donhak

I have done them both ways. If driving just remember that you cannot park and turn off the engine until it says the update is complete. The engine does not physically need to be running as long as the car is in the run position. This last time my high voltage battery was almost full, so I shut off the headlights and everything else except the radio and let the update run while parked with it ready to drive. The engine never needed to kick in before the update was complete. The main thing during the update is patience. There are at least four times when the update will say it is rebooting the system, and the screen will go black for 15-20 seconds before you see the flash drive become active again, the backlight on the screen come on, and the the screen finally comes back before the process picks up with the update. Loading some of the files will seemingly take forever and then load others with very little delay. Do not take out the flash drive before the system says the update is complete.

I supplied my VIN early on and am still on the list, with owner.ford.com showing 3.6.2 as upto date on an early build 2013. You need to join the Fusion Hybrid forum to download the link, but like this forum it is a quick process. The file is a small document with the link to access the dropbox folder for the actual 500 megabyte file. I did it this weekend and took just over 20 minutes to update to 3.8. If you haven't done it before, be prepared for at least four reboots where the screen will go blank for 15-20 seconds before it comes back again and picks up with the update process. Worked like a champ. Download the files, transfer them to a flash drive, plug it into one of the USB ports on the car and will ask if you want to install the update with the usual warnings that the car needs to be running until the process is complete.

Car born 12/6/2012, mileage 21800 at time of inspection. Never experienced any problems with the battery, but I had the wiring inspection and battery testing done this weekend. The battery failed in the middle of testing. The closest battery was 45 miles away and too late to get that day, so they got the original working again, and I will take the car back for the battery replacement. No other problems found but it turned what should have been a short job into their having the car almost all day. Always interesting what settings are lost and have to be reset and which ones come back after work like this.

Finally got my seat looked at by the dealer. It matches the picture in post 7 almost exactly. Dealer said the TSB still requires them to get approval from Ford before replacing the seat cover. They took pictures just in case and will get approval this week. It had started cracking at about 18,000 miles earlier in the year but waited until the dealer got parts and could complete the restraints module recall before having them look at the seat. The TSB makes it easier to get approval for replacement under warranty.

Thank you Meagan for the help. Had call from Ford Customer Care last Monday, 11/29. Part was here 12/3 and installed 12/5. Dealer said that some restraint modules had been taking up to six months to get here from time of order. Lately it had been down to 10 days but mine was past the 5 week point. Car ended up being in all day. Also had PCM recall reprogramming, and battery inspection and check done. I never had any problems with the battery, but it failed in the middle of testing and gave them headaches. Closest battery 45 miles away so I will need to go back to get it installed but they got the original recharged and the system working again so I could get the car back.

Megan, PM sent with details. Still waiting on the part as of 11/25/15. Kendall Ford said it had been taking about ten days to get the part but this one has been over three weeks. We are waiting on the part to reschedule. There are no indications of problems, but after getting the second recall notice that parts are available, I have been wanting to get it addressed along with other open items. I still love the car and plan on keeping it for many years yet.

Ford still must be a little slow on shipping parts. Scheduled my car for the module replacement and the dealer said it would take about 10 days to get the part. We ended up scheduling the appointment three weeks out, and I still ended up with a call on Friday the day before the appointment that the part had not arrived. I could have had some other things done, but with a winter weather advisory that night, we decided to wait on the part to get everything done at once.

I have one of the first C-Maxes sold in Alaska and still love it. I have no problems getting around in the winter. It has as good or better traction as the mid-sized Saturn that I owned before it. I got the car just after the snowiest winter ever, and last year was our lowest snowfall ever. This winter is forecast to be warmer than normal again. I do not see a lot of C-Maxes on the road here, but hybrids are far from scarce. C-Maxes built for the Alaska market come with the block heater no charge, so I am no help on ease of installation. In the Anchorage area with a garage, I personally never use it. Fairbanks it would be a different story. With cooler weather, gas mileage will definitely be lower, but it is much better that what I was getting with any car before. I get low 40's in the summer and 30's the rest of the year with mostly city driving, but I have only 5 1/2 miles to work, and the car does not have a good chance to get to operating temperature in the winter. The car will take Focus rims. I bought mine from Costco and are suitable for winter tires. You definitely want all four to keep the anti-lock and stability control happy. Pictures are in my gallery with specifications in the caption. Since going to them, I am very happy with studless Blizzaks again from Costco. Over the life of the tire they give better traction than studded snows as the studs wear. They will wear faster if left on in too warm of weather and dry roads because of the softer tire compound that give the tire their snow and ice performance but with the winter tires on their own rims, I can choose when to put them on or take them off. Depending on where you live on the hillside, four wheel drive can still almost be a must for access. I live in south Anchorage off the hillside and have no problems getting around but have lived here almost 40 years. Three-quarters of the vehicles in the ditch on the highway in the winter are four-wheel drives going too fast for conditions. I have had four wheel drive but for handling on snow and ice prefer front wheel drive for predictability on how it will handle.

