MikeB

There is most definitely an auto-play setting for USB, and the MFT upgrade probably reset it to ON. I remember turning it off shortly after I got my car initially, since I leave an older ipod connected and it would start playing after starting the car. Look around in your settings, I'm sure it's there.

That look interesting, ScubaDad, and something I might go for. I don't carry wet scuba gear anymore, but I do hike so I may have packs and muddy boots in the back. I'm inclined to vote for finished edge and exposed d-rings, but would still consider buying if they went the other way. But I've got an Energi, so my cargo space has different measurements, please mention that to them.

If I'm remembering my conversions right, $20 buys me around 200kWh of electricity, which should give me about 600 miles of driving range. There's going to be lots of variations for local power costs, but my $0.10/kWh is on the cheaper side.

A couple thoughts: Most carmakers have gotten very good at delivering new models without defects, so most people have high expectations. Ford clearly didn't do so well with the C-Max, but that's comparing them against decades of a constantly improving industry. So people may actually be quite happy with the C-Max, but other carmakers are doing even better. And given that this is a new model in the US, with new hybrid technology under the hood, we're willing to accept a few defects in exchange for getting something new and interesting. I'll forgive Ford for a few glitches that were the consequence of a new assembly line and new employees, those are things like bolts not being tightened correctly and such, and it probably didn't take too long to revise their assembly process. But I count the battery failures and MFT glitches as 'design' problems, Ford simply didn't put the engineering time and money into those areas like they should have. Those are fixable, generally with software, but again Ford failed to have a fast and efficient delivery of software updates. And some of the MFT and MFM problems are downright embarrassing, no professional software development team should be making those mistakes. On the bright side, as mentioned above, Ford is rightly going to be embarrassed by this, management will yell at some people and fire others, procedures will change, software subcontractors will be replaced, and we'll see a better product coming out next year. I will say that my Energi has had no serious defects other than poor MFT and MFM design, and I'm quite happy with the key reason I bought the car: the PHEV drivetrain.

Just to add to the confusion, ICE also refers to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the US Government. ICE is also the stock ticker and nickname for the Intercontinental Exchange, a commodity exchange and soon-to-be owner of the New York Stock Exchange (and also my employer).

I'm skeptical about blaming the wireless in the shop. In general, short-range wifi is very reliable, if you can get a connection to the router in the shop you should be fine. The real problem seems to be the servers at ford not being able to handle the download load. And it appears that the upgrade process requires a fresh download every time they attempt an installation, so they can't just download once and then install as needed. A poor architecture decision on the part of the Ford IT guys, more than anything else.

You can get all sorts of odd wiper behavior if your window isn't clean, tree sap and bug remains are particularly bad. Personally, I've always like how the rain blows off when you have a good coat of Rain-X on the glass, and Rain-X also has some pretty strong solvents for cleaning gunk off the glass. The only drawback is that once you start with Rain-X, you will love how it works and want to keep it up, so you end up doing your windows thoroughly every couple of months.

I've never quite understood a sunglasses holder in the car, I'm always wearing my sunglasses when I'm not in the car, so they will never stay behind. On the other hand, that little compartment is fine for a eyeglass cleaning cloth and an alternate set of lenses for my sunglasses.

Sync is not updating. FoutsNC's suspicion is correct: it's a misleading screen designed to hide a crash and reboot. This is the Sync version of the windows blue screen of death, except that it goes ahead and reboots.

If your song names have special characters, sometimes MFT can't complete the indexing process. There's also reports of problems if you have a USB stick with too many songs in the same directory. Haven't heard of any issues with a Nexus 4 or with Android in general.

If you are looking at the Engage, Empower, or related screens, and have an AVG displayed in the middle of that screen, that number is the average since it was last reset. There are effectively 5 different average values: Trip 1 & 2, Lifetime, current trip, and the one in the Display screens. This one can be reset at any time by holding down the OK button while looking at a display screen(except in the MyView screen). If nobody has ever reset it, it'll be the same as the Lifetime value.

There is an 'advanced' setting in MFT where you get just a ping, rather than a voice prompting you to say something. Go into settings and look for it, it's not hard to find. I actually prefer it this way.

Heya SDM, as I recall, the dome light above the driver's door actually has 3 buttons and a blank. One turns on all 3 dome lights, one turns on just your dome light, and one turns on the door trigger for the lights.

