Laurel

Should have known you are from Oz! My dog's vet is from Oz too. She is a fire cracker--full of fun and her claim to fame with my dog is her tiny hands. Tinker has chronic anal problems and Auntie Jenn is very gentle with her (that is what she calls herself when she calls Tink into her office "Oh Tink don't be scared. Your Auntie Jenn has small hands."). I never leave the vet's office without having a good laugh. Auntie Jenn is very pretty too and never over charges and is first rate with her diagnosing. She makes me like all Australians sight unseen LOL.

Rachel and Jus, you two might be shocked at what gets played in Tip. About 5 years ago, I went to a police auction and bought an Ipod Touch that has about 3000 or more Indie artists on it. Totally not my taste, but I play it all of the time because it is fascinating. I can't name all of the artists but a few off the top of my head are The Arcade Fire, The Avalanches, The Black Lips, The Bloody Beetroots, Built to Spill and The Blow. Also there is a lot of very obscene rap with very catchy beat. There is a new discovery every time I listen. On occasion in the summer, I will have all my windows down in the car while parked at the mall while waiting for hubby. Then I crank up the Indie music to cause heads to turn. It can be quite funny to watch people's faces as many of the lyrics are hair curling. I have often thought that the poor guy who lost that Ipod was heart sick as he put a lot of himself into selecting all the music. It includes traditional music too like the Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and classical music.

Have never watched much football. I'm a big hockey fan. I'm embarrassed to say I have never heard of the Ravens. Now for excitement I love watching curling LOL.

With your number, 1 represents North American and then the year which is 2012, and then the month which is 8 (August) and the 24 for day of the month.

Mbedit thank you for your reply. I wasn't being critical of you by wondering if you were in their faces or assertive---just trying to get a sense of whether Ford is viewing these dead batteries as a serious flaw in the cars --thus warranting a buy back or whether your car had a more serious issue. I think that you are saying the discovery of an "abnormal spike" makes it different from the dead batteries that others have experienced. Or perhaps the other dead battery owners haven't had mechanics delve so deeply as yours did? I want to stay informed in case something surfaces with my car down the road. Thanks so much for telling your story as it could help all of us down the road.

I don't understand all the mixed mileage results. We drove 60 kilometers on the back roads this morning, and it was 0C (32F) and I drove with fuel economy is mind and got 5.2 L per 100 kilometers. Hubby suggested we take the freeway home and just drive without thinking about mileage and we got 5.6 L per 100 kilometers. So that is 42 mpg US coming back with 2/3 freeway and 1/3 city without driving conservatively. We have 1500 kilometers on our car now. I take off evenly but not slowly as people here said that was the wrong thing to do, and I do not use cruise control. My braking scores are nearly perfect. Yesterday I got 58 mpg on a short hop to the drug store.

My favourite dinner is also prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. We have a nice little restaurant a block away that we can walk to that serves wonderful food. Very pricey, but an occasional treat for us. Nice to be able to walk over and have a few glasses of nice wine and stumble back home. I'll take a picture of our meals next time we go over there.

Thanks Ron! Maybe Tip will average out at 1 L per 100 kilometers LOL.

Smuggling cubbies in the back seat are great for insurance and registration papers as they say never leave them in glove box in case of break in. I am going to put a few hundred dollars cash there too as "they" say to always have about $1000 cash in case of earthquake and other disasters as the banks won't be available. Storing it in the car is perfect because we likely we hit the road in the car if we could if there was an earthquake. We are buying an earthquake pack which will be in the car too. There was a 7.6 off the coast of Alaska a couple of months ago and that is getting close to home.

Thanks Ryan. Just back from a short hop to London Drugs--about 8 kilometers and I got the window sticker of 4.0 L per 100 kilometers. That is 58 mpg US and 71 mpg Imperial! Temperature out is 4 C. I can hardly wait for my car to be really broken in and for Spring weather. Maybe I will break some kind of record LOL. I'll have to start playing with those trip gauges so I can take a picture of my results like all the guys do on the forum. My results are on the empower screen and it disappears pretty quick after turning off the car. I need to master those trip gauges in case I want to prove things for the Guinness Record Books.

The news isn't good Rachel. The storage space really is poor. I am considering looking for one of those storage things you hang over the seat--but all your stuff would be hanging in the back seat and hard to reach. Still looking for any ideas that might work.

Mbedit I have a question or two for you please. I have read through all your posts trying to find exactly why Ford is doing a buy back. Am I correct in saying you have had a dead battery twice and basically they have not been able to find out why? And the dead battery x 2 is the only problem with your car? There seem to be lots of folks on the forum with dead batteries repeatedly and no rationale for them. Just wondering why Ford is being so pro-active with your situation? I know from reading that you have been very in their face with phone calls, but is it your assertiveness that resulted in your outcome, or do they suspect major problems with your car?

