Laurel

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to look for some at Costco Canada today. Sometimes we get the same products as the States.

What a conundrum! I would want red with the sun roof as number one choice. But if you can't get him to bring red in with a sun roof, I would go for the black with the sun roof. We love our sun roof and can't imagine having the C-Max without it.

Flatbat it is good to hear that you got your check, but sad also as it could have be such a good car for you if the electrical issues had been resolved. Good luck in finding a car that suits your needs. I would be interested in hearing what you select. Take care.

I just checked the heated mirror which you do turn on with the rear defrost control. No little light to indicate they are on, but I put them on and felt them in about 10 minutes and they were warm so they do work.

MadMax looks his usual debonaire self --good to see they did such a good job. Is that a bike rack on the rear?

Ford Canada site with pictures of the 2014 C-Max. http://www.ford.ca/hybrids/cmax/ But maybe those are just designer drawings or photo shopped pictures and not the real thing that you want to see.

Ashley thank you for your offer. I will think about what to do. Not quite sure how you could help in that the technicians doing the work seem to be learning as they go. C-Maxes aren't exactly a hot commodity in Canada with only 900 sold. This is Ford pickup territory and the hybrids just aren't selling. Our dealership may have sold one other than ours. I am a little leery of taking you up on the offer as I feel that we will be branded as tattle tales and then really get the bum's rush there. On the other hand we don't have much to lose as if things stay the same with service issues we will be moving on to a different car within the next year. I will think about things and try to decide the best route to follow. I mean really what can you actually do? Tell them to smarten up? LOL

That rocket like acceleration was my favourite thing about our car. We have gone from that super charged rocket feel to a ho hum small car acceleration-- a bit like the Prius V when we took it onto the freeway. I figured they mucked it up on purpose as the rocket acceleration sucked up too much gas.

I love Freudian slips LOL.

I will be curious to see what you conclude. I thought Rochester, NY was snow country?? If so, the Forester might serve you better. We have snow tires on our SEL and it does fine with the snow tires. However if you have to negotiate any unplowed streets, the C-Max doesn't have much ground clearance so getting stuck I think would be an issue in those conditions. It all comes down to what YOU like.

We have thought of trying another dealership, but we went in to book with the other dealership and the customer service guy was such a jerk that we left. At least our home dealership is courteous to us. This dealership issue with hybrids is so discouraging. We don't want to have to drive miles away to find someone with expertise. I think we will wind up keeping ours for one more year and then trade her in. I was stunned with our lack of acceleration when entering freeways on our road trip in comparison to how it used to be. Not as bad as JohnnOhio, but certainly enough of a change to be potentially dangerous when I expected good power and didn't get it.

Sorry to hear about the new dead batteries. Keep us posted.

No I don't recall seeing one.

I have to agree with Nick concerning the elegance. The C-Max is uniquely solid and elegant in comparison to cars like the Prius. We test drove Prius multi times when deciding and the Prius is utilitarian but lacks the solid elegant feeling that the C-Max has.

Yes if you have a good Ford dealership who has experience with hybrids. No if not. Nice fun car, but it all depends what you will use it for too. Negatives are no heated steering wheel, no illumination on the gear shift console to see what gear you are in by glancing at the console, and the car sits a bit too low to the ground if you happen to go onto dirt roads with big ruts. Super fun with the technology--maybe a little too fun as you can get too much into all the technology instead of watching the road. I am a fan of the Subaru and the Rav4 as both are nice reliable vehicles. Let us know how your decision making goes.

Our idle seems a little rough too since we got the upgrades for FE in October. I sure noticed this when we accelerated onto the freeways. I used to describe our C-Max as rocket propelled. Can't use that term any longer. Acceleration was totally adequate, but no longer that very smooth rocket like behaviour with a bit of a roar. I am not at all impressed with the upgrades as we had a better car before they mucked around with things. Hubby and I are both peeved with Ford over what they did. I know some would advice us to head back to the dealership, but that isn't going to happen as we have no faith in them to make things better and not worse than they are. I am thinking we will hang onto our C-Max for another year and then trade her in on something else. Bummer for sure.

Have a safe trip MadManMoon. I'm sure the East Coast is pretty hectic too when driving. We'll look forward to hearing about your trip.

homestead do you see many C-Maxes? We were sure we would see some as we have only see one other in the Vancouver, BC area. We traveled the I 5 to California the year before last and it was not crazy like it was on this trip. We thought if we skipped traveling on Boxing Day it would be quieter, but not so as the 27th was wicked. Everyone of all those little strip malls with Targets and Walmarts etc seemed to be packed as we passed by--still shopping til they drop. Your economy seems very healthy and booming. You're lucky to live so close to Cannon Beach as it is a place I would go visit during a storm as those waves are amazing, and Haystack Rock is fascinating. The traffic probably doesn't seem bad to you as live in a very densely populated area in compared to where we live. Our freeways would seem like back country roads to you LOL. We recently just had our first four lane expressway built into Vancouver that is near completion, but the general rule of thumb here is two lanes in each direction with one HOV lane as you near the city centres. You sure have lots of Priuses too and that surprised us.

