Kelleytoons

Ah, Monday morning car. Yep, folks just aren't feeling good after a weekend <g> (although maybe it also applies to the robots that mostly assemble things now as well).

You can also change the volume compensation (for increasing the volume as your speed increases). I use this *a bit* but I don't recommend turning it up any past 3 or 4 (or the volume increase will be *very* noticeable as you accelerate). That may have been what you did and then didn't notice as much change because (again, speculating) you don't change sources until you are moving (or, conversely, that you *only* change sources when you are not moving).

Well, that's a very odd and unqualified post so I feel the need to contradict it with facts. First, in most states it's illegal to drive wearing ear buds and/or headphones. It's an odd law (since you *can* crank your interior music up so high you can't hear the outside) but it's there and I would be careful about obeying it nowadays since police are trying to get folks on almost anything. Secondly, MFT (which the OP has and is using) works great. Sync itself is very limited in what you can and can't do, but using direct USB (for example) MFT will easily and correctly select a track, an album, an artist, a genre or a playlist with ease. It can also easily turn shuffle on and off. It's really the only way I recommend to listening to anything other than streaming music in your car (streaming, like from Pandora or Spotify, does require a phone or some such, and in those cases you really can't control much about it anyway). The other advantage (and I admit it is an advantage sometimes) with using your phone or portable bluetooth device is that you can continue your listening seamlessly by switching to your earphones when you leave your car. I have done this at times, although music quality will suffer.

Ah, volume protection, This is a setting on iPhones that can be turned off (and mine has been since time began) so I didn't even think about it. Are you sure Android doesn't have the same ability to turn it off once and forget about it?

Someone started a topic here about using their phone for music and it reminded me of something I wanted to post (so I'm doing so :>). First of all, everyone has their own ideas about how best to get entertainment in their cars and I'm not here to argue for or against any particular format other than to say that in terms of sound quality the best would be CD, then direct wired (to some music player), then USB, then bluetooth, then FM AST, then Sirius (although I have my doubts about placing it even here in the order) then FM, then AM. Sound quality means frequencies available to be played, and varies depending on how the actual music is created and stored but in general this is a good rule of thumb. But even the best CD full of crappy music isn't as good as a great AM station (although I don't think AM stations play music anymore <g>). If you are going to use USB (and I don't know why you wouldn't, considering all the great advantages MFT has with USB) then here's the approach I'm using and I hope it will help you. First of all, you want a good source and that means MP3s (don't try other formats) recorded at 320 cbr. That means "Constant Bits Recording" and nowadays, with storage so cheap, it's really the only way to go. It's also known as the "Insane" preset on programs that do this ripping for you (that's assuming you do it yourself and don't acquire music from other sources, legal or not). A quality 320 mp3 can match even a CD, particularly when playing in the car environment (not optimized for best listening anyway). To manage your music you need to use some sort of program and for those of you using Windows I highly recommend the freeware Media Monkey. Even if you have Apple devices you can use Media Monkey and iTunes in concert with each other (as I do) but MM will make it easier to get things straight whereas iTunes hides the processes. The last piece of freeware you need is MP3Gain, particularly if you are going to play mixes (compilations or playlists) from various albums. We need MP3Gain because nowadays most albums are recorded "hot" and this "heat" (which is boosting the gain) varies so much it's really hard to listen to any track from one album next to the track from another without having to adjust the volume up or down. Which is not what you want to be doing when you are driving. MP3Gain levels the gain across tracks, but does it non-destructively (it neither changes or rewrites the file and the tag it puts in can be backed out) and does it better than anything else does. It's so good I use it to level the gains even on tracks I play in iTunes (which offers it's own leveling process, but one that isn't nearly as good). The last piece of the puzzle is to figure out what size USB stick you are going to use -- this depends totally on the size of your music collection. You can fit nearly 10 thousand 320 bit songs on a 64gb USB stick which should be enough for almost anyone (and this is the very low profile one that doesn't stick out at all in your compartment. You can go bigger, of course, but the larger ones will stick out more (I'm actually using a 500gb hard drive but that's just because it's what I had laying around -- I don't think I have more than 108gb on it). What you can't do is put two of them in and expect them to be treated as a single drive. You put two in (to the two slots) and then you'll need to switch back and forth between them to listen to your music (not something I would recommend). Put your drive in the bottom one and use the top one for charging things. So my workflow is this: I arrange my music on my computer, by artist (each artist in their own folder) and by album (each album a folder under the artist). This isn't necessary from a computer standpoint (neither Media Monkey nor iTunes really care how your songs are stored) but helps my sanity (what little left I have). I run MP3Gain on all the songs (or any new ones I add). It's easy and straightforward -- just select all the tracks, use analyze track gain and then balance track gain. For a large collection it will take awhile (perhaps as long as a few hours). Then I run Media Monkey and import the collection and add all the album art I want -- with the album selected you can use the dropdown "Get Art from Web" and it will find it for you (most of the time) AND it will clean up the tracks and songs. For me an additional step is to import it into iTunes. Most of the time it's fine but iTunes is a bit weird and will sometimes require me to clean things up a bit more (like not recognizing the album art MM found. We in Apple support don't understand why this is happening). The last thing I do is use freeware Playlist Creator 3.6.2 to create custom playlists from the playlists I've created either in iTunes or Media Monkey. I need to use Playlist Creator because, unlike those other two programs, it will correctly create playlists that MFT can play (it's a long story for another thread). And I then copy all the music and playlists over to my USB device. Once you put a new (or changed) USB device in MFT will take the time to index and create commands for it. In general I've found this takes about 15 minutes regardless of how much or how little music I've added. If I *really* want to hear music when I start my drive I just turn on the car and let it do this while it's in the garage. You can set it up so MFT will start playing right away before the indexing is done, but it's really random then and you have no control over what you hear. Hopefully this will help or at least give some of you some new ideas on how to get your own tunes in your car. I know *I'm* a happy camper.

