SnowStorm

So, does the MyView gauge respond continuously to temperature changes? I've heard of gauges "designed" to just stay near the center until it goes "hot". I've never seen mine go past center. Has anyone compared how the gauge acts compared to readings from OBD-II as the engine gets hotter than normal?

Short answer: Set ECO cruise and enjoy the ride. If its hilly and traffic is heavy I often switch ECO mode off so as to maintain a more steady speed. One More Tip: Use ethanol-free gas if you can. Better mileage and no alcohol in the engine. You have to decide for yourself if its "worth it". Concerns: - If you raise pressure, make sure your tires are actually rated for it. Michelin makes two nearly identical tires but one is only rated to, I think, 44 psi. Haven't heard that any are on the C-Max but I would check your own tires. - Synthetic oil I use, but I'm concerned about "thinner" 0W-20 from standpoint of wear. No doubt there's some debate on this issue. - I wouldn't use DHA engine braking unless it was was a really long hill, the HV battery filled up and I didn't want to brake. I wouldn't have it ON just because the road wasn't flat. I don't understand how it saves gas. It just moves wear from the brakes to the engine. In fact, if the HV battery isn't full, DHA would waste gas because it dumps energy into the engine and exhaust instead of the battery. All said, have a great trip!

It is great for returning to speed after a stop. You can accelerate to 20+ mph then tap Resume and forget about it. The car will go smoothly back up to speed - about two bars on the gauge. The only time I don't use it is in heavier traffic where I want to really hold a constant speed so as not to disturb the flow.

Here its like 60% more. Combine that with an extra $0.40 per gallon to cover timing belt replacement and your 45 mpg "tanks" ( :lol:) to about 24 mpg! Around town you'll be hard pressed to break 20 mpg "cost equivalent". No thanks. My wife and I drove the sportwagon twice before going with the C-Max. (We both hate red dash lights!) I've never even been in a Prius so I leave that to those who have! SPARE: Agree but apparently its true of many new cars. We occasionally get to some real out-of-the-way places (possibly without cell reception) so I bought a used "real" C-Max wheel ($175 I think) and a new OEM tire. Its easy to get a solid 3-point tie down in the back with the tire flat. Takes a bunch of space but its only been out once or twice in 7 months. Long term plan was to get a compact spare for closer to home travel and then keep a couple of the "old" tires around after buying the next set. The full size spare will then go into a 5 tire rotation pattern so no money lost there. SHIFTING: I hated to see all our vehicles slowly "shift" ( :sad:) to automatics for various reasons. But I must say, the eCVT is nothing like an automatic! "Automatics" are always down-shifting, up-shifting, doing it at the wrong time and generally driving me buggy because I could do it better! The C-Max, however, is only one (mechanical) speed. It never shifts. The engine starts and stops but that is so quiet and done so smoothly that its nothing like "shifting". I would buy the C-Max for the transmission alone. :wub2: We might as well get used to kissing our manual shifters goodbye. Hybrids and Electrics will never use them. (You can always get a "second car", "back-up" car or antique "for-fun" car with all the old stuff and take it out for the occasional 'fix'!) :shift: And when you're stuck in stop&go .... MPG: At 55,000 miles our indicated lifetime mileage is at 48. Pump calculated is a bit under 47. It all depends on where and how fast you drive. 12V BATTERY: We had one once or twice a year ago but knowing all I know now, I would go out and buy the car with less hesitation than at the original purchase. :)

May they live forever! My dad had one once (Mazda RX-2 4-speed, IIRC). Get it up past 5000 rpm and it would really go! So here's my dad running about in this nifty thing while I get a Rambler American flat head 6! Talk about a contrast in engine technology! Back to the OP - if someone is going out "lead foot driving", isn't it best they do it in a Prius? :lol:

