- Oct 28, 1999
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So...my life is getting flipped on it's head a bit.
Moving from one state to a different one. Changing from a 10-20 mile each way, 95% highway commute to a 5 mile gridlocked grind most days.
My wife has a Camry, I had a much maligned Focus (well discussed here), and a Minivan.
Didn't want to take the Focus down with the commute I'd have. So that got sold. Then as we started evaluating things with the van, the commute, the ridiculously small garages and overall size of the van with as much traffic and congestion we'll be facing...we decided to go ahead and downsize that.
Looked at the Prius V, but it's pretty pricey for the options and a gutless turd in most situations. Normal Prius was less annoying, but still lifeless. Looked at Mazda5's but wanted better economy. Fusion/Camry hybrids were too compromised on space and I needed some hauling flexibility after coming from a van. Volt has a non-existant back seat space.
Enter the C-Max. Hadn't given it a second though as it just never was marketed well. It got very little publicity and really not something you think of when shopping hybrids.
I went to the car show in April and messed around in one for a bit. There's a deceptively large amount of space in them. Back seat space was great for my kids and the headroom is insane. Doors heights are monstrous so getting my 2 year old in and out of a car seat is one of the easiest cars I've ever worked with. Plus the entry heigh is very low and my kids can get in and out even easier than the minivan.
A few weeks back I started test driving a few different ones and seeing what I thought behind the wheel. It's a very strange seating position for a car it's size. Seats are very upright and tall like a minivan or truck. Not slung on the floor like most sedans. Padding on the drivers door is also a lot thicker than my Focus so it's no where as uncomfortable to rest your elbow. Seats are a lot wider and considerably more adjustable than the Focus. And the vision all the way around the car is great. It's sort of like an upsized Honda Fit in that regard.
The powertrain/driving experience is really the main draw of the car..but I'll save that for a bit.
So on to what I ended up getting...
Ford was clearing out the 2013's. About $3k off them + 0% for 72 months. I got a decent enough trade in on my Van. I ended up dealing on a White Platinum SEL w/ the black leather interior + the Nav and Sony system.
Took delivery last Tuesday...here's my nearly week long wrap up.
1 - Looks. It's not a looker. It's not ugly, but it's not a great looking car either. Definitely not as swanky looking as the Fusion. That being said you get the headroom, backseat space, and trunk room because of the body shape. It looks like an inflated Honda Fit.
2 - Interior. In a word. Awesome. The fit and finish, attention to soft touch materials and padding where needed is great. Leather and controls are all very high class. This thing is very well done and and makes the Prius look like the true econbox that it is. It may be a "compact" car but it punches well above it's weigh class in refinement. There's active noise cancellation speakers that really do work and make this thing a rolling vault on the highway.
3 - Tech. It's tricked out. I didn't splurge for every option. I don't have the power liftgate with the sweep the leg to open option. I also do not have a backup camera or the park assist. But it does have a host of other stuff...My Ford Touch big ass screen with a couple USB inputs and the nav system. Instrument clusters that flank both sides of the speedometer giving insane amounts of information about gas/power consumption on the left and phone/music/nav info on the right of the speedometer. Touch button start. Parking sensors. Some cool "approach" lights under the side mirrors that turn on when you get near it with the key. The door handles have a sensor that will unlock the doors if you touch it with your thumb and the key in your pocket. The sync system is similar to what my focus had but even more crazy. It will read text messages, display contact pictures on the screen when they call in, and kick back messages to callers at the push of a button when you are driving. The call quality over bluetooth is also easily the best I have ever heard. Usually BT call quality is crap, even the handsfree in my Focus was pretty bad. But in the C-Max it's almost better than talking on the phone itself. Highly impressed.
4 - Ride quality/handling. In terms of comfort and luxury, it's very good. It is unfazed by bumps and potholes. Road noise is non-existant. As I said earlier it's almost vaultlike inside the car. You can hear the ICE engine when you first use it and before it's warmed up. You can also hear it when you really lay into throttle, but otherwise it's incredibly quiet. It's a really nice ride. Handling is a little different story. You read the reviews and they say "it's just like a Focus!". Not true. My Focus was a highly damped, nimble little dart. Very little body roll and felt very light on it's feet. Not the case for the C-Max. You feel all 3600 pounds of it working against that tall roof line. It leans heavy under turns and just feels a lot mushier (technical term!) than the Focus did. It's not Prius levels of disengaged driving, but it's not a drivers car by any stretch of the imagination.
5 - Powertrain. Here's the meat and potatoes of the car and why a person buys it. This is my first hybrid. This is the first time I've spent more than 20 minutes behind the wheel of one. And the truth is...I should have owned one of these things years ago. Almost everything about them appeals to me in some way. Ford has a really impressive system setup with their latest Hybrids. The C-Max has a "traditional" Hybrid setup, and that's what I bought. They also have a plug-in version of with an additional 500 pounds of batteries in trunk that gets you 20'ish miles of pure battery action. My future commute and typical driving probably favors the plug in version more, but they were more expensive, heavy, and that extra battery pack really eats into the already compromised space that I was going to from a Mini van.
