spyburn

This has been interesting. I drove my 2013 CMax yesterday (in the rain) and this afternoon I had to jump start it - for the first time ever. It still has the original battery, so I will replace that (I think I've gotten my money's worth on that). Haven't been on this site in maybe 3 years. Glad to know I can still find answers to questions I never knew I had!

I'm in Texas and I love my CMax. I drive about 80-90% highway miles, 30 miles each way to work. Perhaps 8 of those "highway miles" are spent banging my head on the steering wheel wondering when I can retire and get the heck out of the daily commute, but once I get beyond the bottlenecks, I'm cruising at 70. I have 26000 miles and a lifetime MPG of 43.2. I do tend to run the AC when temps exceed 90, but I prefer the seat heater to running the heat on those rare mornings I need heat. My lifetime MPG was 43.9 until recently when I had to make an emergency trip to Florida. It was a 20 hour trip and I was both distressed and in a hurry, so I wasn't terribly concerned about either fuel efficiency or speed limits. I still got 40.1 on the way there and 39.9 on the trip back a few days later. In my experience, I do get better mileage when I drive in town, provided I know where I'm going. During 2 days of city driving in an unfamiliar Florida city, I got terrible mileage the first day (like 33 - 35), but significantly improved the next day as I began to figure out where I was going and could anticipate things. I hop you enjoy your CMax!

Best DIY undercarriage wash EVER. :worship: :gold_star:

Wow. So sorry you are having such issues. Makes me grateful that I had no issues either time I got rear ended. It kind of sucks when you have the body shop on speed dial and they treat you like Norm in an old episode of Cheers, but at least my car was fixed to perfection each time. I'd recommend them, but it might be just a bit far for you to bring your car to South Texas. Much luck!

I bought one based on ScubaDad's recommendation and I have been very pleased. They delivered quickly and it has been great with my muddy dogs and everything else that ends up in the back of my C-Max. Well worth the price and I absolutely would buy one again. Mine does have the split so I can lower one seat or the other. When I ordered online the option for access to the d-rings was not an option - probably would have been if I called instead of just ordering online. Hope you are as pleased with yours as I am with mine.

Jeff....I feel your pain. Thanks for sharing what you have. Looks like you need the dual channel too!

Hoping someone can share their experience. Looking for a dual channel dashcam for a reasonable price. Been rear ended a couple of times and one was a hit and run and I couldn't grab my cell phone fast enough to take a picture of the idiot's plates. Read a lot of reviews and did a search in this forum. Was hoping to get some real world users take on various cameras - pros, cons, what you wish your dashcam had and what it has that's useless. Installation, ease of use, and any issues with battery drain would be good information to have as well. I know I want a dual channel so I can record the next person who causes me to have yet another new bumper put on my C-Max. Living in south Texas means it has to manage storage and operating temps that are pretty high. I definitely want an auto on off feature because I'll never remember to turn the thing on and I like the idea of the ones that turn on when they sense an impact like a parking lot hit. Please share what cam you have, what you like and don't like about it. I appreciate your input!

Three things kill my mpg's.....well actually four, but we won't talk about when I'm driving like an idiot. Cold, wind and water. I drive rural highways and interstate highways about 95% of the time. Been taking the same route to work for a year and a half with this car and notice that my fuel efficiency drops pretty significantly when it is cold - but less if I only use the seat heater rather than the heater and blower. Water on the roads seems to cause an even bigger drop. Windy days also result in a drop. On days when it is raining, cold, windy and I'm running the defroster I drop from an average of about 45 mpg on my commute to around 33. I've actually considered taking the husband's vehicle on cold rainy days just so I don't screw up a "good" tank. Yeah, I'm a little off. ;)

Yeah Jus...I'm doing okay. Sorry you are still getting over your whiplash. I've been rear ended twice now (on the same road, both incidents within a half mile of each other) but no lasting injuries to the driver. Thanks for checking on me. Hope you get better soon. By the way....I may have something set wrong on my profile, but I never get an email or a notification when someone tags me or replies to something I am "following" on the forum. Otherwise I would have replied to you much sooner!

