Laurel

Where do you find the radio power button please? The only on and off I can find is through the nav system. We have the big round knobby thing turning for volume, but I'll be darned if I could find an on/off button and I pushed everything in sight.

Doesn't work in Canada. If I say "weather map", my nav thinks I'm saying "where am I?" and promptly gives me a cross street LOL.

I know with my Smart Car one had to take the whole front end of the car off to change headlights. Not something to be done by the average joe citizen. Sounds like the C-Max will have to go to the shop for headlight changes--bummer.

I tried to turn on the radio without the power on. There is no way to do that. We have the SEL 303 a with Sony radio. You have to have the nav screen to do anything with the radio. So I remain stymied. Here is the situation. I drive somewhere, park, leave hubby in the car, and turn it off. I open the door so everything powers off. Hubby pushes the start button once without foot on the brake so he can listen to the radio, but the lights remain on, the fan is on, and the radio is on. We push the start button again without foot on the brake, and the lights go off, the fan goes off, and the radio stays on with the instrument panel lit. I do not believe the car is on per se--just the accessory mode. So I have to think that two pushes puts the car in accessory mode--the same as if you turned a key part way to put it in accessory mode. Any more comments??

It would be worth it to go see the one that is only 35 miles away. Weird that he won't respond to phone calls though.

Okay Zhack I see that rationale too, but my issue is with one push of the start with no foot on the brake, has my cars lights on, fan on, radio on. Two pushes and I have no fan on and no lights on, but the radio is on and the instrument panel is lit. Why is that? Thick as a plank am I.

Okay I see what you are saying, but if you don't put your foot on the brake the engine won't come on--right??? So wouldn't the two pushes without the brake depressed just put you in accessory mode? Sometimes I feel sensory overload with learning stuff about this car.

That is good to know. I will try that.

You all probably know this, but I just figured it out. In the past when my husband or I wanted to sit in the car with the radio on and the engine off, we would push the start button once without our foot on the brake. It was really bothering me to come back to the car and see that it was sitting there with the headlights on. I figured that was a sure fire way to run the battery down. I tried to find the answer in the owner's manual without any luck. So I just went out to the garage to play around. I did our usual routine--no foot on the brake and push the start button once. Headlights, radio, and fan came on. I did read something in the manual about pulling the headlight indicator forward, hearing a tone, and then headlights would switch off in 3 minutes after a door was opened. I tried that and never heard a tone and the headlights stayed on past the 3 minute mark. I did discover that the answer to sitting and listening to the radio without headlights on is to push the start button twice (without foot on brake). The headlights go off, the fan goes off and the radio stays on. That only took me a month of owning the car to find out LOL. Maybe it is written in the manual somewhere??

I enjoyed reading about your trip, and loved the photos. You sure did get lots of snow. It was a very uplifting report. Thanks.

I have a question concerning all of these dead batteries in the C-Max. Is it possible that people are not actually turning their cars off? I find the hybrid system so different that it is easy to make mistakes. I came home once and drove into the garage, thought I had turned the car off, and exited. Because there is no sound of an engine running I thought I had pushed the button, but when I did a sideways glance at the instrument panel, everything was still on. Normally everything stays lit up until you open the car door and then starts to power off if you have turned the car off. It would have been very easy for me to walk away from my car thinking I had turned it off--if I had been distracted in the least--that is exactly what I would have done. But because I was not distracted I did notice that all the gauges were not powering off when I opened the driver's door. Or perhaps double pushing the button when you turn the car off is another possibility as that puts the car into accessory mode. I notice our running lights stay on when our car is in accessory mode i.e. I jump out to get the mail and hubby sits and listens to music and I notice the running lights are on when I come back. I would think that would drain the 12 v battery fairly quickly.

We park in underground parking on occasion, and the nav connects very quickly when we get out of the parkade. It is connects immediately after we exit the underground. You probably have lots of high rise buildings in your area that makes it tough to get a signal. My husband has always commented that his portable Garmin has been much better than any built in nav systems he has had (in his Lexus SUV, he has the portable Garmin out on the dash and uses it instead of the built in as it is much better than the Lexus system). So I think many built in systems are not good technology.

See page 97 of the owner's manual. It says you must re-set the bounce-back memory for each window after the battery has been disconnected (maybe dead battery too?). I guess your car needs to have the bounce-back features if page 97 is to apply to your situation which I gather would only be SEL.

Maybe somebody should copy this thread and the one below it and send it to Ford? Sounds like nearly everyone has had it happen. I am waiting for my turn. Do you think there will be a re-call over this issue?

I was following your thread too even though I didn't post. I must say I would be rather pissed off at your situation. I think my car was built on Friday so I am waiting for the first disappointing issue to happen. I'll be going outside tomorrow to look at my fenders. I confess I haven't really looked closely.

Sport utility potato suits it best so I'll go with that.

No there won't be hefty rebates. I read about the Hyundai settlements. Roughly about a $150 a person on average--calculated on miles driven comparing the actual mileage to the advertised mileage. Barely worth bothering with IMHO. I think some people see dollar signs when the amount spent in the situation is just peanuts. So get the dollar signs out of your eyes. I love my C-Max and I won't be joining any class action over gasoline.

Seats seem pretty comfortable, but not as much so as hubby's Lexus. No road trips so far--I think we will head down to Oregon Coast after Christmas and give it a test..

My Ice Storm looks green today--too much Christmas candy?? LOL Merry Christmas everyone. The Boxing Day crowds are wild today. We were going to go into Best Buy awhile ago and gave up due to traffic jams. Darrel I know what you mean. Super mileage on the warm days and it plummets when you crank up the heat etc on the cold ones. I wonder if the Prius models are the same?

I practiced with it in tight spots, and it seemed to handle tight ones just fine--my girlfriend got sweaty palms and couldn't stop giggling.

Hubby was watching the Shopping Chanel and bought two of these. Mixed reviews about whether they actually work, but I have one in my C-Max http://www.theshoppingchannel.com/Tools-Gadgets/Mighty-Jump-Avenger-2-Pack/pages/productdetails?nav=R:510483

With that flickering hatch light, wouldn't that indicate that the hatch wasn't closed fully and that drained the battery? I think that I have read another person found the battery dead after a door wasn't fully closed. One wouldn't think that the battery should die with a door ajar or a hatch not fully closed, but it looks like that may be happening.

I use it like my purse--everything gets dumped down the well and then I wind up pulling everything out to find a quarter for a shopping cart. I plan on looking at the dollar store for some storage ideas.

I can see what you mean by using it on a busy street. I did notice how forward it pulls when it is seeking the parking spot, and indeed that would be a problem in dense traffic. I haven't tried it again since our first week of getting our C-Max--too freaky for me LOL. Seriously we have few times when we need to parallel park in our area, but hubby loves it.

We didn't hear anything about allocation when we ordered. Our salesman put in our order via the Retail Verification (I remember them photo copying my driver's license), and I got the VIN about 10 days later and the window sticker shortly after. Order officially went in Oct. 8 or 9th and we had it November 29th. Less than 8 weeks--yet it seemed forever. I am thinking we were very lucky and had a very efficient salesman.