The old, good version of Deadspin used to do this great series called “Let’s Remember Some Guys” where they’d just sit around, often on Facebook Live, and invite people to remember some guys. The point never seemed to be to recall Micheal Jordan or Wade Boggs, but rather players like Toni Kukoč or Javy López. Not Hall-of-Famers, just dudes who managed to put together enough seasons in a major league sport to squeeze out a few Topps cards and stick somewhere deep in your memory.
For me, those players are probably Glenn Davis/Kevin Bass of the Astros and Mario Elie/Matt Bullard from the Rockets during their back-to-back Championship seasons. All greats, in a way, but none of them are likely to get an ESPN docuseries made about their lives.
You can play this game with cars all day. For every Pontiac Bonneville SSEi there are a dozen mid-tier, replacement-level Pontiacs you can remember (Le Mans, Torrent, Wave, Sunbird, et cetera). The one that always gets me, though, is the Ford C-Max. I keep thinking about the Ford C-Max.
Why The C-Max Exists
European cars, unlike American ones, tend to grow slowly when it comes to wheelbase and width. The streets of Paris ain’t getting any bigger anytime soon. Older cars, with their lack of modern safety features and thin doors, managed to fill up parking spaces and still offer a decent amount of roominess.
All this began to change in the late ’90s and early ’00s when the compact multipurpose vehicle, or compact MPV, started to become popular in Europe. These were vehicles typically based on an existing compact car platform stretched out as much as automakers could get away with.
Who started the segment is up for debate, though people tend to think it’s either the Renault Scenic or the original Mitsubishi RVR/Dodge Colt Wagon thing. The reality is, automakers had attempted something like this going back to the early ’80s Honda Civic Wagon and Toyota Tercel Wagon, which were taller and more squat than your average estate.
By the early aughts these became the it thing in Europe as the continent wasn’t quite ready for big SUVs yet. Citroen had the Xsara, Renault had the Scenic, and Volkswagen was busy planning a bunch of variations of the MQB platform.
Ford, though, had nothing, and according to a press release from Ford about the Ford C-Max concept, it’s because none of their ideas were good enough yet:
“The compact Multi-Activity Vehicle segment is one of the fastest growing in Europe, and people have been waiting impatiently for Ford’s entry. The truth is, we could have been there sooner. We had plans on the drawing board, but at an intense and soul-searching meeting in Cologne early in 2000, we looked at what we were creating and decided it wasn ’t good enough.
“It wasn’t good enough as a meaningful alternative for our customers to competitors already on the market. It wasn’t good enough to warrant the investment in money and talent we subsequently used more wisely elsewhere. Most importantly, it wasn’t good enough to carry the Ford brand where we wanted it to go, because it was during that summer of 2000 that we fundamentally reshaped the future of Ford of Europe.
That is some intense prose about a compact MPV concept. It’s not wrong, though. Ford of Europe went through a long funk and the early 2000s, which brought us cars like the Focus RS and revised Mondeo, was a legit turning point for the company.
The concept is clearly a version of the Ford Focus of the era stretched in every direction. I think it looks clean and I especially like the sleek greenhouse created by the high beltline. By the time it came into production the the C-Max gained some more production-focused details and the DLO was enlarged to make visibility better.
This isn’t the car we got and, unless I’m in Europe, I don’t think about it that often.
The One I Think About
With the second generation of the Ford Focus moving from the C1 Platform to the Global C Platform it was time for America to get some MPV-y goodness. There was a twist, however, as the only C-Max we’d get would either be a hybrid or a PHEV.
People tend to forget that back in the early 2000s Ford licensed a bunch of hybrid technology from Toyota that eventually found its way into the Ford Escape Hybrid and Mercury Mariner Hybrid. Because of this, Ford and Toyota have long shared a similar architecture for hybrid vehicles (Atkinson cycle engines/planetary gearsets).
