C-MaxSea

Congrats Adair (& Jelly Bean)!!! As so many of us are coming to conclude, the temperature outside (& inside) is a big deal for our MPG. We feel very lucky to have mild temps & a garage most of the time. ( I am using 'driving gloves' more often now, just to keep from using as much heat in the cabin - my little secret) Nick

Drum roll............... no big deal, but I'll post this because I need someone to help me get the Fuelly tag line to attach to my posts. Odo 616 minus 115 at delivery for 501 miles. 11.92 gallons of Chevron (reg.) on flat surface, center notch speed of delivery, perfect shutoff, a couple drips on fender (argh - my fault) = 42.0 mpg - YIPPEE! (This was with the dealer fillup at Shell, assume they did not 'top-off') This was relaxed driving, 40-50 deg. F, mostly freeway (guessing 70%+-), mostly sov/light weight (me) I will do a search for the Fuelly tag line stuff. Nick

Sorry to hear of your mishap R3. We are driving a bit paranoid of a similar occurrance. (Never had a new car before) We love the park assist - 4 to 8 Inches every time. Yes we got a demo the very last minute of our third test drive. Our first solo was in a fairly safe location and a good sized space; and we had some scary chuckles - it accelerated a bit too much, and I did not brake enough. It can be too fast. My tips: read the manual, watch videos, get a demonstration, never let your foot away from the brake. It is 'hands free', not foot free or cerebral free or eyes free. Nick

Thanks for all of that first hand (& comparative) input, Valk. Sure hope Ford/MS are listening and get these issues addressed - exactly what one would expect by release 2 or 3, not beyond. At this point, I guess we can only hope for soon. Nick

Congrats Roggie! Like the photo of delivery. Looks like another S. Gray. What are your specs? I think Wamba & I have the same car, specs that is. Nick (& car GG).

Just barely getting started with Sony, Nav & all, but I'm with you Laurel, they work darn well for us. I have used it (audio command) mostly on an intuitive basis (a test of sorts), and am amazed that I have guessed right quite a bit with phone, radio, nav, weather, traffic......... . Certainly some trial & error. Certainly could (and presumably will) be improved upon. I'm planning a 64gb flash drive for music from home library, assume that will work fine as well. One glitch I did see was that on one occasion my radio presets disappeared. After changing FM groupings or picking a frequency they all popped up. My caution there would be not to assume they are gone, 'just wiggle the dial' a bit. System stability??? Love the HD radio signal, huge difference in quality when you extend the distance to source. Time to try out the Sirius. Nick

Installed my WeatherTechs yesterday and they fit great, front & back seats. Now if only they come up with the cargo area soon. I have one minor complaint, however, the logo on the fronts is huge, say 1.5" by 5" in a raised fashion. I am not sure it won't be a nuisance somehow. OK two complaints: as noted on an earlier thread, I was concerned that they did not take the left foot rest area high enough - sure enough it is too short, Darn! Oh well, a little care to not wear a spot on that footrest. Hope you find a buyer for your extra fronts, Laurel; worst case a compromise on price. Nick PS As good as these are, another complaint is that the passenger side should also go a couple inches higher to cover the top of the shoe, frustrating - so close to perfection.

TAG, are you talking about the "Lifetime Summary", or individual trips that the vehicle tracks, or are you referring to "Trip 1" or Trip 2" numbers? If it is "LifetimeSummary", then perhaps there is a lot of idle time on the car lot dragging the number down a little. You might consider resetting the "Lifetime Summary" now to reflect your actual use going forward. There may also be a value of 'breaking in' your vehicle for a few hundred miles before you do a reset. If you are referring to the mini trips the vehicle tracks, then they can be all over the place subject to the length of trip, elevation differences, battery charge to begin trip.................................................. It is not unusual to have a 2 mile trip with 18mpg or a two mile trip with 75 mpg. If you are referring to some longer "Trip 1" or 2, which may more closly reflect your 'actual' results, then 34/35 is just fine, since your use is so very, very minimal at this point (and AC impact). We have about 550 miles on ours, and here is our experience. Short trips around Seattle hills gets us 35 to 45 mpg trips. Short trips (60miles+-) to and on the freeway are getting us roughly 40 - 50 mpg. Driving around a flatter city north of here I was consistently getting 50+ mpg (no heat or AC). Our "Lifetime Summary" is currently about 43.5 (we reset ours at roughly 200 miles). That said, today will be our first fill-up and I expect it to show roughly 40-42 mpg because it appears that the numbers on the trip computers for the C-Max are slightly inflated, say 5%. Also, keep in mind that to get hybrid gas mileage, you have to drive it like a hybrid, a bit more deliberately with regard to braking & acceleration............. Hope that helps. Nick Oops, forgot about your AC - guessing minus 5-10%, 40+ mpg still sounds realistic to me (at the pump). Sorry for missing the 'hot weather/AC' intention of your thread.

