MomsHugs

Since you're close, have you seen the huge number of giant wind generators in western Iowa? An amazing sight! More are being built across Kansas & Nebraska to take advantage of their constant winds.

Ahhh... this discussion brings back memories of working with nuclear engineers with the promise of nuclear power for pennies on the dollar. Also memories of the OPEC embargo that pushed the US into finding alternative energy sources (e.g., garbage) & pushed car manufacturers into making smaller, lighter cars to reduce oil consumption. So many assumptions hit the wall of reality in due time. Developers built all-electric homes on those promises, only to have those owners angrily paying out the nose for electricity. Manufacturing facilities negotiated sources of fuel & generated their own power (ADM's corn syrup plants come to mind). Car manufacturers met the 'Wall of Resistance" in the market of consumers' demand for huge, safer, gas-guzzling SUVs. The fastest way to reduce consumption of fossil fuel is to move goods x-country by railway using H2-powered engines - instead of diesel-powered 18-wheelers on Interstate highways. It was possible to piggy-back the trailers on rail cars several decades ago, which would have saved billions just in repair & maintenance of the Interstate highway system. It has not happened for lack of political will. Vehicles will change when physicists figure out an alternative to the internal combustion engine to move wheels. That discovery will likely come out of left field as an unintended consequence to something else... much like gasoline did & thus the ICE.

Kostby ~ You're right about boys/men not listening to girls/women... until she 'growls' at them & then they do so begrudgingly. On the other hand, I have found that most men do respond positively to women who can easily manipulate them. ;) I've worked with many men who came to respect my knowledge &/or willingness to learn mechanical problems to find workable solutions. However, I've encountered many women who have not been so respectful. Just hate to run into those insecure, ego-driven PEOPLE who walk amongst us everywhere all the time. :gaah: Cheers ~ Eve

Of course treating people with respect is the best course of action in all situations. Example -- Within 3 wks of buying a new Ford Probe, I felt the transmission 'give' whenever I slowly turned a corner. Twice the service dept. said they couldn't find anything wrong after hooking it up to a computer for diagnostic tests. When I took it back in the 3rd week, I asked to speak to the dept. manager & explained the problem might become ever more serious, leading to a Lemon Law complaint. He agreed to drive it to figure out what was wrong & quickly realized the problem as well as the likely cause. A major transmission bolt was stripped when installed & they replaced it under warranty. Btw... the manager came from a BMW dealership.

Thanks, C-Max lover, for laying out your frustrating situation. Frankly, I've wondered if dealerships in general weren't pushing sales of the C-Max for fear their own service dept. would get stuck with a hybrid-plugin problem they couldn't fix & Ford wouldn't reimburse them sufficiently for all costs of trying. Service crews at dealerships have to be trained to service these hybrid-plugins. I wonder if some dealerships didn't want to pay for training expenses (cuts into service dept. profits), which would leave their crews trying to do it via online help with Ford techs. Nothing else would explain why they would need YOUR car for 30 DAYS... only for computer updates. Best of luck getting them to replace the battery right away - at the very least. Then I would listen carefully to the car when you turn it off & keep a careful log of everything from the way you drive to how you turn it off. My neighbors warned me to turn my car off. They left their new Nissan Altima running several times & returned to find the battery dead. Their Altima has a push-button start & without the old-fashioned key, they plumb forgot to turn the car off! So, now I double-check that everything... including the radio/cd... is turned off before I get out of the car. Old habits are hard to break the older I get. :-(

C-Max lover ~ I assumed you've already read the forum's "Batteries" topic section - if not, you'll find helpful posts there. JMHO, but a face-to-face visit with your service dept. manager might be called for - copies of those posts in hand. Sounds like they could use the advice!

What does the acronym "FCOL" mean (haven't seen it before)?

99.9% of consumers are not statisticians... nor even close to understanding what 'margin of error' means. Most, if not all, automobile consumers are merely looking for the best information before plunking down a huge chunk of change for a vehicle they need (as opposed to merely want). Before the Internet, we relied on word-of-mouth & reviews in car magazines, then we drove them & kicked the tires. We sure didn't worry about gas or how safe they were before seat belts were mandated! We thought nothing of going 80 mph down a 2-lane road inside a thin metal tube behind a blazing fire in a big box... with our kids fighting & bouncing around the back seat. If someone says they miss the "good old days" when cars weren't so complex, I tell them this story. Within 6 mo. of buying our 1966 Mustang, my hubby swung his arm at our 2 toddlers fighting in the back seat & hit a parked car. When the damage was repaired, the dealer installed seat belts for front & rear seats. The kids were still a safety hazard for distracting the driver since they could still kick at each other. Today's cars are much safer - moms/dads can have hands-free phone conversations while their kids can watch videos/movies strapped in special safety seats. All things considered, we consumers are spoiled rotten! Btw... my Mom probably worried too much about what other people thought of her kids (much like auto manufacturers do), but she was more worried about having her kids come back home to live (sorta like recalled). However, statistically-speaking, my Mom compared her kids to kids in similar large families... like my cousins... & considered parents of only 2 kids (like mine) had NO excuse if they had even 1 turn out rotten. 3+Golfer could probably explain how such statistical sampling works; i.e., small samples from similarly situated data... or something like that.

