Kelleytoons

Well, it's certainly possible that dealer has never had the problem -- remember, the majority of C-Maxes don't have this issue. Just as clearly, this problem is not unheard of. Print out several of these threads and take them into your dealer when you have your car serviced so they can see the various solutions.

Sorry -- not great to me means just that. (I assume you have a special dictionary I am not aware of -- link would be appreciated).

You kind of misread my post -- happens, I know. I drive these routes (back and forth) ALL the time, under nearly identical conditions (I admit weather does vary, but I've driven enough in the various types to know how it affects it). To put it another way, I can tell you within 1 mpg what I will get when I turn off the engine... I'm almost never wrong. I've now got the sense of how the traffic was and what I did in my driving to know what I end up with. Which is why it was so surprising to me riding as a passenger, because my guess would have been off by at least 8-10 mpg of what my wife ended up with. Since I never brake and accelerate how she does I made some assumptions and. while the topic of this post is somewhat tongue in cheek there is a real point here which is maybe it really doesn't matter as much as we think. But is it wierd (sic) to think that 58mpg is not great when I consider great to be in the 60's? I don't think so, but I guess we just differ on how we judge our cars and our own capabilities (I mean, I'm a very good tennis player and I might play someone and only beat them slightly because I played poorly, whereas you might consider yourself having a great game to do that. Different strokes).

Yeah, you're probably right (and to the first poster -- although I've only driven about 5K miles since our lifetime average is approaching 50mpg and since most of those miles were in the summer when I was lucky to get in the high 40's, I think it's reasonable to assume that getting in the mid 50's now is pretty average. Since I've turned off the A/C and been making the same trip to the PT three times a week over the last two months I consistently get the mileage I posted. For example, today both ways I got between 62 and 64 mpg, and while those are the reported miles -- I know there is a difference in the gauge but that's all I can go by in any one trip -- I consider those "great" for the speeds I was traveling).

This is an odd one. I've noted this here before, but my wife has sort of a heavy foot. She loves to hit the gas and brakes in equal amounts and no amount of coaching has ever made an impact on her. In general I don't ride with her as a passenger because... well, it drives me crazy (or at least crazier). Last night she took me out for my birthday and we went on a route I'm quite familiar with, as I drive it three or four times a week. It's about 20 miles one day, with equal amounts of city/highway (highway at 60mph, city at 35mph). In either case she would drive the max plus five, but when I drive I generally stick to the limits. I also practice the very best braking/gas use (always at or near 100% braking and very slow starts and movements). Under the current weather conditions (highs in the 80's) I'm getting mpg in the upper 50's to low 60's. Sometimes I get in the mid 60's, but I always think of it as a "perfect run" when that happens. Last night, driving to the restaurant, I got 58mpg, which wasn't great (I had some traffic issues and missed some lights). At the eatery I, well, let's say it was a celebration and I partook of some beverage which caused me to need a driver of better equilibrium. My wife, who had stuck to ice tea, drove home. As she drove it was the usual hellish jackrabbit starts and pounding brakes finish, and we even got stuck for about 20 minutes for an accident (so just waiting there with the engine on -- it was battery power, thank goodness, but it used it all up). When we got home I couldn't wait to see how bad it was (and yet I knew I wouldn't say anything to her about it -- momma didn't raise no fool). She proudly announced "55mpg!" and I looked over there and that was indeed what it said (55.6 to be exact). WTF?!? How did that happen? 20 miles of between 40 and 65 mph, with a 20 minute stand still delay and brake scores (I watched) of no better than 65% and the fastest acceleration the Max can do and still that? I, with my very careful driving, could manage no better than 3mpg better? Now, to be fair, the trip TO is always worse than the trip home. Maybe it's slightly uphill (hard to tell in Florida). And part of that, I'm sure, is EV+ mode (when I get into the mid 60s it's nearly always on the trip back -- so perhaps I would have been at, say, 66 mpg). Still, 55mpg over 20 miles at those speeds with about the worst driving imaginable is pretty impressive, right? I'm beginning to think now that trying to teach my wife how to drive better is a lost cause.

We just carefully pealed ours off (it wasn't on all that tight). I even used my fingernails, nothing else.

