Riddley

Those devices are very functional and excellent for what they are designed to do, but each is also limited in its own right. I believe that if something like one of the popular tablets would be introduced as a feature in a car, a river of product complaints would follow regarding what the device is not capable of doing.

This reminded me of a true story a friend told me about what happened to him last weekend. He was in his garage and picked up a bin to move it - it was the top item in a stack of things. Under the bin was a hammer, which fell and landed square on his foot. In frustration he picked up the hammer and proceeded to look for a place to fling it. He mentioned actually thinking... no, that way and I'll break a window... etc. Anyway, he ended up flinging it behind him into a darker other corner of the garage. Unfortunately, in that corner was an old riding lawn mower. It hit the tire at just the wrong angle, and came flying back at him and struck him on the back of the head. He was later seen entering the living room of his house with a t-shirt covered in blood to ask his wife to take him to the emergency room. I think it resulted in 7 stitches. He showed me the doctor's handiwork. When he was relaying this tale to me a few days later, he had me in stitches. I nearly blew a gasket, I was laughing so hard. In fairness - he was laughing too as he was telling the tale - so I don't think I was being overly insensitive. But anyway - be careful with those hammers. I know I've started to eye them suspiciously lately.

That pic is very helpful WAB!

:hysterical:

Regional climate sets up an interesting dynamic for hybrid drivers that you guys point out. Northern drivers suffer sub-optimal hybrid driving conditions In winter. In summer drivers in hotter regions suffer the impact of heavy use of AC. In the Midwest where it can be below freezing 4 months out of the year, and above 80 degrees 3 months out of the year, hybrid drivers only get to enjoy optimal hybrid driving conditions in the spring and fall. Those living in moderate climates (example: Puget sound, with the moderating effects of latitude and onshore flow) might have it better than most, though admittedly not optimal year-round. Regarding the impact of weather on FE, I think it is possible for it to be as much as 15 MPG from one extreme to another for hypermilers (because they can and often do generate extreme results). For the typical driver, I would place the average effect (MPG in very cold to MPG at optimal conditions) at perhaps around 8-12 MPG. I have seen this magnitude of difference, and I do not consider myself a hypermiler.

I had to remove the link to the article because it was subscription-only content. I didn't want to send anyone on a wild goose chase. Sorry for any confusion this might cause :sad: , (Wish I could delete this post)

The C-MAX hybrid is well known for sensitivity to ambient temperature. I can't find a specific reference, but I think I recall that Ford indicated the effect of winter temperatures might be as high as 5 MPG. Someone will have to check me on this. It is possible that the impact might be as high as 8 MPG. In winter, a driver in a cold climate might be required to a fill up (12.5 gallons) after 475 miles, yielding 37 MPG. In summer the same driver might find it necessary to fill up the same vehicle at 563 miles, yielding 45 MPG. As we are starting to see in Fuelly, MPG averages are starting to climb as temperatures across the country are warming up. What's interesting to me is that Ford introduced the C-MAX Hybrid at the beginning of Winter! Many, if not most of the reviewers were testing and writing their reviews of the car from relatively cold climates. On top of this unfavorable climate for testing and reviews, the cars the reviewers were driving were brand new (not broken in). Could Ford have given reviewers cars from internal pools that had, say, 5000 miles on them? Another factor was that many early adopters (consumers) of the vehicle were also driving their cars in cold climates, and then writing negative comments on many blog sites. One thing about the Internet is once a blog, video review or article is published, it stays around and continues to inform new readers. Unfortunately, from now on, the C-MAX will be known for being the car that does not get 47 MPG. If you wanted to pick the time of the year when it would have been absolutely the worst time to release a new hybrid, you couldn't have done better than November 2012. This all adds up to be a perfect storm (no pun intended) for when Ford released the C-MAX Hybrids. The negative press and law suits has probably impacted sales of the C-MAX. I wonder if there would have been any law suits today had Ford released the C-MAX now instead of the winter.

Nice read Hannah! I follow you. Near the end of your post, your point is, (in less green states) "... the Hybrid will actually produce LESS CO2eq/mile emissions over its lifetime vs. a CV or BEV." This makes sense to me, but I didn't see it until you pointed it out. For the sake of illustration, say you could drive around in either hypothetical State A (Coalville) or hypothetical State B (Solaria). Coalville generates all of its electricity via coal, and Solaria generates all of its electricity via Solar. In either state, if you drive a Hybrid or a conventional car your energy comes from petroleum, However, if you drive a pure electric vehicle (BEV) in Coalville, then almost all of your energy comes from coal, whereas if you drive a BEV in Solaria, most of your energy comes from solar. In looking at CO2eq/mile over the lifetime of a vehicle in Solaria vs. Coalville, the BEV is going to be the clear winner in Solaria, but the Hybrid will probably be the winner in Coalville. So I have to ask - are you an engineer? :)

