Kelleytoons

I was actually pleasantly surprised yesterday when I got about 40.2mpg just driving to tennis (and back). It's a real short commute (only three or four miles), with the air on (hot here in Florida) and with less than 300 miles total on the car I don't think we're close to break in period. I'm going to guess that my particular style of driving will regularly average over 40mpg, which is absolutely terrific for me not having to alter anything I've been doing for the last 20 years (I was taught how to drive "correctly" back in the 80's by my employer, when we were driving cars provided by them. Back then gas was both "expensive" (at least compared to what it had been -- nowadays it would be a steal) as well as scarce (coming off the great "gas rationing" of the late 70's)).

Hmmm -- okay, so where, exactly, is THAT setting? (To turn on or not the interior lights when the door is opened). As for the other -- as I suspected, it was user error (exactly *what* user error I'm still not sure). I was driving tonight and as I was driving I tried the controls and they all worked as the manual said. Why last night I couldn't get to happen I'll blame on being an old man (it's a good excuse for nearly any situation :>). But to me driving around with the ambient lights on isn't very useful. However, I would like it if they would come on when I opened the door and then stopped when I started up (I just can't find this in the manual anyway, but I'll look again).

Don't know if it's relevant so much here, but when we went looking for a new vehicle we were actually looking for a small SUV and the Ford Escape was on our short list. Our dealer called the C-Max (wait for it) the "Escape Hybrid". Seems like a fair description, at least a shorthand way of looking at it.

Maybe I'm being especially slow this evening but I'm not quite sure what you mean. I get into the car and turn it on and make sure the headlights are on (the two requirements for the ambient lights to work). They are also on, but I cannot adjust the brightness nor turn them off again (trust me, I drove for an hour with them on late last night and it was fairly annoying). I *can* change them from green to blue, but by using a button which isn't supposed to do that. I think they are broken but I'm going to a Ford dealer tomorrow to be either enlightened or get it repaired.

Yeah, after I posted that I thought about that. I ended up buying a 128GB 3.0 stick just so I can transfer the music to it faster (since my PC supports 3.0). It was only a few dollars more than the 2.0 version (and still less than $45 -- really amazing).

Yeah, the manual does say that should happen -- it just doesn't for me. I'll give it one more shot tonight when my wife comes home (she took it to work :<( But I suspect mine is broken.

Oooo -- add on question (do I get a bonus?). Just noticed I can get a 256GB USB 3.0 drive (a lot more money but then it WOULD hold all my music :>). However, size aside, what interests me is the USB 3.0. Can the C-Max take advantage of that technology or is it limited to 2.0 (in which case speed wouldn't be improved any and the premium to pay for that wouldn't be worth it)?

I can't believe how cheap USB memory has gotten over the years (heck, almost ANY computer memory -- I paid 2K for a 1GB hard drive less than 15 years ago. Ah, those were the days). Anyway, while I plan on using the Bluetooth sync to my iPhone for most of my music playing needs, it occurs to me that where reception is spotty (or where I just want to take advantage of the "Play [that album]" voice feature in MFT) I could copy most (not all, but most) of my music onto one of these drives. However, I do know that not all hardware supports these larger drives (most of which use some modified FAT or other formatting to account for all the space). Not only that, I'm a bit worried that it might end up slower if I load that much music into it (it says, IIRC, that it handles up to 30K worth of songs, which would be less than I would be copying, but I still don't want things to slow down in the searches). So -- anyone have experience using a very large stick?

If you find yourself in the Orlando area please do stop on by (we have a 9' HD screen to watch movies after our swims, so if you and your significant other want to have some fun we can accommodate you <g>). While I am kidding I am also serious -- at least about the hospitality (you don't even have to show my wife how to drive: even *I* wouldn't wish that daunting a task on anyone :>).

I have the 203A package and, as I say, I do see the ambient light but just can't control it (much). The passenger side button switches it from green to blue but I can't turn it up/down or on/off. So perhaps it is broken -- I'll call the dealership tonight to see (if so, bummer since they are 40 miles away).

Oh, I know what will happen -- nothing. I posted at least three messages there at least three days ago with no activity yet. There is very little activity there at all. Me very glad people am no aware of this place.