Here's how the C-Max system works. It's got a lithium ion pack vs the older battery tech of the prius flavors. That means it packs more of a punch and also recharges faster. Ford tries to leverage that quite a bit. When you first fire up the car it's silent. Not a peep. Backing it out of the garage in the morning and it doesn't make a noise. Put it in drive and then you hear the ICE kick in and the displays in the gauge pack show you are using gasoline. It'll run on gas for a couple minutes until the engine warms up. For me, I drive about 1/2 mile to the bus stop to drop off my daughter, idle for a minute or two and then take off. When you put it back in drive to take off you are now warmed up and the battery is ready to work. I can creep around my neighborhood at 25-30MPH in pure EV mode. Come out of the subdivision on the main drag, hammer the go button and but up to 60MPH in under 8 seconds, back off the accellerator and coast on EV for another 3/4 of a mile before the gas kicks back in.
I've figure out the "pulse and glide technique" with it where you get up to speed and then back off the accelerator and tip back in. That will disengage the ICE and flip it to EV mode. Using this technique, my 11 mile highway drive to work ends up being about 6 miles of ICE use and 5 miles of pure EV use. With only 500 miles on the tank I'm doing about 45 MPG going into work at speeds of 55-60MPH.
Coming home just due to how elevation drops are I can get closer to 50MPG.
Crusing around town I've had 5 mile trips that have exceeded 55MPG (computer readout).
Between the brake coach and the various displays I find driving the car almost a daily game daring me to get the most out of it. It's almost a challenge now to get the most EV miles out of my trip without being a total hypermiler annoying everyone else on the road.
Hitting red lights or slowing down are now actually rewarding since you can regen and make a game out of it
And when you do come to a stop the car is silent and motionless when the engine cuts off and it runs off the big ass battery in the trunk.
I'm at about 350 miles into my first tank of gas and still have about 3/8 of a tank left. I don't know how linear the gauage is (it's electronic) or how much is left when it's empty. It's only a 13 gallon tank so will be interesting to see how many gallons it takes when the empty light comes on.
This little car is a very cool, fun, and funky machine. It's got plenty of space for my young family of 4. I don't feel like I'm going to die when merging or pulling out onto a busy road. It's got a fairly enthusiastic amount of gusto when needed...for a hybrid. And when I feel like just kicking back and relaxing on my drive I'm rewarded with an awesome interior, get tech toys, and 40-55MPG depending on where/how I'm driving.
To quote Han Solo...."She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts".
Which is funny because my car is a metallic white color...and I've got little smuggler hatches in the foot well of the backseat just like the Millenium Falcon.
Maybe I'll have to get custom "YT-1300" plates for it.
Moving from one state to a different one. Changing from a 10-20 mile each way, 95% highway commute to a 5 mile gridlocked grind most days.
My wife has a Camry, I had a much maligned Focus (well discussed here), and a Minivan.
Didn't want to take the Focus down with the commute I'd have. So that got sold. Then as we started evaluating things with the van, the commute, the ridiculously small garages and overall size of the van with as much traffic and congestion we'll be facing...we decided to go ahead and downsize that.
Looked at the Prius V, but it's pretty pricey for the options and a gutless turd in most situations. Normal Prius was less annoying, but still lifeless. Looked at Mazda5's but wanted better economy. Fusion/Camry hybrids were too compromised on space and I needed some hauling flexibility after coming from a van. Volt has a non-existant back seat space.
Enter the C-Max. Hadn't given it a second though as it just never was marketed well. It got very little publicity and really not something you think of when shopping hybrids.
I went to the car show in April and messed around in one for a bit. There's a deceptively large amount of space in them. Back seat space was great for my kids and the headroom is insane. Doors heights are monstrous so getting my 2 year old in and out of a car seat is one of the easiest cars I've ever worked with. Plus the entry heigh is very low and my kids can get in and out even easier than the minivan.
A few weeks back I started test driving a few different ones and seeing what I thought behind the wheel. It's a very strange seating position for a car it's size. Seats are very upright and tall like a minivan or truck. Not slung on the floor like most sedans. Padding on the drivers door is also a lot thicker than my Focus so it's no where as uncomfortable to rest your elbow. Seats are a lot wider and considerably more adjustable than the Focus. And the vision all the way around the car is great. It's sort of like an upsized Honda Fit in that regard.
The powertrain/driving experience is really the main draw of the car..but I'll save that for a bit.
So on to what I ended up getting...
Ford was clearing out the 2013's. About $3k off them + 0% for 72 months. I got a decent enough trade in on my Van. I ended up dealing on a White Platinum SEL w/ the black leather interior + the Nav and Sony system.
Took delivery last Tuesday...here's my nearly week long wrap up.
1 - Looks. It's not a looker. It's not ugly, but it's not a great looking car either. Definitely not as swanky looking as the Fusion. That being said you get the headroom, backseat space, and trunk room because of the body shape. It looks like an inflated Honda Fit.
2 - Interior. In a word. Awesome. The fit and finish, attention to soft touch materials and padding where needed is great. Leather and controls are all very high class. This thing is very well done and and makes the Prius look like the true econbox that it is. It may be a "compact" car but it punches well above it's weigh class in refinement. There's active noise cancellation speakers that really do work and make this thing a rolling vault on the highway.