With the Escape Hybrid temporarily out and Mercury killed Ford needed something to compete with the Prius and Prius V in the United States. Plus, to sell cars in California it was quite helpful to Ford to have a vehicle that could earn itself some emissions credits (as the C-Max did in Energi/PHEV trim).
These were attractive, affordable, and efficient five-passenger vehicles. When the original C-Max Hybrid went on sale in 2013 it could be had for $24,995 and it promised 47 MPG City/Highway/Combined, better than the Prius V. The Energi was more expensive, but offered 20 miles of pure-EV range.
Unfortunately, Ford perhaps overpromised on the mileage and most reviewers and Consumer Reports found that this wasn’t the case and Ford eventually revised down those figures and paid out money to owners who felt they’d been duped. The issue was that Ford was able to use testing for vehicles with similar powertrains and assume similar mileage, which was a “loophole large enough to drive a hybrid through” as CR concluded. The cars were then switched to 40 or 39 mpg combined, depending on the year.
Did that doom the car? I’m not sure. The C-Max sold 35,210 models in its full first year (2013) and slid every year after that. By 2018, when the car was discontinued, Ford was already eyeing new technology to reach buyers focused on efficiency and had the Mustang Mach-E waiting in the wings to debut the next year.
I Still Kind Of Wished I’d Bought One
When I was in the market for a car back in 2016 the C-Max wasn’t particularly popular and I’d been seeing them going for reasonable prices. I thought I could snag one for as cheap as $24,000.
I asked our friend Tom McParland what he thought and he suggested politely that, since he knew I cared a lot about reliability, “the C-Max and Golf will probably be fine in this regard, but their longevity is a bit of an unknown variable at this time.”
Obviously, the Subaru Forester that Tom very nicely helped me buy at a great discount was likely a better car, though the reliability wasn’t great. Comparing the resale value of the C-Max and the Forester I probably made twice as much on the Subaru as I’d have made on the Ford, so perhaps Tom’s advice was the right advice.
Regrets, I have a few. The Forester was nice in a few ways, but I could have had a hybrid way back in 2016. Think of all the stories I’d have had! Think of all the fuel I’d have saved!
At the Galpin Car Show, we even had a reader, Rex, who brought out his C-Max Energi. I was so excited to see a C-Max. I knew it had to be in the car show and I’m bummed that I got distracted and didn’t get to spend more time checking it out.
Being a car geek means loving cars that are strange to other people. The C-Max is just so European and weird that I wouldn’t have run into many other people who owned one. I can so vividly see the life I’d have led with a Ford C-Max Hybrid. Maybe the Astros would have beaten the Nationals at home! Maybe we’d have gotten more seasons of Jessica Jones!
I think about this all the time. Every time I see one. Every time I see a similar generation Focus. This is insane, obviously. Sometimes when I have a strange thought I’m sure someone else has also had the same thought. But this? This one might just be me.
Also, I’ve never driven one, so perhaps that’s helping keep the allure alive.
I’m very much in the market for one of these as I do Uber and the allure of having a hybrid MPV is very appealing, especially one with near Toyota reliability but without that Toyota tax.
Even though my dad left me his (quite crappy) 2013 Corolla to continue Uber with, I’ll eventually trade or sell that car towards a C-Max which I still very much want.
You’d want the regular hybrid since that has more rear luggage space and you’re not carting around a battery that’s mostly going to be flat for Uber duties. See if any of your nearby cities have fleet surplus, though, it was a very popular municipal fleet car due to it being efficient and union-made.
Yeah the Energi takes 5 cubic feet of precious cargo space. Puts it at the same capacity as my current Vibe, but I’d prefer more trunk space.
The C-Max was a CAFE play that Ford never planned to sell in any kind of real numbers. I had one (a PHEV with laughable range) as a Ford company lease car and it was…fine. The CVT was better than most, it did enough to get out of its own way, but it looked goofy AF. I still don’t think it’s any better for families than, say, a Focus wagon that we were denied (especially because the battery in the trunk really hurt cargo space), but existed in Europe and elsewhere. Too much unusable height.