Yeah, I think the issue here is one of timing. Unless you stay away from technology (and some people do) you will always end up in a situation *sometime* when you buy a product at the end of the support cycle. You may buy an HDTV and a month later the 4K sets come out and... you're screwed. Or you get an iPhone 5 and suddenly the new one comes out -- again, screwed. Now, you're really not, because you still have a great device that functions exactly as it did when you bought it... except now other folks have better devices and you're feeling like you should have just waited a month. And that's another game you can play -- how long do you wait to be sure you won't get obsoleted by your purchase? Some folks will NEVER buy things using that philosophy. I think the difference here is one of magnitude -- a car is the second largest purchase most people ever make in their lives, and getting obsoleted is also not something that up until now has been much of a factor in that purchase. After all, 20 years ago you didn't worry much that the car you bought would be drastically changed the next model year. Oh, they might make a better engine, or change the look, but that was about it. So things have evolved to where cars are now going to have these sames kind of issues we've seen in every other kind of rapidly changing electronics. It's possible car makers will work out some system where they can avoid these problems. Right now they are taking the stand that proprietary electronics helps them differentiate between the next maker, so they aren't looking for standardized systems for the most part. But even supporting *some* standard is going to be problematic (if they all supported Apple Play, for example, there would be some Android folks that would be screaming "FOUL!!"). So I think folks need to tread carefully -- and I will be the first to admit I bought this car on the basis of the technology. Should I have waited a year or two and gotten the new system? I certainly would have been happier with the system, but I also needed a car now and would do the same thing all over again. As Dr. Diesel said, it works for me now and while I'll be envious of others with the new stuff I won't be jealous (look it up :>).

If it's due to price I can understand, but if you think you won't like some of the other features... I cannot tell you how much nicer the MFT system is over the base, and it's one of my favorite things about Maximis. And if it's an earlier year (even 2014) you may well get a deal from your dealership. It never hurts to ask (I thought the upgraded model was out of OUR price range but our dealer worked something out very favorably). Then again, I do understand that things like music in a car and/or handsfree calling aren't at all a factor for some people. To me, they make the difference between wanting to drive and not.

Yeah, it will be interesting to see how our trip down south (to Sanibel) goes in terms of mpg. I intend to take the shorter mileage/longer time route, because I'm sure it will be at speeds less than 70 (and it only results in 15 minutes more out of a 4 hour trip. Honestly, I can't understand folks who want to get somewhere over that distance even 30 minutes sooner. And I'm at an age where life is much shorter than others :>). I'll certainly report back here with the results.

You and I are the same generation (you're a couple of years older but, hey). Sorry about the wrong info -- I only had the 2014 manual online (I'm going to guess the new manual is also online somewhere but I couldn't tell you where). Glad the dealer could find it for you (they are good for some things :>). It makes sense it has that option as most folks want it, but I'm not so sure why that's not the default (then again, I've never quite understood engineers).

And I have a 2014 SE with no problems (only about 5K miles, though and NOT the standard radio but the upgrade package). Look, if you go on ANY forum you'll see people with problems. It's like if you visited a hospital -- you'd think there weren't any healthy people in the whole world. People generally come on these forums when they have issues. Seldom do folks visit to say "Hey, just thought I'd post that everything is fine with me!" Now, we DO brag about our cars and you'll see that. But by and large you will only get questions and/or problem postings and that doesn't mean the vast majority of folks are having no problems whatsoever.

Wait -- it's not even being released yet and once it does I'm sure eBay will have it far cheaper (I bought A5 last year for $40 when my Ford dealer wanted $150).

There's a lot to learn, Bob, but the two of you can't be any older than I am and I'm having fun learning it <g>.

I wasn't out in the hottest part of the day, but I do listen to all the broadcasts and none of them said more than 82. But, as I said, microclimes. The warmest it was for me in Maximis was about 75 (early morning PT) so I was able to get by without AC (if MY wife had been in the car she'd have wanted the air on as well, though :>). Temps now back to normal (although I notice that tomorrow is supposed to get into the low 80's again, but then back to low 70's and even slightly colder the rest of the week. And that's when we're going away to Sanibel. Sigh).

We had "TARDIS" as our license plate (on a totally different vehicle) way back when in Nevada (couldn't get it nowadays -- that was before the good Doctor was known here in the U.S. the way he is now). And, yes, Maximus (our new plate for our C-Max) does seem larger on the inside. I never used a moonroof even on a very tiny Prelude, so I knew I wouldn't want one on ours.

