From Speed6ing 2 C-Maxing

I originally had mine close to where yours is, then moved it to the driver's side because the passenger side wasn't being swept by wipers. Now I just have it attached to the black trim piece below the mirror. Additional benefit to what I did, I read somewhere that if a recording device is placed on/affixed to the windshield (in CA) there must be some sort of notification that recording is taking place, either a sign or a verbal notice. Now that it's off the windshield, I wouldn't need to worry about that.

I have the regular A118/B40. Couple things to look out for: 1) Make sure that part of the windshield is in the wiper's sweep area. I had it in a similar area but moved it because it was useless in rain because the glass in front of the lens wasn't getting cleaned. 2) the cover behind the rearview mirror that covers the rain sensor, that cover blocked a big chunk of the recorded view for me, too much that I really needed to move it. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

I had both brake lights out at the same time on my 2013 C-Max. Replaced with 7443 bulbs. Also, the 2013 Manual states W21/5W for the "Tail/Brake lamp in the rear fender"

My first 600+ mile tank. I've only run the Cmax down this low one other time, but that was March 2013 when I only had ~3000 miles on it, and for that tank, I managed only 499 miles. I'm pretty sure I could have gone at least another 30-40 miles but my wife, who commutes with me daily, had been bugging me to refuel for the last 2 days. We hit 600 miles ~5 miles from home, with the last 5 miles thru "mountains," so I acquiesced, and got gas. All of my fill ups are on Fuelly, with the exception of one which I can't find, and a couple that were lumped together when we took a road trip with friends down to SoCal. Our commute is 10 miles each way, with 50% freeway, 50% city driving, but much of the freeway driving is in commute conditions. For reference, it takes us 35 minutes to drive the 10 miles daily. Aside from this commute, for which I've had many trips of 60+ mpg, there was one long freeway trip early in the tank of 80 miles round trip. Before the trip, average MPG for the tank was 55. After the trip, average MPG dipped to 38. Today, we drove ~60 miles, and for these 60 miles, I was able to bring the average MPG from 47.x to 49.1, with several legs of > 70mpg. No mods to the car except for running tire pressure at 45psi, all recalls done except for the "door chime when ignition is on." I also attribute much of this tank's increase in fuel efficiency to reading about the "2 bar vs 1 bar vs 1.5 or 1.75 bar burns," the "EV to 15mph followed by a 1.5bar burn to match speed of traffic, etc. Per the trip computer: 27:41:10 600.4mi 376.7EV 49.1MPG 12.22gal

Yes, this was the 2nd check I've received from Ford. I'm pretty sure that between 9/13 and 7/14, that I went on one of the various websites that allow you to pull up your window sticker, but I just don't remember ever seeing it say 43MPG combined. So when I went looking for the original build date via the window sticker online, I was surprised to find a date of 7/8/14 (the date I guess Ford "re-invoiced" the car and updated the window sticker to reflect the now current 40MPG combined).

Build date sometime in Sep 2012, lazy to go to the car to check and electronic window sticker found now has an invoice date of "7/8/14" with 40MPG on it (I don't recall ever seeing it at 43MPG though, and I'm sure I've used one of the various websites to get the window sticker since the decrease from 47 to 43 mpg. Purchased Dec 2012 Check mailed 7/22/14 Check Received 7/24/14 Check Amt 475.

That is a great tip. I've played around with the blade key several times, and have always been able to turn the key, although it was hard. This will definitely help in the future if I need to do it again.

500kb TOTAL...

If I reset the avg mpg 1 mile after my commute starts each morning and afternoon, then I can easily get 50-60mpg for the other 9 miles of the commute. It's the first mile of both commutes that kills my mpg. My avg for my commute as a whole is 36-39mpg.

For sh!ts and giggles, I decided to go out tonight just to see if I could do 70mpg on a 25mile round trip. I didn't do as well as I would have liked. Ambient temp was 44F, and I was last in the car 3 hours prior. Solo driver, 85% local driving, with my needing to stop at many more stop signs and red lights than I would have liked (may need to find a different route next time, if I want to do this again). Avg speed > 25MPH because I returned home around 55 minutes after I left. No special techniques this time, just accelerating slowly, braking lightly but early, then letting off as the lights ahead are about to hit green...

I don't think I tried too hard to get that mileage. In terms of driving style, it was just staying to the right and 2nd to right most lanes on a 4 lane highway, using "smart driving". I'd look ahead and move over one lane when cars were merging, and I'd find a slower moving truck to stay behind so I didn't need to drive 75+ if I didn't want to. In other words, I did not hold up traffic (my preference would have been to go 60mph all the way as I did intend to drive for efficiency yesterday). What I think helped a lot was the ambient temperature and the fact that the car was "warmed up." My wife and I made a short ~3 mile trip at 10am, then the same ~3 mile trip back home at 12pm. Had lunch at home, then drove to the inlaws at 12:45pm (which was the 1st trip at 50.2mpg). When I got there, I turned off the car and took the picture as the inlaws got in. We then headed south to Los Altos on that 37.1 mile trip (46.9mpg) to pick some stuff up. When we got there, I took a picture, then we got out of the car for ~15 minutes. We made a couple short 1-2 mile trips to the bank, to another store, then we headed back to San Francisco and stopped at a supermarket 35.8 miles @ 48.7mpg). We drove back to the inlaws (short 2 mile trip that I did not document) and arrived just after 4pm. We stayed at the inlaws for dinner. We left for home at 9pm. The car was cold by that time, and I decided to try the "eco route" home as guided by the GPS. I got 46mpg, but I think the regular way home should be more efficient in that there wouldn't have been a long continuous climg for the first 3 miles that had my mpg at < 20. Then again, I guess the engine needed to be on anyway since the car was warming up... so, maybe it was the most efficient? I'll need to play with that. Regardless... > 47mpg CAN be done. Now that its done, I'll just go back to driving like I regularly do - driving like I'm running late, which is what usually is the case =).

My 3 trips from today. Drive to the in-laws, then round trip from San Francisco to Los Altos and back. Trip there 46.9 mpg, trip back 48.7 mpg. 4 adults in the car, 50F ambient temp. It also started to rain on the trip back. Will post pics when I get to a computer. 2 adults in the car, mixed local/highway driving, top speed ~65mph for the brief portion on the highway. 4 adults in the car, 80% highway driving, speeds from 55-75mph. 4 adults in the car, 80% highway driving, speeds from 55-70mph, raining for most of the way back. 11.5mi/(50.2mi/gal) = 0.229gal 37.1mi/(46.9mi/gal) = 0.791gal 35.8mi/(48.7mi/gal) = 0.735gal _______________________________ 84.4mi/1.755gal = 48.091mpg = 48.1mpg

There is currently a fuelly app on the Android market/play store.. But I don't believe its an official app.. I've just been using the fuelly website in mobile mode ever since I got my 1st Android... So most of my fill ups listed below were done that way, and it works perfectly.

Actually, the 2013 Fusion received an "Acceptable" for the small overlap, which is the 2nd highest rating. The highest rating is a "Good" which was scored by the 2013 Honda Accord, and 2013 Suziki Kizashi, the only 2 vehicles to do so in the "Midsize moderately priced car" category. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/summary.aspx?class=30

IIRC the upcoming MFT update does/will include a map update.