But I always thought there was a gigantic missed opportunity by not offering the same powertrains in a Focus, especially after the DPS6 disaster. Given the cars shared a platform, development costs couldn’t have been that high and Ford could have had a genuine Prius fighter on its hands. Hell, it might have saved the nameplate in the U.S. for another half-decade or so, like it did across the pond.
The Mazda5 was the perfect vehicle and every day it isn’t resurrected is a bad day.
Our best friends were in the market about 10 years ago and cross-shopped the C-Max and Prius V. I had been psyched about the arrival of the C-Max and thought of it as a possible replacement for our Passat wagon, but when they test-drove it, they said the interior felt very flimsy/cheap compared with the Prius (their main ride at the time was a hand-me-down ca. 2000 Camry). And that was that.
Meanwhile, a handful of rides in their Prius have convinced me that I wouldn’t take one for free. Aside from driving characteristics, the seats are the flattest, crappiest things I can ever recall in any car. More like a golf cart, honestly.
I’ve always had a soft spot for the C-Max. To me it looked like a more car-like 3rd gen Escape. Someone I knew back in about 2004 bought a C-Max and loved it — perfect for them and their dogs.
I bought a 2017 Ford C-Max Energi last June to replace my 2008 Honda Fit.
So I have some insight on some of the things mentioned above.
“Unfortunately, Ford perhaps overpromised on the mileage and most reviewers and Consumer Reports found that this wasn’t the case and Ford eventually revised down those figures and paid out money to owners who felt they’d been duped”
Now here’s the thing… If you learn how the vehicle works, you can adjust your driving to maximize efficiency and beat the original EPA numbers by a WIDE margin.
How wide?
Well so far, my average fuel economy is at 2.65L/100km over the 8600km I’ve driven so far. And that translates to an *average* of around 88mpg using US gallons. Though I expect that to go down as I drive it through its first winter.
But it’s clear that anyone who puts in a little effort can easily beat the EPA fuel economy numbers by a wide margin
Now how do I get that kind of mileage? I make full use of the plug in capability, I brake in a way that maximizes the regen, I keep my speed down (unless I’m in an actual hurry) and a few other hypermiling techniques.
“Did that doom the car? I’m not sure.”
In my view, what doomed the C-Max was the Ford Escape and the Ford Transit Connect. They’re basically similar products in terms of size, shape and space.
Ford had a seriously product overlap problem. Unfortunately it led to Ford doing that stupid “cancel all cars” overreaction when all they needed to pair back their offerings to eliminate the overlap.
In a perfect world, Ford would have not bothered bringing over the C-Max and instead, give the hybrid and plug in hybrid powertrains in the Transit Connect and Escape (which had a hybrid option initially, but was dropped when the C-Max hybrid came over)
” “the C-Max and Golf will probably be fine in this regard, but their longevity is a bit of an unknown variable at this time.”
One thing most people don’t know about the C-Max… it was the first vehicle that had Ford’s own in-house-developed hybrid transmission (the HF35).
The hybrid system in the 1st gen Escape and Fusion sold in the 2000s had an outsourced transmission. But both are similar designs in principle and the HF35 is apparently a bit more efficient.
But like a lot of things Ford, the new transmission had some problems with bearings that would prematurely wear out. That problem was resolved by late 2016.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10170901-0001.pdf
Another problem that was fixed in 2016 is the crap Microsoft-based sat-nav system was replaced by a new/better/more reliable system based on QNX.
Plus there were other little improvements made over the years
So if you want a C-Max, you really want to get one from late 2016 or newer.
On the whole, I like my 2017 C-Max. It’s a good vehicle, but not a great vehicle. The Tesla Model S is still the vehicle I really want.
The thing I like the least about it is when hitting bumps a certain way, the vehicle will ‘porpoise’… which is to say shake side to side. And apparently that can be fixed with upgraded rear shocks… which I’m looking into.
But the C-Max has one other less obvious benefit… way cheaper insurance. My insurance on the C-Max is about $1450/year… even a bit cheaper compared to my old Honda Fit.
