Marc Smith

thanks sorry for hijack, back to your regular discussion...

jack, how did you mount your tag lower. my tag is high like pauls, and I think it looks better low..

PT. are you sure its not because of the lack of warmup time on a short trip... my current average in fuelly is pretty much with a/c on 100% of the time... Without running the AC you will save the battery and you will also keep the shutters closed... with most of my time on an 18 mile daily commute...with no warmup in the AM or PM... I think my cold weather mileage is going to take a huge hit... concern is going to be when the summer fuel goes away and I need to start using the heater... it will be a double whammy..crappy fuel and the ICE needing to run more to keep the cabin warm...

I'm sure the feds will ask for more titanium plates and battery protection and halon fire suppression...

WAB weird... when I set the controls on my 2013 sel 301 with a build date of 2/13 they come back exactly as we left them...

wab. my auto climate control works fine and when I change the temp on the passenger side the temperatures are definitely different...

if you are willing to wholesale(which is what you are doing (even on a trade in)) your car to a dealer for 16, than thats its worth, wholesale... As a private consumer you really cannot sell you car for retail value... but retail prices are north of 18K KBB does have money ridding on it. they are one of the experts in the field... if they do a bad job estimating car values, then people stop relying on them and their revenue drops... nada has the depreciation @ $9200 you paid 27K for you cmax, and nada and KBB are saying the depreciation averages 10K getting a wholesale value for your car of 16, isn't far off the mark...Carmax threw a lowball number out.. I just checked carmax in fayetville and they have half a dozen with 20+K miles starting no haggle prices of 18,500- 22,900 so with your low miles should garner a higher retail price based on carmax...so they are looking to try ot make a nice profit off of your car if they bought it... heck even if they sold it for 22 they make 6K on it... SO again , if you want to sell your car to a wholesaler, then you need to expect to take a hit... you can't compare a car's value on a wholesale purchase/sale. if you total your car today, the insurance company won't give you wholesale value, they would give you retail value..I would imagine that you'd get closer to 20K Its nice that you have scruples and don't feel comfortable selling the car to a private party.. just keep in mind that those scruples are going to cost you about 4-6K dollars... You don't have to lie to a private party buyer, run a carfax on it print it out and make it available to the prospective buyers...See what the carfax says....there have been plenty of people who have had zero problems... If you have had so many problems, go to ford and tell them to buy the car back under the lemon laws...if its been in the dealership, you have the receipts, the computers will show it, and if ford says no, then go to your state AG office or consumer protection office...File a claim with them...the worst thing they can say is NO, and if you don't ask, you'll never know. a 2014 prius has a first year depreciation (according to the nada and KBB) of 11K and its a much cheaper car and its a known commodity. Buying a first model year car is ALWAYS a leap of faith... I assumed that since the car has been in play in europe for quite a few years that they would have some of the kinks worked out...and I felt comfortable making the leap FWIW I paid 19,200 out the door for my cmax a couple months ago... and knock wood, it has been flawless for the last few thousand miles...

http://jalopnik.com/stolen-tesla-splits-in-two-in-fiery-crash-ending-the-ch-1600278492 remember speed doesn't kill. its the sudden stop.... too bad the car thief lives to steal another day...

bull, you have to remember Carmax is in the business of selling cars... which means when they buy a car they have to be able to make money on it, recondition it, store it, market it......Buy low, sell high... its what used car dealers do. I would not use them as a litmus test for car value...might as well sell the car to a pawn shop... KBB shows a used car trade-in value of 18,500 with a private party value of 20K new car depreciation... its a fact of life.. usually about 30% from the day you drive it off the lot... http://www.kbb.com/ford/c-max-hybrid/2013-ford-c-max-hybrid/sel-ownershipcosts/?vehicleid=377652&intent=buy-new year one depreciation is $11K Unless you are buying a barn find, classic car, don't ever buy a car as an investment...

hopefully he got an "A"... truer words were never spoken... Just because you CAN go somewhere doesn't mean you SHOULD... :)

Many Compact SUV nowadays are not 4wd, nor do they have ladder frames, ect... they are just front wheel drive station wagons with a bit more ground clearance and taller roof lines and maybe taller tires... remember when we used to have only half a dozen types of cars Compact, Sedans, coupes, sports cars, vans and trucks.