I have cracking on the top part of the panel on a 2013 SEL with only 20,000 miles. Been waiting for the dealership to say they have parts for the restraints module recall to question them on it. Good to know about the TSB so they cannot just claim normal wear and tear. It has been 30 years since I have had to worry about cracking seats even with Alaska winters. Car is in heated garage at night, and I use Meguiar's in the spring and fall.

I have a Galaxy S4 and have no issues with it working with Sync. The phone works well, and I was surprised the first time I received a text and asked if I wanted Synch to read it to me, which it did without issue. I receive very few texts, and have not tried replying to them. Very few things are that important that it cannot wait until I am off the road. I use a USB drive for most of my music, so I have not tried streaming from the phone, but I would not expect a problem.

My car arrived in January. Anchorage gets lots of snow and ice. I usually run snow tires from October to early April, so my first purchase with a car is usually a second set of rims and snow tires. I put Blizzaks on 16-inch rims and had absolutely no problems with up to a foot of snow. As with any two-wheel drive car, deep rutted snow can be a problem with low ground clearance, but the C-Max handled as well or better than my previous Saturn L-200, a larger car. The stock tires also handled better than a Camry with studded tires before I got the snow tires put on the rims, but I did not test them on ice where I would expect the low rolling resistance tires to lose traction quickly. I have grown to prefer the studless Blizzaks and Michelin Ice X's over studded tires because of better performance after even just a little wear on the tire. You just don't want to run them in the summer with the softer tire compound.

I would love to have the problem of it being too hot. I am still dreaming of spring. Since the official start of spring we have a one foot dump of snow, an all too short stint in the 40's, followed by six inches of snow this weekend. This morning it was 10, and the snow is coming down again with another snow adisory. I have a short commute to work of 5 1/2 miles, which in colder weather is too short to get the car running efficiently. Add a deep snow fall, and I have had a couple days were I averaged only in the 25 mpg for gas mileage. Since delivery in January my best tank is only 35.5 mpg, but that is still a lot better than the low 20's for my last car in winter, and I anticipated it with the January delivery. Once the snow tires come off and the temperatures are higher, I anticipate a lot better mileage. On the plus side, the C-Max handles deep snow great with power when needed to get through tough spots, a frequent complaint of some Prius owners.

In my case the system would only accept the rebates in affect at the time of delivery, which was $250 less. The sales person submitted paperwork to Ford showing the rebates in affect at the time that I ordered the car, Ford approved it, and after signing a form to have the check sent directly to me, I had a check for the difference less two weeks later from the Incentive Protection program. Private cash offers, like a $750 rebate I received after signing up for more information the C-Max on the website have to be used by the printed expiration date that accompanies your customer number, although Ford will sometimes extend them automatically when you have a car on order. Mine was due to expire in a week, but the salesperson showed that it had been extended three months. General incentives do not expire like mentioned, but you can take a larger offer if available at delivery.

They work good in snow too. The only problem I have had is that the right wiper is a little short for clearing the entire sensor area. If the sensor area gets dirty or has enough snow buildup, even the lowest setting can be too often until you clean the glass. Every once and a while light can glance off the area at an angle that will activate them for a wipe too, but they are great when the slowest intermittent setting is still too fast, and they just need to activate once and a while such as while stopped with snow coming down. Of course that strange white stuff drifting down is foreign to some of the people here or an apoplectic event.

As a special order my car never showed as inventory for my dealer either. At least here, dealer ordered cars normally show as soon as a window sticker is available for the car either through the Ford dealer inventory search or on the dealer website. It varies from dealer to dealer on how they show that the car is actually in stock. My dealer puts 'Call for the price' on their website until the car is physically there. Some put an estimated date of arrival, and others show the VIN on in stock cars. If they do not keep their website updated, it can be a pure guess, and occasionally cars can be on the lot the sales people do not even know about. My salesperson was good at giving me weekly updates on the car, so I knew within a week when the VIN was assigned, and the build to week date. As with Rachel, it can be like pulling teeth to get the visibility report from some dealers even though it only takes them a few minutes to look it up. Until the car is in transit, the visibility report is normally updated on Thursday or Friday of the week. Once in transit it can get updated multiple times a day. The window sticker normally is a week before the car is scheduled to be built. The wait can still be excruciating, but with bugging the dealer you can be kept informed on the status. I knew when I test drove the car that it was the one I wanted, and after the wait, I have not been disappointed.

Several of us have found that rims designated for the Ford Focus work quite well. For winter tires I am using 16x7's with a 40mm offset. I am using 215-60-16 Bridgestone Blizzak WS-70's which are within 1% of the factory 225/50/17's. TireRack.com is now offering options of wheels up to 20" for the C-Max, although I have not heard of anybody trying a larger rim size yet.

