-2012. ;)
  18. There is groundbreaking, bleeding-edge styling, and then there's just plain weird styling, like the ill-named "Bangle-Butt" that now appears to have resurfaced on the Chevrolet Malibu and Cruze. (Christopher Bangle now claims he was only the head of BMW design, and did not actually pen the trunk/rear deck treatment that is attributed to him.) As my wife astutely observed, once you're folded inside, you can't see the what the outside looks like. The strange combinations of angles and curves on the new Prius remind me of a "new" Hyundai SUV I saw about a decade ago (Tucson, maybe?) that I thought must've been sideswiped in the parking lot. Nope - Styled that way.
  19. Sounds like the 2016 Eco mode disables some features I like best about our 2013 C-MAX Hybrid: Aggressive cooling when the car's been parked in the hot sun all day.Quick acceleration available, when desired, by simply pressing the accelerator.Eco cruise for decent (though maybe not maximum) mpg's in many driving situations, allowing the driver to just drive, instead of constant pulse and glide calculations.I guess these features just don't appeal to Prius owners who might otherwise consider switching to a Ford hybrid.
  20. The numbers are easy enough to find... https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2015/10/01/september2015sales.pdf http://www.hybridcars.com/september-2015-dashboard/ September 2015 US sales comparison: 2002 Fusion Hybrids, 808 Fusion Energi Hybrids 71.2% Hybrid, 28.8% Energi Hybrid 2810 combined sales of 24942 Fusion sales, all models, 11.3% $3075 premium for Hybrid over least expensive base model, $8715 premium for Energi Hybrid over Hybrid, $11790 premium for Energi Hybrid over least expensive base model*. 1247 C-MAX Hybrid, 719 C-MAX Energi Hybrid 63.4% Hybrid, 36.6% Energi Hybrid 1966 of 1966 C-MAX sales, all models, 100.0% $3000 premium for Hybrid SEL over Hybrid SE, $4600 premium for Energi SEL over Hybrid SEL, $7600 premium for Energi SEL over Hybrid SE*. 596 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid, no MKZ Energi model offered 100% Hybrid 596 of 2490 MKZ sales, all models, 23.9% Same starting MSRP for base model or base Hybrid* 145 Focus Electric 100% Electric 145 of 13437 of Focus sales, 0.01% of Focus sales, all models. $11945 premium over least expensive base Focus* *2016 model starting MSRP as displayed from Ford.com and Lincoln.com. Comparisons among base, Electric, Hybrid, and Energi Hybrid models do not accurately reflect the added premium of ONLY the propulsion system. Electric, Hybrid, and Energi Hybrid models often have more standard features included in the vehicle price. No local, state, or federal tax credits or manufacturer incentives are included in price comparisons.
  21. Your first statement is in error. In August of 2014, combined C-MAX sales of Hybrids and Energi plug-in Hybrids increased compared to the prior year. Individual monthly sales of C-MAX Hybrid-only models also increased over the prior monthly sales in December 2014. I post charts and selected statistics in this thread: http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/topic/3733-ford-c-max-monthly-sales-chart/?p=60053 Numbers come directly from Ford monthly US sales reports, and C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi Plug-in Hybrid model sales breakouts as reported in InsideEVs.com and HybridCars.com Early C-MAX sales numbers were large, perhaps artificially large, because Ford sold many early C-MAX vehicles to car rental companies and fleet buyers. More recently, Ford has made public its intention to reduce reliance on rental and fleet sales to bump up sales numbers. General Motors discovered with the GM A-Platform front-wheel-drive vehicles (Olds Cutlass Ciera, Pontiac 6000, Buick Century, and Chevy Celebrity), pushing thousands of cars annually into the rental market makes sales numbers look good, but adds nothing to the corporate profit margin. The other effect for GM was that when those nearly-new rental units hit the market, they often 'took' sales from the same new models in the showrooms. So after 3 years of production, the authentic demand now seems to average about 2000 combined monthly sales of about 70% C-MAX Hybrids and 30% Energi Plug-in Hybrids per month, achieved basically without any advertising, and without using Ford incentives larger than any other Ford vehicles.
  22. Although the Description field in your screenshot shows 'unknown', what do the letters RCM in your list suggest? Restraint Control Module, perhaps? The FordService reps here keep TRYING to direct us to the proper US site, owner.ford.com, as mentioned by raadsel above. ETIS is ABSOLUTELY NOT the authorized Ford site for reliable information on United States Ford C-MAX vehicles. If you click on Help at ETIS, you'll see: "Information not applicable or not available in your market. Please contact your local Ford National Sales Company (NSC) for further assistance." If you look up your VIN on ETIS, it's highly likely that your non-Energi 2013 Ford C-MAX Hybrid SEL is listed as a 2014 C-MAX Energi. Yes, I hear your suggestion that consumers SHOULD be able to see what software and hardware versions are installed in their vehicles. But absolutely NOT on a free public website, just by entering no more owner or dealership identification than a VIN number!
  23. September 2015 Ford reported 1966 combined C-MAX Hybrid and C-MAX Energi sales, up 10% over 2014 on strong Ford and Lincoln results for the month. A rising tide lifts all boats, I guess. UPDATE: 1247 C-MAX Hybrids sold, up 12% over Sept 2014, and 719 C-MAX Energi Hybrids sold up 6% over Sept 2014 sales. As always, prior month posted charts and table are removed, because all prior data is included with each update. https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/news/2015/10/01/september2015sales.html https://media.ford.com/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2015/10/01/september2015sales.pdf http://www.hybridcars.com/september-2015-dashboard/ http://insideevs.com/september-2015-plug-electric-vehicle-sales-report-card/ It seems that Ford is content for now to sell an average of 2000 C-MAX hybrid and C-MAX Energi plug-in-hybrid cars a month without spending one cent on advertising, to the point of not even mentioning C-MAX or even showing images in national TV ads, and no huge incentives to move unsold vehicles. IMO from an informal survey of inventory levels in the midwest, there are a few dealers that actively sell them and sell a lot of them, but the vast majority of Ford dealerships manage to sell one "accidentally" if and when someone comes in to inquire about C-MAX, and doesn't end up buying a Fusion or an Escape instead.
  24. For a glimpse into the life of one (highly atypical?) Tesla owner, follow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's verified account (@stevewoz) on Twitter. Don't know which P85 model he owns, but his Twitter account contains posts from swarmapp.com as Woz travels all over the world. His most recent Tesla-related posts from swarmapp were August 17th-24th, 2015, many entries when stopping to recharge his Tesla on a driving vacation in the western US.
  25. Model X climate system includes "…a bioweapon defense mode that creates positive pressure inside the cabin to protect occupants." I guess this means all those Sultans, CEOs, and World Leaders have just cancelled their stretch-C-MAX limo orders. :giggle:
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