ScubaDadMiami

59.8 MPG for a 44 mile trip. Not bad, considering 100 percent air conditioner usage. This is round trip, not just a leg of a trip. I dropped off a friend (from my building) at the airport. Never shut down. Just pulled up, opened the back, unloaded briefly, and then headed back home. Same route there and back. Flat terrain.

You should consider both vehicles to be the same, other than differences for price of year model, especially in the case of the SEL, which tended to have less issues than the SE.

When my light came on, I checked the pressure before filling, and it was at 34 PSI, and I believe that the other three tires were at 36.

Here is the scoop on which glass to get. Make sure to read this thread!

The Nitrogen thing is more of an experiment than anything. I also opted for 0W20 oil during my last service, just to see if that would improve my fuel economy. So far, I am not seeing a benefit from the oil. I'll report back on the Nitrogen. For me, it was more a matter of the fact that I regularly go to Costco, and this service can be done while I shop. If I rotate and balance every 10,000 miles on the fives (5, 15, 25, 35,000, etc.) the cost is minimal, and this gives me more free time for other things. The dealer can do the rotations at the normal 10,000 mile scheduled service intervals. The only dealer that I trust in Miami is a good 45 minutes each way, so this saves time, includes balancing (which The Works does not include), and is less expensive by a few dollars.

On previous vehicles, once the first set of tires needed replacing, I used to get my tires from Costco. They provide free rotation and balance for life. I plan on doing this when it is time for my tire replacement on the C-MAX. The new news is that, the other day, I was in Costco, and I saw that they will now provide these services for tires that have not been purchased from Costco. Of course, there is a fee. I gave it a shot. I had my tires converted to Nitrogen fills, tires rotated and balanced, all for about $40, including TPMS servicing. There is a one-time charge for the optional Nitrogen conversion; future top-offs are free. I think that rotation and balance was around $23, but this is without Nitrogen conversion. I have been told all sorts of things about when to rotate tires. It seems that I always have snow tire noise not long after the purchase of a new vehicle. I've replaced tires, had alignments, and I've been pretty strict about making the rotations on previous vehicles, but I kept having the same issues. On one vehicle, I even paid about $1,200 for new struts and the like, but I kept getting the same issues. So, this is how I became so strict about rotations, and I now I follow what the various tire experts tell me, which is to rotate at about 6,000 mile intervals. Rather that going to the dealer for such a basic thing, I am going to use Costco for this service between major servicing, and then I will go to the dealer for major servicing along with rotations at those times. That should cover the issue. So far, the C-MAX has been pretty good about tire noise up to about 16,000+ miles, though I do get some noise between about 35-45 MPH. Just putting this out there for anyone that wants to get their tires maintained between major servicing, but without having to go to the dealer. They even schedule appointments, so you can do shopping while they work on your vehicle. It will be interesting to see if the Nitrogen holds pressure better/for longer than air, and if my fuel economy improves.

Something doesn't seem right about that, to me.

The car is now gone. I didn't see it get towed. The parking space is all charred and black. I suppose that this is the last that I will ever hear about this.

I no longer trust the dealer to monitor the tire pressures. Like Kelleytoons, I never bothered to check my pressures, and I did this during the entire first year of driving. So, Kelleytoons, it could be worse. Think of how you would feel after letting a year and 12,000+ miles go by with low pressures. Luckily, even with this, I still made my 600, 700 and 800 mile tanks. :) I never bothered to check, because I went to the dealer to get The Works at 5,000 miles, and then I got the 10,000 mile service done at just over 9,000. At the 9,000 service, done just before my 5,400+ mile trip to New England and back, I paid extra for rotation and balance, and I requested fill pressures of 38 PSI. So, the dealer had at least two chances to fill my tires during its first year. From what I can tell, they never did it, and it looks like they only did the rotations and balancing. The TPMS light came on in just a few weeks after my service, although I had driven about 2,000 miles on the car by then. My recollection is that the TPMS light to comes on at 34 PSI. When I was driving from Miami to New England and back, my light came on just as I crossed the border into New Hampshire. I got out, and everything looked fine (no flat or obvious signs). I topped off the next day, and the light went off. I've not had problems since then. There was nothing found on the tire that caused leaks, and I've not had a leak since topping off, so I can only conclude that nobody ever topped off the tires properly when getting service done.

More people visit dealers in August, due to end of model year discounts. They get there, check out a bunch of cars, and they wind up with a C-MAX, which could explain August. By September or October, dealer inventory of these vehicles is way down.

