C-MaxSea

I have always loved WeatherTechs. Just ordered mine for our C-Max, front and rear seats. Hope everyone will contact them to get us rear cargo area mats asap. Here is the note I sent them: "Please expedite DigitalFit cargo area mats – one for behind back row seats, and one for entire cargo area with second row seats folded down. It would be nice if it rolled down in back to protect the face of the raised floor." Which would you prefer? One for just the rear area, or one that covers the entire space including the folded down rear seats; or perhaps a third that covers the back of the folded seats and butts up against the rear cargo one when installed? Nick

I'll third that Jus, never noticed any touchiness myself, they seem perfect - of course that may be because I drove our C-Max off the lot as a hybrid, braking at 98%+, and have never looked back. (40+ lifetime so far, still first tank). Significant difference between driving hybridly and driving rabbitly. nick

My one vote is definately for 'MPG other'. I am hoping that battery technology continues to improve, and that the C-Max's nex-gen battary is no larger, but able to push the EV capability another 5-10 mph. I believe the 62 mph EV limit to be the weakest link of the car; going forward that is. Even though I am satisfied driving 55-60 on urban freeways, I would love to know I could still cruise a significant part of the time on EV at 68 ish, for longer trips. Go Ford on battery research! As an aside, I also hope Ford makes it possible to 'upgrade' to nex-gen batteries asap (for a fair price) - it would be a great reward to all of us early adoptors. Nick

Welcome from Seattle. It sounds like a 'perfect fit', especially for your commute. Enjoy/tolerate the wait, it is well worth it. Nick

Just a guess - is that the first one off the assembly line? NO, I just typed it into the search and found that it was a "Dxxxxxx UNIT", and no build date (?). Is this one your beautiful White Platinum, MT?

Thanks again MT. Yes ours has the "O/T 2" designation. Interesting stuff to decipher. A couple further notes. I have a stack of 'window stickers' to compare and noted that most typically show the lower date being a week or two prior to the upper 'build date'. The only exception I found was ours, and one other. The other one was also an August build date - 120120815. The Item # date is Sept. 25, 2012 - 09 25 12. Interestingly, both ours and this one show a different designation along the upper line - "4-REBILL"; as opposed to the normal designation of "9-NORMAL". These designations are then followed by "NA," and then two additional coded numbers. Ours is specifically: 4-REBILL, NA, 100526, CM071. The other is: 4-REBILL, NA, 200603, CJ252. NA is obviously North America, the other codes a mystery to me. Nick

Thanks MT. The salesman mentioned something about a 'dealer trade' had occured on our C-Max. So, perhaps at one dealer from September to December, then 'traded' in December to where we purchased it ???? I hope that does not indicate any foul play along the way between dealers. The vehicle had an extra sticker on it about having been involved in the factory's random testing - where they pull vehicles at random at the end of the line for testing, approx 10+- miles associated. Any chance they would have discovered problems and set it aside for reworking, then made an initial delivery in December ??? Sure would like to know it's full history. I will try to do some digging where we purchased it. nick

Any explanation for my numbers: Build date: 120120823 (Aug. 23, 2012) "Item #" line two date: 12 07 12 (Dec. 7, 2012???)

HotPotatoe, Thats the best concise description I've seen yet - well done! Nick

Ron, I think you are probably correct, I was not really sure of myself the day we brought it home. Yesterday it was certainly fine for about a dozen starts. Now that I am used to it, it is nice to not hassle with a key - just have to get used to knowing where it is, and to take it with out the door (best to just leave it in my pocket all of the time). Nick

Welcome from Seattle TBird97. I agree with you wamba, the metallic element in these colors is excellent and adds a lot. My 'first day' today with our S. Gray in a little more light - wow, what pop in that color - perfect. I think Ford hit on a small group of colors well. Nick

Amazing vehicle!!! My first 'official' drive today - wow what a nice ride. MPG report: 61.8 m (34.3 EV), 45.4 mpg, 1.36 g. Yes, I know the 'proof is at the pump', but if the trip estimates are inflated roughly 5-10%, as reported, that is still easily better than 40 mpg. Conditions were roughly 45-50 deg. F, roughly 15% city, 85% hiway at 55-60 mph (yes, a tad slow). The trip also included approx. 20 to 30 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic due to an accident. Driving the b to b traffic was refreshingly quiet (good for music), and creeping on EV with an occaisional ICE of a minute or so. After all the MPG complaints I fully expected no more than 35 today - I don't understand how anyone could just get 32, at least around here. BTW the NAV is fantastic afaic, the first I have ever had - tracking was spot on, street names, speed limits............ wow, what a deal. The only hitch was that the freeway accident icon was off by half a mile - but guess what, probably not the fault of the NAV system since the traffic reports on the radio were all off in there location description by the same amount, in other words, a bad report was used. (I know, I'm one of the last drivers on the planet to experience NAV - too cool) Lifetime: (Purchased with 125m+-) 194.5 m, 14.2 mpg, 13.62 g. As you can see, a lot of iddling at the dealer before and after a couple dozen test drives. Another note: I am likening some of the EV motor noise/ambiance to being in some aircraft taxiing - just a preliminary take. Keep on driving - hybrid driving that is; also known as safe driving, efficient driving................. easy, smeasy??? Nick PS Jus-A-Max, Not sure I will ever have the baxxs to go for 600m. Give me until better weather at least (and a handful of tanks practice). :)