Nice write up Matt!! Good point about the PSI increasing when tires warm up Jus!! That didn't even occur to me! But luckily for the tires, I run at about 46 and do not live in an overly hot place. One tip I'll add is one someone else suggested on the forum: Keep your view further down the road to anticipate the flow of traffic. This will help you maintain the kind of cushion that you want for optimal braking, and to anticipate the terrain and how to take advantage of it. I totally agree abut the importance of keeping the battery levels up. When I was first learning to drive this thing I was OCD about keeping the gauge blue (EV). After reading about the importance of keeping the battery charged, I started to pay just as much (if not more) attention to that. Three things happened as a result (of focusing on the battery level) I'm far less stressed out about not being in EV mode The higher battery level forces me into EV more often MPG improves I actually found myself grumbling a little bit when trying to top off the battery and it kept wanting to switch into EV mode. When I realized that this was just another form of anxiety, I let it go. Now my new rule is: "EV is good, or the ^ is good, it doesn't really matter which!"

Best wishes cepwin!!!

According to this report: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130503/OEM05/130509937/ford-to-pass-its-own-hybrid-sales-record-in-five-months-on-fusion-c#axzz2SGPa4HHv "Hybrid deliveries for Ford reached a monthly record 8,481 in April, bringing the total this year to 29,561, said Erich Merkle, Ford's U.S. sales analyst. Ford's annual record for such sales was 35,496 in 2010. Ford sold 13,891 Fusion hybrids through April in the United States and 13,285 C-Max hybrids according to the Automotive News Data Center." Previous sales reports I've reviewed showed C-MAX lagging Fusion by a wider margin. In other news, Ford is selling a lot of hybrid vehicles to companies restocking their fleets: http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=37983

Fred, that's an insanely good number. Very few SEL drivers (non-Energi) will see 48.2 lifetime at 6500 total. Perhaps ptjones and recompense, who are certified freaks when it comes to mpgs.. Before I get bombarded by all the others out there who are great hypermilers, I didn't say you wouldn't see the lifetime average at 48.2, but at that low a mileage? I'm convinced that it is only possible to do this in temperate climate zones, and only by someone very deft with the gas pedal and attention to the charge level in the battery.

... after you master the Lift Gate, Daniel San... ...we practice "Wax on... Wax Off".

I think it must be all in the technique. You must practice Daniel San...

Welcome Spyburn!! You've landed in the most active C-MAX forum on the planet!

Someone mentioned earlier that he thought the "discount double kick" might happen if the car is locked. That it might open directly if the car is not locked. I don't know if this is part of the issue, but I never paid attention to that (is the car locked or unlocked?) before. I vowed to monitor that to see if there is any correlation.

Good catch John! I thought you had me dead to rights with that observation. If Fish has some ability to navigate, perhaps getting into the settings screens is available.

That's an interesting observation Joe!! I hadn't parsed the behavior that way, but you might be onto something. I'll pay closer attention to this going forward to see if it holds up.

You will love both those features. When I was shopping, I put the panoramic roof higher up on the priority list than car color and some other trim elements.

Yes - I've done this and it works: How to Perform a Sync Master Reset:http://support.ford.com/sync-technology/perform-master-reset-sync-myford-touch Important: Before you perform the master reset, don't forget to remove any connected thumb drives, unplug any connected devices, and remove the NAV card. What I found was that after the system was reset, Sync actually kept my station presets.

Way to go. I liked your write-up! Great suggestion about the "Ready to drive" icon in green. FORD: Can you please turn that indicator off when the car is moving under power? Thanks!

Nah, I confess it is totally ripped off. Click on this link. Also note in the close-ups that the rims are actually not 5 spoke - but clever masking to create that effect! I must admit that it (Loder1899) is the most impressive C-MAX mod I've seen. I also think it might have started out as a Euro model (based on the grille and lines).

I imagine Ford would want people to come up with something that has some of the features offered with this: Automatic App Is A Coach, Mechanic, And First-Responder All In One Anyway, it is smart for Ford to stage a contest to get people to noodle over the problem and submit working code.

The daily commute is 32 miles one way, mostly freeway, but here in the good old Puget Sound, freeway can vary greatly. I have a few miles of surface streets before I get to the highway, so I can get it warmed up and charged up before I open it up. One day the drive was wide open (60+) for most of the commute, and I was able to really test out the "twilight zone" (66-68mph), the next day it was stop and go the whole way, which actually resulted in 50+ mpg.

OK - let me clarify. Unless you are either Jus, Recompense, Adair, ptjones, or...lets see... who am I missing... then you are not likely to get 40+ at 70+. (apologies to anyone I missed) You guys are :shift: freaks :worship: . I mean that as a compliment. :)