hybridbear

What were the other 6 cars you drove which didn't compare to the C-Max?

I disagree. Your trips were not equal. For one thing, the return trip started with a warm ICE. Second, the trips were in opposite directions so you aren't accounting for elevation changes or wind. Third, it's very likely that the two trips didn't start/end with the same SOC. If you don't adjust your MPG calculations to account for this difference then it isn't an accurate comparison.

I'm assuming by your description that you have the "instantaneous MPG" display turned on. Perhaps he has it turned off. Remember that the bars are not equal to a specific kW number, but they represent a percentage of maximum power. On the Empower screen with instantaneous MPG turned on each bar is about 16 kW. If you turn the instantaneous MPG off then you have more bars and thus each bar represents a different number of kW because each one now represents a lower percentage of total power.

I wouldn't think a special tech is needed to fix the seat.

You can program the "My View" screen to show how much power is going to the climate control. Since the A/C uses power over time, slow city driving with a lower MPH average speed will see a bigger impact from A/C use than freeway travel. This is because you might spend 30 minutes in the car in the city to drive 12 miles and use 0.75 kWh of electricity for the A/C. Or you could spend 30 minutes in the car on the freeway and drive 30 miles while using that same 0.75 kWh of A/C. Since you covered more distance on the freeway and thus consumed more energy to power the car, the 0.75 kWh A/C load is a smaller percentage of your total energy consumption. One thing we do to reduce A/C energy consumption is start out with the HVAC set to Auto and a high interior temp, possibly 78 or 80. Then as the system gradually cools the car down you periodically lower the HVAC temp one degree at a time until you get to the desired temp. If you watch your consumption on the "My View" screen you'll see that once the fan speed begins to drop and the power demand falls under 1 kW, lowering the temp one degree at a time doesn't really increase power demand.

I agree. The vacuum pump in the C-Max is electric. So with no 12V battery you didn't get the vacuum assist. The brake pump is the buzzing you hear when you walk up to the car & unlock it. Usually when the car has been sitting for hours the pump will engage when you unlock it so that the brakes will have pressure once you turn the car on. This is no different than what would have happened in a conventional car with the ICE off. You just have to mash the pedal to the floor and you'll get limited stopping power. My first car was a 1998 Chevy Lumina with almost 200,000 miles. One day I was driving along and stepped on the brakes only to find that I had to really press hard to stop. After driving a few more blocks I could tell that I had a vacuum leak and thus wasn't getting the assistance I was used to from the vacuum system to apply the brakes. I found that by shifting the car to Neutral & revving the engine I could create enough of a vacuum to stop safely by using my right foot on the gas & left foot on the brake. I turned off the busy road I was on at the first safe place to do so & called my Roadside Assistance through my insurance company to tow the car. That was a scary experience.

One cautionary note. Do the math on the total cost of your payments if you buy the car at the end of the lease. It usually is not a very good deal. Look at the numbers carefully. You might be better off turning in the C-Max at the end of the lease & buying a new one.

Incredible MPG SDM! That's better than we ever got on a road trip in our Fusion!

"Ready to drive" just means the car is on. There is a little green car symbol with arrows under it which indicates when the car is "Ready to drive". This is the same as any other car being "on". The heater in the Energi is electric. The heater in the hybrid is a conventional heater core design. The electric heater in the Energi uses a resistance heater to heat the coolant. Electric heaters are not very efficient. Heating is one thing that ICE cars do well since an ICE very effectively turns gasoline into heat. Heat suffers in any hybrid because of how much time the ICE is off. You can help this by using the Engine Block Heater & grille covers along with maximizing your use of heated seats & minimizing your use of HVAC. Winter efficiency drops because of many reasons but a couple of big ones are: increased rolling resistance due to stiffer rubber in tires, snow/ice on road, lower tire pressure due to colder air temps, etcincreased aerodynamic drag since cold air is more dense than warm airAll C-Maxes come with a key and there is a way to use the key on the driver's door if the 12V battery is dead. If the car does not recognize the key the SEL can be started by putting the key in a special spot & then pushing the start button.