I can believe your scangauge will show more energy but I don't think that is the goal. The goal is to use the least amount of total energy going from point A to B. It is better to have kinetic energy go directly towards pushing the car rather than loose some through the regen process. Goal should be to waste the smallest amount of energy. That means no friction brakes and the smallest amount of regen practical. The 1/4 versus 1/2 mile comparison is nice - you burn no fuel for an extra 1/4 mile. But then your average speed is slightly less so you have to cruise a tiny bit faster! Probably offsets the whole thing. Agree - agree - agree. Still think the simplest, most natural and "best" is: "Coast" down from high speeds for a bit. It just seems "wrong" to hit the brakes at 70 mph (friction or regen). Brake the rest of the way so as to get a high score (80% to 90% or above). Experience, available distance and grade dictate when to start braking. I suppose the goal is to use max available regen without friction brakes. I'm not obligated to do a panic stop just because a tailgater wants to save 2 seconds. If you have a choice on exits, choose those that are uphill. Converting kinetic to potential energy is essentially 100% efficient. Otherwise, don't worry about it!

So back to "driving style" which, per original post, means fast starts, higher speeds and quick stops. We know all the things that can make To/From mileage different - prevailing winds, altitude, engine warm-up, battery SOC and EV+. Kelly expects he would get 66 on the return trip versus the wife's 56. His speeds are about 5 mph slower so that accounts for about 5 mpg - at his wife's speeds he would get 61. That leaves about 5 mpg (8%) to jackrabbit starts/stops based on our limited data. (You can make your own decision as to whether that difference is "not much" or not!) Regen braking is great but it's also over-hyped. A couple of stops in 20 miles with a 50% score versus 100% just isn't going to make much difference. Remember, kinetic energy is proportional to speed squared, so you can coast from 60 to 30 (using up 3/4ths of the energy), hit the brakes "hard" (50% score) and you still only "lost" 12.5% of the original energy. It all depends on how many stops per mile and at what speed you hit the brakes. With acceleration there may be even less to worry about. Gasoline engines are not efficient at light loads - that's the main reason we have hybrids in the first place. Very slow acceleration might not help at all (except that your average speed is less!). The car has a ton of programming based on data none of us have. Step on it and go! All of which points to the fact that lead-foot driving simply does not negate the advantage of having a hybrid even if it hurts mpg a bit. Your mileage might be "not great", but who cares at 55 mpg! I love how Smiling Jack put it: "The cars care even if we don't."

I suppose you only stopped because the tank was on empty?!? What was your MPG? :lol: Now that's what some folks would call "hypermiling"! :lol2:

If you could buy it today I'd be test driving! Don't like the front end or touchscreen controls but the rest is pretty cool. However, what we really need is the Ford B-Max body as an EV with 175-200 mile range and under-the-floor battery. (Would really like 250 mile range but a short "fast charging" stop would be OK.) Come on Ford - you can do it! :drool: P.S. Fast charging will change the EV world. With gas you stop, pump gas, move car (if you're at all courteous), wash off the smell, do the food/restroom/stretch routine and leave. With EV you stop, plug in (takes a couple of seconds), do the "routine", relax/read/snooze for another 5 or 10 minutes and leave in a better frame of mind! :) Just you wait. Five or ten years from now we'll look back at the "teen" years and say; "How silly we were - all worried about EV range!"

Also, we can't assume there is the same amount of corn juice in Regular and Premium from the same station. "Up To 10%" ethanol doesn't mean it is exactly 10% - or the same in all grades. (Might even be more than 10%!) Before I found an "all ethanol free" station, I used to get Premium at a station that had E0 Premium and 10% Regular with the Mid grade at 7%. I guess they just mix them? Anyway, before you start comparing octane ratings you should measure the ethanol content to make sure it is the same. From all I've read, I'm convinced that ethanol content has far more effect on MPG than octane rating.

Happy New Year from The Enterprise, our 2013 SE White Platinum in VA! Still consider it our "best" car ever. After 54,000 miles with a lifetime mpg of 48.1 we can't complain. Enjoy the ride! :shift:

We have White Platinum and after a minor deer hit had the following done at our dealer: - Repair of front "bumper" - only a small crack near headlight. Don't know how much was repainted. - Replaced front fender so it had to be fully painted - Paint was feathered in on front door (Hybrid emblem had to be replaced). Nothing wrong with the door - we were told this was done to hid any slight mismatch. I thought it came out great - almost undetectable. Certainly don't think anyone would ever notice just walking by. It looks like there is a slight difference detectable between the fender and hood but it doesn't bother me any. Bugs and dirt are a bigger problem! Factory perfection may be too much to ask for but I guess it shouldn't "jump out" at you.