Why buy HIM a ticket here? Central Florida is the number 1 tourist destination in the world -- he should pay ME to stay here (which he's welcome to at our house. We'll even let him swim in the pool). I did turn on the Coach display this morning before she left for work. I told her it would yell at her if she got it wrong (that's what we really need -- a stern, disapproving voice when you get anything other than good marks).

Yeah, well that's not how mine work. As I said, the button on the right cycles through two choices, and the other two do nothing. But I sure seem to have ambient lights (unless I don't understand what ambient lights are). Perhaps I have them but they can't be controlled in any way? (That seems pretty weird, though, considering how bright they are). I guess this is something I need to ask the dealership.

Yes, Paul is referring to the one I mean -- http://cmaxhybridowners.com/ So perhaps the consensus is that the forum admin here started that one as well? It's very weird because I suspect there are folks over there posting who would love to know about this place (and if it's run by the same folks he could shut that forum down and just do a redirect to here).

Just took delivery of our C-Max yesterday and driving it home last night I was a little nuts trying to get the ambient lighting turned down or off. So I get home and crack open the manual and the controls I have don't seem to work or (more likely) it's a question of user error. First of all, I DO seem to have ambient lighting (but I need to ask here to be sure). There is this glow around the footwells of the driver and passenger sides, as well as lights where the door handles and cup holders are. This glow is quite bright and right now is bluish and appears to be on whenever the car is on and the lights are on or turned on auto mode. On the overhead (I have no sun roof) there is a lit control panel as described in the manual with two buttons and a knob. The manual says the right hand button turns things on and off and the left one cycles through color choices, while the middle knob controls brightness. Well and good, except that only one button seems to have any effect and it's not the one they say. The right hand button will cycle through two choices -- green or blue. But neither the knob nor the other button appear to do anything, no matter what state the engine and lights are in (which is to say, even with the engine on and lights on I can't get these to function). So does anyone here have an understanding of what I'm doing wrong? Or is this something I need to discuss with our dealer?

Yeah, it was an interesting experience last night. We drove into Orlando (about 40 miles or so) in our friend's Prius, and then I drove back on our new C-Max. So a pretty good direct comparison. It was the first time I had the Prius out on the highway for a long stretch and it just confirmed to me how badly it handles. But the real eye opener (quite literally) was when I drove back in the C-Max I could really see both the road and the gauges so much better. Admittedly this wasn't the newest model Prius, but it did have a center screen (like our MFT). But the layout of the main controls and that center screen is *really* bad (so bad, in fact, that the MFT looks absolutely amazing compared to it). I could hardly see the speedometer (the main gauges are located far away -- hard to explain unless you've seen them) whereas the C-Max just looks "right". And the room. In our friend's Prius Sedan I felt like I was in a sardine can (and this is not the smallest Prius, but the largest one). By contrast the C-Max feels almost as roomy as our Durango (which is saying something). So really good marks all around. A few negatives: I still don't like the lack of a full arm rest on the right hand side. Because I sit pretty far forward my elbow hovers over the cup holders and I need to do something about that. I'm going to investigate the Trillium arm cushions and, failing that, may try and fabricate my own solution. And there are some controls I either can't figure out (most likely) or just don't work properly (which I kind of doubt). I'm off to post about those, though.

Guys and gals, I found this forum by doing a Google with "C-Max Forum" but originally there was another, almost identical forum that came up in my search. And when I say "identical" I mean it -- the look and feel (down to even how you register) was *exactly* the same, so much so that after registering on one and then going to the other I was confused (because I thought I had registered for THAT one -- don't even ask me which was which at this point). Indeed, the one slight difference was in the sub-forum categories -- even today that's how I tell them apart. The "other forum" doesn't have quite as many as this one does, although nearly all the ones it DOES have are also identical to this one. So you guys MUST be aware of this -- what is up? At first I thought one was the "official" forum (maintained by Ford) and another a community forum, but both of them also bill themselves as "Community Forum and Club". Now, the other one (which I posted on) doesn't seem nearly as active (none of my posts were commented on even a few days later, unlike here) but I remain a bit confused about things. What's the history? Some sort of rival split or something (the coincidence to how they look so identical is just too damning to be accidental).