This comment is on-topic so let's discuss the issue of a dead battery 3x in a Nov 2012 build. Personally, I would like to know exactly what the dealer has done to rectify this situation. Has the dealership replaced each battery to no avail? I would appreciate a post listing how the dealership responded to your battery problem each time. Thank you ~ MomsHugs/Eve

The new Battery Fabrication and Characterization User Facility is nearing completion at the U. of Michigan. UM collaborated with Ford Motor Co. to build the facility, which will be available to any firm to use, as well as materials scientists and engineers, suppliers and manufacturers, to ease a bottleneck in battery development & serve as a safe zone for non-competitive collaboration. Ann Marie Sastry, UM Professor of Materials Science, founded Sakti3 to develop new batteries. Using solid state product technology and extensive research and development into materials and processes, Sakti3 has been able to simplify the number of materials used to create highly efficient batteries. Solving the materials problem is the hardest part of any new device physics, and Sakti3 has developed the intellectual property for achieving this goal.

Wab ~ Thank you for the link to the Stanford article. Credit actually goes to a Stanford graduate student, Ming Gong, for discovering an inexpensive process of splitting water to make hydrogen, which is normally energy-intensive... as described in the article (see quote below). Note the Asian names of all but one author. This is exciting news! An amazing discovery with tremendous potential for vehicle & industrial development. Thanks again! ~ MomsHugs aka Eve

Hummm... the Hyundai FCV sure looks like a C-Max!

Hey Fazzman ~ You're in good company since there are a lot of posters that live in Florida. Mosey into the Regional topics & weigh in on getting together in Georgia sometime in the near future. Post your ideas for a C-Max Club organizational meet-up. Ciao! MomsHugs aka Eve

My 2014 SEL mid-August was driven 210 miles from another dealership & the Ave. MPG was 40.6. I assumed my dealer/salesman topped the tank before I picked it up. Initial town driving dropped the ave. down to 38.5, but trip indicator showed 45 to 55 MPG/trip. Had 545 miles with 1/4 tank left when I refilled it to take a 100 mi. round trip using EcoCruise on a 55MPH 2-lane highway. Now, with over 700 miles, the Ave. MPG is 39.6. Can the lifetime average be reset when the tank is refilled next time (should be 1000 mi then)? Thanks in advance to anyone who knows. ~ Eve

My mother grew up on a small farm with a high school education in the 30's, but even she understood basic statistics. She had 6 kids & used to say while some turned out quite well & some didn't amount to a hill of beans - but on the whole most of her kids turned out okay. Mom said she couldn't take credit for those who did well & nor the blame for those who didn't. That, my friends, is a fair description of the Statistics 101 course I took in college. I apply the same reasoning to polls, which are generally skewed by whomever is paying for them. MomsHugs aka Eve

I bought a C-Max SEL+303A with cargo protector/organizer pkgs. Love driving it & no problems so far, but would like to know whether to be concerned about the drone sound when accelerating. I read somewhere that drone sound comes from the CVT. Any opinions?

Hello CandyBlue ~ Ford must like using "Candy" because my first Ford was a Candy-Apple Red Mustang (I like my Ruby Red better). Will be looking for your posts on how you fare in mountain country. ~ MomsHugs aka Eve

Hello from the Deep South... well not as far South as ScubaDad. Down here it's all about trying to stay cool with A/C instead. Like you, I lurked for a couple of months before buying & VERY happy with my C-Max SEL+303A. It handles like a sports car & rides like a large car!

Ordered Intro-Tech Ultimate' from AutoAnything after reading all 5 pages of posts. Will post my impressions of how hard or easy it is to put up, take down & store behind the passenger seat. Compared to how long the A/C takes to cool the car, I don't really care how long it takes me. Frankly, I'm just happy someone makes an excellent product that keeps the car cool to get into. Summers are brutal in GA!

Wow, Kelleytoons ~ You are just amazing with all your music tech tools!! I use Win7 & really appreciate your Media Monkey suggestion. Thank you! Hugs ~ Eve

62Lincoln & Hybridbear ~ Thanks for the Detroit News link. Dealership ck'd my VIN & confirmed it's not subject to this recall. AdrianL ~ I'm with you on expecting e-V's by 2018, especially given the cars today mainly by a series of computers. So, perhaps someone will build my COOL car, a concept that really turns today's automotive engineering design on its head. Overcoming drag is a major mechanical engineering challenge, which IMHO will be solved by chemical engineers.

Jaz ~ If they've been delivered to dealers already, that could be mine then. Do you have any info on build dates? Thanks ~ Eve

Sammy, I lived in Iowa & commuted 30 miles one-way for over 10 years through many a snow & ice storm driving a Honda Accord & Prelude with front-wheel drive most of that time. However, I used snow tires in the winter. Frankly, I don't see much difference driving a C-Max with the winter pkg & using snow tires in winter. I've read some posts in here that recommend getting an engine block heater if you live in cold country. Good suggestion regardless the car. As for your dad working on the car - ALL of the newer cars use computers to operate much more than older cars. The C-Max is no exception & Ford offers a bumper-to-bumper extended warranty to deal with that. I bought a 7yr/84,000 extended warranty, which is cheaper than cost of repairs today. Given your situation & considering gas costs, a C-Max Hybrid would save you money that would pay for that extended warranty. The more miles you drive, the more you save on rising gas costs so consider all-in costs over 5-7 years of driving. The Insurance Institute gave the C-Max "Good" safety ratings, which translated into cheaper insurance premiums as well.

If my C-Max does as well as my Olds Intrigue, which I loved driving for 16 yrs, it will have stood the test of time... IMHO. Btw... when GM closed Olds & didn't take the Intrigue over to Buick, I figured those GM folks were just plain dumb & didn't even consider buying GM again.

Enjoyed reading about your NC trip & your pics of that beautiful mtn area. Especially like the pic of your back-seat driver and kayak partner. :dogwalk: :sandman: