New to forum. Have had C-Max 10 months or so and have same issues. I have the noise (very loud) when starting up and in electric mode. Also, A/C not functioning as others have described. What happens to us it that we'll get cold air on driver side, and often blow heat on passenger side. If not heat, will be outside air. It can be fixed by leaving A/C on, but turning car off for a good 10 seconds to (apparently) reboot. Will generally work after that, although we don't generally get really cold A/C. I say 'generally' as we've had A/C working fully and sending in really cold air, both side. Of course, dealer can find nothing wrong with anything. I don't know what to do. As an aside, we're getting 41.5 mpg in a lot of suburban-type driving and highway. The trick to staying in electric mode, as I would assume most would know, is to be gentle on the accelerator. Heavy foot, cruddy mileage. I can run around town mostly in electric mode if I'm careful on the gas.