I wish I had THAT much color left in my hair.

From the manual: "Change the appearance of the map display by repeatedly pressing the arrow button in the upper left corner of the screen. It toggles between three different map modes: Heading up, North up, and 3D." We always have it set for heading up as well (because we used Garmin and still have it in our Durango).

85? Come on, they haven't been THAT high (I think we got to 82 but I'm pretty sure it didn't get to 85). Then again, there ARE microclimes (we often joke that we should have weather reports for each street in our development). Haven't had the air on since October and have averaged well into the high 50's (and low 60's) for each and every tank (yep, made it into the 600 club twice now).

Hmmm, wonder why my Durango didn't allow me to easily upgrade to one of the new entertainment systems. Heck, they are STILL selling the same dashboard on their new models and it still doesn't allow me to put in one of those 8" fancy things. That's IT!!! I'm NEVER buying from Dodge again (actually, that happens to be true -- I am too old and by the time Maximis no longer works the only vehicle I'll need will be a scooter. Or a motorized wheelchair).

Yeah, I was streaming exclusively when I first got Maximus but because it can get sketchy at times (for me even in town) I finally went to a local solution and I like it a lot better. But, different strokes...

Yeah, Gracenote is pretty worthless -- it actually doesn't do what it says it will do (which is find album cover art and other info about the songs). Best to just leave it off. Now, for Dr. Diesel, in addition to CDex you can use Media Monkey or even iTunes to rip your songs to mp3. ITunes kind of buries how to do it, but it's in settings/general preferences and where you see "When you insert a CD" make sure "Ask to Import CD" is marked and then go to Import settings. Then choose MP3 Encoder there and change the settings to custom and make sure the bitrate is set to 320 and VBR checkmark is off (the defaults there). I prefer using CDex, but iTunes is useful when you buy or otherwise acquire AAC files and need to change them to MP3. You do the above and then, with the song(s) highlighted, right-click and choose "Make an MP3 copy" and it will do that.

The freeware program CDex is what I use -- note that you'll need to change the default preset to the "Insane" one (it's called that because in the old days of limited storage it was crazy to store things at 320 CBR). It will also do a lookup of the tracks for you and is a very nice way to rip all your CDs. As a general rule you do not want to compress a compressed file -- you lose information along the way. The files Amazon stores are already efficient enough that you don't have to recompress them, and you cannot get better quality by doing so (only lose quality). Since they are already mp3 there is no need to convert, either. CDex will convert .WAV files to mp3s, though.

The thing about album order is you need to turn off the Sync Gracenote features (there are two of them). With them enabled it will always try and sort your music alphabetically. Turning them off will allow albums to play in the right order. You *can* make playlists but that's a PITA if it's just an album you want to play correctly (you wouldn't want to make playlists for all your albums -- if nothing more it would make it hard to find the playlist you wanted for other things. With a handful of lists you can easily browse them).

If you don't have the Nav system you can use a micro SD card just fine. You can also use either a normal or micro sized SD card in a USB holder, so those are other options as well. Since I wrote that I started using my phone more for my Christmas music (it was just easier plus I started having issues playing random tracks using SYNC). I'll go back to my drive now that the new year is rolling around but I do need to find out what's going on with the random issue and Sync (essentially it would *not* randomize the playlists I was playing. There is an update for SYNC and perhaps that will address some of the issues, but it's more of a first world problem with many more things taking precedence :>).

Right, I was saying *when* 8.2 comes out it might fix things for him. As it stands there is likely to be one more patch before that time, but it will be pretty compressed (because the rumor is that 8.2 will hit about late Feb/Early March). We are likely to see 8.1.3 in the next week or so. If we do not, then we can expect 8.2 to be delayed (it will have to come out before the Apple Watch because it contains all the code needed for that). There's no question 8.1.2 still has some problems when it comes to bluetooth, as many people are reporting it. And 8.1.3 will likely address *some* of those, but 8.2 may have the biggest fixes (one of the most telling things is that 8.1.3 isn't being pushed out to beta folks). (And you may infer that I am one of those beta -- I'm not saying I am, but that I might be :>).