-
Posts
27 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Gallery
Posts posted by Rob
-
-
We have an ugly black box on top of our White Platinum C-Max, with an ugly black antenna attached to it. It's a real eyesore, on an otherwise fine looking car. What's it for - anyone know? We do not currently use a Bluetooth cell phone, so if it's somehow related to cell phone use, can I at least unscrew the black antenna?
On the Energi forum there is a thread about a color matched sharkfin antenna from Juiced Hybrid that is much lower profile and more attractive. The link to the item is: http://www.juicedhybrid.com/Ford-C-Max-Shark-Fin-Replacement-Antenna-s/1345.htm
And the link to the Energi thread that includes pictures is: http://fordcmaxenergiforum.com/topic/1170-shark-fin-antenna/?hl=sharkfin&do=findComment&comment=7657
-
Any updates on your Fusion Hybrid? Did it get to 3.5.1?
-
What is on Line 1? Does it sound like "Home"? Sometimes when I say "Call Sally" it makes me choose between "Kelly" and "Sally". I think this is usually when there is more background noise (road noise or the fan is set higher). I don't think that it has anything to do with my phone (HTC EVO).
-
I've had the problem 4 times in three months. Three times opening the door worked. Once I had to start the car and turn it off and re-insert the J1772 plug. (I always use the same wall plug.)
-
If you run into problems with the new phone, you can try a master rest and start fresh. Personally, I'd go this route.
http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/perform-master-reset-sync-myford-touch#reload
But what do you lose with a master reset? Navigation favorites? Radio presets?
I have downloaded this "reboot" procedure that doesn't delete any of my data.
http://outofmytouch.com/reboot.html
To me it's worth trying this first for any MFT issue.
-
For me, if I raise the seat too high, then I can't see as far behind me in the rear view mirror. There is sort of an angle downward to the ground.
I know what you mean, so I don't max out the height. Also if I went any higher I wouldn't be able to see the clock at the top of the 8 inch screen.
Does anybody else feel like they are sitting higher in the mornings? I notice by the angle of the mirror. Either my spine decompressed overnight or more likely the seats don't give as much when they're cooler.
-
Yes, I find it too low. I'm 5'10" and my solution is to raise the power seat (SEL) about as high as it will go (still tons of headroom for me) and use the top of the door panel as an armrest. It's not as soft but the angle is more natural to me. A unintended side benefit of this is my wife at 5'3" no longer feels the need to move the seat more forward when she drives. Doesn't make sense but OK. This is the first car EVER that we've owned to share the drivers positions. YAY!!! Her Civic EX coupe fits me like a proverbial glove; every contact point seems perfect and falls naturally to place. I literally moan a little "ahh" as I slip into it and shut the door but it's the getting in and out of it that's a PITA; more like a true sports car and even the longer doors of the coupe design don't help. I still prefer the Cmax and consider the armrest a minor wart in an otherwise great design.
The C-Max replaced an Escape and I found that I liked to have the seat raised. It's strange how just a couple of inches of seat height can give you the feeling of driving a car (low) or an SUV. With the higher seat setting I use the top of the door panel like C-MAXER. Probably not as soft as the armrest, but much softer than the Escape's door panel.
-
I like the little "trays" on the outside of the front seats. I think that they are there to keep things from falling under the seat from the side, but I use them for things that don't need to be handy while driving. Such as: spare change (no coin holder), sunglasses holder (the car provides one but sometimes I need one at my destination), spare dog leash (used to just have it on the passenger floor in my Escape), the garage door opener (just in case).
I could fit all of that in the center console cavern, but then I would never find anything in there!
-
I have to admit that I don't understand NPV very well, but with your result I think that you would have to have a VERY high rate of return to lose almost $600 in 8 months.
-
One calculation error where you determined EV miles to recover premium.
You show: 1380.77/.049875 = 60,427 miles but that result actually comes from dividing the premium by the cost per mile savings of .02285.
That's the right calculation to make: the extra cost divided by the savings per mile will give you the number of miles to recoup the extra cost. But .02285 is not the savings when driving EV, it's the savings using the blended cost per mile (.08333 - .06048). Therefore you've calculated the total number of miles need to recoup your cost. No need to reapply the 2/3 of the miles will be EV.
But 60,427 is still a large number considering the low number of miles that they're driving per year.
I did some similar calculations trying to justify my Energi purchase, but I used some different numbers that came out more advantageous for the Energi. (That's probably telling that I wanted the Energi more.) From reading forums and looking at fuelly.com I lowered the expectations of the MPG to 41 hybrid and 38 Energi. My electric rate is slightly lower at .12 including fees and taxes and some of my charges have been free. Oddly none of my gas fill-ups are free.
Now that I have the car some of the numbers are even more favorable than I used in the calculation. Over 80% of my 1,900 miles have been EV. That's nice, but I know it won't last. Because of that I can't really estimate my non EV MPG. My grocery store gives a discount on gas based on how much you spend at the store. Because of the high number of EV miles I was able to accumulate a larger discount and my one tank of gas was discounted $.90 per gallon.
I guess I'm trying hard to justify my choice now that I've made it, but I also really enjoy driving in EV mode and not having to worry about exceeding the threshold that turns on the ICE.