Hello again, Thanks Rachel, hope you have been successful tracking down your C-Max, I believe you have had some challenges getting yours. LDM - Good luck on your delivery. Funny how all of my cars over the years have always had some mysteries in there past - we thought we would be ordering ours today and getting the old 8 weeks to delivery routine, and a fresh vehicle off the rack - now our new one also has a mysterious few months and a 'dealer swap' in its past. Going the risky route again here. Hope we don't regret it. Jus-A, I did not plan on the Moon-Roof, but my wife liked how much it increased the light in the cabin on our dark dreary Seattle days (about 330 days of the year). Also, we noted that the Moon Roof option gave us two ceiling lights, instead of one, in the front as well - making a stunning cabin decor light up at night that much better. BTW, we can't get over the beautiful soft mellow color accents across the dash! BTW2, our test drive of the previous day on a different vehicle with 50 miles on it was 41.6 mpg over 15 miles+-, breaking scores mostly 100, I'm ready to play the safe driving hybrid game. Thanks Ron, I will be giving it a few good runs today and through the weekend. I already have a tip to pass on from a short run yesterday. Not sure about this, but at least a caution. When I went to start it at a friends, it would not start - no green icon, just a yellow engine icon. Some how on the third or fourth try it started, and my embarassment subsided. I checked the manual and it noted that the keys & phone in close proximity may mess things up. I had my phone & keys together in the cupholder - wonder if that caused the failed starts? Thanks Adair. I sure will be checking in here a lot. I have been hoping that someone will catalogue a 'top 5'/'top 10'/'top 20' list of things to do once you take delivery. I am not sure what that might entail, but perhaps keeping keys and phones apart might be one of them. Check tire pressure, checklist of buttons to test, caution about this or that.............. Kind regards to all, Nick

After a harrowing day yesterday signing on the infamous 'dotted line', we took delivery on our C-Max SEL, 303A, MR, in Sterling Gray today. We had not planned on the purchase just yet, but a 'deal too good to be true' presented itself. Still a bit shaken, never having purchased a new vehicle before, hoping for the best now that it is in the garage. We took a bit of a risk in taking an 'oldie' with a birthdate (build date) back in August of last year. Perhaps not the wisest move. We are certainly taken by the C-Max design and functionallity, hesitant to call it love at this stage (we nordics, you see, are hesitant about everything). Anyway, thanks to all of you for posting, and sharing your knowledge here. I have been following many of those postings and learning a lot. We expect a few quirks in our journey with the C-Max, with so many sophisticated systems, and hope that overall it will be a good long term ride - say at least 10 years. Would love to hear from any other Seattle/Puget Sounders, especially any having purchased and/or getting serviced at Bill Pierre Ford in North Seattle. I started a Seattle/Puget Sound area thread in the regions section. Thanks again, Nick

Thanks Chinto. I don't know why they would go only 7.5 inches. I think a few of us should let them know it would be better if they accounted for a little longer foot. Here's to size 12!

The fronts look great. One question. On the drivers side, does the left foot rest portion go high enough or does your foot extend over the top? Thanks for the pictures!

Excellent news for C-Maxers - looks like they have the front and back seat floors covered. Now how about the cargo area. I might prefer a cargo mat that would include the down folded back seats - one piece. I would modify a one piece to fold up with the seats somehow. Sure hope they get enough response to add one or two versions of the cargo area mat.

Batteries? http://fordcmaxhybridforum.com/index.php?/topic/850-ive-had-me-sel-cmax-about-a-month-4300-miles-only-averaging-33-35mpg/&do=findComment&comment=5410

Interesting articles, but a lot of weak connections/(mis)understandings.......................... the variables of winter & driving habits....................... no ways near conclusive. At best, somewhat representative numbers 'for some folks' 'some of the time'. The one point I always come back to is that the C-Max has enough 'horses in the stable' to allow us to wack the mpg numbers all to heck if we want. Kudos to Ford for a great hybrid alternative! Sporty (or Winter) Mode - 32-36mpg; Frugal (or Summer Breeze) Mode - 40-50 mpg! Hoping for the best, Nick Seattle, WA C-Max owner wannabe

From the peanut gallery - first post, don't own a C-Max yet, just a wannabe for now; have read everything I can find on the C-Max & dozens of user threads. I sympathize with Jrust for 'trying everything' to get better MPG, and not getting close. I also understand how careful driving and good weather conditions make a huge difference. Hopefully for Ford, it is all 'careful driving', 'good weather conditions' and several other key factors - 100%. Am I convinced of that? Well, not exactly - yet. Theory: It appears to me that the ICE is genuinely good for say 30 to 37 mpg on it's own, and that the power plant is expected to contribute lets say 2 to 10mpg on average; yielding a broad range of say 32 to 47. It appears to me (based on Fuelly), that some folks are having no trouble reaching the 42 to 48 mpg numbers (even here in hilly Seattle) suggesting that the battery/power plant is contributing fully. On the contrary, some folks don't seem to be getting near the full compliment of 2 to 10 MPG out of the battery/power plant. Are the batteries meeting spec's? Are the batteries spec'ed high enough to do the job 90%/95%/99% of the time? What are the battery spec's? (Also shelf life effects before delivery / NMH vs Lithium Ion differences????) I won't speculate on Ford's car selection for EPA testing procedures, but........................? Is anybody checking out these batteries for charge/discharge characteristics? Just crazy thoughts perhaps, but I want my future C-Max to have the best battery available. (I do have one picked out that I am drooling all over) Love the C-Max, hoping for the best out of them for all of us. Love that they can be driven in two different fashions; 'sporty (or Winter)mode' (32-35 mpg) and 'frugal (or Summer Breeze) mode' (40-50 mpg). Kudos to Ford! Nick Seattle, WA