DonRobbie Posted April 27, 2021 Report Share Posted April 27, 2021 Purchased a 2018 cMax Titanium from Carvana. It's scheduled to be delivered Friday. I've never driven a cMax, or a hybrid in general so it's going to be...interesting. Trading in a 2016 Kia Soul. Liked the maneuverability and the fuel economy but the car just isn't very comfortable. It's lame but I miss power seats. Spouse and son who both use my car are much shorter than I am. Fore and aft adjustments are stone simple but raising and lowering the seat is kind of a PITA. It works fine for my 15-20 minute commute but anything over half an hour is pretty miserable. Our favorite vehicle was a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan. Loved all the space and it was great car for road trips. Had power everything. The kids are grown now and I really couldn't justify another big minivan. So I hope the cMax will still be easy to park and get good mileage while being a better travelling companion. So what do I need to know about living with a cMax? I'm not trying to hypermile, if the car gets nearly 40 MPG that's an upgrade (think according to the trip computer the Soul is getting 23). I've read the section of the cMax manual online about driving a hybrid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jzchen Posted April 28, 2021 Report Share Posted April 28, 2021 Welcome and congratulations on your purchase! We did not baby our C-MAX Energi when we had it. Still gave great mileage. I hope the elevated seating position and excellent headroom gives you comfort that your Soul did not. DonRobbie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRobbie Posted May 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 Car was delivered today. The radio is a mess. It was horrifically laggy (the voice responses came out in 2-3 syllable chunks over several minutes, and the screen would respond several minutes late). Looks like the last time it was updated was May 2018. Did a master reset and turned automatic updates on which got it to the point where it was just slow. Then the radio wouldn't turn off. Finally wound up popping the cover and pulling fuse 79 so it could be shut off and not run the 12v battery down. Does this thing ever work right? The car also has a couple of scrapes that were not called out on the website description. None of them are absolute showstoppers (I mean it's a 4 year old car) but I'm aggravated that they called out water spots on the B-pillars but neglected to mention a couple of 3"x5" scraped sections on the paint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
takingittothemax Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 That's a real shame. I was really tempted to buy a C-Max from Carvana before I found one at local dealership. I'd inspect the photos of the car on their website super closely to see if the scrapes. Also contact your customer service rep about it, and see if you can get a discount or something from them. DonRobbie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRobbie Posted May 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 Other complaint was the wife didn't like the AC was blowing cool air on her feet which bugged her since she was wearing sandals. It was set to dash only. I suspect it might be one the small vents on the driver's side of the dash that's been turned to an odd angle so I need to play with that and see if I can find it. The brakes aren't as good as the Soul. Also the regen braking on electric only sort of sounds like a distant siren when it gets close to a stop (When she drove it I kept expecting to see a cop). The car is very quiet and has plenty of get up and go. She was amused/happy with the little leaves on the right side of the dash and the "thank you for driving a hybrid" message when it was shut off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestead Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 Didn't realize the Sync 3 cars locked up too. Thought it was just the 2013-2015 that needed fuse 79 pulled once in a while. Is it working better now? DonRobbie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jzchen Posted May 1, 2021 Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 The car applies regenerative braking and then towards complete stop applies the physical brakes. The owner's manual notes that a squealing sound may be a sign of worn brake pad linings. I'd check or have them checked out. Sorry to read about the undisclosed damage. Those are significantly large. Do you think it possibly occurred during transport to you? Sometimes pulling a fuse or disconnect a cable to the 12V battery gets the system to work properly again. (I remember this from experience with Sync 2. I hope it's the same for your Sync 3). DonRobbie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRobbie Posted May 1, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 1, 2021 It appears that the A/C will only blow hard out of the dash after it's switched to "Max A/C" (there is some airflow from the dash vents). Otherwise it makes lots of noise but most of the air just goes through the floor vents. Also after starting the car I have to cycle MAX AC off and back on again to get the airflow going. I'm assuming a vacuum line or control unit is boogered. Once we got it blowing it's good and cold but I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to work that way. The radio works....very.....slowly. Tried hooking my phone up via USB instead of Bluetooth. Google maps and Audible work fine, Amazon music does not work at all. We also had decent luck hooking the wife's iPod up via USB. It's painfully slow to switch inputs but once it's going it works fine. When you turn the car on, but don't put it into "ready to drive" mode the check engine light comes on. It goes out once you put it into ready to drive. I thought I remember reading in the manual that was normal but I need to double check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowStorm Posted May 3, 2021 Report Share Posted May 3, 2021 On 5/1/2021 at 6:08 AM, DonRobbie said: Other complaint was the wife didn't like the AC was blowing cool air on her feet which bugged her since she was wearing sandals. It was set to dash only. I suspect it might be one the small vents on the driver's side of the dash that's been turned to an odd angle so I need to play with that and see if I can find it. Check the center dash vents that blow down towards your legs. There is a vertically oriented wheel right in the middle to turn them ON/OFF. These vents and the control are easy to miss. DonRobbie 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonRobbie Posted May 3, 2021 Author Report Share Posted May 3, 2021 (edited) Well the AC is working great today. Fingers crossed that it was a one day glitch. Have a cabin air filter on the way and will change that out this weekend when I put the seat covers on. Found the automatic parking buttons finally. Probably will take a while before I work up the courage to try them. Think the radio and I are starting to come to an accommodation. Plan on trying to the Sync update via USB key this weekend. Our Wi-Fi apparently isn't strong enough for Sync to download the update. Edited May 3, 2021 by DonRobbie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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