After having the HHR with a hard plastic rear cargo area I kinda miss the hard plastic. makes for easy cleanup when the golf club/cart and shoes get tossed in the car. IE wipe down, as opposed to a vaccum I was wondering what was holding the carpet down..

Come on... those signs are just targets... Sheesh, if I'm driving like a nog, do you really think I care that you have a baby on board...

fbov...for one tank I drove my 2010 prius in power mode, and basically drove it like a normal car. hard braking, quick starts... for similar driving in HHR I got 22 mpg. the prius a tick over 40... the system helps with out much "know how" from a driver standpoint... so you don't need to know how to drive a hybrid to get good mileage. but it surely helps...

I was fortunate and owned one...albeit breifly, before nature came crashing down on it. is the current model(gen 3) a tired design...yes... is it better than the gen 2. yes. is the flying bridge "unique" yup... Could theyhave done a better job on the interior of the wagon and the hatch yes. But I would have bought another one had I not stumbled across the deal I found on the Cmax.. Gotta admit that once you start drinking the hybrid coffee, its hard to go back to decaf. and the prius has an almost cult-like following.. It willbe intersting to see what the new redesign looks like...

not sure. the Prius V(wagon) has the 16" and 17" wheels. while the prius hatchback has 15" and 17" options onthe V the tire size is 205 (16) and 215(17). so not much difference there, but on the wagon the 15's are 195, and the 17's are 215...much bigger difference. not sure how much difference there is on weight based on the trim levels. I'm sure the solar roof/sun roof adds more weight... I wonder how much FE the cmax would gain back through the use of lowering springs...

Nice attitude towards the prius...being it pretty much started the hybrid revolution and led to other car makers making PEVs, Hybrids and basically taking the fear and uncertainty out of buying an electric vehicle... Those folks are just as proud of their ride as we are of ours and they work just as hard to exceed the manufacturer EPA numbers. Heck they are now talking about getting close to 1000 miles in a regular prius hatchback (not plug in) on one tank of fuel....

folks on priuschat have also noticed that the prius hatchback with the 17" wheels gets lower mileage than the the prius hatch with 15" wheels... reducing unsprung weight? make you wonder if ford put 15" rims/tires combo on the cmax and saved a few pounds could it help?

This is physics not magic. Now your starting to sound logical, like Scotty yelling at Kirk...Automakers don't do logical...

what about adding a trailer hitch and then fabricating some sort of reciever like this to support some plywood to make the bed longer...

you could probably get some focus wheels for a decent price through an auto recycler... I like those focus wheels..better than the diamond spoke...

have you reset your MPG indicators... if the previous owner was a lead foot, or all the cold start test drives coudl have really dinged the MPG. I'd top it off and reset your trips... and then give it another try... bump your tire pressure as well... keep in mind that your indicators are going to be about 5% optimistic

parking lot stops and curbs maybe? get it too far out front you'd never be able to park the car.... maybe I'll use my ford check to buy a set from GM that fit the impala... makes you wonder though if by putting on an air dam you are upsetting the air thats moving over the carefully sculpted body pans which why the highway results showed no gains..

bene reading this post. and i was intruiged... on my prius th eclear glass portion of the tailgate stayed clear, while the vertical glass stayed dirty, same coudl be said for my HHR the HHR has a similar rear shape as our C-max. flat back. while the prius is a bit more slippery. do you guys ever remmebr back in the 80's 90's the rear wings they had on wagons... I think these were designed to move air flow over the back to help keep the glass clear. Might it have also helped to divert airflow over the back to reduce drag...

any reason to not make the dam "V" shape.. withthe pointy end forward. and the legsof the V near the tires. have you lookied into other cars... the 94 Impala SS has a black air dam that woudl proably be wide enough to be dams for the tires as well the 94 impala has a track width of 62.3 inches... the Cmax track width is 60.5 which gives you a few inches of material to play with probably 50-60 bucks for the three part set.. whil enot as cheap as a DIY mod...it would have a factory look