HotPotato

A year and a quarter.

My SE does not have the touch screen. But a few times lately, a message has appeared in the right-hand dash screen saying "Lost Communication with Touch Screen." Any idea what this might mean?

Well, it finally happened...my first Found On Road Dead incident. Went to open the hatch yesterday morning and it wouldn't open--not even enough juice for the electric latch (BTW, whose idiot idea was it to start putting electric latches on trunks and hatches?). Opened the door--no dash lights, not even enough juice for a dome light. Jump-started it. The display read 7:27 am, and didn't count up. During my next trip an hour later, the display read 7:28 am and didn't count up. Could be my imagination, but it seemed like the AC also had to be cranked to do anything. Took my little potato to the dealer, and as I type this they are replacing the battery and reprogramming the display. As you know, we all recently got in the mail from Ford notice about a service action to check the battery and reprogram the dash display. I had planned to wait until my potato's next oil change to get it done, but apparently it had other ideas. BTW, as they were parking the car, I thought "hey, that thing's pretty handsome." Potato or not, it looks good in black---hides the bulk, accentuates the curves.

As long as you pony up the $$ every year to maintain your Sync account, you can do this to send directions even to a non-nav-equipped, non-touchscreen C-Max. Your C-Max then gives you turn by turn voice and onscreen text guided nav to the destination, and the destination is saved to a list you can pull up again in your C-Max as desired. If you have a dumbphone, sending the directions takes a while because it's actually using an old-school dial-up modem in your C-Max over your cell phone connection. If you have a smartphone, you can download the Sync Destinations app and use it to send the directions to your 'Max almost instantly instead. So...if you have a smartphone, why would you do this, given that it's just voice and text without any animated map to look at? Well, because you don't have to have a phone holder on your dash, and you don't have to have a cell signal, and every time you go into a McDonald's to pee mid-roadtrip you don't have a robot lady in your pocket telling you loudly to "RETURN TO THE ROUTE," and you don't have to curse your blasted MyFail infotainment system when it refuses to reconnect your phone's audio via USB when you get back in the car, etc. But it's also less accurate than a cell-phone-only nav app, because it all it has is the car's GPS; it can't triangulate using cell towers or WiFi locations like your iPhone etc. can. So, probably not worth establishing or re-upping a paid Sync subscription for, but an amusing feature if you have a free trial subscription (I think some SEL buyers got up to 3 years free; we base-model cheapskates got 0 years free.)

Hyundai also runs Blackberry's QNX OS. My girlfriend's Veloster's infotainment system isn't perfect, but certainly works more reliably my C-Max's Microsoft-based system does.

Congrats on your decision. For others considering a similar shopping mix... The C-Max combines the best attributes of a small hatchback (very high MPG, short for easy parking), small SUV (good sightlines and good cargo space), and driver-oriented sedan (quiet, excellent ride/handling balance, smoothly responsive acceleration and steering), all at a very reasonable starting price. For me, that's the perfect car. Compared to the C-Max... A small hatchback gives you the handy size and high MPG at a lower price, but none of the other attributes. A small SUV gives more cargo room and the option of AWD, but a rougher ride and much worse fuel economy. A premium sedan gives you the top-tier driving dynamics, but not other attributes. But with the current crop of hybrid sedans, it gets murkier. The hybrid versions of the Fusion, Camry and Accord are outstanding: spacious, powerful, comfortable, high MPG. They're more expensive, but if you have the money and you don't have a dog or other tall cargo to carry, they make a strong case.

With SEL owners wishing they could have cloth and SE owners wishing they could have leather, maybe some of us could do a seat swap?...

Yes! Tell you what, w8nbs...I'll trade you my used SE for your new SEL so the door locks work the way she is accustomed to. Heck, I won't even charge you! :)

I love that the lights turn on and off automatically. I used to occasionally kill the battery on my old car by leaving them on; the C-Max is pleasantly foolproof in this regard...as long as you don't manually override it by moving the switch to the manual position, eh Jus? ;-) I'm guessing the letter is going only to SE owners without MFT, as it references the 4.2" screen.

Welp, Ford has begun sending out letters advising C-Max owners of this FSA...presumably just to people with the 4.2" screen?

Never brought a 12 V battery problem to the dealer for service, but I rec'd the letter.

Oops, never noticed that no-motors bit. Have run Dirt Devil stick vac off the outlet a couple of times w/o problem...cleans the interior pronto ...

They might not have a holder for a cartoonishly large phablet, or it might be so heavy it'd break off the tabs... but I used this dope ProClip mount. They also have one that mounts down on the center console, if you prefer (a less useful but possibly more sturdy option).

I'm thinking chances are pretty good that any given C-Max doesn't have the problem. Since the car came out, our local dealer has seen only two that did, and the C-Max is a popular car in my town. One of those two was my co-worker's SE, which had the problem twice. The first time, the dealer did the software update that charges the battery more aggressively. The second time, the dealer replaced the battery. Since then, he has not had the problem.

When is the survey taking place?

RO? DTC?

