dtorres

I think the issue may not be so much the car just sitting for prolonged periods. It's more prolonged periods of very short trips where the battery doesn't have enough time to recharge properly. My only dead battery occurred after two to three weeks of nothing but short 2 to 3 mile round trips once or twice per day.

The MFT definitely has quirks and I've had one dead battery episode. But I also knew I was buying a first generation vehicle that might have these issues. That said I would absolutely buy it again!

Congrats!

I drove a 2012 Focus 4 door hatch for a day (rental). There's no comparison the C-Max is hands down a better car. Its roomier, better build quality (in my opinion), quieter and drove better. Even at the same mpg I'd buy the C-Max instead and am pleased that I didn't buy the Focus.

Nothing but problems also at Simi Valley Ford service. I go out of my way to Kemp Ford in Thousand Oaks and have been very happy with them. On two occasions when SV Ford couldn't fix an issue on my previous Fords Kemp Ford fixed it with no problems.

I have to admit I'm surprised by your numbers. My previous 2006 Ford Escape with the 4 cyclinder only averaged 21mpg. My C-Max was averaging in the 40-41mpg range during the summer in So Cal driving at 65mph freeway speeds and 50/50 freeway/city driving. Once the weather dropped into the 40's the average dropped to 39.5 to 40mpg. I'm surprised that your getting such low numbers when your freeway speed is at 60mpg which should allow the electric to kick in. I've done a few freeway runs at 60mph (at night when there was no other traffic) and can easily get mid 40's if I stay to 60mph and below. During the day in So Cal though 60mph is not really possible unless there's heavy traffic.

Jus-A-Cmax You've clearly doctored those photos. That kind of mileage isn't possible. . . I know because Consumer Reports told me so! ;-)

Got my C-Max last September when it was still hot and was averaging 42 mpg until it chilled and I started using the heater. Now it's down to 39.5 mpg. We'll see what happens when Spring comes. Currently 5,000 miles on the odometer.

How's the access to the second row storage area with the second row mat installed?

I just keep slowing down until the person gets so pissed they go around me and thus stop tailgating me :-)

Salman I think you may be spot on. When I first got my C-Max I had a few minor electrical issues that stopped occurring after a few days (probably after the 12V battery had built up a good charge). I then drove for 3 months without a battery issue (which included a daily work commute of 45 miles). I was on vacation in December and did projects around the house. For two weeks the only drives I did were short two mile trips to the hardware store. At the end of the two weeks dead battery. I jumped it right before a trip to San Diego (3 hour trip with plenty of time for the battery to charge) and have not had a dead battery since going on a week. I think your right that a small battery and slow charge rate may be an issue combined with not enough driving to sufficiently recharge the battery.

Roninsd This is a great idea so it's easy to track who is having the problem. I've started a new thread specifically for this.

Someone else suggested in a different thread that we do a running list of model type and options on our C-max to see if we can identify a pattern on particular vehicles. Let's start a new thread for this purpose. SE model, MyTouch with Nav. 1 dead battery at ~4k miles first thing in the morning.

On average my C-Max has been getting 40mpg with mixed city/highway driving and highway speeds at 65mph. Do I think Ford gamed the EPA tests? Sure they did that's why the electric motor turns off at 62mph when the test highway portion maxes out at 60mph. Can the C-Max achieve 47mpg with the right conditions? Absolutely! I drove 150 miles from L. A. to San Diego and achieved 47.2 mpg. Traffic caused multiple sections along the route to be going less than 60mph. On open sections I cruised 65 to 70mph.

For now I haven't taken it to the dealer yet. I'm going to wait to see if it dies again. In the mean time every time I turn the car off I'm checking before walking away to ensure everything is turned off (dash displays, radio/nav, dome lights, etc). That way I'm confident it wasn't something like the dash display that stayed on and killed the battery.

SE model here too with a key so no way it was left on.

Mine was from Vista Ford in Woodland Hills. Manufacture date of early September.

Maybe Ford could swap out our air compressor / tire inflator under the passenger seat for an air compressor/tire inflator/emergency jump start unit. Darrelld I saw that one on Amazon too and it looks pretty compact. Here was another one I was considering. Auto Emergency Jump Start Battery, Start Me Up 2 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TN2BFA/ref=cm_sw_r_an_am_ap_am_us?ie=UTF8

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Laurel" data-cid="4742" data-time="1356582517"><p> 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.</p></blockquote> After my battery died this morning the auto up/down feature of the windows wasn't working (on an SE model). I had to follow the procedure in the manual to reprogram each window one at a time. :-[

Andewwx Do you happen to have the Costco item number for the self starter you bought? ;-)

After 4000 miles and three months I had my first dead battery this morning too. Like someone else mentioned my hatch/dome lights were flashing. Dash displays and radio would not turn on. After a jump from my wife's car everything seemed fine. I hope it doesn't happen again.

After 4000 miles and three months it happened to me for the first time this morning. I opened the tailgate and the electric motor lifted it. When I hit the button to close it nothing happened. I noticed though that the brake lights and interior dome lights were very faintly rapidly flashing. When I opened the driver's door no dash display or radio lights and the car would not start. After I jumped it with my wife's car everything seemed fine. Unfortunately I'm now added to the list of people with ghost battery drainage.

Correct it allows 65% of light through. The tint shops here refer to it as 35 and it's the lightest tint most shops here have. In CA you're actually not allowed to have any tint on the front windows unless it came from the factory that way.

Correct it allows 65% of light through. The tint shops here refer to it as 35 and it's the lightest tint most shops here have. In CA you're actually not allowed to have any tint on the front windows unless it came from the factory that way.

I forgot to post back that Ford's final answer to the dealership was that the noise is normal for the C-Max at start up with the A/C on, do not replace the part. The service lady gave an explanation from Ford that was similar to what Antone posted above.