Kelleytoons

Yeah, I've no doubt I would have gotten more mpg out of any Prius, but after driving one for a week there is also no doubt in my mind I'd never want one. For about 47 mpg average so far I'm as happy as can be (and can blow the doors off any Prius on the road :>).

Considering a computer (or three) is running things inside these cars it doesn't surprise me at all. Having been in IT for nearly half a century nothing a computer does or will do will ever surprise me. And unless it's something that can be (easily) repeated I don't think I'd think twice about it (can't tell you how many times we'd get tech calls about things that we could *never* reproduce again).

I thought I'd start a separate topic for this since the other one where it was mentioned was about an Android phone. It's been pretty well documented on the net that iOS 8.0x has stopped proper connection with many cars. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/16999/20141002/new-ios-8-problems-surface-bluetooth-connectivity-in-vehicles-bug-deleting-files-in-icloud-drive.htm According to the articles 8.02 was supposed to fix this, but I'm running 8.02 on my new iPhone 6 Plus and still having issues. I can make calls fine, and it recognizes both my phone (as primary) and my wife's (she has an iPhone 6 with 8.01) but neither one will receive calls when connected. For me it's not a huge deal -- the only calls I really need to get are from my wife (everyone else is unimportant and I'm retired) and most of the time she's with me or I'm on the way on a short trip to tennis (so I can check my phone after I arrive and/or before I leave the courts). But it's annoying because it worked before with my old phone (4s and iOS 7.x). I don't see this as a SYNC issue -- if it were just Ford vehicles then perhaps, but because it's across other brands it's almost certainly an issue that Apple needs to address. Folks who are far more optimistic than I am might note that this coming Monday (October 20th, 2014) 8.01 is supposed to be rolled out which should fix at least *some* issues, but my experience in life has been this won't fix any issue that *I* have <bg>.

Works fine with my wife's iPhone 6 -- my 6 Plus is coming today (should be here any minute now) and we'll see (my phone is the primary so any issues should present themselves there, I would imagine). Then again, the number of phone calls I actually GET per year is less than anyone's ever had a battery failure. And getting one in the car would be equivalent to being struck by lightning <g>.

As long as you don't buy a lemon (and ALL cars have lemons -- whether it's because they are made on a certain day or the week, or just an accident in production, a certain percentage of vehicles will have issues that are sometimes beyond the ability of even the dealership to fix) you should be *extremely* happy with any C-Max, as all of us here are. The fact that the previous owner is selling to you is actually a Good Sign as long as you can check to make sure it didn't have a problem that was unable to be fixed. Around here the worst is the infamous "battery issue" but any vehicle subject to this would have been at the dealership at least two or three times so you can find that out. If it doesn't have that the odds are good that you are okay otherwise. The C-Max is the best vehicle I've ever owned, by a long shot. But... it also fits a certain category and need. As long as your own needs fit it there is no better choice.

Ah -- just found it in the manual. Must try that now. Thanks for the heads up.

Wait. You can do this? I want this to happen (if possible). I never saw this as an option, though -- is that because I have an SE (and no fancy door thingees?).

Do you have MFT by any chance? (The standard stereo has apparently more issues than those vehicles with MFT). For sure follow Paul's advice and get something that will allow you to start the car yourself (there are lots of options you can find with a simple Amazon search) so that you will have reliability in the meantime. And then make sure your dealership follows all the TSBs and reports posted here on this forum (you can search through the threads to find the relevant ones and print them out for them).

Even before 8.0 our two iPhones (at the time a 4s and a 3g) would not connect automatically except for the favorite. 8.0x has not changed that -- my phone (the favorite, the 4s) still connects automatically and my wife's (not) will connect when she chooses it on the screen. She has the iPhone 6 and it works the same way -- still will not connect automatically but will when you select it from the list. My understanding is that this is how Sync works (which is to say you can only have one phone that connects automatically). However, I do know folks have reported issues with 8.0x and certain auto makers (and Ford is one of them) so it's possible that's what is happened to you. You can try resetting your system and see if it will then at least connect to both of your phones but I'm guessing there is going to be little any of us can do about this issue (it's most likely going to have to be resolved at the Apple level).

