PWBarrett

Yep, short trips when it's cold are not this car's forte. I'm looking forward to warmer weather. Accelerating very slowly may not get you as many MPG as doing the pulse-and-glide method of just going ahead and using moderate acceleration for a shorter time, then letting off entirely. But on short trips, the engine's too cold to allow EV anyway. I'm also looking forward to the new MFT 3.5.1 screen that will show why the car isn't in EV mode, like engine too cold, AC on, etc.

I've wondered if this is a matter of the spring-loaded fuel filler hatch not sealing when the gas pump filler is withdrawn. Maybe it could be "fixed" by punching it in and letting it re-seat. But I'd hate to have to make a habit of it.

Speaking for myself, I would use that technique, as long as it was with no more than a medium-current charger (like 10 Amps or less). Any more and I'd want to do it with the battery disconnected and out of the vehicle, although that does look like a nuisance. I can't imagine they'd have put any circuitry between that post and the battery other than just a heavy cable.

It's crossed my mind to wonder if some folks complaining about the mileage have never reset their displayed MPG, and have some old MPG "baggage" holding down the numbers they're seeing. (Just hold down the left OK button and it will reset the displayed MPG without resetting the lifetime stats.) Really basic, but...

First commute to the office today. For the 11 mile each-way trip, morning was at 31 degrees - averaged 34 MPG in in-town light traffic under 45 MPH. Return trip was at about 50 degrees, and (I had never paid attention before,) more downhill - averaged 46.3 MPG. We still have under 500 miles on the car. I'm sure as it finishes breaking in, and as it warms up, the MPG will go up from here. I'm quite happy with that compared to 18 in the old car. I think it's interesting that even if the engine isn't warm enough for EV mode out on the road, it'll often let you maneuver out of the driveway in EV if you have the AC off. Makes it much easier to show off "stealth mode". Update: This morning I got 41.7 on the drive in rather than the 34 I got yesterday, but it was 46 degrees, so I got EV mode much more of the way.

Except that the posters talk about the whole car being dead, even the door locks. There have also been some who measured <6V on the battery.

I've never seen a commercial for the C-Max, and only 1 Ford commercial that had a 1-second view of a C-Max in the showroom but no words about it. Apparently they are only advertising on certain channels and/or maybe only certain areas.

I think it's just the closest existing term - Maybe we need a new one for this use-case.

Wow - I had looked in the right-side "smuggling compartment" a couple of times, but never bothered to look in the left one - I assumed it was the same. Do you think you can get the jump starter out if the electric seat is all the way back and the battery is dead though?

That's really bad when the Ford sales guy doesn't know that such a thing exists, and there's one right there on their lot.

Cool pix!

Uh, I'm not recognizing that location from the picture - where is that?

Yes, but not a light exactly - right where it normally says EV, it changes to EV+

It seemed like the Blue Oval guy should have opened it up to anyone with 10 posts on the car-specific forums as well. Didn't seem to be much of interest on the generic forum except people asking for tracking info. Our dealership has an Internet Sales dept with several people. I emailed my salesman to pull the visibility report one Friday and he said it was still on the ramp waiting for a rail car. The next Friday I tried again and it had already arrived at the destination freight yard, so I never got a chance to try tracking the train.

I wonder how it would have been if this car had first come out in say, April, instead of right at the onset of cold weather.

If the grill covers are about warmth not aerodynamics, then I figure (at least where I live), they'll provide no benefit half of the year. So an average of 1.5 MPG would save me about $30 per year.

Same here with my Android - The OP was about an iPod, which I didn't think had bluetooth.

There are lots of hybrid-haters out there, and I've never understood that. It's not like anybody's forcing them to buy one, and there are lots of slower vehicles on the road that don't raise their ire.

I brought a printout of that site's price chart with me when I bought the car, with the plan I wanted circled, and pointed out that you can buy a Ford extended warranty from any dealership. They matched the price, which was as I recall almost a thousand less than their initial price.

Yeah, I figured that the price of one map update from Ford would pay for a really good GPS, or I could just use my phone for nav. The more I read about people's experiences with it, the more I'm glad I skipped that option.

I was also surprised to see that they use RCA jacks for the aux in, both for audio and video. I haven't used those for much of anything in years. I'd rather have seen an HDMI input and a 3.5mm audio jack. But you can get a 3.5mm to RCA adapter or cable lots of places for cheap if you want to use the iPod's player. Or can't you plug the iPod into the USB port instead of having to copy tracks off to USB drives?

The "review" they have posted for the C-Max hybrid is ancient - mostly speculation about what the car will really be like when it comes out. Seems strange they'd update the numbers with no new text to indicate that they had now driven one and changed their mind about the MPG. You can't just choose to post EPA numbers for some cars and guesstimates for others. The whole point of EPA numbers is to have a consistent comparison between models. If the test is flawed, it has to be changed across the board or not at all.

The two new fobs they tried were identical to the working ones I got with the car. They said they'd call someone at Ford - they'd try today but doubted they'd get anybody. I'll probably call them Thursday and see if they've figured anything out.

For IA keys, their workshop manual just says to hook it up to the computer and follow its on-screen directions. I wonder if my dealership doesn't have the latest required software for their computer. I can't imagine why Ford would make it nice and easy to add up to 8 keys yourself for standard ignition, but not have a user procedure at all for Intelligent Access. Was the 3rd key you bought the same fob style as the originals?