My C-Max Diary

[khevolution]

Thought as i was planning to keep this car for a while, i would keep a record of my time with, figuring it would be good for other people to see and may help somebody in someway. plus down the line it would be good to look back.


IN THE BEGINNING





Back in 2013 i started looking to replace my Honda Accord 1.8 V-tec Sport, as much as i enjoyed and loved the car, it wasn't the cheapest car to run and things was starting to go wrong and i began to lose my trust in the car, plus a growing family meant i had to find something a bit safer and "child friendly" as the misses put it.

Looked at various cars varying from Audi's, to Citroens, even looked at replacing the Honda with another Honda just a newer shape, but i kept coming back to Ford, i have owned a few fords in the past and they have all served me well, so i knew if i did choose a Ford i would be in safe hands, and i had a vague idea what to look out for.

At the beginning of 2014 my search for a new car had stopped for various reasons, but around April i started looking again, and had pretty much decided on getting a Focus, went to a few dealers and saw and test drove a few cars and was very close to impulse buying a Frozen White Focus

I was going round one dealership and my Girlfriend saw a C-max and said she really liked it, now i didn't really know much about the c-max just that it was based on the focus chassis (dunno if that still is true) and was smaller body shape S-Max, after a quick look round i found a local one for sale that i like the look of, so i phoned up and booked a test drive, if I am honest, i was kinda hoping i wouldn't like it, as i always related that car as a mummy-wagon, and a rather dull place to be.

Well the day of the test drive came along and what a surprise, it drove really well and you couldn't feel added mass like i thought i would, and the extra room was a bonus....i was sold and it scored fairly well with the misses.

unfortunately the car i drove sold shortly after, so the hunt was now on for a C-Max after about a week of searching auto trader religiously, i couldn't find a C-Max with a spec I liked, but one day i passed a Ford dealership and just decided to go in, and saw a black C-Max, i asked the salesman about and he just looked at me blankly (weekend staff ) finally i found somebody who knew what was going on and was told that it had only just arrived as part exchange this yesterday evening, it hadn't been cleaned nor a price confirmed on it. I asked if i could have a look around it, and i couldn't believe the spec on the thing. What first caught my eye was the panoramic roof, which is something i hadn't seen on another C-Max so far, on closer inspection i found Heated leather seats, Parallel Park assist, folding mirrors and electric boot opening and only 24k on the clock

If the price was right i was sold. After a bit of negotiating, we got to a price i was happy with and got a few extras thrown in as well. Only problem was i had to wait a week before i could collect it, so it gave them time to valet it and put a new tax and MOT on it.

Never thought i would be so excited to be driving a MPV

Here is what it looked like the day i bought it:

Not the most interesting photo's but they were the only ones that didn't turn out blurry.


The day of the pick up arrived and went very smoothly, and i would like to thank Birchwood Ford of Eastbourne for the fantastic service i received throughout, and would recommend them to anybody.

21-06 Gearbox Troubles

About 2 weeks and roughly 1000 miles together with the C-Max i started to notice that Reverse gear wouldn't always fully engage, it would go in and would move the car, but if it was on a hill it would pop out of gear and make a horrible crunching noise, so i booked the car back into ford as soon as i could, hoping i hadn't bought a lemon of a car and it was going to cost me, but when i dropped the car off the head technician at the garage spent 5 minutes with the car and came back to tell me the part of Fords "cost saving measures" there was no syncro in the reverse gear! Personally i think that is a crap idea and have no clue why ford think that was a good idea, but once the mechanic told me to basically make sure the car is stationary press the clutch down count to two, then engage reverse, it seems to slot in fine, and as long as i remember to do that I've had no troubles with it since, more importantly it hasn't cost me a penny.


21-6 Lost DAB

Its one of those bits of technologies that you never saw the point of when you haven't got it, but when you do, you wonder how did you ever do it before. and for me DAB was it, it made my long car journeys so much easier

I was gutted, at first i thought i just pressed a wrong button, but quick realized that something was wrong, tried looking at the fuses and checking the Ariel Connections ( Thank you FOC ) But still nothing, Haven't been able to book the car in yet as work has been hectic and i need my car for work but hopefully will be booking it in tomorrow at some point, hoping once again this will be an easy fix, but from looking around on the internet i got a feeling it wont be


But on a better note here is a better photo of the car

Will be updating this post as and when something post worthy occurs

[chrisroberson99]

Nice! I like the wheels! Look forward to this! :)

[khevolution]

must admit it was the wheels that first attracted me to the car as well, think its one of the very few standard wheels that work with the car

[jeebowhite]

Very nice matey, I have to say, it was awesome for you to walk in there and see the car for sale, before it was even for sale :D In fact, I bet they never sold a car so quick in their lives :p

How much did you get it for in the end and what were the freebies?

[khevolution]

Couldnt believe it either when i first saw it, all together i paid 10.5k, but got a tank of fuel, fresh MOT and tax disc added, Scotch-Gard and 6 Months Warranty.

