Catmobile

I take it back about the CR-V. Looks like they're having issues with fuel getting into the oil. :( Having had 3 Hondas in the past, I can tell you that when they have an issue it can take a class action lawsuit to get them to fix something when they should have done a recall. *Sigh*. But then, Ford should have recalled the C-Max for the transmission issue! Anyway, looks like I may be back to thinking about the Mazda. Guess I'd rather have to have the car repainted than deal with the issue the CR-V has.

Miss Pearl (2013 SEL) is in the shop again. :( The coolant plug came out and she ran completely dry. So it will be probably next Thursday until I get her back, which is 3-4 business days. Takes forever to get a simple part for these things! I don't think I've ever had to wait so long for a part for any other car I've ever had (the transmission took a couple of weeks, I think). Does it seem to anybody else that there's a lot of these on the road for all we hear that they didn't sell many? Someone has mentioned extended warranties. I think I got mine cheap from Flood Ford. The guy at my dealership here was amazed, it was below his cost. FYI, I'm getting a solid 45 mpg. I quite often get in the 50's on the way to work. The Ecosport is a misnomer - 29 on the highway isn't that great. I was going to keep her for another two years to run out the extended warranty, but just in case I needed to pull the trigger sooner I've been checking out possibilities for the next one. The Mazda CX-5 is a good-looking car, especially in that red they have, but in poking around the internet it seems they're having big problems with the paint, especially with the red ones. The RAV-4 is being overhauled for 2019 and looks good also, so it's a possibility. If I had to trade mine in right now, I'd probably end up with a Honda CR-V.

In poking through the old paperwork it looks like the Pirellis I had on were Cinturato. I just drove through torrential rain this week with the Michelin Energy Savers with no problem, I think someone said they weren't good in the rain but I haven't had an issue. I love these tires.

I'd spend the $$ on Michelins. Somebody at Discount Tire talked me into Pirellis. They were awful. I had them take them off and put Michelins on after 3 days (fortunately they have a good return policy). I couldn't get those Pirellis off fast enough.

Thanks for the responses. ☺

Right on schedule :( my 2013 needs to have the transmission replaced. Dealership says they can't do it until next week but they told me it's OK to drive for now. Should I get a rental anyway? I live 30 mi. out from work, don't want to get stranded in this heat. Ford should have done a recall and replaced them! BTW, I have an extended warranty, best thing I ever did. I've already had to have my backup camera replaced after it developed a short, and now this. Sucks because I love Miss Pearl and was thinking of getting a used 2018 in a couple of years, but now I'm not sure I want another one. I'm getting 45 mpg with 188 hp, can't really find that anywhere else!

Thanks for the responses. I'm going to keep Miss Pearl at least until her extended warranty runs out. :) BTW, I drove a Chevy Bolt (looking to possibly add an all-electric to the C-Max) and I did not like this car. It's very small and the seats were extremely uncomfortable. Went to a BMW dealership to drive an i3 but they didn't have one on the lot (they did have the shell of an i8, though, no engine). Then I saw a day or two ago where the i3 and i8 will be discontinued and replaced.

I have one of the early 2013 SEL's with about 67k on the odometer. I love this car and outside of having to replace the backup camera (under extended warranty) have had no problems. I'd really like to keep it a few more years. However, the issue with 2013 transmissions failing has me wondering... I called Ford and they said they're not going to replace the tranny (I guess unless it fails) under the extended warranty. If this was a design flaw why didn't they do a recall? In any case, they looked up by VIN # and there was nothing re the transmission. Have all of the early 2013 transmissions been failing, or just some? I thought they had all been built in the same factory. Has anyone gotten Ford to replace this before it fails?

Apologies if this topic has already been started. I have received notice that there is a class action suit against Ford for issues with MyFordTouch for vehicles bought before August 9, 2013. Has anyone else received this? If so, are you planning on staying in or opting out? MF T is pretty awful, I have never been able to get it to recognize my voice commands, for one thing. I know if we win the case the attorneys are paid out of the settlement or by Ford, but what if it goes Ford's way? For the record I have a 2013 that I love, but this is one thing about it that's been a source of frustration.

Does anybody know... When it says 'xxx miles to E,' does that exclude any gas reserve?

I think I've had some 600 mile tanks, altho no pics (I'm too much of a scaredy cat to run myself out of gas on purpose), but I've seen 300 miles to E pop up at the halfway mark. I have over 4600 miles on it and I would say I drive about 2/3rds city.

I've had quite a few people ask about it. One was a guy at work who wants a new ride to haul a 17-foot kayak (I'm not kidding), and a guy was checking it out in a parking lot who said his daughter was looking at it (she was currently driving a Prius). Then I went to a baby shower with a group of ladies who are members of a kennel club (I know, dogs), and they went through it, turned the engine over, opened up the lifegate, and asked me all about it -- especially the gas mileage, of course -- mused about how many dog crates they could get in it, etc. etc. They seemed to be very interested in it, although a couple of them mentioned they wished it had a sunroof that opens and/or a back window that can roll down, I guess to get more air circulation for the dogs.

