If you were thinking of purchasing a C-Max over a Prius v, read this

The automatic parallel parking feature is a breeze in Ford vehicles, and does a perfect job as compared with our v's visual based system...

SCH-R530M ? 2

 

Wow lot of Ford haters here! Complaining about a key pad that you cant even see? Really? I wouldn't want a car without one, and yes, you can lock the fob in the car, I did it in the TCH once. Thankfully my wife had hers with us. Do that in my Fusion and 5 presses later I am back in the car. I like not having to take my key out of my pocket, but I dont always carry my keys and if I run out to the car from my office for something and forget my key, no worries, 5 presses and I am in.

They did well with the Fusion, the Job1 cars, some had issues(been there), but Job 2 very few complaints, and most are doing very well. The Cmax though, shame on Ford for not testing the car before advertising it. Using the EPA fudge factor on a car that has a higher COD, with a very sensitive Hybrid system, not very smart, and that is too bad.

The Fusion though, great car, probably one of the best cars I have owned. It is starting to get consistent 46-48 MPG everyday, which on my daily drive is pretty damned good considering all the stops hills and 55 MPH speeds over 44 miles. Today going on a dispatch with most speeds 35-55 I got 55 MPG both ways. Very please with it, also transports 5 passengers comfortably, with luggage for a 4 day vacation. My wife fit between 2 car seats in the back. Her only complaint were the kids falling asleep on her.

I found at 80 MPH, pre-update it got 35.5 MPG and at 65MPH 43 MPG. The update should help improve that due to higher EV. Even so, 43 for a large family sedan is impressive.

 

So, what's going on? You're fuelly avg. is 35 MPG after 29 fillups, but the FFH has perked up after an update and is doing better?

 

Whoa, forgot I still had that other car posted.

Some guys at teh FFH site have taken to calling it the Blue Devil.


Here is the new one.

 

For those Prius drivers who have not test drove a C-Max I would suggest a try. I was easily able to get 43 mpg on a 20 mile test drive.

What really impressed me though was how quiet it was inside. The road noise that I have grown to somewhat ignore in my Prius was nearly gone. The interior was voluminous. You feel it is a much larger car.

I have over 263k miles on my Prius and it has been a wonderful car. I understand the loyalty that is expressed here. All things being equal the Prius has better gas mileage. But, the C-Max beats the Prius in the other areas. I think ford has done a great job and I am looking forward to more.

In the Energi model there is a 20 mile electric range with speeds of up to 82 mph on pure electric.

There are some excellent video reviews on YouTube and I think one of the most valuable pits the C-Max against the Prius V. You might be surprised at what the reviewers think.

 

That is why you buy a Toyota it's PROVEN!!!!!

 

Did you also give Prius V a try?

I hope you did not assume it would drive like your older gen Prius with 263k miles.

 

As someone somewhere else, I think a C-Max forum, said, Ford started producing an Escape Hybrid in 2004. That is pretty good experience if you ask me.

It may not be as efficient as a lighter Prius, but it, at least the Energi version, has a good compromise of power, range, and comfort. At 11 miles of range, the Prius Plug-In would get my wife half way to work, if she could manage to keep it under 65, or was it 62, MPH. About 3/4 of her total commute would be in hybrid mode. With her Energi she goes to work pretty much completely on electricity, and about 1/2 of the total trip, the way back home, is in hybrid mode. With this and about a 130 mile round trip to the Santa Barbara area, she was able to go over 900 miles on a single tank....

 

This is very wise advice. Gotta give both a try to compare for yourself what fits your needs the best. The C-Max Energi has quite a small trunk for us....

 

The big complaints are about the Ford's Sync. I have just purchased a 2013 C-Max Energi on Sunday.
It makes my Prius C's nav system look like a gameboy. The latest software has fixed the majority of abnormalities, but it can't fix the lack of buttons. These were the two big complaints with the C-Max, if you got the Nav system. Some people just can't adapt and don't do well with electronic technology.
My C-Max Energi is getting better mileage than my Prius C did. It's a bigger car with P225/50/17 tires.
The 7.6 Kwh battery is a monster and I can run up to 85 MPH in EV or Hybrid mode. Coasting off hills at 70 mph without making the ICE run is fantastic. Fit and finish is as good as any Toyota. I only have 300 miles on mine, but the tech on this car puts Toyota's to shame. Double the horse power with better MPG is a big plus. I don't need to nurse it to get good MPG number, but I do like how deep the big LITHIUM ION battery is

You Ford haters should read the report info., before jumping on your bashing bandwagons My C-Max make the Toyota feel like an underpowered kiddy car. I also notice I don't get tail-gated like I did in my Prius C

Ford uses Google for the Nav system. It's a great system and looks better than any Nav system I've looked at on any car/truck. I was able to download the update from My Ford Sync and update it by myself. No need to take it to the DEALER and be jerked around by idiot's

 

The Energi does give up some trunk space for sure.

I have driven the V and the latest gen Prius.

