5,400+ Mile Trip Report

[ScubaDadMiami]

On June 2, I left Miami Beach, Florida for a big summer road trip that would include attending my daughter’s Vermont wedding, seeing the wilderness of New England, and visiting with family in and around Philadelphia. All in all, I drove over 5,400 miles in a month and a half. Here are some highlights of my travels in my 2013 C-MAX Hybrid.

 

Just before leaving on this long trip, I had the 10,000 mile scheduled service performed, even though my C-MAX really only had just over 9,000 miles on it. I asked for all tires to be inspected, rotated and balanced, and filled to 38 PSI. Additionally, I had the dealership use 0W20 oil for the oil change. Since I planned to be on the road for so long, I purchased the new A-5 NAV card update before making this trip. Not having a spare tire, I upped my AAA to their very top towing tier (200 miles) in addition to my already existing GEICO coverage and Ford’s 125,000 mile extended warranty and tire warranty. Oh, and I also carry a tire plug kit. Hopefully, all of this would see me through a plan that included a minimum of 4,000 miles of driving.

 

As always, I was accompanied on this trip by my pooch, who travels in his doggie harness seatbelt, in the back seat of my C-MAX. To avoid crowding him in, I elect not to fold down either of the rear seats, which raises quite a challenge for fitting my gear into the small rear compartment. Luckily, advanced planning made the end result come out pretty well. Slowpoke did still have to deal with some soft items being on the split rear seat next to his space, but not in it. There was plenty of room for him to stretch out or to get to his water bowl. He is not too demanding, and he seemed satisfied with the outcome.

 

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On travel days, I averaged about seven or so hours a day of driving, stopping off in Jacksonville, Florida, Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Cherry Hill, New Jersey before arriving at the kids’ house in Somersworth, New Hampshire. On the road, I elected to stay in motels that had real kitchens in them, such as Extended Stay America or Candlewood Suites, allowing me to make good use of cooking appliances (such as my Vitamix) and two big coolers of home cooking brought with me in my C-MAX. This system kept my junk eating from road stops to a minimum, and the savings from the reduced food tab at least partially subsidized the extra cost for the room with the kitchen.

 

The first questionable thing that happened in relation to my C-MAX was that I followed the onscreen directions of NAV rather than following signs for a bypass around Washington, D.C. traffic. Of course, I don’t know what would have happened had I followed the signs instead of obeying NAV. Nonetheless, on that day, I was stuck in some of the worst traffic of my entire trip. BTW, I went back south via a different route, and that was also with terrible traffic. So, maybe there is just no way to win in DC.

 

Driving all the way from Miami Beach to New Hampshire, I had no real issues with my C-MAX. I did have one incident where I was playing with the screen and trying to do so many tasks at once that I did have to restart my C-MAX in order to reboot. Other than this one-time happening, Synch and NAV worked well for me for my entire road trip.

 

The most serious incident of my trip happened just as I crossed the New Hampshire state line, only about 45 minutes from the end of the first part of my journey. The tire pressure warning lamp illuminated. I pulled to the side of the road, got out, took a look, and I saw that it was not like I had an actual flat tire or nearly so. I decided to chance making the last part of the trip before dealing with the tire. If I would need roadside assistance, I planned on doing the waiting while at the kids’ house rather than the side of the highway.

 

After successfully arriving at my destination, the next day, I checked with a pressure gauge, and the tires were down all the way around, with one down to 34 PSI. Even allowing for going from a place where it was about 93F every day to a place where it is perhaps 83F, I think that the dealer did not fill the tires during the service, and that the cooling of the environment finally tipped the scale on the pressure warning. Anyway, I drove to an air pump, topped the tires, and they have been steady for the rest of the trip and since my return to Miami. I am not going to blame that issue on the car. Thank goodness it was not a puncture of some sort.

 

While in New England, I drove through parts of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, through the White Mountains and the Green Mountains, and in areas with as much as a 15 percent grade.