Sorry to come to this thread so late, but as a longtime CR fanatic who eventually saw the light I think it's pretty funny that anyone nowadays ever gives any credence at all to them. Once upon a time it was a good idea, and a noble effort, but the fact remains they just don't have either the expertise nor the money needed to really evaluate most products, let alone cars. As I got knowledgeable in my fields of computers and electronics I could see their reviews of such products just were laughable. If so many of the reviews about products I am an expert on are wrong, I can only imagine just how off they are in most other areas. Nowadays they are mostly an obsolete relic of a time gone by -- with the internet and so much data available there just isn't any reason to pay them any attention at all.

After reading this thread I'm starting to think our C-Max will have a Jekyll/Hyde personality -- when I drive it I'll get great mileage and my lead foot wife (despite her claims to the contrary) will bring it back down (since she'll drive it the majority of the miles we aren't likely to ever average a good MPG). Even now I get about 5-6 MPG better than her driving our Durango -- she's always complaining about putting gas in and yet I can drive it for weeks while she's gone to visit the grandkids and never have to fuel up. Some people just don't have the touch. Or, in her case, the patience (when I ride with her she always drives fast right up to the next stop light and then slams on the brakes. Sigh). Too bad I can't find a driving class that would teach her the techniques I learned WAY back in the 80's (when all the State workers took a course to help get better mileage out of the state vehicles we drove). Back then we could get nearly 30 MPG out of vehicles with V8 engines that were never designed to get more than 15 MPG normally.

Thanks for all the welcomes. Yeah, I know the Durango won't get great mileage for short trips, I just mean we won't be using much gas for the two-three mile trips I'll make (so even at 10MPH a tank will last a LONG time -- I may only fill it up two or three times in a year). I've been borrowing a friend's Prius for a week while they are away (we drove them to the airport and they said we could use it while they were gone) and it's amazing what a slug/whale it is. Last night I tried to accelerate to merge into the highway and nearly got run over. Going from 0-40 is about the same as me on a bicycle <g>. During our test drive of the C-Max the acceleration was one of the things I was impressed about. Plus the Prius is very noisy and makes odd noises as it changes from gas to electric and vice versa. I'm so glad it wasn't even something we tested (actually, the other car we had considered was the Prius V but I understand it's even slower). (And I retired at 54 so squarely in the "boomer" generation. I'm currently in my 60's but don't feel it -- can beat many folks 30 years my junior on the courts <bg>)

As it turns out we'll be picking it up tomorrow instead (yay!). It's a 2014 - at one point they were looking at a 2013 for the color we wanted but they ended up giving us thw same great deal on the newer model. I'm not sure in this hot climate whether we'll get great MPH but it's got to be better than the Durango.

Yeah, I just bought one there listed for $39.50 (I didn't try to get the buyer to go lower since it was also free shipping). Now, I am *assuming* my delivered C-Max will only have A4, so there's always a chance I'll have this to sell if it comes with the newest (I'll know Thursday, but this price was too good to pass up).

Right, the Trillium is the first thing I came across at Amazon before I started this thread. I'm not sure how it would work for me until I actually take delivery and start measuring things out (I'd have gone ahead and order one just in case but since there are two sizes I think I'll just wait a bit to see). I suspect there is no one-size-fits-all solution here. Even in our Durango (which has pretty good arm solutions) I used to take a tiny piece of foam with me on very long trips to stop my elbow from getting numb resting on the very hard rests provided.

That would be nice to know as well, but since you posted in April and no one has replied yet (three months later) it looks as if it will be a mystery (unless I decide to go ahead and install mine, in which case I'll be sure and let you know).

I like the idea that you can crack the windows without rain coming in (important here in Florida where rain is more the order of day than not) so I ordered them from a parts store that charged $71 (can't exactly say how much shipping since it was part of a larger order). However, after I ordered today I started to worry about the impact it will have on MPG -- isn't that one of the top reasons to own this car? I have to believe this will make a significant (well, at least 1-2MPH) effect since they were able to increase it by that much by very subtle engineering between 2013 and 2014 of the exterior. So perhaps in the long run I'll regret getting them (the look I think is pretty cool and, as I say, functional for me as well -- but hate to lose the precious mileage).