jmckinley

There has been a lot of static about the Sych and MyTouch systems.. Probably way too complicated for anyone over 13 years old. I have a C Max on order and at 67 years old, I have some concerns about the whole system. I don't know if this is the case with all dealers, but my dealer has a "Geek" on staff whose sole job is to help customers learn how to deal with the system. He will even come to your house to program the garage door opener. If that is a Ford mandate, I'm sure some middle management guy in Dearborn is busy patting himself on the back for thinking up this solution - but - you would think that if your car was so incredibly complicated that you had to hire people to show new owners how to turn on the heater it might be a clue that something is very badly wrong.

Same thought process for me too. Extra up front cost didn't really justify the cost savings. And the Energi wieghs 250 pounds more which is a factor since I plan to tow behind a motorhome. Then when I discovered the huge loss of storage space that was the final straw. I haven't seen what it looks like with the rear seat folded down, but I suspect that is a mess too. And, to finish it off, I discovered that only "EV Certified" dealers could sell the Energi. The Ford website listed several dealers in the Dayton-Cincinnati area but when I called around, none of them really were. They all said it would cost them about $30,000 to get the certification and it just wasn't worth it. Never did find one who was actually certified. And, to make it worse several of them said the Energi wouldn't be available for a year anyway (this was late October 2012). A couple of the dealers actually followed up on my inquiries. One of them was pretty persistent so I fired off an email telling him that either his guy was lying about Energi availability (by then I had seen one on the lot in Michigan) or was uninformed - either way I wasn't going to do business there.

That was easy. Here's a connector with 175A capacity for $10. http://www.parts-express.com/cat/high-current-dc-power-connectors/1569. These are made for the car audio guys who use tons of current to power their aggravating zillion watt stereo systems.

I was also thinking about a garage wall mount, keeping in mind that the car will need to be outside to prevent Carbon Monoxide problems. One possibility is just plain old jumper cables, but I haven't seen the car battery location so don't know what might be possible regarding clamps. I think there are some high current quick connectors available, but this will take further research.

Another thought. The C Max car battery is fairly small. If you were really serious about this, it might make sense to hook up a larger battery next to the inverter (again, not mounted in the car) and charge it from the C Max. This might reduce the run cycles on the C Max engine, which would be more efficient. It should run less often, but longer each time it runs.

I read the Prius report. This guy really did a careful, complete analysis. The only problem I saw was he mounted the inverter in the car permanently. If I did this I would keep the inverter out of the car so I wouldn't have to drag around its substantial weight all the time. Also it would cool better outside of the car. Quick disconnects could handle the battery cable issue. I'm wondering, however, if the C Max would work the same as the Prius regarding the engine firing up as needed to keep the battery charged. Someone who actually has their C Max needs to run a quick experiment using the built in inverter. Plug some small load into it (I think it's only 150 watt capacity), leave the key on and see if the engine fires up from time to time to replenish the battery. If it does, then we're good to go hooking up a bigger inverter.

Some of the OE Nav systems, Chrysler for example, have ways of overriding the safeguards against entering addresses etc above a some low speed threshold like 5 mph. Not necessarily a bad thing, safety wise but a pain if passenger is available to enter a new destination. Has anyone seen anything about disabling this feature on the Ford Nav system?

I just ordered a C Max for everyday use and to tow behind my motor home. Ford has apparently approved towing it four wheels down, just like they did for the Escape Hybrid and for the Fusion Hybrid. Both Blue Ox and Roadmaster have tow brackets in process but are not selling them yet. Is anyone else planning to tow a C Max and if so what are your concerns?