For a Tesla, the insurance quotes were in the $4000 to $5000 per year range.
I’d rather not spend an extra $2500-$3500/year on insurance even if it means having a ‘less good’ vehicle. I’d rather use that money for other things.
The TC had nothing to do with the C-Max’s demise. Two completely different vehicles with nearly zero cross-shop.
The Transit connect was also on the Focus platform and was eventually sold as a 5 and 7 passenger vehicle. So it’s not true about them being *completely* different given they shared a platform.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Global_C-car_Platform
Have you ever been inside of either? Their mechanical underpinnings are irrelevant in this comparison.
Well I own a C-Max and I have sat in both the smaller Transit connect and the larger 7 passenger version.
So yes, I have been inside both.
In a perfect world, Ford would have made the Transit Connect with the C-Max Hybrid powertrain.
The quality of the interior materials and the user friendliness couldn’t be more different. The TC, especially the generation around the time frame the C-Max was available in the US, was a workhorse, designed with the cheapest, most basic materials possible. The C-Max was basic transportation, but it was regular consumer-grade. The TC wasn’t.
In a perfect world we would have had a Transit Connect RS, but…
A coworker of mine has a 2013. He’s all highway, as am I; he gets 35 mpg in a boring-ass C-Max and I get 31 mpg in a Fiesta ST. He is well over 200k and has had little problem other than the entire brake system failed and needed to be replaced recently, but given the mileage, that’s not the car’s fault. Not like being a boring-ass yawn. (the interior is much nicer than my ST tho)
these cars really shine in city driving. On HWY they always fall short as the regen braking system does not kick in
I’ve had my 2016 energi for about 6 years now, and it’s been a great commuter car. Being able to plug it in at work, I can drive just on EV mode in the summer time, and I go months between fill-ups. The performance is fine, and I’ve been impressed that the base model has features like rain sensing wipers and multi-color floor lighting that our 2020 Odyssey doesn’t have. The battery does take up a lot of trunk space. The newer versions with the Sync 3 audio system support CarPlay and Android Auto, which is really nice. Only issue I’ve had was a transmission fluid pump going out (which made the car use the engine all the time until it was replaced), but thankfully got the dealer to replace it under warranty.
I’ve found that the dealers still aren’t very familiar with the expanded PHEV component warranty, had to show them in the manual, because it wasn’t in their system.
My wife would always choose the C-Max out of all the cars available in the county motor pool. Must be something to it. Now I make sure to point at every C-Max on the road and say, “hey, it’s your favorite car!” while she rolls her eyes.
I considered one when I bought my Prius in 2013, but this was still the time when the C-Max was working out its “teething” phase. So I went with the “sure thing”.
A co-worker a couple years later had one that was apparently a nightmare and they almost lemon law’d it.
I still have the Prius, not sure if I’d still have the C-Max.
We’d still have our 2013 if the transmission hadn’t enpoopened the duvet. Then again, our particular specimen was plagued by random lowkey electrical gremlins which always left me wondering if the “clean” title concealed some kind of damage.
It was a genuinely great car otherwise, though. Reasonably thrifty (38-40 town or highway, no matter how fast you were going), comfortable seats, and butt warmers that could honeybake your hams even on modest settings. And it could hustle, too! This was the era of 130hp Prii and the C-Max would blow the doors off them. Hell, it could probably give the new Prius a run for its money.
Mine once stopped letting me change radio stations, or switch to a different audio source. I also couldn’t turn off the radio or change the volume, which got REALLY annoying when I drove out of range of the station. Fixed it by taking out the appropriate fuse and putting it back.
No idea if you meant this on purpose, but I’m adopting this SO hard.
I feel so seen! I STILL kick myself for buying a Focus SE back in 2016 when I could have had a C-Max for not much more money.
I blame the sudden death of my beloved 1997 Skylark and living in a city with terrible public transport for pushing a one day car shop fiasco.
I still love the C-Max. Like a weird Focus that is a little too big, a little too European.