With phones (actually, even with music players like your iPod, but we'll get to that in a minute) you need to be running an application that "manages" your music. The bluetooth signals that are being sent by the car just tell the device what to do, not the other way around. With your iPod the application software was inherent in the device itself -- that was what was "waiting" for outside signals to talk to it. So with your phone you do indeed need to be running something, even if it's just your music player. The car will then send signals via bluetooth to tell the player software to do whatever it does. In general, you start your music player app and then it plays, and the car signals only tell it to do something other than that (IOW, pause or advance to the next track). So the signals are only modifying what is already going on in the phone. The same goes with volume -- you need to set your volume on the phone to whatever it is you'd like, and the car signal that comes from that only changes the volume from that basis. It sounds like you just have your phone music volume turned too low. I don't use Android so I can't tell you about that, but with the iPhone just using the built-in Music app is the best bet for playing music via MFT. However, be aware that bluetooth fidelity is not nearly as good as wired or direct access. My own advice is to copy your music to a USB stick and use that in your car, as MFT does some really cool things via playback control of the USB module it cannot do over bluetooth (like playing whatever album or artist you name, or playing a particular tracklist or randomizing your songs). You will also get the best fidelity (assuming you are using music recorded at, say, 320 for your MP3s). The other control you can have here you can get no other way is to level the gain of all your tracks, perfect if you don't play albums but rather play various mixes of songs (so they stay the same level and don't blast or get too quiet). Truth be told, the only reasons NOT to use a USB stick is if you are using a music service, like Pandora or some such, or you want to listen to a song in the car and then continue to listen to it as you move out of it without pause.

Yeah, and mine was made in January so I'm okay as well (not a big deal but it's nice not to have to take Maximis in for this).

Yeah, that's been my experience. As I said, everyone needs to find something that works for them, but the custom fit ones just don't for my wife and I (and the foldable ones can fit easily between the seats so you don't even know they are there).