Slowpoke is really good in the car. He knows to wake up only when he hears me shift into Park. My only problem with him happens when I leave him alone in the car (with it running and Climate Control turned on). He immediately goes to work at getting at the food. Ever since I put up the barrier, no more problems. :puppy_kiss:

Your area is less expensive for gas. I have driven back and forth to North Florida (a/k/a Cave Country, for those that enjoy cave diving) many times. Gas prices start dropping north of Palm Beach County. Gas prices are cheapest in the state in North Florida and the Panhandle, but Central Florida has some places that are pretty good, too.

Found the thread for the other version of the barrier. This is the version that I used. The directions are in the post. I would suggest making the bottom legs (the part that holds the barrier behind the seats) a bit longer than was suggested in the original post, if you are going to try making this version. Otherwise, it works well. FreeMiles' version looks quite sturdy, and more robust than the version that I use. The good thing is that I only need a psychological barrier for Slowpoke. It is not like he has spent the past year constantly trying to figure out how to pass over to the food. He took one look and the barrier, and he never bothered to even try. I was quite surprised, given his past behavior, which is something that you would have to see to understand. (He was homeless, and he learned how to become quite the expert at getting at food.)

Wet Okole. They were not cheap, like $600 or so, I think. (I went with the standard material to match the seat colors, plus I added some options like lumbar support.) However, coming from a long background in scuba, I know wetsuit material. It works well, and cleans up to look like new. I would post a picture of them, but you can't really tell that they are there without seeing it with your eyes. They really do fit that well. The other thing I did was to put a CanvasBack cover over the rear storage compartment floor. (That's actually my vehicle in the picture on their web page.) It's a different material, but I can also clean this with a soft brush followed by extraction. It is great for when you have wet or dirty materials. This is the second vehicle that I've had with a CanvasBack. The cover holds up very well. I now have 16,000+ miles and over a year of use, and my interior looks pretty much like new. I have used this set up for over 9,000 miles of cross country travel with my dog, and for carrying things like my wet scuba gear or from Home Depot. Cleans up really well.

Oh, I thought you were going in the direction of arson or something. If anyone was going to investigate further, the scene is open to all sorts of "contamination." I would think that the insurer would try to preserve everything, and would come get it right away. I think it's still sitting there, so I am guessing that it has been decided that the fire started due to something that they figured out and decided does not warrant carrying across to new builds and recalls of existing vehicles. Still, I would certainly think that they would want to check into everything, and would want to haul the car away ASAP. :headscratch:

The solution is properly integrated public transportation plus adequate road planning and construction. We have those same stupid HOV only lanes here, too. Yes, I qualify to drive them, but it is not fair, and all of it will need to be re-done as virtually everyone moves to fuel efficient vehicles. These ideas only put off the day that we will have to deal with these issues, and the delay increases the cost.

I am not at all suspicious. I saw him taking out a fairly burned book and a very few other small things. Honestly, there was not much left of the interior.

+1. My C-MAX was pulled from the line and given in-depth testing by Ford. It had 113 or 117 miles on it when I purchased. I drove from my dealer to a close by gas station, filled up, and reset everything. My numbers are mine.

There was another post about this same subject. I forget who came up with it, but there was another version, also made out of PVC, that was posted. I copied it, and it worked well for me on my 5,400+ trip to New England and back. My pooch sits in the back seats, and I use my barrier to keep him from getting at food that I carry in the rear compartment. I bought seat covers made out of wetsuit material, and this allows me to clean by using a soft brush with a bucket of cleaner followed by sucking up the dirty wet solution with a small carpet/sofa cleaner. I have been using this for about a year, and I happily report that it keeps everything like new. :)

Wow! A big boundary surpassed! Way to go! :worship:

I have had that same issue, depending on the station. I also have that same kind of issue on my home system (such as switching from watching a movie from my PC versus changing over to a cable station). Could just be the current nature of the beast. Somehow, I seem to have mostly corrected the issue in the C-MAX, and I had almost forgotten about this issue until you brought it up. I am not sure of exactly what I did to make this happen, or if I just stopped noticing the change in volume level. I would think that I would never get accustomed to that sound level change, but I am going to re-check before confirming this. Anyway, I recently played around with my sound settings. The only things that I remember changing were settings on bass, mid and treble, and I also changed to driver-centered sound. I am suspecting that the second item, if any, was what changed things. Let me double check about there being less change in volume than I used to have, and I'll let you know.

I was thinking about this position. I am just worried that it won't be seen through the tinting on the windows.

I have tried this, and I get a message saying that there is a compatibility issue. I can't remember the exact message, but that's the gist of it. So, I can use the USB to charge, but not to play.