It isn’t really accurate to say Ford “licensed a bunch of hybrid technology from Toyota.” From an Auto Blog article dated July 3, 2009: “The reality is that Ford independently developed its own hybrid system at the same time Toyota was doing its own. The basic architecture of both systems is the same and both are based on the concepts developed and patented by TRW engineers in the late 1960s.” Rather than engage in litigation over it the two companies agreed to some back and forth licensing arrangements.
You are correct that it was a cross licensing agreement, where no actual money changed hands.
However they did not share the same architecture. Yes they both use a planetary gear set to split the power. The early Toyota systems were a single axis, both motors and engine all sharing the same axis. Ford on the other hand used and Toyota now uses a dual axis design where the traction motor is not inline with the engine and starter generator. That allowed the Ford system to add another gear reduction between it and the final drive. That reduced the speed of the starter generator during engine off operation allowing a much higher engine off speed without reaching the starter generator’s critical speed. It also allowed for a shorter transaxle with a larger and more powerful traction motor.
So yeah when someone says that Ford uses the Toyota style system they are incorrect if talking about the recent versions. It is Toyota that uses the Ford style system and it is a big part of why they can to an all speed PHEV version.
I remember checking one out an auto show. If I’m remembering correctly, I had to duck under the rear door when it was fully open – and I’m 5’9″.
I had a Candy Blue 2013 C-Max Energi from 2016-2018! It was fantastic and I usually got 25 miles on plug-in power. I also fit three car seats across in it. Sold it because I bought it as a novice car shopper and didn’t process that it had clearly been in a bit of an accident. I could never get the doors to stop rubbing and rusting. But that wasn’t the fault of the powertrain.
Oh, and the Energi cars were connected cars in the best way: for free, one could precondition the car using wall power at a scheduled time or on demand. The cars provided a tremendous amount of data on the dashboard and in MyFordMobile: MPG, miles between fillups (well over 1000 for many users), effectiveness of regen, etc. On a 2013!
Yeah and unfortunately with the 3G sunset those 2013s have lost their connectivity. Ford does have a 4G retrofit modem but it only works in the 2014 and up cars. So unfortunately my daughter’s Blue Candy 2013 has lost that MyFord access. It can still have the warm up and charge times programmed via the touch screen thankfully as she does like to precondition the cabin in the winter.
I did get the modem upgrade on my 2016, but then they got rid of the MyFordTouch app, so it still doesn’t work. The new FordPass app doesn’t seem to work either. But yes, at least you can schedule it in the car itself.
I sort of have this same feeling about what life would have been like if we’d bought a Toyota Noah/Voxy, Nissan Elgrand or similar people mover with sliding doors rather than the Ford Territory SUV we ended up buying. I mostly wonder about this when I’m trying to wedge my son in his car seat without bumping his head or causing the door to swing out and hit the car/bollard/pillar next to us. Why do we prefer SUVs again?
my family has a normal c-max diesel, 2014 5 speed stick, that we bought off of my FiL about 10 years ago. it’s nothing special, but at 250k kms, with it’s occasional routine maintainence, it feels like it is going to last forever. it’ a slowish, dumb tank, that’s got great headroom and that i happen to like driving and my partner prefers over any other car that we have had. i don’t know, but i hope it lasts another 10 years. 🙂
I remember the C’Max, and being disappointed it didn’t have more seats. I was interested in the Mazda5 and Kia Rondo because I had a lot of use for 6 seats while car pooling or visiting grandparents. I would have bought a Multipla if I could. I ended up buying a Mazda5 and really liking it until some twit ran a stop sign and totaled it.
We had a Grand C-Max (2011, I think) – 7 seats, sliding doors, bulletproof 1.6 gas engine. Good family hauler, not very quick (130 hp), but reliable. They’re kinda popular in Europe, pity Ford didn’t offer Grand version with hybrid motor.
Yes that was what I would have wanted, 6 seats and sliding doors like a Mazda5 (outside the US there were 7 seat Mazdas)
They almost brought the Grand C-Max here, but didn’t.
