Gadgetory

this cars pissed off because the Toyota Prius which it hates has outsold every other hybrid in the world combined Ford thinks that they've got the antidotes let's drive the 2013 see Max SEL hybrid and check the tech now the first thing anybody asked me about the c-max is what is it they hear it's a Prius killer for its kind of imposing it that way well it's it's somewhere between a Prius and the bigger Prius V in a number of different metrics to begin with this car can be had as a hybrid or a plug-in hybrid like a Prius we have the standard hybrid today by the way it delivers mpg smack in between a Prius and a V it cost about $900 more than the cheapest Prius it's shorter than that car but has more passenger volume than the big Prius V it also has more front and rear legroom than either Prius or Prius V it's the tallest by the way you can be spotted that already it's also the heaviest by at least 333 pounds now inside a c-max first thing you notice is nice Headroom because it's so damn tall you get the benefits inside we've got the panoramic roof over my head it's optional by the way all a cart dashboard is very affiliate I've told you before I have an issue with the Darth Vader mask up here because all these eyebrows and cheek things here get in the way of me touching the screen now we have all the bells and whistles in this guy because we have a high trim car and pretty much all the tech options as a result communications navigation if I poke the lower left corner down here if I can get my hand in there you see our media choices and they are many in this car obviously you've got am/fm we have HD radio as part of an optional trim up the USB jack there's two of those and you can use those of course for sticks or iPods here's my droid phone on bluetooth streaming and of course audio/video inputs meta tag information is shown nice and big good use of the real estate that's very important for Bluetooth streaming because you want to know where you are what you're playing unfortunately doesn't pull the tags all the time but it's got lots of real estate when it says unknown now because this car is a hybrid we've got some fairly advanced efficiency gauges here on the left to show not just the usual fuel economy but all kinds of things about charge assist regeneration charge level things you'd expect which Toyota tends to make much more front-and-center kind of always up on that big centre display but in this car there tucked away and you can really reduce them down and everything else in here looks like a Ford not some different line of car other indicators and unlike a Prius there's no easy mode button or B selector on the shifter nothing to make you doubt you know how to drive it instead you just put the thing in Drive and drive it now you do have a rocker switch here on the side of the shifter which would typically be an overdrive lock out in this car it turns on this little icon that shows dissent and what that really makes you think is oh that's gonna go for the kind of a descending grade gear but that's not really what it's doing it's going into higher regeneration mode like Toyota's B position but it's masquerading it as something that most drivers will understand now we have package 303 a cryptic yes but remember that number because that brings in all the toys without any screwing around which means the navigation with voice and traffic and weather so nice and instead of base audio HD radio with iTunes tagging you might the former you'll never use the ladder a power lift gate with that hands-free technology waggle your foot and the gate comes up rear camera front sensors and self-parking which you enable with this button right here just turn that guy on follow the prompts let it do the steering and you're gonna be parking like an ace people will think you know how to drive the powertrain of the c-max hybrid starts off with a 2 liter atkinson cycle lean-burn gas engine that's how all hybrids begin sit sidesaddle drives the front wheels only through a one choice only CVT gearbox now 141 horsepower by itself but it doesn't run by itself it's got the electric motor attached to it that gets the horses up to one hundred and eighty eight and a commensurate bump in torque as well we're also looking at a car that weighs 3600 pounds here folks hundreds more than a Prius or Prius V therefore the zero to sixty of eight point one it's fine the mpg is a little lower than a Prius forty seven forty seven on this c-max we're also talking about a car here that's going to have perhaps better crash worthiness because it's got more weight there been studies lately that indicate the additional weight of hybrids has made them safer certainly in terms of serious accidents fatalities and injuries and this car may have a little more of an edge that way consider that anecdotal more than documented but it's an interesting trend we're watching also this car uses lithium ion batteries the Prius line still uses the somewhat old your nickel metal hydride formulation let's go for a ride okay let's drive our little blue friend this is the same color as one of those blue Slurpees what flavor is that blue anyway the car is um it's actually very Prius like in its feel in terms of how heavy it feels how springy it feels how responsive things of that nature you're always aware of the great degree of space in this car much like a Prius V it feels very airy and roomy it feel like a people mover to me more than a car these cars began in Europe by the way the c-max started selling in Europe in 2003 where they go in for more kind of practical compact utility vehicles more than we do or at least earlier than we do and that's why this car has the DNA it has now this car is reporting an almost 39 mpg over most of our testing remember the targets are 47 according to EPA we're doing our testing here in San Francisco where you don't go anywhere without encountering a hill for the most part so I'm gonna spot it a few miles per gallon it means it's doing pretty well pretty close to estimates the last thing I'll say is this CVT transmission your only choice it feels like a CVT it's got a degree of kind of vagueness and wandering to it it feels a little disconnected nothing wrong with it that's just the way CV tees tend to be and this one is among those that tends to be that way as much as any other that means that the performance is what its modulated as opposed to really giving you a kick when you step one which is a little bit disappointed because hybrids have the ability to have really great snap because that electric torque can come in this one mutes that out in favour unsure of efficiency okay let's price the c-max hybrid SEL CNET style starts off a tick below 29 grand delivered then go right to the top and just check off package 303 a it rolls in pretty much all the tech toys I showed you it's a good value for what you're getting and all the technologies work well then optionally 1195 for that glass moonroof also a pretty good value all in this car is about 32 7 out the door with a lot of tech toys and a lot of efficiency