It has been noted that even C-Maxes without navigation have a GPS built into the system. It is how the car can learn your frequent destinations and go into EV+ mode when close to them. I have not been in a car without navigation to confirm that the settings section on the center screen still allows you to sync the clock to GPS. On a handful of occasions I have seen the time off when I initially start up that quickly corrects itself. While driving I have not had a problem with incorrect time but updated the sync to GPS the day after I got the car. I have more of a problem with the GPS frequently showing me in between blocks and off route even though I turned where it told me to.

I haven't had it on glare ice or in deep snow, but with Blizzaks the C-Max handles as good or better than my last car, a Saturn L200 that handled most conditions well. I drove on studded tires for years before switching to Blizzaks, and I much prefer the studless handling especially after the first season of wear. While waiting for the C-Max I ended up driving a Camry for a while with studded tires, and it would frequently lose traction on a tire in spots where I had no problems with the Saturn or now the C-Max. I will get the traction control light to occasionally come on when initially accelerating in slick conditions, but it recovers quicker than my old car, and I am happy with the handling. Even the stock low rolling resistance tires where better on snow with ice underneath than the Camry with fairly new studded tires, which for some reason was a model year where it had anti-lock breaks but no traction control. As with any car, you still have to take conditions into account in driving. Typically about 75% or more of the vehicles in the ditch here are four wheel drives thinking they can drive like it is summer.

I have lived in the Anchorage area since 1976 when the Air Force originally brought me here. After the Air Force I was in Kodiak for a year with a job and lived in the Matanuska Valley for ten years before the commute got old, especially in the winter whenever there was an accident backing things up. I have been to most parts of the state including out to Unalaska, and to northern parts of the state with the exception of Southeast Alaska south of Haines, even though I fly over it frequently on trips south. After growing up in Iowa it is still nice to walk out your door and have the mountains right there. Moose regularly spend time in my back yard, but I at least don't live in a part of town frequented by brown bears. I haven't had it in deep snow yet, but the C-Max is as good or better than my last car on snow and ice. Even with Blizzak's I can confirm that the traction control/stability control works, but it handles nice in the conditions.

The dealer I bought from is 45 miles away also. There is a dealer in town that I can take the car to if I have to, but the sales experience was much nicer where I went. I got a good price without a lot of hassle and got a sales person who kept me informed all the way through delivery. Even after delivery he filed the extra paperwork necessary so that I will be getting an extra $250 in rebates from Ford that I would have gotten if the car had been delivered in December instead of January.

Hi Miekycats, I have been happy with the choice. It was the one color I did not see in person before ordering, but went with it based on early photos. I did not think I would like Blue Candy based on Ford's website, but was a much nicer blue when seen on the lot. I was tempted to get it, but I was a little like you and did not feel like spending the extra money just on paint and put it into the 302a package to get the hands free lift gate. I just came from a cream white car, and there seems to be a lot of white, silver, gray, and black cars around here so Ice Storm is a little different. I haven't had it out on many bright sunny days yet, but friends and coworkers who have seen it like it, and it stood out the night I picked it up under the dealer's lights. The light blue comes out more under bright conditions and shades more to light green and gets darker when cloudier, so it changes appearance with conditions. The Medium Light Stone interior gives it a nice two tone interior that goes with the color. I loved being in F-4's until my back would not put up with it anymore. The Air Force wanted to turn me into a maintenance officer, but I elected to get out and stay in Alaska instead.

Great to hear that both are that much closer to getting there. When I ordered in October, I hoped for December delivery and ended up with mid-January. It seemed like an eternity when the old car got wind that it was being replaced and demanded some extended shop time when parts were back ordered, wrong part delivered, and then back ordered again. The wait was worth it for the C-Max. The first test drive convinced me that it was the car I had been looking for.

My Nav has been hit and miss, although to tell the truth most nav programs except for Google Maps is generally lousy for Alaska. Sometimes the location is spot on and other times I will turn where indicated and it suddenly show me off route and halfway between blocks. Today was the first time it went off the deep end.When I got to my destination it was telling me to make a legal U turn to go back. I went ahead and turned the car off and went shopping. When I came back, the car promptly reported a navigation error, see the screen which was blank. When it eventually came on, I backed out of the space, and when I shifted into drive it came back with the navigation screen but with a frozen image from the backup camera in the background. Presets on the radio where blank. It took a couple restarts and switching between various options until it recovered. I will find out tomorrow and if necessary do a hard reboot.

I just installed the grill covers yesterday, 2/2. Because the license holder has one rivet into the bumper with the other two in the grill, I elected to cutout around the license holder. This was fairly easy to do and leaves the holder in place. The back of the holder fits into the grill and is not flat on back. I could have used the covers last weekend when lows were to down to -16F and did not get above zero on Sunday. When the ICE would shut off, the engine would cool very quickly with a drop of over 3 mpg on the tank average from the cold spell. The temperatures have since moderated and are currently staying around freezing. I do not have enough miles with the covers in place yet to tell the affect on mileage. What I have seen is that the water temp gets up the mid-range and stays there more consistently, which over the long term should mean more opportunity to run in EV mode. I uploaded a picture to my gallery.