 

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These drives brought me to places like Lake Champlain, where I rented a lakeside cabin during the week of my daughter’s wedding.

 

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They also took me to places where Slowpoke and I hiked mountain trails, wooded trails and where we canoed.

 

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Heading back south from New England, I stopped in for a week in New Jersey, near Philadelphia, where I grew up and where much of my family still resides.

 

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Here is a picture of me with a relative that bought his C-MAX because of my favorable experience. At the time that we met up, he was getting around 40 MPG. When we met up about a week later, he told me that, just by following one thing that I told him, he already was up to 45 MPG, a big improvement!

 

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On this trip, I found a particular shortcoming of NAV that, while not a big deal, is an annoyance. When you try to use voice command to instruct NAV to add a waypoint to your current route, NAV will allow you to search for the POI or tell it the address, but then you get a message about not being able to add the waypoint to your route by voice command. To add the desired waypoint, you have to use the screen to tap the calculate button. It’s just a little annoying extra step, but it’s one that I’d prefer not to have to make.

 

Even with its shortcomings, I am pretty satisfied with Synch and NAV. This is now the second big road trip that I have made in my C-MAX, and NAV has worked quite well for me in most instances.

 

On the other hand, allow me to take a minute to again curse the dead pedal in the C-MAX. As it is, I have all kinds of back problems and other ailments that make it very difficult for me to stay comfortable on long drives. So, putting that stupid pedal in this vehicle, and especially on the driver’s side, was a big mistake in the design of this car. Making the space for the driver’s legs is something that I would think should have had a lot more attention. To this day, I curse that dead pedal everytime that I get in my C-MAX!

 

The final shot shows my numbers for this trip. It would be hard to describe any one kind of driving as an average for this trip. Certainly, there was lots and lots and lots of highway driving. On the highway, I drove pretty much whatever was the speed limit. However, where the speed limit was 70 MPH, I probably was on Eco Cruise at 67 MPH. I did two weeks of significant mountain driving through New England. In New Jersey/Philadelphia, I spent a week doing city driving. Most days were very hot, nearing or topping 90F degrees. I nearly always had the air conditioner turned on, set to 73-74F degrees. I used premium gasoline.

 

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Speaking of fuel costs, I cashed in points from my credit card to get a prepaid Visa card that I used to pay for several fill-ups. So, even though I was buying premium fuel for my C-MAX, I got so much of it for free that, when combined with the great fuel economy of the C-MAX, my travel fuel costs were still quite low. In that column, I can certainly attest to the great fuel economy of our cars!

Edited August 4, 2014 by ScubaDadMiami

[nsteblay]

Wow.  Fantastic mileage.  Awesome narrative and pictures too - thanks.  How many MPG's do you think premium gas provides over regular?

[Wnuk]

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to share with us.

 

BTW, did you happen to see "Champ" at Lake Champlain?   :hat_tip:

[Russell Fried]

Great story. Awesome write up.

[Jus-A-CMax]

Nice write up SDM! Enjoyed the writeup and most of all, the photos... :thumbsup:

 

 

:stirpot:   I really scratch my head at those idjiots at Consumer Reports who ONLY MANAGE 38MPG on their stupid piddly circuit while you went on this mega LONG trip and blew their MPG numbers apart with  :happy feet:  45.6MPG and FULLY LOADED, AC, mountains, FWY speeds. Really does say a lot about the skills possessed by the CR drivers for sure, can't wait for them to break 300 miles a tank in their CMax (yes, thats right CR, I :lol2:  at you).

 

Rant over, I feel much better now. :flyaway:

Edited August 5, 2014 by Jus-A-CMax

[hybridbear]

Incredible MPG SDM! That's better than we ever got on a road trip in our Fusion!