I will mention one thing -- it was the salesperson at the Orlando dealership that put me in a C-Max. I suspect I'd have ended up in the Escape without him. I *did* have the C-Max specs printed out as one of many sheets from the web I had printed, as part of the vehicles I *might* take a look at, but the only hybrid I was really considering was the Fusion (and my wife was against that due to the configuration -- she really wanted a hatchback sort). We had driven the Buick Encore and were very impressed, and our next stop was to visit Honda to look at their small SUV. After we drove the Escape, though, I was nearly sold and didn't even want to look at the Fusion. But because we had mentioned it first our salesperson said (very sagely, as it turned out) "Ya know, if you like the Escape but want a hybrid, I can show you something..." And so that test drive of the C-Max came about when it would never have otherwise. Even then I thought it was out of our price range but (again) our salesperson worked wonders and got us into something I am SO happy in having. When I think of how close I was to never experiencing the C-Max... well, let's just say this is one salesperson I cannot sing the praises of highly enough (Ryan Hinkley, if anyone wants to know). Then again, he's young, hip (he's their "internet" guy) and really in tune with technology. Frankly, my only concern about Ford is they will dump the underlying technology somehow. I mean, this vehicle will last me close to a decade, with any luck, but in five years I'd love to buy another, or whatever passes for the same sort of small SUV hybrid sort of thing Ford can make. As far as I'm concerned, other than the MFT there isn't much else I even want to change.

Um -- troll much? In the first place, ANY vehicle can have a dead battery, particularly after 36k miles. Heck, I've owned a wide variety of cars and... guess what, every single one of them ended up with a dead battery at some point in time. If I had said I wouldn't buy that make again I'd have to eliminate Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevy, Jeep and Dodge (to name but a few). A simple dead battery is NOT the problem that folks here have (or a replacement would solve the issue and we'd all be fine). Based on what you say, I'd advise your company against getting cars that need batteries. Or get a horse (note that most of them will also die, long before 36k, though).

You might also want to try (or at least consider) the WAY larger ones they make (there are three basic sizes, although it's a bit confusing since they use two names for the same size). There are the "Standard" ones (too small for us), the "Jumbo" (the ones that I use and are pictured) and the "Super Jumbo" (they also refer to the "Jumbo" as "Large" sometimes). The Jumbo shades are 28 x 31 inches, which is a bit too small to cover the entire dash but is workable. The Super Jumbo measure 31 x 38, which is WAY too big for our vehicle. But... These shades are bendable (and thus easily collapsible as shown in the video). While others here have said they have gotten the Super Jumbo and they didn't fit at all, I'm a bit skeptical of that. Yes, they are obviously not going to fit as designed to fit, but given how flexible these are I wonder if they might not just be "wedged" in between the dash and the rearview mirror and thus work even if they don't fit as squarely (or at all) as they might. It's something I have been meaning to try, getting the very large ones and seeing just how easily (if at all) they could be used with Maximis (heck, for $15 or so it's a cheap experiment). I just haven't gotten around to trying it yet but I will someday.

Read this entire thread.

One thing is clear to me -- he DID get a lemon (because few if any other C-Max owners have been through what he's been through). I've seen that with other car makes and if it happened to me I wouldn't recommend that particular make of car either, regardless of the fact it's a statistical anomaly. But that's why the lemon laws have been enacted, because it's a very real phenomena (and, if you stop and think about it, in some way an oddly reassuring indication that cars are still made by people. Flawed, unreliable, inconsistent people to be sure, but at least not ALL of the incredibly complicated process of car assembly has been automated). A Monday or Friday car to be sure.

And, of course, the air on the outside does the same thing (attacks the rubber molecules). One might argue that, because it's under pressure, the "inside air" is worse than the "outside air" but I'd say that was hogwash more or less. I've NEVER had anyone sell me tires tell me they were "all worn out inside" (and you'd think, if that did happen, the tire sales people would use that as a tactic). I suspect it *might* save a tiny bit of money and no where near the cost of doing it -- but if it makes you feel good...

Actually, all I really want is this ability for Maximis (well, the rockets would *also* be nice...) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKAME9fAA-4#t=129

Yeah, I tried yesterday and there's absolutely no way I can reach across Maximis to do this. It would only work if I had a passenger in the seat to help (or if I actually got out and walked around to the other side). Powered sunshade would be the only way I would consider this. For now I'll stick with my spring loaded easily stowable ones (then again, we don't park outside in the sun much, as Maximis lives in the garage and I'm retired, so mostly on tennis trips where a few hours is no big deal).