[jeebowhite]

10.5 crikey that is good! what engine you got in there?

[khevolution]

It's a 1.6 petrol, not the quickest of engines and if I'm honest it a bit gutless mid range, so needs to be worked to get up to speed, but it's gets me decent milage and average about 33mpg so I'm happy

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Ford OC mobile app

[jeebowhite]

thats not bad at all!

The bad thing is that theres not much you can do for power ona petrol so you may find you have to adapt to it but if you want to modify it, things like a new exhaust, air filter and if it has the EGR - blanking it - should be enough to get you a bit more MPG.

[khevolution]

Yeah I've accepted that it's not the quickest thing and I'm not going to win many traffic light GP s but it's a good motor and as long as it keeps me going I will be happy, of course further down the road I might start looking at more power but I want to get the few niggles I've noticed with the car sorted first before I think of anything else, it's going back to ford first thing tomorrow for my dab issue, will be reporting back after they have hopefully fixed the issue.

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[jeebowhite]

Good luck and I look forward to seeing what you do with it!

[khevolution]

Well my car went back to ford today, and what an eventful day it's been! Will update with the full story in the morning!

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[jeebowhite]

Sounds ominous... Looking forward to hearing about it

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[khevolution]

this post has been long over due but with things like work and children, its become a little hard to find time to write this up

But as mentioned before on the 11th July i went back to ford again, dropped the car off at the service desk only to be told that the courtesy car they had booked for me, had just been taken away to drop another customer home, and there wasn't any other car available at the time. Wasn't happy about this, luckily i didn't have work that day, but i wasn't going to let them know that :P to be fair though they did all they could to keep me updated on what was happening and about 40mins later my courtesy car was available

Now the car in question was a 62 plate ford Fiesta Zetec 1.6 ( sorry no pics) the car seemed fairly nippy at first, but during the drive home i realized why i liked bigger cars, its a bit cramped, a bit low to get in, and !Removed! uncomfortable after any journey longer then about 20 mins, now i don't want this to sound like I'm bad-mouthing this fiesta, overall i think it a decent car for the right person, unfortunately that person is not me, probably doesn't help that me and my misses suffer from back problems and are quite picky when it comes to seating.

In the afternoon i got a phone call saying that the car had been in since when i dropped the car off and they have been trying to update all the software, but for some reason or another the car would not accept the update so they will was going to contact Ford UK Technical and try and get and answer, i asked if i could pick the car up and re-book it another time, which they said was fine, so i jumped back into the Fiesta and was just about to set off when i got a panicked call from ford again, and she said that they was unable to start my car, apparently in the process of trying to update the modules, it had taken out almost everything else, and now the car wouldn't start, no ignition, no electrics...nothing. Well as you can imagine i was a bit speechless, i booked my car for what i thought was a simple radio issue and now from what this women was telling me, they had pretty much killed my car , the women couldn't say sorry enough, but asked for me to still come up and we can sort something out

As you can imagine the car ride on the way up there was a quiet one (and uncomfortable )


When i got there the women said she had some good news for me, the mechanic was able to get the car to start again and everything working the way it was before i took it in. but it would need booking in again, i even managed to have a word with head mechanic who was working and eventually saved my car which re-assured a few questions i had


So yeah, in the space of one day my car went from slightly broken to dead and then back to slightly broken again


EDIT: Car is now re-booked for the 31st and asked if they had anything other then a fiesta for a courtesy car which they did, so now im getting a 14 plate transit, should be a bit different!

Edited July 19, 2014 by khevolution

[jeebowhite]

Transit instead nice choice lol

Sounds interesting although I would have personally wanted every detail as to what they did to kill the car on the first place

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[khevolution]

I did get a breakdown from the head mechanic, basically they tried giving the car a full update but the car didn't like it for some unknown reason, will hopefully find out why when I take it back and they have spoken to ford technical support,

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[jeebowhite]

The stereo is its own entity they shouldn't have touched anything else....

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[khevolution]

this is what thought also....., but im not used to a car with all these toys, so must admit i just kind of went with it, will see what they have to say when i take it back...

[jeebowhite]

Fingers crossed they learn lol

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[khevolution]

if they don't they can keep the car and give me a suitable replacement!

[jeebowhite]

Long term or whilst they are fixing it?

Sent from my MY SAGA C2 using Ford OC mobile app

[khevolution]

Let's see what happens first, but if they screw up again, and the car fails to work then it falls into the hands of trade description act, so legally they would have to do something, bit I'm hoping I don't need to even think about that

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[jeebowhite]

fingers crossed for a good result!

[khevolution]

Almost got 400 miles from 1 tank of petrol, really impressed with that, seeing as with I was only getting about 250 max from my Honda and that was with a 70 litre tank, compared to 55litre I've got now

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[jeebowhite]

thats a good result!

Have they fixed him yet?

[khevolution]

going in tomorrow, gotta a feeling the radio still isn't going to be fixed when i pick it up tomorrow, but fingers crossed