Yep, weight is what damages roads, not gas. And to be technical, I think it's actually weight squared. My car and my motorcycle now get about the same MPG, but the different in road impact is enormous. In the interest of not completely destroying the trucking industry, I'd be ok with a tax that was linear based on Valk's formula.

Nope, won't go back to a gas engine car, and probably not even a hybrid unless I'm desperate. I love driving electric!

I had a 2009 Jetta TDI before I got my C-Max, it was very quiet. You wouldn't know it was a diesel unless you looked at the TDI badge on the rear. The newest round of diesel engines have eliminated the traditional diesel sound, and the new exhaust treatment has eliminated the black smoke. I'd have no problem going back to that engine if it was attached to a large battery and an electric motor, assuming they managed to engineer around the cold engine suckage.

Yes, there are companies that are working on diesel-electric hybrids, Volvo is one of them. However, think about how badly our mpg suffers when the engine can't get hot. Now install a diesel engine that is even more sensitive to operating temperature. Done wrong, it could be a horrible combination, and worse than either hybrid or diesel on it's own. I don't think the negative press has been reduced as much as press in general has been reduced. This is no longer a new model, there are now other cars to talk about and test drive. The review season only exists for a few months right around initial launch date, after that it's 'old news' and the automotive press is running towards the next shiny thing down the road. Some groups take a little longer to get their turn with a week-long test drive, so there's a few late reviews, but mostly it's just one burst and then done.

So, apparently it's sighting season for me. Sunday, driving down from Chattanooga to Atlanta in heavy rain, I passed a new C-Max in what looked like silver. Today, I spot a 3rd C-Max in my parking deck, a new Ruby Red SEL model. (The 2nd one in my parking deck is another coworker I already know about, and his purchase is no coincidence.)

I saw the 2014 order guide on the blue oval forums (which is in the same forum family as this one). But they essentially showed no changes over the 2013 model year. Link: http://www.blueovalforums.com/forums/index.php?/topic/52718-2014-c-max-hybrid-order-guide-availability-date/

You are sorta right about that. I got about 960 miles on my previous tank of gas, and could easily have gotten over 1,000. However, you can't always choose how many miles you get. It's a function of opportunity, what trips I have planned as opposed to my normal daily driving. If I'm visiting the parents for the weekend, or going for a weekend hike in the mountains, I'm going to drive several hundred miles on gas without any good charging options in the middle. So instead of 900 miles on a tank I'm suddenly at 500. And I'm not going to delay a weekend trip just to inflate my mileage numbers, life happens and I'm going to live it. In fact, me getting 900+ miles on a tank of gas is actually a bad sign, it means I spent too many weekends at home and didn't get out into the world as much as I'd like. (Or it means that motorcycle riding weather has come back, and that I'm doing my weekend trips on 2 wheels instead of 4, but that's another issue entirely)

Even if the local electric grid was 100% coal powered, it's still a better choice than burning gasoline. Remember, electric drive is so efficient that the Energi is getting the equivalent of 100MPG. You use so much less energy that there's less net pollution, even with a dirty grid. In fact, the electricity required just to refine crude oil into gasoline will take my Energi further than the gasoline will. And then you have all those external costs, like trillion dollar wars that are driven by the need for oil. We've never needed a foreign war to preserve the integrity of our local electrical grid.

I'm pretty sure I've turned on my fogs with the headlight switch in the Auto position. However, it has to be dark enough for the headlights to turn on, and it may not have been that dark even in the fog.

I've been using the Gas Tracker app on the iPhone for several months. Originally it had a problem and would crash when looking at old fillups, but I think they fixed that when they added support for odometer based fillups. And yes, the signature updates whenever your data changes.

If you want a really fair tax to pay for road wear, it has to be based on the weight of the vehicle, not on fuel consumed. My motorcycle gets mileage similar to a C-Max, but there's no way it produces anywhere near as much wear on the roads. Technically, the wear is proportional to the square of the vehicle weight, so trucks do almost all the damage to the roads. But we're apparently obligated to subsidize trucking, since otherwise they would be unable to afford to move cargo at all.

As others have mentioned, the Energi might have been a better choice for you. The very short commute means you could drive all week without starting the gas engine. Probably more interesting for you in the winter is the ability to preheat the car using electricity from the wall, either based on a timer or triggered manually from your fob or phone. And with your longer highway commute, the Energi is still pretty efficient after the EV range is depleted, it's EPA rated at 41 highway instead of 47 (and it actually comes pretty close to that in practice).