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.

When you remove the key from the FOB, there's a slot inside the FOB to insert the end of the key into. The FOB thus acts as a lever arm making turning the key easy.in the lock.

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 considered going down there because of the "Car Pros" show, but, couldn't justify the 100 mile round trip especially if I wouldn't be able to get a better price.  I would definitely NOT recommend Frontier.  Both Sunnyvale Ford and Serramonte Ford greeted us when we walked onto the lot, but, in the 20 minutes of walking around inside the showroom at Frontier, noone said anything to us. 

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.

There have been no Fords tested for small overlap except the Fusion and it earned the new top rating, it's competitor the Toyota Camry failed with a poor rating.

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.

I just had an idea. So the Energi's load floor is raised due to the larger battery pack... Any way to make a similar shelf and put the spare underneath? It could potentially be made to look stock. Of course one of the reasons that many of us did not consider the Energi was the refusal to compromise on trunk space... But for those that did not have that concern, maybe it's worth exploring.

It's not just that the car is not going into EV mode when cold that has an effect on MPGs...

It was only 39F when I started the car this morning, but due to a layer of frost from last night, my AVG" MPG dropped from 40.3 to 39.7 just while idling and waiting for the front windshield to defrost (even after I scrapped all the I've off).. Of course, AVG was reset ~150 miles ago, but it was enlightening to see exactly how much gas is wasted just on idling.

Hey! I'm one of those c-max owners that doesn't have a picture up, as I just haven't had the time... But i guess my numbers would bring the average down. I WILL say that this tank is starting out much better than my previous tanks, even with the dropping temps. There has been frost the last couple days. I had a couple trips this tank with mileage numbers north of 47mpg over 7-10 miles of city driving...

Personally, my belief is that they should not arbitrarily change their City/Hwy ratings for the C-Max, especially if every other number listed on their list of most fuel efficient hybrids are for EPA estimates, REGARDLESS of whether or not the they or we believe that the numbers from the EPA are unachievable.

Also, clicking on the link for the C-Max brings you to a review/preview that was written in August 2011...

So, their preview has not been updated, yet they update the MPG numbers?

PS: My belief is that the EPA numbers that Ford advertises (47/47/47) are actual numbers that would be repeatable on the EPA test cycle, and that Ford did not fudge those numbers, so this would be much different from Hyundai's numbers which would not have been repeatable on the EPA test cycle as Hyundai's numbers were miscalculated.  I also believe that Ford designed the car in a way that would maximize fuel efficiency without sacrificing performance up to a certain speed limit that is below what some people normally drive (those who normally cruise at 75mph).  I also believe that if we were all able to use ethanol free gas (real gas), our fuel economy numbers would increase.  I further believe that indeed when winter turns into spring, that our real world fuel economy numbers will go up as the temperature goes up, then possibly decrease again when spring turns into summer (AC anyone?). 

We bought his and hers from Sunnyvale Ford.  Although I am not sure if I could recommend them as a dealer. 

I went in with an X-Plan, so there was zero haggling on the price... I went there only because they supposedly had the vehicle I wanted "in stock," although when I got there, it was "in their depot" somewhere, and took 5 days to arrive.

I would think you could use some black zip ties to put them on with. Nothing left behind after you take them off.

 

I tried the foam pipe insulation trick this weekend. I didn't measure, just eye-balled it, cut them  and shoved them into the middle grill only. At 32º and a 7 mile trip I would say I gained about 6 mpg. Went from 32 mpg (estimated based on other trips) to 40 mpg based on car read out.

What diameter pipe insulation did you use? and how did it fit?  If you had to buy again, do you think a slightly larger or smaller diameter would work better? Any pictures?

Mine had a build date of late Sept '12, purchased from Sunnyvale Ford in early Dec '12 with 38 miles on the ODO.

I often see a red X over the GPS box toward the middle left of the screen (next to the zoom buttons), yet the car's location during that time is still spot on. I wonder if it is able to use the gps in my phone to help out in determining location?

It has now been 3 full weeks since I picked up my C-Max.  I have yet to see a C-Max that is not a taxi.  To date, I've now see 4 different C-Max Taxis on 4 different occassions.  I know they're different vehicles due to them having a different medallion "number."