SPL Tech

What are these features and why are they not available on 2013's? I am also interested in knowing why both my 2013 SE and SEL are fully up to date, but have two different operating systems. My SEL has software features that do not exist on my SE, even though both have MFT. For example, the latest update added a window where you can see the charge status of the hybrid system, an option that does not show up on my SE even though the SE is fully up to date, but does show up on my SEL.

If you do buy the ESP, dont buy it from the dealer or Ford. Get it off Google. There is a dealer somewhere selling them for about $100 over cost. Forgot the name but Google it and you will find it.

Dont buy it. The math doesent lie, for most it's a waste of money. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/07/is-it-worth-buying-an-extended-car-warranty/index.htm A few years ago, Consumer Reports proved the dubiousness of this pitch by surveying 8,000 owners of five- and six-year-old vehicles that had been covered by extended service plans. Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said they spent significantly more for the contract than they got back in repair-cost savings. Respondents said their extended warranty cost them $1,000 on average while providing an average benefit of $700. That means the average loss was $300. A big reason: 42 percent of extended warranties in our survey were never used, in most cases because the vehicle didn't need repairs or the standard manufacturer's warranty sufficed. Nothing a dealer sells you is in your best interest. Dealers exist to make money, which they do by exploiting you. If extended warrenties were advantageous for the consumer, no one would sell them as no one would make money.

I dont think the lifespan of the HV is dependent on miles. I think that's more dependent on age, regardless of miles. I dont think that cycling the battery between 30 - 60% SOC every few min while driving really matters. If the car has 100k on it, it's likely highway miles in which the SOC barely even changed, so it's basically like just letting the car sit in the driveway as far as the HV is concerned. As far as 100k goes, I dident see that the car he is looking at has 100k miles. IN that case I would not recommend it unless he was paying under $10k for it.

That seems like such a waste. That's nearly 10,000W, which is about 15hp. So 15hp is being wasted just to charge the battery and then go back into the drivetrain again. I think that when driving at high speed the car should stop charging the battery altogether once it reaches about 75%. Otherwise you have this really wasteful cycle of charging the battery, then depleting it right away, then just charging it again, and over and over all along the entire freeway. That doesent make sense, especially if the load to charge the HV is 15hp which is quite significant. Just cut off the HV charge and run 100% on ICE until you go downhill and the engine shuts off or you go up hill and need more power. Edit: I disagree that the charge is 35A though while costing. I'll have to look into FORscan tomorrow again, but I recall it being more like 4A, quite low. If it was 35A of drag on the wheels, which is 15HP ignoring MG2 losses, as soon as you let off the gas you would notice an instant drag. 15 HP is very noticeable.

How do you use voice to enter in an address? I always have to do it manually which is slow.

The nav is okay, but still inferior to aftermarket. One annoying thing is that OEM is always WAY more expensive than aftermarket, but always half the quality. My $200 Garmin has more features, is easier to use and quicker to respond than my $2000 Cmax nav unit. That's always how it goes. So I would NEVER pay for OEM nav if I was buying brand new (which I would also never do), as an aftermaket unit is only $200 and superior in quality.

More importantly, the windshield for the Cmax probably only fits Cmax cars, but the Cmax does not come with a radio that does not have bluetooth. All radios in the Cmax have bluetooth. So why would there be a non-bluetooth option on a window for a car that only comes with bluetooth? That's like making a non-rear-defroster window for a car that has a rear window defroster on all trim models.

I dont see a 4.4 My latest is 3.6.2 on both of our CMAXES (SE and SEL). Ford's update naming nomenclature is so jacked. How do we go from 3.6.2 to 4.4? It should be 3.7 or 3.6.3 or at most, 4.0.

I had a VW jetta TDI and I got rid of it for the CMAX as the CMAX is nicer and costs far less. The Jetta only gets 30 MPG city and about 45 highway, but diesel costs more. What's worse, is the maintenance is more expensive than a semi truck! Oil changes were $150 and the 40,000 mile service was $1,200 if I did it at the dealer, or about $400 if I did it myself. That drops the effective fuel economy to like 26 city 32 highway when you account for the additional costs, and when you consider the price difference between gas and diesel, it drops to like 22 city 27 highway. No thanks.

It does not display the actual level. I would have to look in FORscan to see the exact values, but 0% on the indicator is around 20% SOC and 100% on the indicator is about 60% SOC.

Kelleytoons, on 24 Mar 2015 - 05:14 AM, said: Yeah, the warranty on the HV system is 8 years or 100,000 miles (varies by state, though) and if THAT warranty is done the car is just about as well. No way. 100k is nothing. If the Cmax cant last 100k, it's a crap product. Its not uncommon to see cars push 300k. I have seen semis with over 1M miles. There are people that put 100k on a car in two years. There is zero reason why a modern day car cant last 200k minimal. Anyway, I would get the SEL hands down. There is no difference between the 2013 and 2014 other than one ends in the number 4 and the other ends in the number 3. Low mileage is overrated. You pay a MASSIVE premium for low mileage. I saved over $17,000 off the MSRP on my 2013 SEL because I bought it with 29k miles at just the right time at the right dealer. Original Ford MSRP was like $34k. I paid $6,500 with my tradein. Total was $16,500. $34k down to 16.5 just because I shopped around a ton and was willing to get one with 29k miles instead of zero.