We are just home from Cannon Beach, Oregon. It is spectacular there with the pounding surf and beautiful beaches. We had magnificent weather --sunny with temps about 57 F or so each day. I was so enchanted that I suggested to my husband that we put a rental of a little cottage right on the beach on our bucket list. We went into to a property manager there to inquire about prices. Holy smokes the cheapest on the beach for two weeks in the summer (my fantasy time frame and fantasy location) was $6700! So that dream balloon was popped. I'm not sure we would love the summer atmosphere either as we noticed once Christmas day passed the town began to fill with people and it was very crowded in the wee downtown stretch of galleries etc. The property manager said that Cannon Beach and Seaside are nuts in the summer with crowds. Now to tell you about the C-Max and traveling on your American freeways. I believe my hair is greyer and my eyes are still round and bulged out from the horror of it all! LOL Hubby and I both were stunned with the change in driving styles around the Seattle to Portland area. Everyone is tail gating and I mean everyone. They maybe leave about 10 feet if that between cars, and yet they are going over 70 mph and weaving and bobbing to change lanes like lunatics racing because they are late to a funeral. They don't seem to view the far left lane as a passing lane--passing happens in all lanes lickety split. I drive on the freeways as my husband scares me silly when he does. So he insists that I stay in the HOV lanes and I try to comply. But once in awhile I need to rest my popped out eye balls and give my right ankle a rest from putting my foot to the metal. At one point around Tacoma I told him, "I'm going to try to ease over to the centre lane as someone behind me is really pushing me to go faster than the 75 I'm going". Hubby totally me not to be so chicken as stay put, but I eased over. Even hubby caught his breath as a Highway Patrol car blew by us doing close to a 100 MPH no siren no emergency lights. When we left Cannon Beach we decided to drive to Hillsboro, Oregon to shop at the largest Costco in the world. Nice store but not so different in the way of merchandise than any other Costco. Big mistake to detour there instead of leaving straight home. We finished shopping there yesterday at 1 PM. We promptly joined the parking lot of traffic that continued from Portland, Oregon to way on the other side of Marysville, Washington. It was crazy. We saw a few incidents of people playing road rage games with one another --one SUV spiting a Semi truck for cutting him off accidentally. That almost caused a death or two if not for the sharp reactions of the trucker. We saw nary a C-Max. We saw oodles of Priuses and I am embarrassed to say most passed me leaving me in their dust even though my standard speed was 70-75 MPH. Our average was 39.8 mpg which I think was good considering the high speeds. Our GPS did a few wonky things twice with it ordering us off the I 5 rte. spontaneously a couple of times and then abruptly correcting itself, but it is a good thing we ignored those commands due to having driven the route many times before. It was a very nice trip, but I am so glad Canada is so much quieter and less populated. I was so glad to see our friendly Canadian Border Services agent with his big smile and welcome home. Our dog Tinker was so fed up with the traffic she was sneering at me by the time we got to the border and she did the happy dance getting out of the car at home. I am not sure we would drive any long trips in the States again. Hubby did say that we probably would have done better if our Sirius subscription had traffic reports (we don't have that service in Canada). Also I do like seeing places in the States via car so maybe we could plan to go back routes only. Hubby says he wishes he had taken his old GPS with him as it had traffic report features. Nice country to visit but not to drive in is my assessment.

Plus 3 Golfer thanks for sorting the wheat from the chafe. I am very interesting in reading your clarifications..

Hubby has it set, but does not recall at what number. He will take a look in the morning.

I guess we will need to have the dealer look at it down the road (only due to go in next Spring). We set the voice to low when we start out and don't touch anything and she goes from quiet to annoyingly loud within a few turns. I'll try to be quick and lower the voice on the steering wheel and see if I can live with that, but what a pain. I do turn her off, but my husband likes to always have her on for directions versus just listening for the tones.

Good point/tips Ryan. It is easy to forget that this car drives very differently in the snow. I was trying various modes yesterday in the snow going up and down some bill hills locally including using "L". Overall things were a lot safer without the hill assist or going into "L" which did surprise me a bit. I was glad to have some practice time in the snow before we undertake a trip through the Rockies or even up to Manning Park for some cross country skiing. A cool site locally this morning is watching our Anna's Hummingbirds at their feeders. We have rain hoods over the feeders but right now the rain hoods have about 10 centimeters of snow piled on them and the hummingbirds are drinking and flying around in the snow covered terrain. Our Anna's stay all winter as this is a bit of a micro climate.

We leave for Cannon Beach, Oregon on Monday. Not a long trip as it is only 524 kilometers one way. Home on the 29th. Always takes planning as we cross the border and need our passports, the dog's vaccination certificates, the type of dog food that the US will allow into the States, travel medical insurance, etc. etc. I do all the grunt work for trips and my husband is just another pretty face.

Thanks fotomoto. I do that in desperation, but it also turns down the music volume too. I was hoping someone had discovered how to permanently lower the voice on the guidance system. I love our MFT, but that is one feature that drives me buggy.