Kelleytoons

But it's *really* hard to predict technology (folks who have bet money on it always go broke). Good case in point is the "TV-Phone" or whatever you want to call it. Everyone was *dead* sure it was coming... in the 60's. The technology was in place, and only needed some slight improvements. Except... it never happened (still faces a LOT of pushback even today, when nearly everyone has the technology in hand somewhere, on their PC or Smartphones). It's one thing to predict the technology advance (which in itself is hard to predict): it's quite another to read people's response to it. I'm fairly sure alternative energy vehicles will continue to improve -- I'd be FAR more skeptical they will replace petroleum vehicles that have been around for over a century with a fully developed infrastructure. I think it would take a fairly drastic change to move most folks away from them (perhaps gas tripled in price from today, but all of a sudden and not the gradual change that folks seemingly keep accepting). This isn't to say there won't always be a small, but loyal group of folks who are looking for different approaches. Just that a major sea change is far from easy to predict. And your camera example is an excellent proof of this -- the camera industry STILL doesn't exactly know where they are going (for example -- are video cameras dead? Because most still image cameras can also record video, and in many cases are better at it than dedicated camcorders. But camcorders continue to sell and to be developed). The only sure thing: hindsight is 20/20.

We had ours "coated" at the Orlando Ford Dealer who swears it will solve the love bug problem (and if not, it's covered by a warranty, although I'm not sure what they will do if they can't make it right other than repaint it). That was the main reason we got the coating (which I otherwise think is a scam). We'll see (I don't worry half as much about them outside as I do them getting into the interior -- one got in last night and I went crazy trying to get it out).

I guess that would only be significant IF: 1) You worked for Ford and 2) They were talking about a C-Max like vehicle (or whatever it is I'll be interested in somewhere down the line :>). Or, I suppose, you worked for some after market company that could make things to fit existing vehicles (but in the case of the C-Max I'd only be interested if it was something that would be so close fitting and replace what was there that it was seamless -- so far all the "solutions" folks have posted here don't seem any better to me than my pillow <g>).

Well, we took our long trip today and my pillow worked fine for me so I don't think I'm going to worry about it anymore. It's still not the ideal solution, but things like that posted above wouldn't be either (one nice thing about the pillow is it is very adjustable -- coming back from our trip we both had water in each water holder and I was still able to use the pillow by just turning it sideways and positioning it between the water and me). I also like the color matches so well (might take pics sometime -- got to clean up Maximis now from all the sand, though :>).

Dare I say that I do notice a similar curve process to the rising of the gas prices and the rising of C-Max sales in the latter part of that chart? I'd have to see them overlaid and, of course, there is a somewhat "delayed" response to such things, but I suspect there is some impetus and effect being displayed there. (IOW, the falling of sales might be attributed to other things, but the rising might definitely be impacted by gas prices).

Just to add some of my own data to this discussion, we went on a two-hour trip 140 mile trip today where our average speed was around 68-70 mph and I got exactly 44.9 mpg both ways using Ecocruise almost exclusively (only two or three times did traffic cause me to brake out of it and maneuver until I could turn it on again). Average outside temps were in the 90's and the inside A/C was set for 73 degrees and three indicators of fan. Played music and used NAV the entire way as well (not sure how much, if any, that would affect mileage). Wind speed was 12 mph the entire trip at a crossbreeze (according to my phone weather info) and mostly sea level with gentle hills and valleys (typical Florida landscape). I'm guessing I could have done better with Paul's techniques but it made for an easy drive and I kept to the posted limits (usually 70 mph but several short 60 mph stretches). Traffic for the most part was also typical Florida, which is to say half the folks were going MUCH faster than I (and the speed limits) was and half were going slower (the older folks -- and *I* am one of those). But there was enough room for the former to pass and for me to pass the latter. Averaging close to 45 mpg on a fast highway drive to me is better than good -- I suspect in the winter I'll be able to get closer to 50 mpg but if I never get any better I'll be happy).

Yeah, ditto on the junk in cars thing. More places just means more junk. And, as I said, I neither need nor carry coins, nor any currency. Just haven't needed it in so long I don't know under what circumstances I would (and I guess if that happens I'll see if DW has some :>). So far (SO FAR) Maximis has stayed clean (and I mostly have to get on DW about this -- she's the one who leaves junk in our Durango).

I'd kind of like to see what gas prices were doing during that chart period -- might be interesting.

Well, my first thought was to custom make something (cut out of foam rubber and covered with fabric) and if it bothers me too much I might do just that. If that happens I'll post pictures. We're taking the first long trip today in Maximis (to Fiesta Key beach, about 2 1/2 hours away) so it will be a good test to see if my throw pillow solution is acceptable or not.