I have the SEL hybrid, non-plugin version. The car has three modes: 1. Off 2. Ignition 3. Ready There is no ACC like there is on the SE models. When the car is in the ignition mode, the car cannot drive but the DC to DC converter is active and the HV battery is being used. The battery drains fast as the ignition mode turns on every computer in the vehicle as well as the DRL which draws about 400W constantly. When the car is put in the ready mode, the 12v voltage jumps a tad (from about 14.2 to 14.8) and the power consumption jumps to about 450W. So yes, the HV can be depleted when the car is in the ignition mode and it wouldn’t take that long. If the battery indicator is at halfway, it could fall off the screen all together after about 20 min in ignition. The question is would the car allow it to happen?

ALSO... anyone with the panoramic roof... how effective is the shade at keeping out heat during day? not very

The other day I had the ignition on my car on, but in the standby mode. I was programing my GPS and then I got a call and forgot to turn the car to the ready mode. I noticed that the HV indicator dropped nearly to zero, then I turned the car to the ready mode and ICE started immediately to recharge the HV. So that got me to thinking, if someone left the car in the standby mode, would it automatically turn off or automatically enter ready mode before the HV depleted so much that it could not start the ICE? This seams like a rather important feature as I am sure there are plenty of people out there (most actually) that do not understand how the hybrid works and what would happen if the HV discharged completely, and leaving cars in the standby mode (or "ACC" as it's more accurately called) is rather common for people who want to listen to the radio.

It's difficult to determine vehicle relibility as every sourse says something different. I have seen so many relibility reviews on the CMAX and they said everything from nearly perfect to well below adverage. The truth is NO ONE knows how reliable the CMAX will be as it has not been around long enough. I can say Ford as a whole is typically considered unreliable (as are most domestics such as Dodge, Chevy, ect). If you look at every model of every car Ford makes over every year starting from 2000, overall Ford is below adverage. However, that does not mean the CMAX is below adverage. The CMAX could be above adverage-we dont really know. I would avoid looking at any one sourse for relibility data. The best option is to look at a site that takes info from many actual users. True Delta is one of those sites, and probably the best one out there IMO. So far True Delta ranks the CMAX in the green and considered it reliable. http://www.truedelta.com/Ford-C-MAX/reliability-1010 HOWEVER, note that the rated reliability of a car on True Delta almost always declines with time. This is because True Delta takes the number of reported incidents and averages it among the total number of drivers in its database. As cars get older people report more problems and the reliability rating goes down typically. Also, keep in mind the types of problems reported. On TD, the most common problem reported was "electrical," which mostly includes MFT issues and 12v battery issues (I suspect anyway). http://www.truedelta.com/Ford-C-MAX/problems-1010/2013 If you look at the important stuff: powertrain and engine, those values are low which shows not many people are having serious, expensive issues with the CMAX (or at least they are not reporting them anyway). For comparison, here is the CMAX compared to the Prius. The Prius is well known to be fairly reliable (as are Toyotas in general), so it gives you a reference. http://www.truedelta.com/Ford-C-MAX/reliability-1010/vs-Prius-272

For what it is worth, I checked my SE with FORscan today and got a max TFT of about 125F with 7 miles of city driving that included a 1000' elevation gain up a very steep hill (and subsaquent coast back down). The outside temp was 78F.

It would be nice if Ford could release an ECU update to add this to all hybrids. While they are at it, it would be nice to get rid of the efficiency leaves on the right and add in options from myview like the tach, temp gauge, ect. Also, I would love if they could flash an update to disable the 'two click" thing on the FOB where one click unlocks just the driver's door and two clicks unlocks all four doors. That's supposed to be a security feature so someone cant jump in your car just as you get in and mug you, but I am going to guess it has never saved anyone from that. One click to unlock all doors would be nicer. VW offers that as an in-menu changeable option. Last, it would be nice if Ford could use a real temp gauge instead of an idiot gauge. Ford has been using idiot gauges for both trans and engine temp since before I can remember. I don't understand why they cannot use a real gauge that is accurate like everyone else does. What's the point in having a gauge that shows the same position for a 50-degree range of temps?

What software did you use to gather this data?

" Electric Engine Specifications Electric Motor Specifications (C-MAX Hybrid) Motor type 88kW Permanent Magnet AC Synchronous Motor http://www.ford.com/cars/cmax/2014/specifications/engine/

Interesting. However, according to Ford the electric motor is 88kW, which would 290 amps, or almost triple what you said the limit is. On the other hand, 88kW seems really off. 88kW is nearly 120 HP, and the hybrid is only rated for 141 HP. I am going to go ahead and guess the ICE can put out more than ~20 HP. The numbers are not adding up here.

Why dont you ask VA what their requirements are for a vehicle to qualify? That would probably answer your question.

FYI the Cmax does have remote voltage sensing. There are sensors on both the + and - battery terminals. I dont know what the ECU does with that information though, and I do not know where the voltage value that shows up on the dash is measured from.

Are you getting tranny temp, coil temp, MG1 temp, ect? You should be getting all of those too.

I win.