BillJ

I have experienced the "yellow wrench of death" with my 2013 Cc-Max with push button start fairly frequently over the past week now. It seems to happen only with the first start up of the day, after sitting in cold weather overnight. After several attempts to start the car, everything starts to work normally. I had the car in for service, and all the techs did there was to "reprogram" the car, but the problem persists. I was told by a car salesman (who drives a fusion) that this is an episodic problem that all the Ford keyless start cars have from time to time. However, there does not seem to be much discussion about this here in the forums. Here is a more specific description of what I experience: get in the car, depress the brake, push the start button; after 2-3 seconds the "YWOD" appears in the left panel, and then the message "Rear parking aid malfunction". I then turn the car off, repeat the process, and car will usually start normally on the third or fourth try.

This check distribution is a bit odd. There seems to be no real rhyme or reason. We have no check, bought our CMax in January of this year, live in Philadelphia, last name begins with "J". I wonder if there is a place to check with Ford to make sure that a letter was not lost somewhere along the line...

It's not the car. I have a Samsung SIII that I tried to "strip down" by deleting much of the "bloatware" on it. I then discovered, however, that Samsung proprietary add-ons are necessary to pair the phone properly. You might want to check with your phone retailer to make sure all of the software was reinstalled properly on your phone.

I just got a call from Sirius about my "free trial period" ending. I like Sirius, but I am not sure that it is worth $10/month. I told that to the phone representative, who simply said "OK then, call us if you would be interested in restarting your subscription". I was not offered any special deals. I will be happy listening to either of the public radio stations here in Philly, both of which my wife and I support financially. My thinking may be flawed, but I just have the feeling that public radio is more "deserving" of support than Sirius, although I certainly see nothing wrong with Sirius' provision of a service for profit.

My EZ pass sits perfectly in front of the CD slot in my SEL. I don't have it mounted, I keep it in the glove box when not travelling on toll roads. (Some people's cars are vandalized to steal these things from the windshields) Maybe I am just a bit paranoid...

And I thought that when I traded my Prius in for a C-Max I was doing something unusual and remarkable. I hate it when I land in the middle of a predictable demographic...

I also find it annoying. I hit the darn thing with my finger by accident at times on the touch screen. Please make it go away...

My Galaxy S3 pairs flawlessly and has never lost a connection. However, text messaging does not work, and voice command does not recognize telephone entries by contact name. This is the only impairment in functionality that makes any difference to me.

It was a beautiful warm day in Philadelphia yesterday, and as I was tooling around town I had several legs of a trip that registered over 60 mpg. This made me wonder what the C-Max's best possible mpg could be under ideal conditions. Consider: a) Trip of 5 miles or more b) Level, smooth road c) Driver only, no accessories on (OK, you can have the radio on) d) Warm car e) Warm ambient temperature, no wind f) P and G from 25-40 (*or is there a more efficient range) Of course this is not "real world" driving, but I'll bet this car could get 70mpg under these conditions. I may try some experimentation myself.

I have the SEL with the 302 package. I love all the gadgets, no regrets. The sound system is awesome, and I use the hands-free liftgate more than I thought I would (although it does take 2 kicks to open when the car is locked). I would probably love to drive just a basic C-Max as well; but with the 302a features, I feel like I am in a Lexus or BMW...

Thanks for your effort in writing this piece. I have tried to follow as many of these high-mileage tips as I can within the confines of inner-city driving in Philadelphia. One unintended consequence of learning new driving techniques, however, is potential family discord. My wife's attitude is "just get in the car and drive"- when I am sitting in the passenger seat, I have to suppress my urges to recommend driving techniques to improve fuel efficiency. I have been married long enough to realize that there are some battles that are not meant to be fought... Cheers

It is meant to be a divider between the cup spaces in the cup holder; to hold smaller cups I suppose. I don't know, I never got one. Dealer was clueless. BTW, if you have keyless entry, did you get backup keys in your fobs?

I experienced this same problem a few weeks back. My SEL with push-button start gave me an error message about "rear parking aid failure- see manual". Of course, there is nothing in the manual about this. My C-Max had to be removed from our parking garage, in which our spot is 2 levels below ground with only 7 feet of overhead clearance. To say the least, I am glad I was not one of the Roadside Assistance folks who pushed the car up 2 flights of ramps to get it loaded on the truck to the dealer. Dealer had this vehicle for a week, could find nothing wrong. Perhaps the communication within the organization is not very good...

High efficiency fuel-injected engines can sound like rattling cans when cold. I had a MINI engine that did that consistently, and would stop rattling when warm. Rattling that persists could be a problem with the timing chain, especially if the sound is like metal banging against metal. Since it goes away when the engine warms up, you can probably ignore it.

My car before the C-Max was a Mini Cooper S coupe. I loved the pickup and responsiveness of that little guy. But my wife and I moved to the big city, and there is just no reason to have a performance vehicle here. The point is, the C-Max has turned me, a veteran "performance" driver, into a hypermiler! Perhaps it is my OCD, but I get a kick out of how high I can get the MPG ratings at the end of a trip. I accelerate slowly, acting as if there were something fragile that might be crushed between my foot and the accelerator. I make sure that I stay in EV mode as much as possible, anticipate slowing and stopping. I can't stand it when I am in the passenger seat and my wife is "wasting" gas by engaging the ICE unnecessarily. Ambient temperatures here in Philadelphia have been in the 30's and low 40's, but I can still get 50+ mph in city traffic. Eco-cruising on the NJ Turnpike yields about 42-43 mpg at these temperatures. If my wife drives, with the heater on high and coming out of every intersection on ICE, we get in the high 20's mpg. (Putting climate on "auto" degrades mpg by about 10-20% at 30 degrees F, even more when the air is colder). To sum up, how do I drive? Like my grandmother used to...