After 5 years in the Toyota Camry Hybrid, I have traded it in on a Ford C-Max Energi.

The Camry was the most reliable car I have ever had.

I finally concluded that what I really wanted was a plug-in hybrid and that the aftermarket plug-in units were inconvenient and unreliable.

The TCH cut my gas consumption to less than half vs. my previous rides.

Based on what I've seen so far, the ford will way more than halve it again.

Look for me on the C-Max forum.

Big thanks to my many friends here who helped me with much advice while I was on my TCH learning curve.

Keep Smilin'

Jack

 

By Jack. Come back when that thing starts falling apart and let us know, how, Fix Or Repair Daily worked out for you.

 

That is a neat little car. Congrats on the purchase! Post back sometime after you have owned it for a while and let us know what you think of it!

 

It's sad to see you go to the dark side (as far as hybrids go) but understandable....Just bought the wife a new Explorer and there are 4 Fords at the house now. We will miss you here so check back every now and then and let us know what is going on with the new plug-in.

 

Good to hear from you, David.

Thanks again for all of your very helpful posts.

A couple more parting thoughts on the TCH:

In 5 years, the only thing that car needed to go back to the dealer for were the floor mat recall and a tire leak fix.

I did take it back to the dealer for two oil changes. They put the wrong oil in it both times.

To be fair, I must say that at this point, the Ford dealer seems to be just about as uninformed on the C-max Energi as the Toyota dealer was on the TCH in 2008.

I will definitely post in this forum on my experience with the C-Max. I hope we will have a C-Max section soon. Until then I will probably post in the Escape section or in the General section.

Keep Smilin'

Jack

 

Good luck with it, our new Explorer already has a rattle in the rear with less than 1,000 miles on it. Plan on looking for it tomorrow.

Jack, don't forget to check back and let us know how well that plug-in is doing.

David

 

@Smilin' Jack

Please do pop in and let us know how it's working out. I like to plugin concept and just may go that way when it comes time to replace our TCH, but in the meantime would love to hear the pros and cons of living with a plugin.

Thanks!

 

I will surely post experience, from time to time

3 weeks into my C-max experience now now and have not really used any gasoline to speak of. Most days I do not exceed the EV range. Tomorrow I will do a round trip that will be nearly double the EV range, so I will probably EV out and do normal hybrid mode back. That will be an interesting comparison.

The TCH was a truly great car, but a few things disappointed: No EV mode, limited EV range, limited trunk space and the fact that the ICE when cold needed to turn itself and run until warmed up even if i was not going to drive further than the EV range.

The c-max has corrected all of these, but it may take some time before I could conclude that it is otherwise anywhere near as great a car as the TCH was.