C-MAX Ordered!

[jamouton]

Hi, fellow C-MAX owners! 

 

Yesterday I put in my order for an Ice Storm SEL with Charcoal interior and 302A goodies.   Ice Storm (nice color name!) must be pretty popular as after much looking we had to order one to get what we wanted in that color.

 

This is only the second US car I have owned, and it's very encouraging to see such a nice car produced nationally again.  Sad to see that Ford has been rated second from the bottom of the reliability list by Consumer Reports, but happy to see that the SYNC and MyFord interface is one of the big reasons for that.  As an aged software architect I don't think I'll have any problem with it, and it's nice to note that Ford has continually updated it for existing owners: next update Dec 10 and next year for some of us. 

 

Interesting to see how variable the MPG achieved is.  Some reviews said that the longer-life batteries that can participate up to over 62 MPG did a lot to bump up the EPA rating in their tests and 47 MPG would be pretty hard to get in real life.  But some others got pretty respectable MPG in their tests.  I'm not going to be working to get 47; I'll just drive and expect that the car will take care of being pretty frugal.

 

I have driven a VW Jetta TDI wagon for a while, and measured an actual 47 MPG highway average on a trip from Connecticut to California, and a normal around town rate of 36 MPG (I record mileage and MPG at every fillup and have done so for about 40 years!).  I guess if the C-MAX comes close to that I'll be happy.    Sorry to lose a bit of cargo space compared to the VW, glad to get more and nicer rear seat room.  A big reason for choosing the C-MAX was the very nice interior and comfortable seating; leather is unavailable in the VW Sportwagen and not optional in our view.  The active noise cancellation is brilliant and makes a noticeable difference on the road.

 

BTW, some comments here about leather are wrong in my experience.  Hot in the sun, harder to keep nice?  We got leather because we had to back in 1982 but were surprised that leather heats up much less than vinyl or plastic in the sun, and it resists scratching, tears, and stains a lot better too, as our two rambunctious boys demonstrated.  We would have paid to install leather at an upholstery shop if we had bought the VW.  No comparison, in my view.  To cloth, the big difference is staining and sweat absorption (with smell coming later).  You do have to maintain leather, but you are talking once or twice a year. 

 

The 0-60 time for the C-MAX is given as about 8.8 seconds, much quicker than my first sports car, a Triumph TR3.  Times have changed!  The car feels very capable on the road too though I won't be seeking out twisty mountain roads!

 

I'm looking forward to delivery in what? February?

 

Jerry Mouton

[different drummer]

Hi Jerry! Congrats on ordering your C-Max.  It's gonna be a long wait 'til February.  Still, it gives you a reason to look forward to February!

 

I don't know about the popularity of Ice Storm in the outside world, but here in the forums it seems pretty popular, with a few of us waiting for and a few already owning one (I'm still waiting, unfortunately :-).

[RachelnLa]

Still waiting for ice storm with stone interior too.

[StoBro2]

Welcome aboard! I see you are getting about the same MPG as I was with my 2010 Jetta TDI Sportwagen. My best tank was 47.1 MPG, my worst was 35.1 and my lifetime average was 38.5 overall. I'm one of the "no leather for me" people. If the weather here stayed between 30 and 85 degrees I'd probably be OK with leather, but when the temp routinely hits -10 in the winter and +100 in the summer it loses much of its appeal. The same goes for artificial leather. For me the only real drawback to cloth is that dog hair sticks to it like Velcro.

[Laurel]

