jackalopetx

The hybrid and Energi both have a 115hp electric motor right? So why only 30hp to the wheels from electric? Can the battery not handle that much amperage?

I want to paint mine but it seems very difficult to remove them... Don't you have to remove the whole bumper? I also want to paint my rocker panels. Paint matching should be easy because my car is white

Duluth makes a fire hose material seat cover http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/product/fire-hose-bucket-seat-cover-85516.aspx I wonder if foam sewn to the back would stay in place. I also wonder if that design would obstruct the seat side airbags They come out of the whole side of the seat http://www.iihs.org/frontend/iihs/ratings/images/api-rating-image.ashx?id=3243&width=800

Seat covers are a good idea. On my Mustang I had Wet Okole ones with some built in lumbar padding. Those eBay ones probably obstruct the side airbags though. Carhartt makes these ones that only cover the front of the seat, and foam padding could be sewn in, but they ONLY make them for trucks. http://media.marketwire.com/attachments/201107/MOD-1334_carhartbn.jpg

I have the manual seats with no lumbar support. I thought I would get used to them but it didn't happen! I had an idea to try though... Pot holder hanging from the headrest posts with thin strings. Pillows are too thick and just push you forward

I get lower back pain every time I drive my C-Max. Why don't the seats have any lumbar support? Of all the cars I've owned, these are the worst seats. The Volvo V70 I had before had the best seats I've tried using an Ikea round cushion, the thin kind you put on a wooden chair or stool, but it's not really the right shape. Can I strap a piece of foam to the lumbar area without interfering with the seat airbags?

Why not buy a new hood and bumper? It should be cheaper than paying for repairs BTW are you sure it was 1-2mph and not 5mph?

The safety issue should be a dealbreaker. Rollovers cause 1/3 of fatalities and are 3 times as deadly as frontal collisions http://www.nhtsa.gov/cars/rules/CrashWorthy/RoofCrResist/FMVSS216Notice.html The DOT standard is pretty lax. It requires the roof to support 3x the vehicle weight http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2009/U.S.+DOT+Doubles+Roof+Strength+Standard+for+Light+Vehicles,+Announces+First+Ever+Standards+for+Heavier+Vehicles The C-Max roof can support 6.8 times the vehicle weight which is the highest of any vehicle as far as I know. So if the solar Prius can't even meet the DOT requirement, its roof is half as strong or worse than ours. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/ford/c-max-hybrid/2014 The standard Prius can do 5.67x vehicle weight, so it almost doubles the DOT requirement. They must have taken a lot of metal out to fit those solar panels http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/toyota/prius-4-door-hatchback

Have you shopped for a used car within the last decade? A 3 year old car doesn't cost half as much as a new one. It's more like 2/3 or 3/4 the price. A 3 year old Toyota is like 90% of the price of a new one. That's with 50k-100k miles. I looked at 2013 C-Maxes and they were $15,000. I paid $20k for my brand new one.

I guess the good thing is the C-Max tends to run pretty cold. Mine will warm up after driving a while, then cool to the low end of the graph if it runs in electric mode for a while. So maybe very thin oil is good

Can the little bit of fuel in the oil really make it as thin as 0w16? I wonder what the weight of the oil is with no fuel and after 10k miles. Should we be using synthetic? I wonder why Ford's 0w20 is even a blend when every other manufacturer's is full synth

Tongue weight is straight down. If you put a 200lb scooter on a carrier, the force on the unibody will be far greater. The hitch will be fine. It's 350lb rating is irrelevant. It's your CAR you should be concerned with

I got my oil changed at 1356 miles and got a sample. About 900 miles were on the gas engine according to the car computer. Copper and silicon were high, which is typical for break in. 87ppm vs 23ppm and 48 vs 21ppm average for all vehicles with 7200 mile interval. To me that proves that modern engines DO have a break in period, contrary to popular belief. In just 900 miles on the ICE, the oil accumulated several times the typical engine in 7k miles. It also shows that the filter doesn't capture every bit of metal. Fuel % is also 3% which they say gets better after break in. What surprised me though was the oil viscosity. The viscosity numbers are at the low end of what they should be for 0W-20 oil, and the flashpoint is 325F when it should be over 385F. It may not matter for these cars like it would for a turbo though.

I'm replying to the OP I have knee problems, which is one reason I don't drive a manual Mustang GT anymore! But if I drive a few hours with a lot of accelerator pedal operation, my right knee hurts

I don't think hybrids have to be driven like hybrids. The biggest gains are for people with a lead foot. In a conventional compact or mid size vehicle they'll get like 15mpg in city driving, so if they get 30mpg in a hybrid that's a huge improvement

I thought Ford said they're discontinuing the C-Max and switching an electric vehicle I think GM's modest mileage gains were because the trucks were mild hybrids

The Transit Connect is the focus platform but with a leaf sprung beam axle in the rear. Though the payload is 1500lb which the hybrid drivetrain may not be able to handle The big Transit is a different vehicle

Soon the only hybrid from Ford will be the Fusion sedan, which seems to make no sense- Hybrid buyers tend to be practical people rather than fashion followers who "hate hatchbacks", so why would they abandon the hybrid wagon market? Instead, why don't they simply put the C-Max drivetrain in the Transit Connect? The small van is currently proving to be popular with tradesmen, florists, delivery based companies, etc because it gets much better gas mileage than a full size van. But it still only gets 20mpg in the city at best. A hybrid version would double that. And the people who currently buy C-Maxes and Prius Vs would probably be drawn to the passenger version of the Transit. Am I missing something? Why would Ford not do this?

If you calculate the fuel savings vs driving on the highway, it will probably be far less than the cost of knee surgery

I think the reason Toyota sells the most is name recognition. Prius is virtually synonymous with hybrid

I think the speed limits are getting too high for peoples' reaction time, headlight quality, etc But really fatal crashes tend to be due to drunk driving, no seatbelt, no helmet

So if you're turning onto a main road and there's a gap in traffic, do you accelerate slowly so that the other cars have to brake for you? What if they aren't paying attention and don't break? Now there's an accident. The cost and energy used to repair the cars is far greater than the fuel savings from driving like a snail You're thinking in terms of sports car vs non-sports-car when you should be trying to drive as safely as you can. Driving like a senile old person isn't safe driving

Probably because you get good gas mileage even if you drive 85mph and you also benefit from a car that is relatively quiet. What car is better for cruising efficiently at 85mph? Possibly the Lexus hybrid hatchback By driving aggressively in traffic I take it you mean accelerating quickly. That's just safe driving. Being hesitant or accelerating slowly can cause traffic and slowdowns. The electric motor torque makes the C-Max good for that.... As long as you turn off "Eco Mode" or "Eco Select" or whatever it's called

You're right, it does make the C-Max feel kind of like a Prius. You mash the gas and it assumes you made a mistake so it accelerates slowly

There's a big difference between the two vehicles... Safety. The unibodies are apparently very different. The C-Max has a stronger roof (6.8x vehicle weight vs 5x) and gets an Acceptable score in small front overlap vs Poor C-Max: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/ford/c-max-hybrid-4-door-wagon Escape: http://www.iihs.org/iihs/ratings/vehicle/v/ford/escape-4-door-suv