C-Max is a hard act to follow

[Wheatridger]

Shopping for my next car is hard! You can pay twice as much and get less, in terms of features, at least. For five years, we've had nothing but C-Maxes in our driveway, but now I need something beefier to pull the little Scamp travel trailer we just bought. There are so many compact SUVs competing for my dollar, but most of them lack comforts and features we've become used to, especially compared to my 2017 Titanium model. How can you spend so much more and get less? Let me count the ways...

 

https://www.ford.com/cars/c-max/

 

At this sad little web page, Ford suggests we replace "the car with zippy performance, versatile interior and a little something for everyone" with an Ecosport or an Escape. The Ecosport is a much smaller car with less power and MPGs, plus a tailgate hinged on the wrong side that reveals it was intended for left-hand driving markets. So I went out to drive a new 2.0T Escape SEL. The styling is as sexy and sophisticated as the C-Max isn't. The drive was excellent, but the car was boomy and loud when doing highway speeds, where the C-Max is quite quiet. Then I checked out the top trim level, Titanium Elite, and found that the seat moves only up and down, at a fixed angle. No new Escape at any price has independent adjustments of the front and rear of the seat bottom! That's a key requirement for my wife's comfort, and I use it a lot too, to shift my weight around on long drives. When I told my salesman that my car does this, he said, with a hint of envy, "That's the Lincoln seat. They put a Lincoln seat in it."  Well, well... so what's a Lincoln seat like?

 

The next day I drove the Escape equivalent, a Lincoln MKC. It was love at first sight! I'd never given Lincoln much of a thought since JFK died in one, but this was a hugely appealing little crossover. Besides full seat cushion adjustments, it had better handling, power, interior quality and options than the Escape. I brought it to my wife and we agreed to buy one, if not that one. But on the ride back to the dealership, I confirmed my impression that the heated seats weren't doing anything. The saleslady, a Ford owner, agreed. Further online research reveals that Lincoln's "heated/cooled seats" are actually neither- they're ventilated with fan-driven interior air, lacking a resistance heating element like normal seats. These premium seats are installed in all but the most basic Lincolns. If this doesn't matter to you, you ought to give Lincoln a look. The price is lower than other luxury marques, and the warranty is longer than Ford offers. 

 

Today we went out to sample a BMW x3. Hours of online research made it look like the one. The standard seats even have air bladders that adjust backrest width several inches, from wide to snug! But my dear wife objected after 15 seconds in the seat. The bottom was somewhat adjustable for angle, but it never goes as flat as the C-Max can, like she likes it. Too bad, seemed like the perfect one...

 

That was all in the last four days. Cycles of enthusiasm, experience and disappointment at how little comfort ($35,000 slightly used) can buy. A few other candidates remain, each comfortable enough but with other flaws: the Volvo XC40 (ugly, seats too high); XC60 (few buttons or dials, touchscreen interface for everything, feels huge); Mercedes GLK350 (older, poor gas mileage, less tech). My C-Max, with a Focus-based suspension, steers better than all the others (didn't test the BMW). To get the blind-spot, rear camera and tailgate features of my Titanium, you have to go pretty deep into the modern Mercedes and BMW options lists, too. Please don't recommend the Asian brands; I don't like conventional CVTs and I don't trust Korean engines. My wife doesn't trust Audis, and VW makes nothing with that tow rating.

 

Just my take on how difficult it can be to duplicate the rich mix of features in our homely little hatchbacks. And I'm ignoring fuel economy, because this CUV needs to have a 3500-lb towing capacity. Volvo has a PHEV XC60 that can do the job efficiently, but it's priced in the mid-40s used and $50k+ new. Maybe that's our car in a couple of years. 

 

Fortunately, this isn't a farewell story. I'm keeping my own C-Max Energi after we sell the wife's Hybrid. But I understand the story the Lincoln lady told me. "We took a C-Max in trade and the owner wept. And not just because he brought his kids home in the car."

 

[homestead]

On 12/31/2022 at 2:58 PM, Wheatridger said:

The next day I drove the Escape equivalent, a Lincoln MKC. It was love at first sight! I'd never given Lincoln much of a thought since JFK died in one, but this was a hugely appealing little crossover. Besides full seat cushion adjustments, it had better handling, power, interior quality and options than the Escape. I brought it to my wife and we agreed to buy one, if not that one. But on the ride back to the dealership, I confirmed my impression that the heated seats weren't doing anything. The saleslady, a Ford owner, agreed. Further online research reveals that Lincoln's "heated/cooled seats" are actually neither- they're ventilated with fan-driven interior air, lacking a resistance heating element like normal seats. These premium seats are installed in all but the most basic Lincolns. If this doesn't matter to you, you ought to give Lincoln a look. The price is lower than other luxury marques, and the warranty is longer than Ford offers. 

Were you looking at used MKC's or the new Lincoln Corsair?

[Wheatridger]

The Corsair is still too new and rich for my budget, with CPOs still over $40k. That seat may be a problem, too. I asked the Lincoln lady to try a Corsair, and she said the seat heat performance was better than the MKC but worse than her Ford Flex. Some report on the Lincoln forums that the headrest sits too far forward, and that was true in a Nautilus I sat in. 

 

Somehow I felt instantly at home in that MKC. Too bad!

[Wheatridger]

One used car got me excited - a Mercedes GLC350e plug-in hybrid. For $36,000 you could have a 2019 with low miles and almost a year's factory warranty remaining. It had enormous horsepower and torque, and top-shelf lighting and tech. This model was a market failure, Mercedes experts told me, but a solid technical success. Although EPA gave it only one more mpg than the conventional 2.0T version, we owners know that the Energi saves gas mainly by doing short local trips and errands in EV, instead of with a cold gas engine that gets its worst efficiency in such use.

 

The deal-killer for me, besides the higher cost, is that I want to use it to pull a trailer. Mercedes absolutely forbids you to add a hitch to this vehicle, and I didn't want that hassle with the extended warranty I'd surely need. Almost none of these smaller CUVs were sold with a hitch, it seems. If this is not your concern, however, I think this plugged-in Benz would be a fine successor to our humble hatchbacks!

[stolenmoment]

With only a ten-mile battery, it would be a fail for me.  My biggest wish is that my Energi had a forty-mile battery.

[Wheatridger]

In 2020 they did double the Merc's battery and range. That probably cause most owners who feel like you to trade their 2018-19s for the new version. Ten miles is a paltry EV range, but it would cover all my trips to the grocery store and other local errands. I don't miss more EV range with my Energi because the overall lifetime performance of 65 mpg is so good. 

[stolenmoment]

Ah, good for them!

[Wheatridger]

Would you really want a C-Max with double the EV battery? It would be 200-300 pounds heavier, with a tiny trunk. I'd need a Stage 2 charger to fill it up at home. I think Ford made the proper judgement about battery size and range. 

[stolenmoment]

Yeah, I get that.  BUT, many of my frequent trips are long enough that I have to use gas, which I really object to.  I'm mostly counting on advancing battery charge density!

 

My DW has range anxiety, and my son can't fit in the back seat of a Volt, so here we are!