That's dirty! Did you report that dealership? I would report them to Ford, your local BBB & leave a bad review on dealerrater.com. That practice is at the very least unethical & I believe it is illegal to advertise a price that most buyers will not qualify for. The Energy Flow graphic is very informative. It allows you to see how the car is operating. If you are comparing an SE without MFT to an SEL with MFT there will be differences. For example, with MFT the car can read your text messages to you when they arrive or display them on the screen if you're not moving. Some phones (I believe Android only) the car can even compose a reply for you. If you don't have MFT you cannot do this. Your voice commands for controlling the radio, climate, etc are very limited if you get an SE without MFT. The SEL radio is Sony, the SE radio is unbranded. The SEL also has more speakers. Our Focus Electric has the Sony audio & our Fusion Hybrid has the unbranded system. I do not have a good ear for music so I don't notice a real difference in sound quality when listening to Bluetooth audio, a CD or an iPod. HD FM radio versus normal FM radio is a big improvement in sound quality with the SEL Sony radio versus the SE unbranded radio. You can control just about everything climate control related with voice commands if you have MFT. If you do not have MFT you only have the one set of climate buttons and there are zero voice commands for climate. The 12V battery is charged via a DCDC converter from the HVB anytime the car is in "Ready to drive" mode. The Energi models also charge the 12V battery while plugged in to the wall. There is no alternator, in fact, there are no belt-driven accessories. Everything is electric in the C-Max, and electricity is much more efficient. Likely you didn't have the car in "Ready to drive" mode when you were playing with the gauges so you were draining the 12V battery. Once it gets low the car goes into "Battery saver" mode to protect the 12V. If the 12V goes completely dead you won't be able to unlock the doors, etc since it powers the computers. If the 12V should somehow die while driving the car won't be affected since the 12V has nothing to do with starting the ICE. When the ICE needs to start the car uses power from the HVB to spin the ICE up to speed with the generator motor and then it starts injecting fuel into the cylinders once it is spinning at speed. If you use the Engage screen on the dash you can see this spike in EV power right as the ICE starts. It seems that most owners who drive their cars every day for longer trips have no issues with low 12V battery SOC. Those who don't, like us, often need a battery maintainer to prolong the life of the 12V battery. It's a sad reality of many hybrids that the manufacturer fits a tiny 12V battery since it isn't used to crank the ICE but then that tiny battery cannot keep up with all the computers since the hybrid has more computers & tech running when the car is off compared to a conventional vehicle. If you drive a lot of short trips and few miles daily then the Energi is the best fit and it should never have low 12V battery issues. The powertrain of these hybrids is actually quite simple. The eCVT design of combining two electric motors with the ICE through a planetary gear set is much, much simpler than an automatic transmission. Electric power steering, AC and a DCDC converter to charge the 12V battery is much simpler than having a belt driven power steering pump, AC compressor and alternator. Electric components like these are also much more efficient and reliable. You also don't have to worry about changing a belt ever and the electric water pump should be much more durable than a belt driven water pump.

Lol Yes, if you don't use any regen but just brake pads because of low speed you'll get a 0% brake score

Unfortunately, yes. And it was a miserable ordeal for the owner. As of yesterday we're now having this issue too. See this thread: http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8842-specific-thread-active-back-up-guidelines-disappearance/

Attachment space is limited and photo album space is limited. I personally use photobucket. It's really easy to upload photos from my phone with the app and then I use the "URL" link to show photos in posts or like below in my signature of our Focus Electric. Others have commented about using Facebook. You can create a special album on Facebook for "car pics" and then use those links to post pics here. I'm not a Facebook user so I don't know how that works. I know that creating another login isn't ideal, but photobucket was very easy for me to setup and has been very easy to use. Remember that if you delete any photos from your Forum photo album or attached photos you will be deleting those photos from your previous posts.

Very cool! The hybrid/PHEV/BEV slide shows exactly why we have one full electric car & one hybrid. We drive the electric car as much as possible and use our FFH for long trips. It only costs $30 in electricity to drive 1000 miles in the Focus Electric, even the FFH can only go about 400 miles for $30 in gas. Thus we use the Focus Electric as much as possible. When it is time to replace the Fusion in 5-7 years I hope there are many more options available so that it can be replaced with a PHEV.

