by "Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
Published 05/23/2017 at 11:54
by "Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
Published 05/23/2017 at 11:54
No Tags
STARS: 3
Over the last year my wife and I had discussed many different cars to replace our Freestyle. It would mostly be my wife’s commuter but also our family car. We had considered everything from a Ralliart Sportback, to a post dieselgate TDI, to a GTI, to some sort of hybrid. Well, my voting shares on the decision lost some stock after project Carboxstererra took over our garage. And my wife wanted something that felt nice, a quiet ride with some technology that had decent mileage and space. She DD’ed my E34 535i for 9 months, but apparently the exhaust leak fumes didn’t go to her head.
So, we found a very low miles, nicely priced C-Max about 2 hours away and made the trek last night.
There was one thing that really irked me about the buying experience. The Craigslist ad, I’m 99% certain, said $13,46_. I can’t remember the last number. 4 hours after my wife submitted something through their website setting up a test drive appointment, the Craigslist ad was edited to match the price on their website $14,491. I hadn’t looked at the Craigslist ad in that time, so this came as news to me when we went to talk numbers and he insisted their only asking price was $14,491. I pointed out that the ad had been edited last night after I looked at it and we didn’t know what was edited but as I told him “We wouldn’t have driven 2 hours here to pay what we could have paid where we are from. I doubt you have control over the ad but I saw what I saw so I know at the very least you guys are willing to negotiate near there.”
Anyways, they actually came down pretty quickly to where we wanted and we paid what we wanted. We had a great rate setup through our credit union already. However, 3 people were also buying cars that night and were “in front of us” so we hung out at the freaking dealership for 2 hours with our toddler who when we were signing the papers was past her bedtime and showing it. I almost never just hand over my phone with YouTube videos going, but I did last night at 9:15 as we were getting ready to finalize things. I give my daughter credit as she was a rockstar throughout pretty much the whole process(2 hour drive, 3 hours between test drive, haggling, and waiting for the paperwork, 2 hour drive home). When I had to go back to haggle after first time, (I had checked in on her in the kids play area) I told her I would be the friendly person and she would be the serious person, and she stomped back to the table and then growled.
The car is a 2013 C-Max Hybrid (non plug in), with 28,000 miles that was originally purchased in 2014 so it’s got some powertrain warranty left. It’s got good visibility and is a great size, it’s doesn’t feel big or small. The backseat in this car is spacious. It feels decently peppy. The braking is grabby which I wasn’t crazy about. It feels a little top heavy, but steering was otherwise good. Storage area is flat with the seats folded compared to the plug in version which you lose even more space to the battery. This was one of the few 2013s with Sync which my wife wanted. It has cloth interior, which we preferred to leather and finally, the black looks pretty good. I’m happy my wife found exactly the car she wanted .
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/23/2017 at 12:11, STARS: 0
Very nice. This is definitely a quirky and unique vehicle in the US. I only wish we had gotten the slightly larger version with sliding doors (or its sibling, the S-Max). But the minivan market here is pretty weak.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/23/2017 at 12:16, STARS: 0
Congrats. And well done handling the little one off her schedule. Mine is old enough now that I am making her an enthusiastic part of the car hunting process. Hope you get to do that with the next one. It makes the whole thing more fun.
"Where have all the lightweights gone?" (sniderjadam09)
05/23/2017 at 12:20, STARS: 0
My wife bought one from new 3 years ago, and she has been very happy with hers. When she bought it, she was driving over an hour each way to work, and comfort was never an issue. It now has 125k miles on it, and it’s still going strong.
"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
05/23/2017 at 12:23, STARS: 1
Thanks. Speaking of weak minivan market, a Mazda 5 was parked near this for a few minutes, and they are very similar dimensions, although I prefer the looks of the C-Max. But sliding doors are handy.
I wish the U.S. got the 1.6 ecoboost in the c-Max. I think that with a manual would be a really Jalop approved car.
"Ash78, voting early and often" (ash78)
05/23/2017 at 12:32, STARS: 1
Agreed, I was a little disappointed the Energi was the only model announced at launch (not because I dislike it, but because they had promised a broader product line with the C-Max).
"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
05/23/2017 at 12:55, STARS: 1
Thanks, i hope my daughter takes to cars a bit. She loves pretending to drive our cars as it is now and she was mad that I wouldn’t let her sit in the 86 they had on the lot.
"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
05/23/2017 at 12:56, STARS: 0
Glad to hear it.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
05/23/2017 at 13:02, STARS: 1
Good girl. Mine is serving as my videographer. She plans to spend time editing the footage next week after school lets out for a prospective Youtube channel.
"jimz" (jimz)
05/23/2017 at 13:03, STARS: 0
there were a few TSBs for the 2013 and 2014 C-Max for things like 12 volt battery drain issues among a few other things. I’d imagine with that mileage they’ve probably been taken care of (if they were a problem.)
"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
05/23/2017 at 13:10, STARS: 0
Thanks for the heads up. It has a door latch recall that hasn’t been dealt with so when I take it to the dealer I will check in with them.
"Master Cylinder" (mastercylinder28)
05/23/2017 at 13:11, STARS: 0
Nice! The C-Max definitely seems to be a great used value. I considered one for an efficient DD with some cargo space, but the fact that it’s only available with a CVT kinda pushed me away. Admittedly, I never actually test drove one, though. How horrible is the transmission?
"jimz" (jimz)
05/23/2017 at 13:26, STARS: 0
yeah, they should be able to pull up the warranty history in OASIS and tell you what’s been done.
"Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle" (1500sand535)
05/23/2017 at 13:28, STARS: 1
It was fine. But for reference, our previous family car was a Freestyle with a cvt that was annoying. The Freestyle would feel somewhat delayed when starting and then once it started going it seemed like it was working harder than it should. I think the electric part of the c-Max was helping in both ways, both in getting it off the line quicker and then reducing some strain on the engine. I didn’t notice drone when I accelerated hard.
CVTs are in so many cars they’re hard to avoid(Honda, Nissan, Subaru, and most hybrids). I told my wife in an ideal world we would get something with a little more engine noise and some gears I could shuffle through even if it meant flappy paddles but this was a car mostly for her so her preferences won out.
"bhtooefr" (bhtooefr)
05/23/2017 at 14:24, STARS: 1
It is worth noting that it’s not a true CVT, but rather a power split device. However, in practice, it behaves like a CVT, just a very responsive one (because it doesn’t have to mechanically shift pullies, it just has to speed up or slow down an electric motor).
Worth playing with this if you’re on a device with flash: http://eahart.com/prius/psd - that shows how a power split device works.
"torque" (torque01)
05/24/2017 at 05:32, STARS: 0
Nice purchase!
I’d love to hear others that own these chime in on their real world experiences living with these, (issues especially), though they are rather unique for US market.
Researching these it seems the biggest issues (besides lots of complaints with the MS Sync & MyFord systems which I don’t care about) seems to be 12v battery drain issues especially(?) for the plug in Energi version, if it is driven mostly in all electric mode the 12v battery doesn’t get recharged leading to a dead (12v) battery. There was a really recent TSB which is supposed to fix the issue for those so affected.