SBGrad

I told that to at least 5 engineers at the owner's event in Irvine. One of them was incredulous that I hated the leaves, the rest of them were sympathetic. They said they would talk to the suits in Detroit about this, but none of them could say with absolute authority that it would get done. It's a software change, but I am sure they have a huge prioritized list of other software changes/additions, and I'm not sure where this idea would rank in terms of priority.

That was Ford's idea. They had little sandwich boards, 'Bay 1' 'Bay 2' etc, and they told you which bay to park in-- "try to line your car up exactly with the sign," they said. The bays were spaced so it was about 2 C-Maxi per 3 striped spaces. They pretty much had to do this because you were constantly walking around your vehicle with the engineers talking over things. If they used normal spacing everybody would've been running into each other.

Best 4 hours I've spent with the car. It's on the far side of midnight right now and I'm more than a little zonked out, but I'll write in a day or 2.

See, I figured you were talking golf umbrella. ..and there just isn't any place to store it out of sight AND have it close at hand, which is why I said back storage. If you want something that big close at hand, it sits on one of the seats.

There's always the back compartment, next to the battery. That would probably be enough space for whatever size umbrella you've got. Of course, you have to go back to the liftgate to get it out

SEL, 7700+ miles, built in Sept.. Of course I probably just jinxed myself by posting in this thread.

When I saw the thread title, I thought you were talking about 'whoop, I did something bad' sort of stories. I was trying to count the number of times I've gotten out of the car without turning the engine off, or the time I filled it with gas with the engine running, but I see you're talking about a different kind of 'whoop.' I've done those, too. It's so quiet and stable that many's the time I've looked at the speedo only to find I am doing 80 or so.

Oh wow, it's like the Parent Trap or something. I'm sure I'd get in the wrong car one day and go crazy trying to figure out why it wouldn't start.

I have my seats up to just about the top of their travel and they are somewhere between 24-26" off the ground-- tough to be more accurate because I was using a soft tape measure. Anyway, the seating position is MUCH higher than my old 2006 Focus hatch, much more like my 95 Explorer.

My MAN DATE has the same number, bought the car last October

$230 for the caliper covers! They look great, but a little too rich for my blood.

Well, next Saturday that will be a no brainer...

"The numbers" (aka 47/47/47) had little to no weight when I decided to get a C-Max. The numbers are a test artifact, and who ever gets exactly what the numbers say (for any car)? 2 cars ago I owned a 95 Explorer. I have no clue what 'the numbers' were for the truck. My personal MPG for a tank, week in, week out, normally commuting, the way I drive, was 21MPG. That's pretty much what it was for the 11 years I owned it. A 2006 Focus ZX-5 replaced the Explorer. Again, I have no idea what the 'Official' numbers were, but the day in/day out (same commute as the Explorer) MPG was 31, 50% as good as the Explorer. When it came time to get another car, it was going to be a Ford with a liftgate that got better MPG than the Focus. If there had been a hybrid Escape or a hybrid Edge in 2013, I probably would've gone that way (more cargo space), but the C-Max was the hybrid, so that's what we got. ..and the day in/day out MPG isn't 47, but it is over 40MPG, which is still 33% better than the Focus, and almost double the old Explorer. That's the kicker for me, not the end MPG, but the MPG GAIN over the last car we had. Plus, I still have my cargo space (more than the Focus), so I am happy. YMMV.

MFT only accepts .png, .jpg and .gif formats. There are animated.gif files, but I don't know: a) if MFT takes animated gifs, or b) you can save your Flurry background as an animated gif.

Bummer. The nav option costs FAR more than an add-on Garmin, but this is one time when it does some good.

So, when you finally filled it, how many gallons went in? I never fill it until after the gauge goes red, and I still haven't been able to put 12 gallons in-- meaning I have at least 1.5 gallons left in the tank. IIRC, the last time the gauge was red, < 20 miles to E, and I could only put 11.75 gallons in.

One thing the Ford engineer said in 'Lunch Date' Fusion video was that the way to heat yourself up using the LEAST amount of power was to use the seat heaters only, no fans. I can't remember if the seats are heated by the ICE or electric motor, you can watch the video and see what he says.

You're welcome, thanks for the nice words about my pix. I'm something of an amateur photog and it was fun doing a 'photo shoot' with the new car. Umm, let's see-- yes, I too am worried about moisture, especially with the media center there in the center console, so I will never put drinks down in 'the pit.' I had to go look at the indentation next to the 12V plug, it is about 2" deep and 2" high, so you can put small objects in there. Yes, there are lights in the back, and also reflectors on the frame of the C-Max, so if you have the lift gate up and you are parked on a street/road at night and a car comes up behind you, there will be something for their headlights to bounce of off. When the gate is closed the reflectors are hidden (but then of course you have the taillights in position). I rechecked my C-Max pictures and I framed so tightly on the mtn bike that I left out the reflectors-- have to fix that next time I am shooting. This had been WAAAAYY OT, so to get back on topic, here is a link to some info about Gil Portalatin, the Ford engineer in the 'Lunch Date' Fusion video: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=31305 -- I googled his name to find that link and saw that he has a number of hybrd related videos up on YouTube.

I could've sworn the marketeer said they were taking questions from FB and twitter, but I could be wrong. Even if they were, you have to figure out WHICH Ford acctount/FB page to folow to find out about these things. Iget email from Ford Social and they didn't tell me about this. Maybe go to You Tube and look at who posted it and go backwards from there.

That's probaby the right approach to take. When I filled out the RDA survery I was thinking that they want to improve the car, so if I went the fanboy route they wouldn't be interested. As far as the drawing for $$ goes, if they pick me I won't turn it down, but I'd go for free to talk to the engineers-- that's the big carrot for me. ...oh yah, if RDA is setting up another 'meet the engineers' event, they are giving us $200 to come to the one in Irvine CA.

I've driven San Diego-San Francisco-San Diego twice. Up I-5, over 5000' Tejon Pass, more than 500 miles one way. The car will cruise all day at whatever speed you want. I had no complaints with the seats in our SEL-- I was in the driver's and passenger (front) seat. Luggage + 3 people + XMas presents on one trip. We tended to be north of the speed limit much of the time (LOTs of time @ 80MPH), which is great for getting the trip over with, and not so great for gas mileage. Somewhere around 37mpg or so.

Thanks. I took that picture at 632am, at an elevation of 13,000' (or so) on the Mt Whitney trail, about 8 miles from the trailhead (on the 99 switchbacks, if you know the trail). 10 of us from the office started at 1245am under a blue moon. It looked like that for about 1 minute.

I just found one of my pictures that I liked, reszied it in Lightroom, and exported it at 800x384 (which is about as UNstandard as you can get). This is the orginal aspect ratio. Sunrise on Sierra Crest by SBGrad, on Flickr

Ford Social finally got around to approving my idea. If you want to have a choice of Sync voices, you can go here and vote/comment on it: http://social.ford.com/your-ideas/technologies/infotainment/give-us-choice-of-sync-voices/

Every time I've looked it has shown the street I am on. If they change the screen, I'd prefer to see the upcoming cross street, rather than the street I am on.