Well, that's good in its own way, Brother Mike (since I'm "Mike" as well we are truly brothers :>). It's great the car is being sold in such numbers. And as my friend says, apparently that is true even in this area, although I wouldn't know it. I related in another thread a month or so ago that I stopped at an auto parts store early on to get some stuff for Maximis and the auto parts guy asked me what I was driving as he had never seen it before and he went outside to take a look as well. I figure HE must have seen a lot of vehicles and for him to want to come out and look at mine was fairly interesting to me. We definitely have a lot of Prius owners here, as I see THEM all the time. I'd love to pull up next to another C-Max owner sometime, though. Where I live everyone waves at everyone else just walking around, so I'm sure if I ever see another owner in a vehicle they'll at least wave at me.

I think there are two very distinct types of listening experiences with music: there is the "recorded" experience of your own music collection, in which you have hand picked only the best songs or artists, and there is the exploratory experience you get when listening to music fed to you from someone else's collection. Both have value and both have drawbacks. With your own music you are only getting what you like to hear, but you aren't completely surprised. You still can be surprised in many ways -- I have a music collection that would take me over 60 days of non-stop listening to hear it all (or to put it another way, at driving even 2 hours a day I wouldn't hear the same song for at least two years and most likely three). But even though I might not be hearing a song repetitively there isn't anything played that would be by an artist I wasn't at least familiar with the name. With any of the radio services you can hear a LOT of things you aren't at all familiar with, and this is a two-edged sword. You can discover new artists and open up your world in ways that is amazing (I found there is a whole section of country western music I like, even though the genre as a whole leaves me cold, when I heard a song by Blake Sheldon on the FM station my wife had left on. And now I have a large collection of it I can listen to whenever I feel in that mood). And you can hear an awful lot of stuff you may not *want* to hear, and that's where a service like Sirius really falls down for me. When I feel in an exploratory mood I turn to music services that feed up the same kind of "new" experience yet allow me to quickly skip to the next song if I'm hearing something I don't like. With Sirius my only choice is to change stations. But, different strokes... Some people either aren't as discriminating in their tastes or find some radio that happens to match their own. Even on the custom services like Pandora or iTunes Radio, where I can "tune" the station by telling it exactly the artists I enjoy the most, I find "clunkers" played quite often (because those services attempt to find similar artists but sometimes such artists aren't all that similar. And, let's face it, even the people we like to produce our music don't hit it out of the park all the time). I find myself skipping songs quite a bit on those and can't imagine living with it on Sirius (although the comedy channel isn't bad -- a bad joke goes by quickly :>).

So this morning I made a brief run to get Maximis ready for tomorrow (DW and I are heading out for our first major trip with it, about 2 1/2 hours to the Fiesta Key beach). On my first stop I came out of the store to find a man and his wife loading stuff into the back of their newish SUV and before I could get in he stopped me and asked me who made the hybrid I was driving, as it was *very* stylish and pretty. I explained about it and he went on to say how much he admired Ford as a company but had never heard of this car. He said Ford ought to advertise it more, because if he had known about it he might have bought one. After getting gas I stopped at the hardware store and ran into an acquaintance of mine and we exchanged pleasantries. I knew Bob was into cars (he's actually working after retirement just to afford his hobby of buying old ones to fix them up and tinker around with them) and I told him about our new purchase (as a rule I don't mention it to my friends because I find, like me, that talking about your new car is a bit like hearing mom's talk about their new babies -- yes, they are very cute, but they basically all look like Alfred Hitchcock and who wants to see pictures of that?). He wanted to come out to see it so we left the store and he got in both to the driver's side as well as passengers (because he wanted to know what it was like in back). He immediately said how easy it was to get in and out of -- he liked that a lot -- and admired the color (Ice Storm) quite a bit. Bob said he sees a lot of these in our area and while I would be skeptical of anyone else who said that he IS into cars and is very observant. He also puts a lot of miles on the road (his job is driving folks around) so it's quite possible he's right. I've only seen one other in the six weeks I've had the C-Max, so perhaps I'm not driving in those same areas, or just not looking right. All of this in less than an hour and it was a *wonderful* day <g>.

Yeah, I might pay $60 a year for it, but certainly nothing more. In addition to Scuba's recommendation there are all kinds of free possibilities that have, IMHO, better sound and better choices. iTunes Radio is very nice, particularly if you already have the $25 per year music subscription so you can stream all your stuff as well. It's a good "learner" as well and gives you ideas about stuff you can then add to your collection. But all of them are worth exploring: Pandora, Rhapsody, Beats, iHeartRadio, etc. etc. Like Shiny I have 32gb of music on a drive so small you can't even see it in the compartment -- and during Christmas I'll add some seasonal stuff in the other slot. I really like the fact I can say "Play Playlist Jazz" and it plays very high quality only the best stuff randomized so that I'd have to play for three weeks before I'd hear the same first rate song again (with four or five such playlists I'll never run out of music that *i* like to hear). And, of course, if a song comes up I don't feel like listening to it's a simple steering wheel click to the next.

