Official Ford C-MAX Energi PHEV thread

[KeiJidosha]

It's one of the reasons why I haven't found most of the PHEVs to be acceptable. With such a short electric range, they would be on gas too often for our usage and way too much of a dog when so... I've made a point to drive them both fully charged and charge depleted to see how they respond... At this stage of the game, I still believe that a HEV is a much better deal, not even considering the space issues...

Interesting to watch the sales reps struggle to demonstrate the Energi when it hasn’t been charged, and is running in Hybrid mode. Gas engine is struggling to keep up while trying to charge the depleted battery.

5 mile roundtrip to work and 8 mile roundtrip to class should be possible on EV mode. "Should" being the operative word

 

[KeiJidosha]

Only the C-Max and the V passed the dog crate test.

You must have a Dachshund or a Basset. I don't think the C-Max is deep enough for many people's cargo needs. Glad it works for you! Congratulations!

Freddie is a Border Collie that jumps 22". Crate is 24" x 27" x 36" that loads folded onto the folded flat rear seats, ahead of the battery "hump". Access is thru the rear driver side door. It is a tight fit, but works.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Only the C-Max and the V passed the dog crate test.

You must have a Dachshund or a Basset. I don't think the C-Max is deep enough for many people's cargo needs. Glad it works for you! Congratulations!

Freddie is a Border Collie that jumps 22". Crate is 24" x 27" x 36" that loads folded onto the folded flat rear seats, ahead of the battery "hump". Access is thru the rear driver side door. It is a tight fit, but works.

thanks for clarification. I saw the C-Max last weekend at Lacey Fair and its rear hatch storage I would classify as a glove box and yes! I have seen bigger glove boxes!

 

[GRA]

Freddie is a Border Collie that jumps 22". Crate is 24" x 27" x 36" that loads folded onto the folded flat rear seats, ahead of the battery "hump". Access is thru the rear driver side door. It is a tight fit, but works.

thanks for clarification. I saw the C-Max last weekend at Lacey Fair and its rear hatch storage I would classify as a glove box and yes! I have seen bigger glove boxes!

Yeah, it's a real shame. It's a nice car for a decent price, but for anyone who needs significant storage with the rear seats up it's a non-starter. Although I rarely have anyone in the back seat, even with my scuba tanks tied to the cargo tie-downs in my Forester I want the seats up and locked in front of them. Having one to four times ca. 50 lbs. of steel cylinder ramming itself into me or my pax. in an accident is not something I wish to experience.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Just called the local dealer, he said they have the energi and is going to call me back with some lease numbers. That should be good for a laugh.

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Only $528/mo with no money down!!!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Only $528/mo with no money down!!!

I Can Lease A BMW for That Kind Of Money

 

[TomT]

A very nice one, in fact!

Only $528/mo with no money down!!!

I Can Lease A BMW for That Kind Of Money

 

[evnow]

A very nice one, in fact!

Only $528/mo with no money down!!!

I Can Lease A BMW for That Kind Of Money

But that won't be a plugin.

I think I posted this some pages back, the lease rates on Energi are bad. Buying would be the way to go, if someone can live with the trunk.

I expect i3 to cost that, BTW.

 

[epic]

the local dealer has 2 new cmax energi with a little over 5k each of sticker price + 0% apr for 60 months. This is a great deal .Or at least the best i've seen so far. I like the cars & would like one.But, the leaf does 80% of all my driving needs . What to do ??

 

[rcyoder]

the local dealer has 2 new cmax energi with a little over 5k each of sticker price + 0% apr for 60 months. This is a great deal .Or at least the best i've seen so far. I like the cars & would like one.But, the leaf does 80% of all my driving needs . What to do ??

If the Leaf does 80%, consider a new RAV4-EV. (With an 80% charge it will go 100 miles, haven't tested it with an extended mode charge.)

Less efficient and bigger than a Leaf - but it has a bucket load more batteries.

 

[epic]

the local dealer has 2 new cmax energi with a little over 5k each of sticker price + 0% apr for 60 months. This is a great deal .Or at least the best i've seen so far. I like the cars & would like one.But, the leaf does 80% of all my driving needs . What to do ??

If the Leaf does 80%, consider a new RAV4-EV. (With an 80% charge it will go 100 miles, haven't tested it with an extended mode charge.)