[ptjones]

Great write up and good MPG job! :) Now raise your tires to 50psi and see what happens. :happy feet:

 

Paul

Edited August 5, 2014 by ptjones

[Ponypower]

Awesome Trip,  Thanks for sharing!!

[HPRifleman]

 

 

 

Your navigation screen looks different than mine. I don't remember ever getting the fastest/shortest/eco options on the right. These are settable in Settings but not on the screen. Can you elaborate on this?

[fbov]

Heading back south from New England, I stopped in for a week in New Jersey, near Philadelphia, where I grew up and where much of my family still resides.

 

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Where exactly? I was born in Camden, and grew up in Haddon Twp., around the corner from the high school. Odd the map shows Haddon Twp., a town in three pieces, and Tavistock, a "town" of 7 people, but not the city of Camden...

 

Have fun,

Frank

[ScubaDadMiami]

How many MPG's do you think premium gas provides over regular?

 I've only run premium, so I can't say. The main report I hear is about premium giving the C-MAX a little more pep.

 

 

Your navigation screen looks different than mine. I don't remember ever getting the fastest/shortest/eco options on the right. These are settable in Settings but not on the screen. Can you elaborate on this?

 

I use voice commands for almost everything. After I command "set as destination," this screen briefly comes up while NAV is making the calculation of route. I have a few seconds to decide to press one of the options. If I don't, it will choose the route by my previously set preference, such as fastest or Eco.

 

Where exactly? I was born in Camden, and grew up in Haddon Twp., around the corner from the high school.

Maybe we know each other. I graduated from Haddon Township High School.

[fbov]

Maybe we know each other. I graduated from Haddon Township High School.

I grew up on Bradley Ave, one block below Memorial Ave, the 1-way street into the HS. I delivered papers in the high-rise behind the school, started playing tennis when they built the courts... but never attended that school. I took the train to St. Joe's Prep in Philadelphia, so, judging by the young guy in the pictures, my recollections may be ancient history!

 

Where did you live?

 

Frank

[ScubaDadMiami]

Message sent.

[wamba2000]

Thank you for the recap, and the pictures.  

[Wnuk]

 

 

 

Your navigation screen looks different than mine. I don't remember ever getting the fastest/shortest/eco options on the right. These are settable in Settings but not on the screen. Can you elaborate on this?

 

 

 

In order to see these options go into settings, navigation, and then route  preferences I believe. There is an option there that says something like "always use preferred route?". Set that to "No" and you will get the above screen every time you set a destination. Select one of the options and you will see the colored route highlighted on the screen.

Edited August 9, 2014 by Wnuk

[king05robert]

Thank you for the recap, and the pictures.  

I also thanks for the pictures...

[scottwood2]

Nice write up.  Enjoyed the story.  I can diffidently understand why some say to just use Eco-cruise and forget it.  Great MPG and your tires were under inflated for part of the trip. 

 

I find it interesting that you were in EV mode less than 17% of the time and still had great FE.  

[ScubaDadMiami]

That was a great trip. Right now, I am planning trips for this coming summer.

 

In the early part of the season, I plan to head up to the mountains of North Carolina. I will definitely drive for that trip, which I expect to be about 2,000+ miles, including stopping off in Charlotte to see my daughter and son-in-law for part of the time.

 

It is not yet certain, but, for later in the season, I am planning on making a trip to Seattle, and doing some hiking and camping around Washington. I was originally going to make the Washington trip in my C-MAX, but, considering that it would be roughly a week there and back of driving from Miami, it doesn't seem to be worth it. (My New England trip was for a month and a half, which made driving well worth it.) I think that I will probably just fly, and then I will rent a car for the part of the time that I go on hikes, and then I will just hang around the city for food and fun, using the great public transportation of Seattle. C-MaxSea/Nick has been so helpful in making these plans. I can't thank him enough!

 

After years of always having to plan my diving career and vacations during the warm weather season, retirement is finally allowing me to have the time to head back out into the wilderness. I hope that I can start making it count!