Dear me - you golfers are goofier than hybrid drivers! SnowStorm has never made it past a "par 3" - hard to find those white golf balls in the snow. But now that he's conquered ( :lol2: ) hybrid driving, perhaps he should take up something less challenging!

And How! Please Ford, give us an upgrade to QNX!

Here is my alarm for the 12 volt battery. A makeshift affair at this point but low cost. Parts used are: Voltage monitor with LED and audio (beeper) alarm functions. Bought it here from New Harbor because it shipped from the US (it came in like two days). It is made for monitoring batteries in model aircraft so you know when to land! There are all sorts of things like this out there. Cable to connect to it easily - here's the link. Also from New Harbor. Three 470 ohm 1/4 watt resistors. A 1/2 amp fuse (do not connect anything to the battery without a fuse!) Red and black clip leadsThe monitor looks like this (the two black thing on the left are beepers): It can monitor up to 6 lithium cells at about 3.5 volts each. So I use the resistors to make it think its connected to a 3 cell battery with about 4 volts on each cell. You can set it to alarm (lowest cell) anywhere from 3.00 to 4.00 volts in 0.05 volt steps. Mine is set at 3.60 which, with my crummy resistors, should alarm at about 11.2 volts on the car battery. Here is the whole mess connected to my camping battery - monitor/alarm, resistors, fuse and clip leads: The display cycles through total voltage (shown above), largest delta between "cells" (don't care about that), and each "cell" voltage. The lowest one is important since it will trip the alarm. It is now connected under the hood all stuffed in a plastic bag near the grille and duct tapped in place (don't know if it can stand the heat). The beepers are quite loud so I should hear it out in the garage if I'm awake and in the main living area of the house. Asleep is another story but a $15 audio only baby monitor should solve that problem. The battery monitor draws 27 mA. The current goes to an average of 60+ with the alarm going off. I hope this is all a waste of time!

At 45,000 miles it hasn't worn off for me! My wife still fusses about how I hog the left seat!

Botox for cars!

Mobil 1 5W20 and Mobil 1 filter.

Like doors and grille! Sharp looking stuff. Maybe some faux bumpers - kinda miss those things. Does it come in white? You could do the whole car! Know a guy who did entire car in duct tape! No, no, not a C-Max - much older - may it rest in peace(s)!

3rd quarter? 3 weeks yet to go! The Enterprise (our car) was built in April 2013. Do TSBs show on ETIS site?

That's pretty neat - but a bit scary to see. I've seen it many times at first ICE start, even with a very low SOC. I think SOC goes even lower than EV+. With all this pampering and EV only operation the C-Max ICE should last 500,000 car miles no sweat! :shift:

Interesting. Have you ever been able to compare ICE rpm between Manual-Cruise and Eco-Cruise at the same speed and load conditions (battery "fully" charged as you showed it)? Maybe Eco settles out at a different (higher?) rpm for some unknown reason. Will try and keep an open mind but still not convinced. ;)

Questions: Does any of this reprogramming have unexpected consequences - like removing Lifetime sceen or resetting accumulated values? Will it be covered under warrenty if car is past 36,000 miles when you have the first occurrence? Will it be covered under warrenty if car is past 36,000 miles and you did have a previous occurence? Will Ford do it as a "precaution" if you never had a dead battery?Page 5 item 3 is quite informative - I now understand the term "green thumb drive". It doesn't use any power!

At 55 and "Provided the road is flat and you don't come across traffic", Eco-Cruise will do the same thing with no work at all. I've seen it many times. I don't understand why this method is considered a "highway mileage technique" as if you must do this to get better mileage. Then on the other hand we should P&G to get better mileage which constantly takes you in and out of EV. I'm confused. I'm not trying to be difficult (maybe it comes naturally!) but I don't understand why on one hand this "ICE Only" mode gives better mileage and on the other hand P&G is better (I mean better than Eco-Cruise). However, if you can get 60 mpg long term, flat road, no wind, no drafting at 55 mph, then I'm impressed. I've never seen over 55 mpg - and hardly that.