I really like the head room in my CMax. Got rear ended (again....within a half mile of where I got rear ended the last time!) and had a rental "car" while my bumper was being repaired. Was a Toyota Camry and I had to drive kind of hunched over to avoid continually banging my head. I also like that with the CMax I don't feel like I'm sitting in a hole. No, I'm not sitting up as high as when I drive the husband's F-250 Super Duty, but I also don't need a winch to pull myself out of the Cmax when I arrive at my destination. If the completely rework the Ford Hybrid concept, I hope they maintain some of the features people in this forum have commented on over the years. Personally I'd like to see a diesel hybrid - some of us drive long distances. The Hybrid Touring model?

It smells green...can we eat it?

Thank you Hybridbear. I don't mind completing surveys....I just don't want to end up getting spammed and annoyed later because of it.

I received a letter in the mail today asking me to participate in a survey about my "alternative fuel vehicle". The company conducting the survey is Morpace. Anyone else receive this and is it legit? Thanks

FYI lowbar....the kick close also works while you are bent over, half in the car and the cat rubs against your ankles. On the plus side, the feature that stops the lift gate from crushing you works just fine!

A HUGE thank you Plus 3! That thing has been driving me nuts. AdBlock now installed.

Hi Paul, I haven't installed a thing. I keep reading about all the cool stuff you guys are doing to improve your MPGs and thinking, "yep, I should do that soon".....but somehow "soon" never gets here!!

After an unusually cold winter in south Texas, our temperatures are starting to improve. Oh what a difference the temperature makes in my mpg! I was getting very testy about my upper 30's - both mpgs and temperatures. My commute to and from work is back in the 47 range (mostly highway speeds). A few days ago I did some running around in town, total of about 50 miles, including getting back home.....trip meter said I did 52.8. Rain is the other mpg killer for me. Same trip to and from work, traveling at slower speeds on wet roads and my mpg will tank to the mid 30's. As a rancher with cattle that have no grass, I really, really, really want it to rain. As a person somewhat obsessed with getting better mpg today than yesterday, I don't want it to rain. Perhaps when it rains, I'll just drive the jeep to work - it gets like 14 mpg no matter what we do!

Mine does that periodically, however I can't blame cold weather. Cold for us in south Texas maybe, but you hardy northerners would merely scoff at our "cold" temps. With that in mind, it does seem to happen in cooler weather...or when I'm in a big hurry.

Very cool.

Yes, fotomoto. It's 80+ degrees today too. However that morning it was 34 and really windy. brrrrr.

I call it the stealth sedan. Can't imagine how I forgot to shut the car door that day!! :secret:

I mean trip 1 and trip 2. I reset trip 1 with each fill up. I reset trip 2 for short trips - to see how I did on my way to and from work. I'm in the habit of resetting after I get where I'm going, so when I start out the next time, trip 2 will have just a few seconds on it and no distance. When I started my car in remote mode, then got in it later (about 10 minutes), I confirmed that it didn't count that time because I looked at the trip 2 display and it had less than 5 seconds on it. And for the one that shows up after you turn off the car, I never thought about comparing that to my trip 2. I will try to remember to do that next time.

See CMax See traffic jam See CMax stop for traffic jam. See the Chevy 3500 diesel dually with cattle guard Stop! Chevy, stop! See what $900 in damage looks like. On the positive side, no humans were harmed in this fender bender. And the guy who hit me restored my faith in human beings. He got out of his truck and said, "I am so sorry. This was completely my fault. Are you okay?" He was a nice guy who took full responsibility, has good insurance and was a pleasant companion while we froze on the side of the road waiting for the sheriff to arrive. But it still sucks that my car was damaged. Not even 6000 miles on her yet!

I stopped by my neighbor's house the other day to drop off some keys after we took care of his animals. He knew I was coming, so he was sitting in a chair in his back yard. I pulled up and got out of the car, walked right up to him and said hi. He nearly jumped out of his skin. Told me I needed to get a car that makes some damn noise!

I do not know or understand how all this is calculated - I tend to do very simple math.....however, I recently started using my remote start to warm up the car when the morning temps were down in the 40s and below. Took me a few days to figure out what was happening, but it appears that when my car is running in remote start, using gas and warming up, the trip meter doesn't register the time or the fuel used. So all of the sudden it was cold and my FE was better than in the past, which sent me looking for an explanation. My normal mpg heading to work is about 47. During the cold snap when I let the car warm up in remote start mode I was getting 52. Don't know that this helps. I hope it didn't confuse the issue.