Blended cost per mile: $0.06048
Hybrid cost per mile
$.083333
Energi cost savings per mile
$0.02285
EV miles to recover Energi premium = 1380.77/.049875 = 60,427 miles
Based on 2/3 of total odometer miles being EV miles the odometer miles for payback is 90,641 miles
-
I was just turning off the car, but I just tested it and it worked if I pressed pause before turning off the car. It knew which song and at what point it was at within that song. It was just waiting for me to press play.
The surprising part was that it remembered what song it was on from Sunday and the USB has been out of the car since then. It looks like it works great for songs. (m4a files from itunes in this case)
-
-
I also have Ruby Red with a chip in the hood. I was planning on trying Ford's touch-up figuring that they would be best at matching the color. I'll try to do before and after shots as well.
-
I have Sync 3.1.3 with the Sony stereo and listened to music from the USB for the first time this weekend. Every time I returned to the car it started playing right where it had left off.
However, I did have occasional split seconds of silence. I think that this was always shortly after starting the car. My thought was that Sync was temporarily overwhelmed. Possibly indexing the songs on the USB.
-
I'm not sure about the different models, but I have a lock "symbol" on the right side of my Sony controls (opposite the hazard button). It looks like it would be a button, but it has a small indicator light on it. When the doors are locked the indicator light is on. Maybe that's similar for yours.
-
That's happened a couple of times with me too. I thought that maybe I was pulling the handle too quickly. A couple of days ago the door opened fine, but as I started to sit down the alarm went off. Has that happened to anyone else? Hopefully it was a one time thing.
-
I still wonder if EV+ is a programming holdover from the Energi that makes little sense for the hybrid.
I can't understand what the benefit of EV+ is to an Energi unless I'm in hybrid mode. I can understand the logic of allowing further battery depletion near known locations as it assumes that the car will be plugged in or will be starting cold requiring the ICE to run longer to warm up for emissions/performance reasons, which in turn will charge the battery back into a normal operating range.
-
Now that I think of the regen miles, there has got to be more situations where the hybrid's battery is near capacity. In that case the car is unable to capture any regen energy because there is nowhere for that energy to go. So the hybrid would lose that opportunity.
-
Rob -
Thanks for your submittal. Energi data are fine - I plan to separate the Energi data and the Hybrid data.
Are there some additional items we should ask about for the Energi?
What does "73.5 MPGe. 250 kw" mean on your lifetime mpg line? [i looked at the manual and think the 250kw means you have used 250kwh of electric energy that went into your plug-in battery by plugging it in (charging) and the MPGe divides miles by the sum of your gallons of gas used plus "equivalent" gallons of gas calculated from your kwh usage via the plug-in battery. Is this correct? Do you know if the kwh figure comes from what you charge into your plug-in battery or what you take out of your plug-in battery? Do you know how the equation for converting kwh to equivalent gallons of gas?]
You are correct. The kw is the amount of energy the battery uses for propulsion. It doesn't count energy used by accessories or climate control. Between that and the fact that charging cannot be a perfectly efficient process the amount of kwh that come out of the wall will be higher. I'm guessing 10 to 15 %.
33.7 kwh is equal to one gallon of gas.
Does the ENERGI tell you how many of your EV miles are from the plug-in battery and how many are from the regular hybrid battery?
No. It doesn't distinguish the type of EV miles.
Does the ENERGI get more regen than the HYBRID? Does regen braking on the ENERGI feed the plug-in battery or the regular hybrid battery or both?
I don't know why the regen miles would be higher in an Energi. Seems like that is just an estimation anyway. Perhaps the algorithm to calculate that could be different (and maybe wrong). More numbers may shed some light on that.
It's easier to think of it as 2 batteries, but of course it is really just one. Fortunately regen returns energy to the battery when we are in hybrid or full EV mode. In fact, if we go down a significant enough hill we can recapture enough energy to switch us back from hybrid mode to a mode that shows us the all electric range of the battery. I believe Valkraider has gone down a mountain and charged his "big battery" from empty to over 50% full.
-
You might not want Energi numbers:
1. Model - Energi
2. Lifetime Total Miles Driven - 1268.7
3. Lifetime EV miles driven - 1046
4. Percentage drive EV to total - 82.4%
5. Lifetime Regen miles - 287
6. Lifetime mpg - 130.6. (73.5 MPGe. 250 kw)
7. Lifetime brake score - 94%
8. Lifetime numbers - Reset after I took possession at 109 miles on the odometer.
16 mile round trip commute and no roadtrips yet. Perfect for the Energi, I think I'll get back the extra cost for the bigger battery.
-
I saw a similar complaint at safecar.gov under the Complaints tab.
-
Mine says that too; however, there is a pre-set default Value Charge setting that is set from 12am-6am - the option to create more settings isn't available.
Thanks. I didn't know that worked. So I just tested it and you can edit that window so you won't have to stay up until midnight. I edited the Value Charge setting, modified the time on the weekend setting and then saved it. Be careful because I think it forced the switch back to "Charge now". Set that back to Value Charge and update. If it works then you can reset it to midnight, set value charge, update, and rest easy. I hope!
-
-
I don't even have the option to set a value charge yet. When I try to add one it tells me the feature will be available in "early 2013". Maybe you were fortunate to define a value charge, but I wouldn't count on them working just yet.
Last production run for California was Dec. 19th?
in Buying, Order and Leasing
Posted
I saw it at fordinsidenews.com.
http://www.fordinsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?9291-OrderGuides-F-L-2014my/page4&p=77882