Welcome!  It took about 7 weeks for our order to come to the west coast of Canada.  We have Ice Storm SEL 303a package.  We got it yesterday, and are on the learning curve.  The forum is great for answering questions.  Darrell helped me with the programing of favorites today.  There are little things that the books don't seem to go into detail about.  So now we have about 20 destinations programed successfully.  All the technology is pretty cool, but some of it a little overwhelming.  Hubby programed our garage door opener and townhouse gate about an hour ago with no sweat.  We have the active park assist (hubby wanted it--heavens only knows why as we rarely parallel park)--so we just tried that.  You need nerves of steel with that feature.  It seems like you are going to hit the car parallel to you when it swings in.  I had my husband abort one of our attempts as it was a real tight spot and I couldn't believe we were going to fit without taking out the other cars fender.  But we are having lots of fun.  I think Ice Storm is not a popular colour.  I looked through all the dealer inventory in Canada, and grey and white were predominantly available and perhaps three Ice Storms in Canada from when I checked.  Hubby is very neutral about the colour.  It is what I would call a chameleon colour as it looks different in different light.  In the showroom it seemed a very pale soft green, out in the bright light it was very pale blue, and parked in the rain a couple of hours later it was a drab grey. I think that makes it more interesting.  I will post pictures soon.  At the dealership yesterday, I had to pose with the salesman in front of our C-Max as it was the first one they have sold.  I hope your new C-Max arrives ahead of schedule.

[jamouton]

Welcome aboard! I see you are getting about the same MPG as I was with my 2010 Jetta TDI Sportwagen. My best tank was 47.1 MPG, my worst was 35.1 and my lifetime average was 38.5 overall. I'm one of the "no leather for me" people. If the weather here stayed between 30 and 85 degrees I'd probably be OK with leather, but when the temp routinely hits -10 in the winter and +100 in the summer it loses much of its appeal. The same goes for artificial leather. For me the only real drawback to cloth is that dog hair sticks to it like Velcro.

Thanks!  I'm looking forward to the new car.

 

As for leather, I never have suffered -10F days, but I've travelled extensively in the summer desert with leather, and it's really just fine even wearing shorts.  I have a house in Austin TX and 100F days are not uncommon -- the leather is just fine compared to vinyl. 

 

But as they say on the Internet, YMMV!

 

Laurel,  I'm reading the owners manual that's linked from the forum to try and figure out all the electronics before we have to actually use it.  Glad to hear it's not too bad.  I'm kind of "don't care" about the color though I think it's nice as you say.  My wife Kate wouldn't have the car in any other color!

 

Jerry

[zhackwyatt]

Laurel,  I'm reading the owners manual that's linked from the forum to try and figure out all the electronics before we have to actually use it.  Glad to hear it's not too bad.  I'm kind of "don't care" about the color though I think it's nice as you say.  My wife Kate wouldn't have the car in any other color!

 

Jerry

If you have an Android phone and there is a my ford touch app by Ford that displays the interface on your phone, letting you play with it without making real changes on the car. Also, there is help information.  I believe it is available for iphone as well.

[jamouton]

If you have an Android phone and there is a my ford touch app by Ford that displays the interface on your phone, letting you play with it without making real changes on the car. Also, there is help information.  I believe it is available for iphone as well.

Right, I played with the iPhone connection at the dealer -- cool!  I really like that you can bring up NPR app on the MyFord, and the MLB -- baseball -- app too, so it's All Things Considered or Giants anywhere we go!

[darrelld]

Hello and welcome, fellow TDIer here too.

[eddy]

I have a fully loaded CMax Energi on order - target date to take delivery is the first of March.  I was an early adopter to hybrids with a Civic hybrid in 04 and an Insight hybrid in 10.  This will be my first plug-in hybrid.  It looks like I may not get the 50 mpg I have managed on both of my Honda hybrids.  But, we have a lot of short trips we do here in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, Washington area and I am hoping to capture the benefits of using the plug-in system.  We'll see.

[jamouton]

I just got news that our C-Max will start building on January 21st, probably delivery in early February.

 

We drove a C-Max Energi to see whether we wanted to jump up.  Seemed just as nice as the Hybrid, the idea of a plug-in is very attractive, and the extra cost is covered to some extent by tax breaks/rebates.  However, the bigger battery greatly reduced the cargo space, and we decided that what is left is not enough to pick up traveling friends at the airport so it's staying onto the Hybrid that we will be doing.  So far.

 

Jerry

[Jus-A-CMax]

Yeah, I so wanted the Energi but that large pack and the higher cost was a no-no for us. If the next year's model they can do away with all that bulk in the Energi, thats a winner-winner for sure. As it is based on my experience to Mammoth, that extra battery would have eaten a huge chunk out of what we could have taken for our week long trip to the snow.