I recently took my three kids on a trip to New York City for the weekend in our new Ford C-Max. This was the first long road trip we had taken with our C-Max and the car performed beautifully.
Our Ford C-Max loaded for a road trip for 4
On this drive, I was solo parenting. All three kids (twins age 8 and a 3-year-old) fit comfortably in the back seat including Timmy’s car seat. We had plenty of space in the hatchback for clothes for the weekend and all the electronics we travel with plus a multi-function printer/copier I brought home to reuse. I could have even fit a bunch more stuff in the front passenger seat since Alicia was not going with us. The kids really enjoyed being able to watch videos on the laptop thanks to the AC plug in the backseat.
Even loaded with all our stuff, our C-Max had plenty of pep and was really fun to drive on the highway. Even at 75 mph, I had plenty of acceleration with the electric motor kicking in for an added boost to pass on the highway. We were able to make the entire round trip from Boston to New York, including a side trip into Brooklyn, on one tank of gas. We traveled just over 450 miles and averaged 39 miles per gallon (MPG). Considering our lifetime average fuel economy for the C-Max has only been 34 MPG so far, I was thrilled with the performance.
Only 11.7 gal to go 454 miles
While I was trying to keep the fuel economy high, I was doing a number of things that hurt our MPG, including driving 70 to 75 MPH most of the way and using the air-conditioning some of the time. Most cars have a “break in period” during which they usually don’t get as good mileage as they are rated for and having only driven about 4,000 miles on the car it is still in the “break-in” period according to Ford.
The C-Max was great on my side trip into Brooklyn. I had a lot of fun driving on winding roads like the BQE. It was great seeing the car use all electric (EV) mode during the stop and go traffic I encountered as I got into the city. I also really appreciated the small size of the C-Max as it gave me the edge I needed to squeeze into a parking spot. The back-up camera was a godsend enabling me to get into the tightest spot without ever bumping the cars in front or behind me.
We highly recommend the Ford C-Max as a fun and practical green family car.
Happy Greening,
Jon
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