I have a perfect fitting shield as well (but it's an accordion and folds easily) but we never use it -- it's *way* too big and takes up too much room (and despite easily folding it takes way more time to put up and take down, particularly with passengers in both sides). Instead I just use the easily foldable sunshades that Wally World carries and quite frankly I can't see why anyone would need anything else (but to each his or her own).

I think there are many, and perhaps many more who won't even come to a forum. We only have around 3K on our 2014 SE but no battery issues (so far). Made in January (bought in July so we've had it several months. I suspect the actual ownership time is more important than miles in terms of these battery problems, though).

Nearly all modern gas stations leave off the fractions -- for one thing, they use electronic signs which don't have room for them. As a matter of fact, I can't even think of the last time I saw a gas station that didn't have an LED sign (I'm sure they exist, I just don't remember seeing them). Heck, the way gas prices fluctuate you'd need a full time employee just to change any manual one <g>. I'm not sure what my parents had in that collection -- like small boys I was interested in such things for about 10 seconds and then I wanted to go outside to play. I'm not even sure the last time I saw it, but it has to have been over half a century ago (and that fact alone makes me feel *very* old). I just remember that the mills were tiny little things (seems to me they were about the size of a small watch battery, except much thinner) and IIRC (and I may not) they were also colored -- blue and yellow seems to stand out in my mind (but again, I would not reliably swear to this, particularly when a quick internet search would most likely confirm/deny it much easier than rooting around in my mind). By the time I was shown them they weren't being used, though (and I think it's more than possible the same may be true for me and perhaps my youngest grandchild, who right now is a bit too young to deal with money except to cause us to spend it).

Happy wife = happy life. Good luck and let us know how it goes (with the car -- not trying to get personal, here :>).

It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what the three cars are all about, and it will be up to you as to what is important. I can tell you, from a mpg standpoint, that the Prius vehicles *will* average in the 50's without any trouble, and the C-Max will average in the 40's with the same careless attention (IOW, not trying to really get good mpg). Those are mixes of both highway and city (although city you will do better in both). It sounds as though the Mazda then will get about half the mileage so all you have to do is factor in how important mpg is to your driving and you will be able to make the right decision. (Now, there are those here that can get the C-Max to at least rival and perhaps surpass the Prius, but I suspect they'd also be able to boost a Prius' mileage greatly as well. For my own mix of highway and city I'm getting about 47 mpg with the A/C on all the time and expect it to climb into the 50's easily during the winter, which is mild here in Florida).

I wonder if the batteries listed now in the OM are changed as a result of battery issues. IOW, if I understand you correctly, now Ford only offers bigger batteries than our original equipment has.

Drive them all, and pay close attention to the things that matter the most to you. The Prius, for example, will get the best mpg at the expense of poor handling and acceleration. But only *you* will know what is the most important to you. I was lucky enough to drive both the Prius and the Prius V for a week before I bought our C-Max, and that made the decision easy.

Yeah, but more and more gas stations are eliminating the mil designation. Pennies are next. Trust me. My parents used to have a collection of mils (and Indi... ahem, Native American Head Nickels). That seems to have been lost due to moves/death.

Paul, I agree with you that with most men as long as you have jumper cables (or some such -- we have one of those battery starter thingees that works fine on our Durango and I hope to never have to try it on Maximis :>) it's not a big problem. But as much as I hate to make broad generalizations (particularly about broads -- okay, now I AM going to get hammered on. Just a joke, folks <g>) women aren't nearly as comfortable about the process of jump starting a car. And, hell, I have to admit that at my age it's not something I wouldn't want to avoid doing as much as possible (I'm more a software than a hardware kind of guy, anyway). Plus my other observation about the better sex (and I really do mean better in every way that's important) is they seldom leave enough time for anything (when they want to be somewhere they leave five minutes before they have to be there). Combine these and I can see coming out to a dead battery being a major disaster to many people (I'm retired so when life tells me I need to stop and take a break I do so gladly -- with all the toys I usually carry with me it's almost a pleasure to take an hour or two and just read or listen to music, so waiting for a tow isn't even an issue). All of which is just a very long winded way of saying if my wife had similar problems there would be no peace in our household until somehow *I* made it right, which in this case would most likely be another car. I certainly feel for these folks (and still keep my fingers crossed that all goes well with my own).