Sure I have driven all of the newer models except the C. They are both very good cars.

I might be a little more Prius excited when the IV comes out (60mpg?). It's about time but there was no reason for them to raise the bar until now. No one had really made a serious threat before.

 

Yeah, it's a little smaller do to the larger 7.6 Kwh lithium ion battery in the Energi. I'm married without children, so the small space issue wasn't a concern. It's my own personal ride. The wife has her own.
I wanted that 7.6 Kwh lithium battery. I am absolutely happy with the power it supplies. If I use the EV later mode, I can run in hybrid mode and never run low on battery power. Cruising along at 60-65 on the flats with the ICE off is SWEET

 

I wonder how many MPG you will get in similar 20 miles test drive. Probably higher than 43 MPG.

 

Here's a short trip data capture off my PC. I can track the car on my PC. I can turn the charging system on and off manually or preset it to charge whenever I want. The car has an auto start feature and will pre condition the cabin in cold weather. My Key has a setting to control vehicle speed and radio vol. in case your kid takes it somewhere.

61 MPG without using the EV feature. I ran it in EV later and it retains 95 of the EV battery. I can use part of the EV battery and regen it back. This allows me to use the hybrid systems EV mode for higher speed driving with the ICE off and still have 20 miles of pure EV available

 

About the Nav, I don't think it really was an issue with the interface as much as it just plain had bugs, probably thanks to Microsoft. People reported that it showed the car somewhere very off course. There's always a Windows update/Service pack available for Windows. They even transferred the name "service pack" if you didn't notice while the software update v3.6.2 was downloading. With v3.5.1 there were bugs as well, which I'm not sure has been resolved with the latest. At some point volume of a function couldn't be adjusted in ours, but after turning off the car and turning it back on everything was back to normal. Even after installing v3.6.2 it asked us to bring the car to the dealer. They were irritated seeing us again, and my wife was irritated with dealing with them again as well, since the car was just there last week. The end result was that they said nothing was needed. The system works pretty nicely otherwise, though my wife pointed out that it seems to take more steps to program Home as a destination than her prior '08 328i, which had the notorious iDrive version.

I think you have touched upon some of the many cool features about the car in another post, but there are more. I'm not sure whether the Prius Plug-In has these or not, but you can use your smart phone/iPhone to start/lock/unlock the car from almost anywhere, and get confirmation. Yes, you can also locate the car with the same software. The kick liftgate feature is really cool, and they have resolved the "double kick to open issue". We did not get the auto parallel parking feature with front distance sensors, but upon trying ones with them out it works like a charm, not like our Prius v which last time I tried I ended up rubbing the tires on the curb. There are so many features, I don't think I can remember them all.

One thing that irritated me about the Prius v navigation system was the process/procedure of installing a map update. It is not worth it to buy the activation card, USB dongle, and then get a Toyota TIS subscription to do the update yourself. You basically should just buy the activation card, and go to the dealer and pay them to install it off their dongle. It's just a crazy process doing it yourself. You have to get the activation key. (I had to call TIS when I did do the update. Not sure if they have the system up on the TIS site yet.) Give them some code off the Nav, and get a code to enter to download the update. It is not a cheap process either way, and I like the freedom to do the updates myself, which ended up being more expensive than just having the dealer do it. I think the Ford SD card will be a much easier system to deal with.....

About the available space, my wife and I have one child, but we live with my parents. The size of the trunk is an issue with the five of us. I guess we could get a Thule, but it is an extra hassle. She misses her old 328i in this respect....

 

It looks like Ford mixes EV miles from both modes (EV and HV) operation.

You drove 46.6 miles with gas engine off and also consumed 1 kWh of electricity. Is that electricity from the plug or from the gas engine?

Keep us updated with your lifetime figures, perhaps in a new thread as this one is about the hybrid model.

 

I hold the EV (plug-in) portion of my battery in reserve. I get high EV use from having the big reserve available and it only runs the ICE under heavy load demands, like going up a hill. Most of the voltage returned is from regen, but you also get it back when the ICE is comes on during those heavy demand periods. The EV use % is from plug-in charge side of the battery. It will fluctuate 1 to 2 miles. The system allows you to store 95% of the charge in reserve, until you
allow it to run in full EV mode. This was the main reason I wanted the large battery and only Ford offers it. It's also
a lithium battery. All hybrids should have large lithium batteries, IMO. You can get crazy MPG's with a system like this.

I guess the short answer is, it all comes from the Plug-In portion of the battery with most of it being added back from regen and limited ICE use. I can run in hybrid mode with the battery in EV later for 5 times longer than after the EV charge portion is gone. I can drive at higher speeds above 55, but it will kick out easier during these high speeds unless you're in EV now mode.

 

I really like the Energi. Right now they have 0% financing. You also get a tax rebate $3750. It's getting harder to say no to this and just purchase a C-Max.

 

If I needed something the size of a V or C-Max it would be an easy decision

 

PiP has bigger cargo space than C-Max Energi.