TopherTheME

For those of you who have the 3M Crystalline tint, may I ask how much you paid? I'm thinking of getting 70% on the sides and rear and 90% on the windshield.

It finally went above 65F today so I decided to put on one of those Ford Aplique's they have for the C-max. The crappy cell phone pictures don't really do it justice. The gray lettering and detail is actually a sparkly silver that matches the pearl paint of the car. Maybe I'll take some pictures with an actual camera after I wash my car. Cmax Bumper by TopherTheME, on Flickr

I was very dissappointed with the sunroof option for the C-max. My last car had one and I really liked it, mainly because I preferred to have it open rather than the windows. The panaramic roof on the C-max is bigger but its still on the small side by today's standards and you can't even see it when sitting in the driver or passenger seats. But I think the biggest deal breaker was how much headroom/height you lose and the extra $1300 it costs to add one. The interior roofline drops a good 1 to 2.5 inches in most locations. You can see this picture below around the roof handles, B-pillars, and back section of the window where the cloth screen (which I also wasn't crazy about) winds up. I did test drive a C-max with and without one and to be honest when sitting in the drivers seat (which is where I'll be 99% of the time) I couldn't even tell the car had one or not. If it had a roof like the Escape (which it should they're the same platform) I would get one in a heartbeat.

I cross shopped it but crossed it off the list for the reasons you mentioned. Higher price (more than my Energi Premium after incentives), less cargo space, completely gutless, and not that good of a ride or comfort. Granted its probably going to turn out to be a more reliable car in the end but not enough to justify the benefits of buying it over a Cmax Energi.

Whats the difference between this and the current S-Max?

Wow, that is a pretty big hit in mileage!

GM is ranked 3rd. That alone should tell you enough about using this list as a metric for reliability and quality (and safety!). The fact that Mercedes is ranked first makes my bullshit detector go off the scale given that statistically Diamler makes the most unreliable and expensive to own cars you can buy from major automakers.

I don't have the option to select my Energi under 2014 but for 2013 the dealer price comes out to a little over $25k. Considering I paid $27k for it I don't think thats too bad. I think the reason for the low resale value is because KBB doesn't know how to price a vehicle like this yet and it just goes off of a very limited set of listings that are currently out there. After a few years I would imagine it would have resale values similar to any other Ford product.

Do these things really make that big of a difference? I could understand it if you live in Florida or Arizona but for someone who lives in a temperature climate like Michigan is it worth the hassle?

Yes they are. Why would you ever need to replace the fluid on an eCVT? There are no belts or brakes that typical AT's have. All the major components that produce particles and contaminants the C-Max trans doesn't have so why would you have to ever replace the fluid? The only reason is if the fluid breaks down over time and its properties change, such as viscosity and surface tension. If the fluid can maintain those properties for 150k miles (which synthetic polymer based lubricants can) then you should never need to replace it.

As of three days ago I am a new owner for a 2014 C-Max Energi SEL (302a)! My old 05 Honda Civic was falling apart and getting to be pretty dangerous to drive so I decdied that I would buy a Subaru Forester. After test driving a lot of cars, including the C-Max hybrid, I was torn between the C-Max and the Forester. My girlfriend then told me I was being stupid (as she often does) and said I should get the C-Max Energi since I have free charging stations across the street, down the road, at work, and at school and have a <15mi communte every day. Being an engineer (soon to have a PhD!) that designs batteries for HEV's for a living it makes a lot of sense to get a PHEV too. So I went to the dealer, got a great deal on my trade in and the car, and bought a new C-Max Energi right off the showroom floor. I have to say, this is an absolutely fantastic car, especially for the price after all the incentives. I've spent a lot of time in the Volt, Prii, Electric Focus, Leaf, Think City, and some protoype PHEVs and BEVs, and I think the C-Max is the best of all of them except maybe the Volt, which its on par with. Still learning how to use the car, I don't even know how to turn the windshield wipers on or even if I have the rain sensor or not. EDIT: I just realized that this the forum for the HYBRID C-Max and not the ENERGI C-Max. Guess I should go register in the correct forum.