Catmobile here. I live north of Charlotte. Welcome to the C-Max club! Asheville is beautiful, I mean to take Miss Pearl (my White Platinum SEL) up there soon for a visit.

Thanks, everybody!

I've got over 4,000 miles on my car and it still hasn't gone into EV+. I suspect that since my car was driven a few hundred miles from a dealer in another state when I got it that might have something to do with it? In any case, if someone could give me a hint as to how I can get it to go into EV+ I would appreciate it! ;-)

Meabn007 - about the intermittent automatic liftgate thingy... I thought mine had the same problem, and it turns out you just have to make sure not to get too close to the gate while swiping your foot under the car. Works every time for me now. I guess they don't want the gate to whack you in the chin. :-)

I think this is the ad you're talking about? Did anyone else notice at the end the "47 City MPG" is in big letters, they're not touting 47 on highway/combined, although it does list all 3 in tiny letters at the bottom of the screen (along with "Actual mileage will vary.") http://youtu.be/eEaM81T4VF4

Have had mine since mid-December and I still peek out the window at it occasionally, if I'm stuck inside working instead of driving! Now I have to make up a road trip... Welcome to the club.

I have a White Platinum, which looks like a pearl to me, so she's Miss Pearl.

Welcome, and enjoy your new ride! ;)

Not sure if I'm onto something here or not... but has anyone else noticed that if you start the car with a cold engine and reset the avg mpg, it will start averaging with zero and go up from there. If you start it with a warm engine and reset it, I've seen 999.9 pop up and then the average works its way down, starting out in EV mode. You can see from mpgomatic's video that it takes a while for the mpg to go up when it starts at zero. Obviously, then, it depends on whether your engine is already warm, whether you can start off in EV mode, and how long the trip is as to what avg. mpg will be calculated. I spent the better part of a tankful without resetting and I got 41.5 mpg (remember, it's not flat where I live, and we have E10 gasoline here). I think we should probably be looking at averages over maybe half a tankful or more to see what these are really getting.

I am very happy so far with the mileage on the C-Max, even though it's not hitting 47 yet. I've just been letting the average go for some days now without resetting, and I'm getting over 42. That's with the auto climate control on, E10 gas, and no extreme "hypermiling" techniques -- I don't advocate doing unsafe things like drafting behind 18-wheelers. I have about 1,100 miles on the odo. When I originally went to the Ford dealership I thought I was going to buy a Fusion hybrid, but checked out the C-Max and decided the versatility it gave me as far as passenger and cargo space was too good to pass up just because the Fusion is a good-lookin' thing. And one of my frustrations with my previous car, a Honda Civic Hybrid, is that I didn't feel I could take it up to the mountains west of me; it strained the engine so badly, plus on steep hills it wouldn't hold at a stoplight. So the horsepower this has was a big draw, and the ability to put a couple of my friends in it and have them be comfortable is a plus also. I also liked the interior a lot, and all the goodies that I've missed from when I owned a BMW, like automatic headlights and the auto-dimming rearview mirror. My only frustration with the car so far has been the MFT, like it is with a lot of people. If they could fix that @#$&^% thing it would be close to perfect. That said, I'm also an environmentalist, and would not have bought the C-Max if it weren't a hybrid and if it got less mpg than it does. I would probably be in a (yuck) Prius. I researched whether you would be putting out the same amount of pollution from your tailpipe if you could find a "regular" gas-powered car that got the same mpg, and the answer was NO. Getting the same mpg from a regular car would still put out a lot more pollution than a hybrid, especially those pollutants that cause ozone (a BIG problem in the city I live in), and smog. So I bought the most fuel-efficient hybrid I could that had the criteria I needed (I don't have a garage so a plug-in isn't an option, plus you have to think about where that energy would be coming from).

I've also had to reset the clock, twice now. I've just been resetting the regular clock, will have to investigate resetting the Nav clock. I've also noticed one other odd thing - when I first got the car the name of the street I was on showed up under the compass, then one day it disappeared and hasn't been back. Anyone else see this?

Spotted a C-Max Energi in my neighborhood north of Charlotte. At -- how appropriate -- an Earth Fare (organic) grocery store! This is the first C-Max I've seen "out in the wild." So if you're listening, Energi owner, welcome to the club. :)

I originally went to the Ford dealership thinking I was going to buy a Fusion hybrid, and while I was there I would just check out this odd little C-Max thing for fun. The salesman brought the C-Max out first, and the more he talked about it the more I liked it, especially the versatility (no more asking my smug SUV-driving friend if she could pick up a big box for me), the passenger room (now I can offer to take the girls in my car on a winery tour, for instance, instead of them always having to drive), and I still get better mpg than the HCH I used to have. I took a look at the FH, and I love the exterior, but hated the interior. It's "cockpit" style, very cramped. I'm only 5'4" -- average height for a woman, btw -- but I found that I had to really stretch my right leg to get to the gas pedal even having the seat way up. The C-Max is the first wagon/compact crossover whatever-ya-want-to-call-it I've ever owned, but so far I love it.