VirginiaRick

It was my understanding that the proper procedure for turning off your C-Max was to: 1) Shift to P. 2) Step on the brake. 3) Press the Start/Stop button. I just noticed in the owner's manual (page 174) they don't say anything about stepping on the brake. Is that unnecessary, or am I inadvertently leaving some current-drawing devices on? And, BTW, it just makes me want to shake my head and sigh, when the owner's manual has to spend five (5) pages telling you how to start and stop your engine. :banghead:

You've sure got that right, SnowStorm!

...now, if we could just have our MPG's keep up with the degrees fahrenheit, we'd be in fat city! ;)

You have to hold your tongue just so.

There's also another thread, "Mystery Black Plastic Thing in Cupholder" under the General category. I went out to my car to see if it might be hiding somewhere, but alas, it was nowhere to be found. One thing I *did* notice though, as I was scrounging around -- the rear-seat floor 'secret' compartment on the driver's side is actually *two* (2) little compartments. And while we're talking about 'doohickies'... I take my car through one of those carwashes that has the rolling brushes and the hanging 'french-fries' (as my young daughter once called them), and I was concerned about the stubby little stick antenna on the roof. I found out, on another Ford Escape Hybrid forum (what I had before I bought the C-Max), that the cars come from the factory with a cap screwed into the hole where the antenna screws in. So I went to my Ford dealer and asked about getting one, and he said, "Sure! We just throw them away anyway." It's black plastic, about 1" in diameter, with the threads on one side to screw into that hole, and it looks kind of like a tiddley-wink. Now when I go through the carwash I unscrew the antenna and replace it with the cap, so water doesn't get into the hole. Bet not too many people have one of *those*!

What does that look like? I think my C-Max may have come without it.

I was just thinking of the electrical implications -- if forward motion causes it to act as a generator, then would going in the other direction create a load?

There's a proximity sensor in the front? Whereabouts? I've got the Roadmaster Tracker hitch on mine, and the crossbar piece hasn't caused any alarms to go off.

'regenerative braking', huh?......So what happens if you go backwards down a slope and apply the brakes? :headscratch:

...then I suppose driving around town like this would be considered sacrilegious! :drool: I opted for the Roadmaster Tracker hitch (the basic one).

"48.4"!!! :drool:

I posted this photo over on the Jus A CMax sighting... forum, but since this thread is all about everything 'toad', thought I'd post it here too. Anybody else thinking of doing this?

Man, you've got to get your C-Max into those photos!

Gotta go for the t-shirts. Now, if we could just get them in the colors matching our particular C-Maxes that would be super-cool! Just hope the dates jive with my summer schedule. Rick

Even though Virginia is a 'two-plate state', I've seen quite a few vehicles here in the Old Dominion with only one plate on the rear of the vehicle. I'm sure, however, that you would be able to get the necessary bracket from your friendly local Ford dealer so that you could mount the obligatory plate in front.

Since I'll be pulling my C-Max behind my RV, and since RVers refer to their towed vehicles as 'toads'...

The story starts with me taking my one-year-old 2012 Ford Escape Hybrid into the dealer (Myers Ford in Elkton, VA) for service back in November just before Thanksgiving. As I was waiting I got to talking with the sales guy from whom I bought the Escape the year before. He said, "Hey, got a minute? Come on over here and let me show you something." (I know, the only time a salesman *isn't* lying is when his lips aren't moving!). It turns out that they had a 2013 Ford C-MAX Hybrid SEL (all the whistles and bells) that a fellow had bought from them a couple of weeks earlier, but then decided he didn't want. He had gone over it with a super-fine-tooth comb, and discovered an ever-so-slight dimple in one of the doors. The dealership's body shop took care of it, no problem, but the fellow then said that he just couldn't keep the car since it had now been "repaired" (not a new car anymore, yada-yada-yada). I'm sure he took quite a hit in selling it back to the dealer. So, here is this 2013 C-MAX sitting on the lot, less than 200 miles on the odometer, and the dealer is having to sell it as a 'used' car. I had been fairly happy with my '12 Escape Hybrid over the past year, having bought it because I wanted to get something hybrid that could be towed behind a motorhome with all four wheels on the ground. It was rated at 34 mpg city / 30 mpg highway, but I never was able to get the numbers up that high. As everyone knows, the C-MAX is rated at 47 mpg city & highway, and is really more the size of car that I need (the Escape was just a little too big). After doing some research on the web, taking it out and checking it out, and going through the proverbial haggling, we were able to come to a mutual agreement (talk about your Black Friday deals!), and I am now the proud owner of what I think will become a very popular model hybrid -- certainly giving the Prius a run for its money. I have driven it twice from Virginia up to Northern Indiana (about 1250-1300 miles round trip), averaging ~38.4 MPG in the cold, wintry weather. (One of the trips was to get it outfitted for towing behind my RV.) On the second trip back I spotted a fellow C-Max on US-35 in West Virginia on 1/15/13 (we gave each other a "thumbs up"). That's the only one I've seen so far.

Took delivery of my SEL on 11/23/12. Have driven it twice from Virginia up to Northern Indiana (about 1250-1300 miles round trip), averaging ~38.4 MPG in the cold, wintry weather. On the second trip back spotted a fellow C-Max on US-35 in West Virginia on 1/15/13 (we gave each other a "thumbs up"). Only one I've seen so far.