What are people going to say when they stop making pennies? (LOL -- but they will, and sooner than later). We hardly ever hear the catchphrase "Well, that's my two mills worth" (and for you kids, look it up -- I am NOT talking about a million dollars. Once upon a time there was something smaller than even a penny).

There's pretty obviously *something* different about some cars, or this problem would be so common it would be the norm. But also, just as clearly, it's not an isolated problem. As much as I love the car (and ours in particular) I think if this happened to me the way it happened to the OP I'd go Lemon Law. But I'd also try (just for grins and chuckles) putting in a MUCH heavier battery first (heavier than what is recommended). The batteries they use are SO extremely small in terms of power that almost anything can kill them.

I had never had leather before we got our Durango and I *really* wanted it then. It was fine in Nevada and even here in Florida but my wife (who never wanted it) convinced me to get the cloth seats in our C-Max and I have to say I do prefer them. Then again, I wear a lot of shorts and short sleeves and humidity IS an issue here (and coming back from playing tennis the leather seats in Sestra always feel clammy). While it's a personal choice (and both sides have pros and cons) about the only thing I don't understand about leather seats is why it's assumed it's more "upscale" and therefore the higher end packages come with it standard (and I don't think you can get the power seat options without choosing leather).

We're into the 80's for the next few days, as this rain pounds us (and you, but I guess not lowering temps there). What was interesting was that I hadn't changed the A/C -- it was set for 73 degrees but since the outside temps went to 75 or a bit less the A/C didn't work as hard, I guess (this is the first car I've owned where the A/C had a temp control. Other vehicles were either A/C on or off, with only the amount of cold controlled by a knob that certainly didn't pay any attention to the actual effect inside).

I got 51+ from a 44 mile trip to tennis this evening. Mostly highway driving, but since the air turned cooler (due to the rain) A/C wasn't on much. So now I'm super stoked when winter arrives, because I think my mpg will go *way* up (we've been averaging around 45 mpg on the highway, so this was a big improvement. Plus I had two other adults and lots of tennis gear and three coolers full of drinks and ice).

Central Florida? You didn't buy at Sun Ford by any chance? While we live in Leesburg we happened to buy our C-Max there because we were dropping friends off at the airport and looking at cars on the way back. Glad we did -- had a *wonderful* salesperson there.

Okay, I think I get it. This is the same port that even on my old Durango the tech would hook up to see what the car computer was throwing in terms of error codes (even then I used to hate that when an error would occur I'd have to take it into the mechanic to find out what was going on. At least nowadays most auto parts shop will hook up and tell you for free). THAT particular port I knew how to get to. Anyone here know how hard it is to get to the C-Max port? And, for the sake of argument let's stipulate it's easy enough to get to that I'd even *want* to try, is this (the bluetooth emitter) the sort of thing you could leave plugged in, or is there a reason you wouldn't want to do that?

Ooookay, I guess I'm still a bit confused (not your fault, just my normal state of mind). Near as I can tell, you still need some sort of way of *getting* the data into whatever device you then use to analyze the information. For example, following the iOS route I see that the DashCommand app needs something from the OBD port. What? Walk me through this -- assume I'm an idiot (I am, when it comes to cars) and wanted to somehow use all my existing tech (my iPhone, iPads or even my Surface Pro) to run some of these apps. And, of course, my C-Max (and I have MFT). What else would I need, both physical and software wise, in order to do that? And how difficult is it to hook up whatever the physical part of it is? (Again, I really am NOT going to do this, but my curiosity holds no bounds).