3 - Tech. It's tricked out. I didn't splurge for every option. I don't have the power liftgate with the sweep the leg to open option. I also do not have a backup camera or the park assist. But it does have a host of other stuff...My Ford Touch big ass screen with a couple USB inputs and the nav system. Instrument clusters that flank both sides of the speedometer giving insane amounts of information about gas/power consumption on the left and phone/music/nav info on the right of the speedometer. Touch button start. Parking sensors. Some cool "approach" lights under the side mirrors that turn on when you get near it with the key. The door handles have a sensor that will unlock the doors if you touch it with your thumb and the key in your pocket. The sync system is similar to what my focus had but even more crazy. It will read text messages, display contact pictures on the screen when they call in, and kick back messages to callers at the push of a button when you are driving. The call quality over bluetooth is also easily the best I have ever heard. Usually BT call quality is crap, even the handsfree in my Focus was pretty bad. But in the C-Max it's almost better than talking on the phone itself. Highly impressed.
4 - Ride quality/handling. In terms of comfort and luxury, it's very good. It is unfazed by bumps and potholes. Road noise is non-existant. As I said earlier it's almost vaultlike inside the car. You can hear the ICE engine when you first use it and before it's warmed up. You can also hear it when you really lay into throttle, but otherwise it's incredibly quiet. It's a really nice ride. Handling is a little different story. You read the reviews and they say "it's just like a Focus!". Not true. My Focus was a highly damped, nimble little dart. Very little body roll and felt very light on it's feet. Not the case for the C-Max. You feel all 3600 pounds of it working against that tall roof line. It leans heavy under turns and just feels a lot mushier (technical term!) than the Focus did. It's not Prius levels of disengaged driving, but it's not a drivers car by any stretch of the imagination.
5 - Powertrain. Here's the meat and potatoes of the car and why a person buys it. This is my first hybrid. This is the first time I've spent more than 20 minutes behind the wheel of one. And the truth is...I should have owned one of these things years ago. Almost everything about them appeals to me in some way. Ford has a really impressive system setup with their latest Hybrids. The C-Max has a "traditional" Hybrid setup, and that's what I bought. They also have a plug-in version of with an additional 500 pounds of batteries in trunk that gets you 20'ish miles of pure battery action. My future commute and typical driving probably favors the plug in version more, but they were more expensive, heavy, and that extra battery pack really eats into the already compromised space that I was going to from a Mini van.
Here's how the C-Max system works. It's got a lithium ion pack vs the older battery tech of the prius flavors. That means it packs more of a punch and also recharges faster. Ford tries to leverage that quite a bit. When you first fire up the car it's silent. Not a peep. Backing it out of the garage in the morning and it doesn't make a noise. Put it in drive and then you hear the ICE kick in and the displays in the gauge pack show you are using gasoline. It'll run on gas for a couple minutes until the engine warms up. For me, I drive about 1/2 mile to the bus stop to drop off my daughter, idle for a minute or two and then take off. When you put it back in drive to take off you are now warmed up and the battery is ready to work. I can creep around my neighborhood at 25-30MPH in pure EV mode. Come out of the subdivision on the main drag, hammer the go button and but up to 60MPH in under 8 seconds, back off the accellerator and coast on EV for another 3/4 of a mile before the gas kicks back in.
I've figure out the "pulse and glide technique" with it where you get up to speed and then back off the accelerator and tip back in. That will disengage the ICE and flip it to EV mode. Using this technique, my 11 mile highway drive to work ends up being about 6 miles of ICE use and 5 miles of pure EV use. With only 500 miles on the tank I'm doing about 45 MPG going into work at speeds of 55-60MPH.
Coming home just due to how elevation drops are I can get closer to 50MPG.
Crusing around town I've had 5 mile trips that have exceeded 55MPG (computer readout).
Between the brake coach and the various displays I find driving the car almost a daily game daring me to get the most out of it. It's almost a challenge now to get the most EV miles out of my trip without being a total hypermiler annoying everyone else on the road.
Hitting red lights or slowing down are now actually rewarding since you can regen and make a game out of it
And when you do come to a stop the car is silent and motionless when the engine cuts off and it runs off the big ass battery in the trunk.I'm at about 350 miles into my first tank of gas and still have about 3/8 of a tank left. I don't know how linear the gauage is (it's electronic) or how much is left when it's empty. It's only a 13 gallon tank so will be interesting to see how many gallons it takes when the empty light comes on.
This little car is a very cool, fun, and funky machine. It's got plenty of space for my young family of 4. I don't feel like I'm going to die when merging or pulling out onto a busy road. It's got a fairly enthusiastic amount of gusto when needed...for a hybrid. And when I feel like just kicking back and relaxing on my drive I'm rewarded with an awesome interior, get tech toys, and 40-55MPG depending on where/how I'm driving.
To quote Han Solo...."She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts".
Which is funny because my car is a metallic white color...and I've got little smuggler hatches in the foot well of the backseat just like the Millenium Falcon.
Maybe I'll have to get custom "YT-1300" plates for it.
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