FWIW, a neighbor, who also has a new C-Max got his with the front plate (mistakenly) installed fully on the upper grill - factory plate frame. Nick

Yes Valk, the Energi was incredibly tempting. I have had a garage wired 220v for a plug-in (& compressors) for fifteen years waiting for 'the day; and we opted for the non. It still hurts, but we could not get past the mini boot. Love your 86 mpg. Go ford on nex-gen batteries. Nick

The Gray Grouper it is - for now at least. Nick

PT. We have pretty mild temps in Seattle - most often between 40 & 80 (extremes say 25 to 90 - three to four weeks a year), which makes it fairly ideal for the C-Max. What is the temp range you would recommend for the covers - cold, cold, cold to ________________? I guess there would be two answers to that; one upper temp reflecting the limit for safe engine cooling, and one for the temp where it would tend to lose effectiveness? Assuming top end speeds of say 65. Nick PS I tend to like the plate 'all on the grill' a bit better than the straddle design - breaking up the horizontal body band under the grill is a bit goofy looking..............but then again???

I voted the first option. For me the big 4 was very significant. Absolutely love the car (a 'home-run' by Ford imho), but psychologically I would have been (will be) somewhat disappointed if I struggle to get the big 4 in there. In fact, it was only after reading like crazy, and finding first hand local experience over 40 mpg, that we pulled the trigger. I assume that there will be a dozen new hybrids in the next couple years, and all over forty - I did not want to purchase too early for that. Regarding Prius - what a joke of a dash, center justified, with no driver gauges. I call it 'drive by committee' - 'let's have a show of hands whether we accelerate or brake.............. Ford treats us right with a complete set of feedback gauges directed at the driver, not the rear seats!! Nick

Trying to decide what looks best: mounting fully in the upper grill area, straddleing the body panel below the upper grill or perhaps a lower mount altogether??? Would prefer to lose the front plate, but alas......... Nick

Laurel, hello up there in BC, hope my fish images don't offend anyone. I will have to pull them off if they do. Love all of the colors ford came up with - made it a tough choice. A beautiful Ruby Red "Lil Red Wagon", R & V. Nick

We have not named our C-Max yet, but has anyone else noted a C-Max resembalnce to fish, say the Grouper? Gray Grouper, Red Snapper.................just saying.............. maybe it is just my wild imagination.

Thanks for sharing your story! These are all things we need to watch out for. Our delivery inspection (us looking over the vehicle somewhat carefully & noting down flaws just before taking delivery) revealed a stain on the 'sunroof' shade and glass fragments in the cargo area. The dealer is providing us with a new shade on order, but no one knows where the glass might have come from. In addition, we discovered later an outward 'ding' in the hood that had to come from the factory because there was a nick in the underside behind the black liner which was flawless. Thankfully the dealer paid for a 'dent wizard' to remove the small tool ding. Finally because there were a couple tiny nicks in the paint, the dealer is also giving us a touch-up paint kit (wating for us to pick up). I am on my way right now to inspect the floor storage areas in our C-Max for water damage. Nick

Dang. So much for a a beautiful thing, report that is. How about print-outs from the dealers; any chance they would print out testing data from the shop? There has to be major info crashing across the screen somewhere - at least it would seem to me, knowing nothing about shop diagnostics. Nick

Can anyone shed some light on what a VHR contains? I have no idea, and have yet to check out SyncMyRide. My hope would be for a detailed systematic report chocked full of great info on the car. Hoping that it is not a simple 'OK' document with just maintenance schedules and 'sales' in mind. Crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath. I assume that I can print it out if it is any good, and that I don't have to pony up money to see/get it. Nick

Gina, I sure hope others jump in here with more info. My experience is that we have the the "Intelligent access w/push button start", and it is fantastic. 'Look Mom, no keys'. I just put the key in my pocket and I am done - once I walk up to the car (with key in pocket) I can unlock it by putting my hand in any of the door handles. To lock the car all I have to do is touch either of the two thumb pads on the front doors with my thumb, not putting my fingers around the handle. Now that I have the hang of it, I would never go back to key entry. It is also nice not having keys dangling from the column anymore. Nothing wrong with keys, but it is sweet to be able to leave them in the pocket or purse. And the push button start is also fantastic & appropriate for the quiet start of a hybrid in EV mode. Don't know about the remote stuff - we are lucky enough to have a garage and don't need remote start. Nick