Where would the seats go if they decided to make the Grand hybrid-only? The PHEV battery packaging was pretty sad.
You do not want one of these. I bought a used 2015 SEL Hybrid in 2019 as my highway commuter through the open highways of AZ, and streets of Phoenix and Tucson. I loved the Sony sound system, and the driver’s seat was comfortable for my long legs. But the rest was pure Meh. The CVT hated highway passing and high speed, and I could only get 32-34 MPG at highway speed. In town MPG was never over 40. The back seat was rock hard. The hatch floor hid the battery, and ate up too much space, though the PHEV was worse. I traded it for a new Mazda3 in 2021. Never looked back.
My wife hated how deep the dash was, and the A-pillar was huge, and the insert window did little help visibility. I loved the tall hatch form, but the performance was disappointing. On the plus side, it was nice and quiet.
Well that’s just pure BS, unless we’re talking about the Energi model. I am routinely impressed with how much my wife’s 2016 SEL can hold. It’s a small-ish car that holds as much as a larger SUV. She always brings home these random marketplace finds and I eat my words every time I say that won’t fit in the car.
I was very interested in the CMax when it was announced. Even more so at the idea of a PHEV only to be disappointed at the failure to bring over the obviously superior sliding door version.
Had it been sliding doors I might have been swayed to replace my Mazda5, especially at the prices these dropped to. But hinged doors tipped the balance.
I test drove a used C-Max the last time I was car shopping. I was surpised by how slow it accelerated and how clunky the handling was–and I’m someone who’s put a lot of miles behind the wheels of Priuses. I didn’t love it, but I also didn’t mind it, and I might have bought it anyway if the price were better.
I feel like a professional auto journalist would demand more of their car than “Eh, it’s fine,” so maybe it’s for the best you haven’t been behind the wheel of one.
I 100% understand this sentiment man, I go through this thought process with certain cars all the time. I’m really glad to know I’m not the only one that does it, haha!
It’s been said that a Focus-based compact MPV was supposed to come out years before the original C-Max debuted, but the Opel Zafira arrived with 7 seats sent them back to the drawing board…only to debut a 5-seater anyway on the next gen platform.
In hindsight Ford probably would have been better off just continuing with an Escape Hybrid. The C-Max was something of a tweener compared to the Prius line – less efficient than the regular Prius which is to be expected but not quite as big as the v. It was also a smidge too small to really be an alternative to the RAV4/etc sized SUVs, or as a candidate to replace a Mazda 5 or Kia Rondo (the latter of which we had the latter in my family at the time). The Grand C-Max would have been the fit sizewise, which I had hoped they would bring but never did. And then of course VW TDIs were the darling of efficiency then too.
Nowadays there’s a lot more tall stubby similarly sized offerings, and some with hybrids like the Niro and now the Corolla Cross. I considered proposing a late used C-Max for my dad a few years ago, but a used Niro ended up being a better option.
I’ve always thought the euro Fords from that era (around the first gen C-Max) had really handsome designs. They were modern without being overwrought and have aged very well. Shame we didn’t get most of them.
I have always liked the C-Max, and almost purchased one back in 2016. At the time I had a coworker who commuted an absolutely insane 200+ miles per day to work in a C-Max. He was in a management position that sometimes (often) required working weekends, so he averages almost 60,000 miles per year. By 2016 his C-Max was closing in on 200,000 miles and was almost unflappably reliable. It had some of the usual Ford quality issues like interior squeaks and whatnot, but I was honestly impressed by it. However, when I took my wife to look at one she absolutely hated it, so we ended up with a Honda Odyssey instead (which has been great, especially when more kids came along that would have left the C-Max too small, so I’m not complaining). Nowadays, when I see a C-Max, it is usually either in pristine shape or absolutely beat to crap – nothing in between – and I sort of wonder what might have been. Then again, I have the same thoughts about the CT200h after I nearly bought one in 2018…