Yeah, we're not going to keep it. (I do like the Comedy station on the *very* infrequent times we turn it on -- can't tell you the number because it's the only one it's ever on, but you can easily find it as it's the "family" one as the rest of them are just too loud and bad for even MY taste :>). But I'll try that "Love" station just to see how it sounds (my other knock against Sirius is that it sounds MUCH worse than my MP3 songs).

Yeah, and that was part of my decision not to want these. It's not just that folks can and will do almost anything, it's that vehicles (and things that go near cars) tend NOT to just happen to line up properly. I'll just have to see how much money (if any) I can get back (if not, I'll have a good deal for someone with an Ice Storm <g>).

After you do that is there any residue and, if so, how is that removed? And wouldn't the paint fade so that underneath wouldn't match four or five years down the road? I thought that was what some folks said about debadging, that you needed to do it before the fading set in. Again, I intend to keep this at least 8-10 years and fading ought to happen over that period of time, right?

Here are two pics of the plate without a frame, and a closeup of the little rubber thing on one side: After looking at these images I've decided the only thing I need are some black screws for the top, to match (kind of anal but I think it will look better that way). I suspect I can find these at my local auto store.

Yeah, and we both live in Florida where sun can be an issue (although Maximis stays in the garage the majority of the time). Ah, well, I'll see if I can return these things (when they get here).

Yeah, that's the one I bought as well (note that this particular unit is made by one company but marketed under a bewildering number of names on Amazon. And you can get it for different prices as well -- here's the one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D42AFS8/ref=asc_df_B00D42AFS83304803?smid=AGNVO1SI8BPQA&tag=pgmp-550-100-20&linkCode=df0&creative=395133&creativeASIN=B00D42AFS8 for $5 more (although at the time I bought it it was the same price). The company is an interesting story -- you can find them on the web if you search. Apparently they obtain a product (usually from China) and then market it through Amazon under various names until they find one that sells the best, at which point they discontinue the other names). I keep it in its box, with all the accessories, and it first nicely in the webbed area on the left (on the right I have my first aid kit, plus manual).

I kind of let myself be talked into ordering body trim based on a couple of the topics posted here but today, after a visit to my supermarket, I started looking around and realized that NONE of the new cars (or really, any car made in the last five years or so) has trim on them. And it looks very clean, very nice. None of the cars (out of a sample size of around three or four dozen) had any dings or dents in them either, so perhaps it's an area thing (which is to say I live in an area with mostly old folks who take care of their things) but I'm starting to think it was a mistake to get panels that might not ever be needed. Yes, anything can (and will, sometimes) happen, but as Rick posted here even with these moldings you can get serious problems (and on other forums folks pointed out that moldings on cars are seldom at the right height to protect against SUV and sports car dings). I suppose I can return these for at least a partial refund, or just keep them a while until I decide, but I wondered if those of you who have added the trim *a while ago* (not recently) are still happy with it? The other issue I've noted on other forums is that these plastic pieces tend to fade and get beaten up down the road, four or five years from now, and since I'll be keeping Maximis for at least that long I don't want it to look tacky (and removing them isn't easy, I'm told).

Okay, so color me stupid, but until today I was sure I needed a plate holder for my back license plate, both for looks as well as security. Luckily I didn't order the one I had in my wish list on Amazon, because when I put on my personalized plate today I realized the C-Max, like my Durango, is actually *designed* not to have a plate holder (it has these nice rubberized "feet" that come through on the bottom plate holes and would *not* be applicable to putting a plate holder on anyway). I've always kind of hated plate holders but in Nevada, where a front plate is required, they were a necessary evil. But the look of the car without them is SO much nicer and cleaner I'm really glad Ford designed it this way (and perhaps that's the way it's always been on cars and I've just never noticed it because I always had them on both front and back and assumed I needed them).

It just estimates your miles based on your average MPG (which you can show also). Depending on how you drive this can be vastly over or under estimated (so use common sense).

Pocket change? What is this "pocket change" of which you speak? I haven't carried around physical tender (nor a checkbook) since the 90's -- by this time next year NFC will eliminate the need for credit/debit cards as well. It's a brave new world <g>.

Yeah, there's only so much you can do to protect yourself from idiots. Same is true for collisions. We can drive carefully and defensively, and then some clod will rear-end us. I guess this is why insurance rates are so high.

Good for you -- I'm sure you'll be happy. Let us know how it goes when you pick it up.