I like the commercials, better than any others I've seen so far. I liked the comment about "we've got hybrids so we'll see who runs out of gas first!"

The technician didn't choose, the software programming sent by Ford engineers chose what to reset. Because of this fact I reset my Lifetime at the time of doing the PCM update. I'm curious to see what you find out for data for this!

You can roughly calculate the lost efficiency. For example: Lifetime Brake Score: 90% Lifetime Regen Miles: 500 Odometer Miles: 10,000 Lifetime MPG: 40.0 First, calculate how many regen miles have been lost. Take the brake score number you'd like to use for comparison and subtract your current brake score. In this example let's compare what would have happened if this owner were to have a 99% Lifetime Brake Score. (0.99 - 0.90 = 0.07) Then multiply that number times your Lifetime Regen Miles to see how much regen has been lost. (500 x 0.07 = 35) Now calculate how much fuel has been used in the Lifetime of the vehicle. (10000 / 40 = 250 gallons) Now add the lost regen to your odometer and calculate your new Lifetime MPG with the higher brake score. (10035 / 250 = 40.14) Now you can use that new MPG number to calculate how many gallons extra you've used in your Lifetime because of the lower brake score. (10000 / 40.14 = 249.1) So, from this you can see that in this hypothetical scenario an improvement in brake score from 90% to 99% would mean very little. Thus, you cannot state that a low brake score causes low MPGs. There might be a high correlation, but correlation is not causation. However, a low brake score is likely indicative of a different style of driving. Style of driving would have a causal relationship to MPG results.

And, Toyota & Ford both supposedly used technology patented by Paice. http://fordfusionhybridforum.com/topic/8337-ford-sued-for-patent-infringement-in-new-fusion-c-max-hybrids/

I hope you reported this dealer to Ford Customer Service. I would just tell the dealer that you want the sticker gone. When we picked up our Fusion I told the salesman that I would like them to remove the sticker. He then had them remove the sticker when they were prepping the vehicle for delivery to us. I wouldn't mind a license plate frame because the dealer treated us well, and I told the salesman that but he said their dealer only does stickers.

I agree about the Energi. The Energi has a few more HP as measured as the max combined output. This is because of different computer programming and a higher max discharge rate of the HVB. The hybrid max discharge rate is 35 kW which limits how much power the electric motor can deliver. In the Energi it is 65 kW. The Energi should never have a 12V battery failure since the 12V is charged whenever the car is connected to an EVSE. I disagree with both statements. The Energi hump is not that large & still leaves a lot of cargo room. And, even at 75 MPH the Energi on battery is far more efficient than the hybrid. However, understanding your electrical situation is important before buying an Energi. If you have a 15-amp circuit with no other power draw then you'll be fine with that. The Energi pulls about 13 amps when charging. If you want to go 240V then you usually have to get a permit and get the work inspected in most municipalities even if you can do the installation yourself. 240V charging should not be looked at as a "will it pay for itself?" decision. It should be a convenience decision. With 240V charging you can completely recharge in under 2.5 hours. That is one benefit. But, the big benefit is preconditioning. With 120V only your preconditioning will be very limited. It is so nice to get into a car that is already cool in the summertime, or warm in the winter. We're loving it with our Focus Electric!

It's legit. I did one after we bought our FFH and then was invited to be part of the Google Hangout with Gil Portalatin to get to ask him questions about the FFH. The video can be found in YouTube.

For purchases it's $6000 cash back plus 0% financing. Then you can claim up to $7500 as the Federal Tax Credit, provided you have enough income to pay $7500 in federal income tax. You are correct that the Focus Electric is excluded from X-Plan. It is not excluded from A/Z-Plan though.

On a lease the tax credit is claimed by the leasing company. Thus the $11,000 Ford incentive for the Focus Electric that was being discussed in the other thread. Getting $5757 cash back plus the $4000 federal tax credit to lease an Energi is incredible.

What's TBN? Do you get a discount for being a frequent customer if you get their analysis done at every oil change?

How much does it cost to do this? I vaguely remember reading it on their site but more my question is if there's any way to get a discount that you know of?