Less efficient and bigger than a Leaf - but it has a bucket load more batteries.

do not believe the rav4 can be bought in texas?Can it?

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

the local dealer has 2 new cmax energi with a little over 5k each of sticker price + 0% apr for 60 months. This is a great deal .Or at least the best i've seen so far. I like the cars & would like one.But, the leaf does 80% of all my driving needs . What to do ??

If the Leaf does 80%, consider a new RAV4-EV. (With an 80% charge it will go 100 miles, haven't tested it with an extended mode charge.)

Less efficient and bigger than a Leaf - but it has a bucket load more batteries.

do not believe the rav4 can be bought in texas?Can it?

you are missing an "r" of course it can be "brought" to Texas!

other than that; the vehicle is ONLY for sale in CA

 

[epic]

have been averaging 1600-2200 miles per 12 gallon tank on the energI.the extended range comes in handy.The leaf is still my favorite.Although the cmax energy with ALL available options is sure fancy & upscale.

 

[cwerdna]

Bad news about the C-Maxes came out. See press release at http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/28/tesla-model-s-gets-recommended-rating-from-consumer-reports/.

I have CR online access and for the C-MAX Energi, it got much worse than average reliability.

Based on the latest survey, we expect reliability of new models will be 226% below average

The big problem spots were electrical system, climate system, body hardware and audio system.

The C-MAX hybrid also got much worse than average

Based on the latest survey, we expect reliability of new models will be 143% below average

Problem spots were electrical system (not as bad as Energi), body hardware (not as bad as Energi), power equipment (a bit worse than Energi), and audio system (same rating as Energi).

From http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2013/10/2013-consumer-reports-reliability-survey/index.htm

The most reliable and unreliable models
The most-reliable new car in our latest survey is the 2014 Subaru Forester. This small SUV has done great in our testing. It has excellent crash test scores. And now it is the reliability champ. A true grand slam.

The worst score goes to the Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid, with the regular C-Max Hybrid not faring much better. To be clear, this should not cast a negative light on other electric cars or hybrids. In fact, the Toyota Prius, Lexus ES 300h, Toyota Prius C, and Honda CR-Z hybrids, along with the pure-electric Nissan Leaf, were among the top models in reliability. This is more of a Ford issue...

 

[adric22]

Bad news about the C-Maxes came out. See press release at http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/28/tesla-model-s-gets-recommended-rating-from-consumer-reports/.

Yeah, saw that this morning. I wonder though, how much of the bad reliability comes from just the C-Max portion of the car. When they say "electrical system" I suspect they mean 12V electrical stuff. I would think if it had anything to do with the high voltage electrical system that would fall under power train.

 

[TomT]

I think it is more that Ford seems to have forgotten how to build a reliable car... Based on what I read elsewhere, it is problems with all the generic items of any vehicle: trim, audio, instrumentation, etc...

Bad news about the C-Maxes came out. See press release at http://green.autoblog.com/2013/10/28/tesla-model-s-gets-recommended-rating-from-consumer-reports/.

Yeah, saw that this morning. I wonder though, how much of the bad reliability comes from just the C-Max portion of the car. When they say "electrical system" I suspect they mean 12V electrical stuff. I would think if it had anything to do with the high voltage electrical system that would fall under power train.

 

[mwalsh]

I think it is more that Ford seems to have forgotten how to build a reliable car... Based on what I read elsewhere, it is problems with all the generic items of any vehicle: trim, audio, instrumentation, etc...

That a shame because, a couple of minor transmission related problems aside, our Focii (2003 and 2005) have been about the most reliable cars we've ever owned.

 

[TomT]

The other side of the coin is a 2013 Escape 2.0L FWD that a neighbor has. It has been a disaster with problem after problem.

That a shame because, a couple of minor transmission related problems aside, our Focii (2003 and 2005) have been about the most reliable cars we've ever owned.

 

[mwalsh]

The other side of the coin is a 2013 Escape 2.0L FWD that a neighbor has. It has been a disaster with problem after problem.

That a shame because, a couple of minor transmission related problems aside, our Focii (2003 and 2005) have been about the most reliable cars we've ever owned.

But that's a new one. I'm saying that Ford may have hit their stride early to mid last decade and fallen off it again.