Since my tires were at 30 psi cold (which I do believe is *really* low) I have to question how low they would have to go before a light would come on. I also think that it's not too much to just check once a month -- that's why I have a tire inflator in the garage and what I've done for, oh, the last half century or so on all my vehicles. Yep, I'm a lot older, but I think I'd have to be near death before I couldn't perform this simple check (and then fill as needed). So a light to tell me? Um, perhaps not so much. The oil change light is another thing entirely -- again, when I was changing oil every 3000 miles or so (as I still do with the Durango, although I've started letting it go longer) it wasn't needed, but I'm not so sure I'd remember the changes with Maximis being so seldom. But we'll see.

Well, it's pretty simple. Folks will now have to pay money to BUY plastic bags for this purpose rather than saving on the use of these. We often get plastic bags at the grocery store for cat litter cleanup for this very reason (although we bring our own bags for our weekly shopping). This is, in essence, a way to legislate recycling (and we ALL know how successful trying to legislate morality is).

I'm getting *real* excited now to see just how much better I can do, both with the higher tire pressure as well as the coming cooler temps (which for us in Florida means no heating or cooling, but just ventilation and perhaps even some open window driving around town). 700 does seem achievable (particularly since our "highway" speeds are not more than about 55 mph the way this old man drives).

Well, I had another Homer moment today but in the hopes it might help someone else in the same position I thought I'd share. We have a little over 2K worth of miles on Maximis, at a little over two months of ownership. In that time I haven't checked the tire pressure... at all. I've put air in our Durango twice during that period of time and in my defense this new technology stuff is still confusing this old man. For some reason I thought that, just like I didn't need to worry about oil changes for quite some time, that Maximis would tell me when I needed to put air in. I could have sworn I read something like that. Except -- in putting air today in the Durango I took a quick look at the manual for the C-Max and see that it only *warns* you when the pressure is very low. Not when you should be putting it in as usual. Doh! Okay, so I measure it and it seems *really* low to me (about 30 psi cold). The tires are all rated at 51 psi max, so I figure I had better put at least 45 in them, which I do. Then I drive to my usual location and back, a round trip of 24 miles I make at least twice a week (so I'm *real* familiar with the mpg I should be getting). Normally I get around 45 (it's a mix of city/highway, with the emphasis on the highway) and, of course, it always starts from a cold engine both ways (before and after tennis <g>). Today I get 56 mpg. Now -- it's a bit cooler than usual (near 80 degrees when it's been in the mid to high 80's) so perhaps the A/C (which I always have set for 73) is working less, but I also have to think that at least some of that was due to the tire pressure. If that's true, the tires have mostly been low since we've got it (because I noticed how different the ride is right away -- a bit rougher but not at all unpleasant). I'm going to start paying closer attention to tire pressure.

Well, now I'm starting to feel *real* good about our gas (which for the last three months has been averaging around 3.20, but *never* ever in the $4 range). This is both very depressing (that I'm that happy with gas OVER $3 a gallon) and good news for my trips (which, by and large, will be within 350 miles of where I live and thus well within Maximis' gas tank range. At least I won't have to fill up somewhere a lot more expensive, particularly if I drive down south).

Now -- not to be the naysayer in all of this (because you are truly a God when it comes to mpg) but the real story here is why the heck are your gas prices so high? (LOL). Geeze -- I haven't paid *that* much for gas ever, even when they were scalping us due to political considerations. Or, to put it another way, if you bought gas at, say 10% less (which is the most I've ever paid, not even counting the 20% I get off by using Publix sales) then your mileage would have easily been over 1000. (Or to even put it another way, I get gas at the equivalent of around 35% less than you, which means my own normal 600 mpg tank is really closer to 800 mpg every single time I fill up. Wow, I'm *really* doing good, even at highway speeds <bg>). But, seriously, good job.

This is one of those cases where, if you need HOV lanes, perhaps you ought to rethink your entire city workflow (like making telecommuting *mandatory* for 80% of any office workforce). Or, heck, just shut down the $#$!! freeways. (Some day in the near future we will wonder why in hell we ever thought it a good idea to move millions of folks every single work day of the week miles away from where they live just in order to answer the telephone and attend meetings).

When you fold them do you "attach" them to what you have folded. IOW, do you just swipe them like curtains but then have some sort of "pinning" that keeps them from accidentally closing on you? I like the concept but because the windshield is so large on the C-Max the biggest issue I can see is actually reaching over to that far passenger side (which I can't do now when I sit in the driver's side). I guess for folks with longer arms or who don't have back issues it's no big deal, but I suspect that would be a deal breaker for me (I've actually hurt myself just trying to get into the glove compartment from the driver's side).