Gee Gultim you really are bummed out. If you read through this forum slowly and carefully, you will see that many have a much better experience than you. I am sure some of the techo whiz guys will respond with some sound advice. I have only had my car since the beginning of December and don't have 1000 miles on it yet, but I only get your mileage when my car isn't warmed up or if I sit idling to warm it up instead of hitting the road and let it warm up while driving. I never ever use cruise control, but I have to comment that my husband does use it always even with city driving and his mileage is awful compared to mine so you won't convince me that cruise control is a good thing with a hybrid. I have read though that eco cruise has benefits on the highway. I think that accelerating more normally is important too--the people here on the forum taught me that. I used to creep off and that is not good. You need to get up to speed steadily and slightly over and then drop back a bit and let it go into EV and keep it there as long as possible. I drive with my empower gauge and see that even when not in EV, I am in the mode where EV is assisting ICE and that really really helps my mileage. Under articles section, I posted an article from car truth and you might want to read that. I do see that you are in Minnesota (I googled Winona and that is what I came up with), and obviously you have very cold temperatures there which will negatively affect your mileage. From my perspective Ford has not misrepresented the C-Max. Buyers who are disappointed didn't do their homework about EPA stats and hybrids. In your shoes, I would sell and buy the Prius. Life is too short to get all bent and twisted over a car. But we drove every Prius out there and they were just plain jane ordinary cars without an ounce of pizazz. Chin up.

The Canadian window sticker is 4.0 L city and 4.1 L highway which is an eye popping 58 mpg US and 57 mpg US and 70 mpg Imperial and 71 mpg Imperial. But I kind of think I may get that this Spring. Pretty optimistic numbers eh? I'm not sure why there is a 10 mpg difference for our Canadian expectations compared to the 47 in the States.

BWP it seem there is not a chirp when using the black button. I tried it a few times aiming for a chirp without any luck. So it has to be the fob. Labs are great dogs. We had a rescue black lab who was the best dog we have ever had. How come your lab x hasn't been in your C-Max? Gets car sick?

Looks great Don! I'll be interested in hearing what your temperatures are right now and how that affects mileage. Mine is improving with the break in period even on the cold days now.

I didn't know that Rachel! How do you do that? I guess I can always look at the manual<g>.

Ah but my Tinker is priceless and she would be scooped up in a minute <g>. Actually Tink is a rescue from California and is a wee mutt with pom and who knows what in her. Good as gold though. We used to have 2 Newfoundland dogs and a Bull Mastiff and I could leave them unsecured as they looked formidable.

Don where is the picture of you and your car and we need your review please.

I really enjoyed the objectivity of this C-Max review. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/12/review-2013-ford-c-max-hybrid-video/

Welcome Pkay. I just read an article in the Globe and Mail in Toronto that Ford Canada referred to a "shortage " of C-Max's. I guess the demand is bigger than anticipated. Hope that you get your car soon. We are loving ours.

When I have my dog on board and leave her in the car, I am always paranoid to the extreme that she will be stolen if I don't lock up properly so I use my fob and press twice to get the double honk. That drives my husband nuts as he hates noise pollution, but I have to satisfy my mind that Tinker is locked in securely so some drug crazed lunatic doesn't steal her LOL.

Today on a short trip of about 15 kilometers, I got 4.9 L per 100 kilometers (that is 48 mpg US). Not so bad eh? My window sticker advertises 4.0 city and I doubted whether that was ever going to happen, but now I am a believer. Today when out it was about O to 1 C with freezing fog and the heater was blasting. I am at about 1350 kilometers since buying her--so not quite a 1000 miles on her. Go Tip go!

Thanks Darrell--interesting reading about all of the cars as well as the C-Max.

Jus-A-CMax thank you so much for your kind words and offers about Mammoth. Right now I'm fantasizing about a beach in Hawaii. But we are more likely to go to Mammoth than Hawaii. Mammoth is about 1000 kms from my place. I can drive long distances and not get tired out, but hubby likes to go only 5 or 6 hours a day. Last summer I farm sat horses for a friend in Okotoks, Alberta which is 1000 kms from my home. Hubby had to fly home (and he was glad of it). So my dog Tinker and I drove it in one go--6AM to about 7PM. Tinker started sneering at me by the time we reached the British Columbia border LOL. So going to Mammoth we would have to break it up with an overnight stop on route.