fotomoto

Ahh, now I know why you asked me for measurements. Well you won't see this everyday! LOL What is that blue cable looking thing next to the keel? Are these RC'ed?

YUP! Cooling down a very hot interior and then maintaining it takes a lot of energy and that energy in your hybrid ultimately comes from gas. TIP: before getting to the car, push and hold the unlock button on your FOB and it will roll down all four windows letting a lot of that pent up heat escape. Use recirculation after getting the interior cool so you're not constantly trying to cool the hot incoming air.

WELCOME!!! First of all, what does it say on the front doors: hybrid or Energi? The Energi plugs in, the hybrid doesn't.

When you say "real" do you mean full size? If so, ebay and this forum both occasional have OEM wheels for sale; usually with tires too. A full size wheel/tire combo will take up a HUGE amount of room in the hatch.

That site includes tailpipe emissions for PHEV's* but if I travel 100% EV in my NRG, which I do most days, my CO2 only comes from electricity generation (which has a more and more wind in the mix here in Texas) and plummets to 130g/mile. :happy feet: *These estimates assume that 48% of the vehicle's operation is powered by electricity and the rest is powered by gasoline. This assumption is based on the vehicle's design and average driving habits. In the future, you will be able to personalize these estimates based on your own driving habits.

Resetting the light won't "help" improve whatever caused it to come on so don't fret about trying to reset it especially if the car is not acting up. You can try going into the service mode (hold the OK on the left steering wheel down before starting the car) and see if that gives you any codes and search those/let us know. You can go to most national chain type auto parts stores and ask them to read the code. Most will cancel it too.

Purr-teee! :camera: Welcome to the club. :rockon: Now read up on how to drive a hybrid for great fuel economy if you haven't all ready and enjoy the ride.

Mama wants a gazebo in the backyard. So, another trip to the home store............. :spend:

Yeah, not long after I got my first CMax I noticed this phenomenon when I parked next to this Honda CRV.

Being a rental, it should be a new(er) focus and the automatic transmission in those is actually an "automatic" dual clutch manual transmission. IOW, it's a manual transmission that clutches and shifts for you. They don't shift quite as smoothly as a conventional automatic and are more complicated than a conventional manual transmission but they are more efficient than a comparable automatic and thus better FE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-clutch_transmission There are numerous versions of the CVT transmission and, as the saying goes, not all are created equally. The CMax CVT is brand new and designed and built by Ford.

I entered both my hybrid and NRG VIN's into fordparts.com and came up with the same part number for the rear springs. Well that clears things up............. not!

Only included in the 301,302, and 303 packages. He has the 300a pkg.

Fuelly only has a small sample set of 48 cars at this time but they are doing better than CR at 42.2 mpg: http://www.fuelly.com/car/honda/accord/hybrid%20l4

Welcome to the club Marc! :happy feet: SEL's are the way to go IMO so good purchase selection. You'll have all the "gadgets" figured out in no time as they are pretty intuitive. Just keep poking things till you get it right <that's what she said!> :lol:

We own both and can tell you this: the good news is you can't go wrong with either choice; it really depends on your wants and needs. The payload specifics are labeled on the door frame of every car and can vary depending on the number and weight of optional accessories, wheels, etc. According to Ford.com, the Energi is 250 lbs heavier. With a relatively small battery, you don't "need" a level 2 (240v) EVSE (charger) but they come in handy if you do a lot daily trips. $1,000 install is on the high end unless it's a difficult installation. I installed my $500 Clipper Creek myself for a whopping $27 in materials cost. EVSE's costs are coming down with more competition. Over a short term lease, the only other thing besides tires that might wear out that I can think of would be the shocks but I think they would be OK. Most inspections upon return are more visual (dents, scrapes, etc). The cars are basically identical. The hybrid is cheaper and more room in the hatch. The NRG is an EV and can deliver incredible fuel economy. I'm at 115 MPGe lifetime in mine and 40 mpg in our hybrid.

Yes, you'll have to remove the under tray. It's rather large and has numerous screws. That's the most difficult part of the job actually. You'll need low rise ramps if you don't have them all ready. The filter and oil drain plug are easy to spot and get to.

It's sounds like (pun not intended) creaking weather strip seals. It just so happens that I bought a can of silicone spray at the auto parts store yesterday for $5 to reapply to mine. Remember, the CMax has a seal on both the door itself and the vehicle's door frame.

Another busy weekend with several visits to the home and garden store: 30 cubic feet of mulch (two trips for a total of 60 cu.ft!) 45 paver stones @ 20 lbs each=900 lbs! Tires at 50 psi. Even so, I still got 53.1 mpg on the way home! :worship:

wow, pack to the gills! FYI, you can copy/paste photobucket's IMG link into your post and the pic will automatically show up like this:

Diesel excel at higher, constant speed travel but do your due diligence before purchase (like you're doing now) to see if they are right for you. Hybrids shine at lower speeds and stop/go of urban driving. If you're going to sell or trade in the Escape, do you have enough equity for this to make sense (cents)?

I love the hands free lift gate feature and use it a lot; especially when grocery shopping. While unloading at home, I usually touch the convenient close button on the upper left side of the open gate; however, the last items are typically the heaviest and/or cumbersome (large bag of bird seed, case of water, etc). Well, it finally dawned on me to try the kick feature to close the door. DUH! :banghead: Works like a charm. <quietly leaves room>

Sorry, no.

I added some additional wiring to the tiny, tiny wire leads to cover the distance to the relay up top. I placed the relay and associated wiring under the front plastic clip (the one with the Ford emblem) to hide everything when snapped back into place. There are approx. 6 plastic push/pull pins to remove but you don't have to completely remove the plastic Ford grill from the car. Just pry it away to gain the necessary access. All button up and things stashed away. The relay needs two power sources for this setup. One keyed (ignition on) that I found in the fuse box (red wire): and one this is switched on by the headlights. I tapped into the yellow with green strip wire (bottom right) on the left headlight wiring connector. I removed the left headlight (two screws) to get to it. I grounded the relay (and lights) to the chassis ground point nearly straight down below the fuse box. It's fairly easy to get to (see arrow). That's about it. Now the DRL's come on anytime the car is on but the headlights are off. They are very bright.

I found a set of really cheap (china) LED style lamps on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GO7TESW/ref=oh_details_o08_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I believe they are Mercedes-Benz knock off's which is probably why I like the styling. LOL I also needed an SPDT relay that would turn them on/off whenever the headlights are activated. I got a couple (did both our CMaxes) with the wiring connector included: http://www.amazon.com/Absolute-USA-In-line-Holder-Automotive/dp/B00C0SATHE/ref=sr_1_5?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1400601327&sr=1-5&keywords=spdt+relay To further waterproof the housings, I removed the three screws and disassemble them. I added clear, liquid silicone around the edges, and finally coated the screws after reassembly. I mounted them on the lower grill by drilling one hole in the black plastic for the outer end and used a large washer to span the slots of the grill on the inner end. You will need to remove the small front splash guard (and the front half of the main cover) to get to the back of the lights to apply the nut for the outer end to the bolt threads and run the wiring up.

One of the big reasons (pun intended) I traded in my volt for a CMax was room and the ingress/egress. The best vehicle we've ever had for this was a Nissan Cube: HUGE square door and bench style front seats made for super easy transitions in/out. You may notice either very young or very old folks driving them! LOL