If "the core is fiberglass" then it sounds like a fiberglass hood with a cosmetic carbon fiber overlay, not a carbon fiber hood per se? And if so, maybe not so strong? I know approximately zero about CF components, so please forgive me if that's a stupid question. Also, don't we have sound absorbing pads under the hood, and what would happen to noise levels in their absence?

13k miles, it just happened to me. Dealer said capless fuel system didn't shut properly, causing a check engine light. They did not offer any kind of fix and said they couldn't guarantee it wouldn't happen again. Sounds like other dealers know what is causing the problem and are fixing it. Just my luck to live in a SoCal town where the Ford store is owned by Perry instead of Galpin.

More disconcerting is that I floor it and nothing at all happens for a moment, presumably while the computer figures out how to respond. I suppose in actual time it is no different from a regular automatic car that has to register the change, unlock the torque converter, downshift, and build up revs, but it feels like forever when that semi is bearing down. But then that lovely C-Max power comes on and zoom!

Any idea what the weight saving would be over the existing hood, and what difference that would make in terms of economy and performance?

You can fault CR's testing methodology or criteria, but they are the one source that actually does NOT have a financial incentive for bias. They accept no advertising, refuse paid junkets, and anonymously purchase the cars they test. As noted above, the C-Max is not on their "not recommended" list, but several Toyotas including the Prius V are, which hardly suggests they are in Toyota's pocket. If I were king of CR I'd have different criteria for rating cars than, say, refrigerators -- because I believe a car should be fun to drive and rated largely on that criterion -- but that's just me. I think a bigger issue with CR, JD Power and all the rest is that with ALL cars becoming so reliable, and minor infotainment snafus being rated as a defect no different than failed brakes, the ratings tend to misrepresent and overstate problems.

My buddy has the same SE I do, and was all set to trade for an Energi recently as you describe, but apparently our local Ford store offered him a deeply unattractive deal... but these incentives apply now, so maybe the dealer would be more reasonable now...and maybe he didn't fully calculate the benefits.

Wasted Spent some time on the DIY car audio blogs today, and after some fiddling with my system I learned that... a) crossovers are a complicated topic but the car audio snobs can be wrong about how to set them; b) apparently I could have gotten better versions of my components for nearly the same money, and c) like computer geeks say, garbage in = garbage out; the quality of your source files really matters. A) Crossovers. The Bit Ten has digital crossovers you can set as desired. The amp I used for the sub has its own low-pass crossover that you can set as desired, or switch off and run the amp full-range. Despite the fact I had set the Bit Ten's low-pass and high-pass crossovers, initially I just left the amp's low-pass crossover switched on too anyway and at the factory setting (which is, I'm guessing, about 100Hz). But some time on the DIY car audio blog convinced me I should either turn off the amp's crossover, or turn it to the highest frequency. Well, I tried their advice, and it's terrible advice. Having a second crossover operating at the amp itself surely seems redundant and needless, but the fact is, things sounded awful when running the sub amp full-range...and plus, the sub remote level control is disabled if you run the sub amp full-range. So I tried their other idea, leaving the sub amp's crossover on but switched to the highest available frequency. Again: crap sound; in this case because the sub remote appeared to now be centered at a higher frequency, and boosted unwanted midbass when turned up. The car audio blog also advised leaving a gap between the low-pass crossover setting for the sub (80 Hz) and the high-pass crossover setting for the midbass drivers (100Hz), because with both rolling off gradually you could get a bump in the frequencies between. But it appears this is unnecessary with the BitTen because the BitTen offers the specific crossover type that avoids this problem. So, three strikes; my task eventually became trying to get it back just like it was to begin with, where it sounded better.. B) Components. Although wildly superior to any underseat sub, the 10" sub does have a little more trouble reproducing the lowest octave than a 12" might. Not a big deal as you can EQ the lowest frequencies to compensate, as I did...but properly designed, a bigger sub can play lower with less power, and it turns out that Pioneer offers this boxed flat-sub product in 12" too, which I didn't realize. (Not sure if you have to buy it as two components, the 12" flat sub and its matched box, or can buy it pre-assembled as you can with the 10".) It also turns out that Boss makes digital sub amps too, and stepping up to one would only cost about $30 more through Amazon. Now I'm kind of tempted to try going digital and running the bigger sub. Heaven help us, C) Source material. Audio snobs sniff that the limitations of your source material will become apparent as your stereo becomes better, and I'm sort of shocked to say I think I have reached that point -- although I listen mostly to consumer-encoded MP3 and M4A files from bands on modestly-financed indie labels, so mine is a low bar! I was listening to my favorite Doves album (ripped from CD on iTunes) feeling bummed that it didn't sound that great, and then listening to my beloved Of Monsters and Men album (purchased digitally from iTunes) feeling bummed that it didn't sound better...and then I switched to Beck's Sea Change, and it sounded like God himself were running the stereo...just amazing. A big ol' recording budget and high-quality digital encoding really do make a giant difference, if your stereo's good enough to demonstrate it.

I suppose you could Plasti-Dip your stock wheels too (it occurred to me they might look kinda cool in white, gold, or electric lime on a black car). But here's what I want on my black C-Max: the wheels from the Focus Black Pack.