One of the things I did before buying Big Blue was to read the reviews. If you are going to spend some money you might want to educate yourself.
So I read Ford’s info and looked at information on various auto magazine sites to educate myself.
Ford gave me the spec’s and the auto sites gave me the micro details. Like… turning radius wasn’t as good as it could have been; acceleration was slow; gas mileage off; braking could be better; g force on cornering not the best, etc….
I understand you get out the tech tools and measure everything and put that data up against the other cars in that grouping. Done. Your model car is now rated and slotted into the appropriate lineup.
Well here is my rating as an everyday user having had Big Blue out in the wilds of America since the beginning of July 2013. Some of this I’ve already written but this is my summary of how the car did on my We The People 2013 project. And as an aside I purchased the C-Max especially for the project after reading the reviews.
In the beginning the car has been whisper quiet and the electric boost is deceiving. Down the ramp and onto the freeway and if you don’t pay attention you are doing 80 and not knowing it. With the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) so smooth and almost impossible to tell when you are on gas or electric, motoring down the highway can be effortless. And the takeoff from the light is very quick for a short distance. And driving in traffic this car has no problems from stop lights, merging onto a freeway at most any speed or sitting in stop and go traffic, think LA to San Diego with traffic backed up for miles. And the other really cool thing is going up a hill or mountain. With the electric kicking in the car never seems like it’s working too hard. Plus you can keep it on cruse control up the hill, just seems to keep keeping on.
Something was written about turning radius. I’ve never found that to be an issue anywhere and for those of you that took the good high school driving class, 3 point turn around is your friend. Big Blue has been in some tight spots and we moved around just fine. Parking has been easy too.
Gas mileage is what you make of it. I don’t pamper the car and I get an average of 38. Consider in Nebraska the speed limit is 75 and your doing 80 to maybe keep up, plus the temp outside is around 107… Big Blue did just fine and I seem to remember getting around 35 mpg from the section of the trip. Love to have better gas mileage, sure, but given what I’m doing and the speeds and elements I’ve been in, I’m happy with it.
As far as braking and taking a corner. Other than human error – me – braking is just fine and again, from stop and go to high speed freeway Big Blue has done just fine. The cornering is interesting. The car isn’t that long, great head room, seats, you sit just up from car and down from SUV, a nice balance for getting around twists and turns. During the We The People 2013 trip I traveled over some of the better twists and turns the US has to offer. And not just flat land turns either! Coming out of the mountains in CA or NM can be a lot of fun in the right car. Somewhere in the 5000+ videos I recorded I’ve recorded going down some of those twists and turns. Must find and post to here.
Long story short, this C-Max is not perfect, is any car?, but for a couple of people, dog and lots of gear this is one of the best cars I’ve had!
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