C-max says wheeee

Seriously the stupidest advertisement I've ever seen; surprisingly the only advertisement for the ford c-max. Why isn't this thing getting more press or are the buying their adverts in Martha Stewart living?

This thing should tick a lot of boxes for people looking to move 3-4 people in an economical way.

Wasn't it originally going to have three rows like the Mazda 5?

And sliding doors

you mean the one with the silhouette of the Prius, etc? Yeah, it is stupid....

The C-Max's main problem is that it's ugly, so they probably don't want to show the car itself too much.

I've looked at it. It's based on the Euro C-Max which has 3 rows and sliding doors ala the Mazda5. Ford in the US decided to make it a Hybrid only car for the US (the battery takes the place of the 3rd row and takes up all the storage space, it has less room than a Mazda3!) and converted it to regular doors.

It has less space than a 5, is significantly more expensive, lacks the 3rd row, and really doesn't offer anything to make it worthwhile. You'd need to fly it to the moon and back to recoup the mileage difference over the current 5, and I imagine the future SkyActiv (especially the diesel) Mazda will blow it's doors off even worse. The C-Max is also not much fun to drive (heavy, regen braking, floaty/crashy suspension).

It had a lot of promise, and delivered on none of it, at least for my new car $$$.

And yet, despite only being on sale for 3.5 months in 2012, Ford sold almost as many C-Max's as Mazda sold 5s (13309 vs 14640).

I'm very curious if the trouble that regular people apparently have hitting the EPA fuel economy numbers will have any affect on sales. So far it hasn't.

Where did you find those numbers? I've never seen a cmax at all, dealership or road. Mazda hasn't even advertised the 5 as far as I've seen so their numbers don't surprise me.

chandlerGTi wrote: Where did you find those numbers? I've never seen a cmax at all, dealership or road. Mazda hasn't even advertised the 5 as far as I've seen so their numbers don't surprise me.

+1. Haven't seen one at a lot or on the road. I see plenty of 5's.

poopshovel wrote:

chandlerGTi wrote: Where did you find those numbers? I've never seen a cmax at all, dealership or road. Mazda hasn't even advertised the 5 as far as I've seen so their numbers don't surprise me.

+1. Haven't seen one at a lot or on the road. I see plenty of 5's.

+2, those numbers sound like bologna. I drove the first C-Max in this area, and it's still on the lot. We don't have a Mazda dealer within 50 miles and yet we're tripping over 5's. Not to mention the 5 is obviously at it's end-of-lifecycle phase and the car mags are talking up the all-new SkyActiv replacement for it.

I drove one back to back with a turdbota pious. It does everything as well as a Prius does badly. Ride, handling, NVH, steering feel all were light years better in the Cmax, plus the fuel econ was better. If every one who was shopping for a new Prius also drove a Cmax, Toyota would never sell another one.

I've seen close to a dozen cmax on the roads.....they're just hard to spot because they look like the focus and escape had a retarded offspring. They look pretty similar.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: I drove one back to back with a turdbota pious. It does everything as well as a Prius does badly. Ride, handling, NVH, steering feel all were light years better in the Cmax, plus the fuel econ was better. If every one who was shopping for a new Prius also drove a Cmax, Toyota would never sell another one.

I agree completely. Compared to a Prius the C-MAX is much more entertaining to drive, its interior is nicer, and it gets about the same MPG. It’s a shame that the Prius buyers are ignoring this car. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed a single C-MAX on the road, despite seeing Volts and Leafs each week and Prius’ all over the place.

My neighbour has one and likes it a lot. I looked at one at the auto show the other day. The sticker price was over $36K. Sorry, that won't end up in my garage no matter how functional it might be.

chandlerGTi wrote: Where did you find those numbers? I've never seen a cmax at all, dealership or road. Mazda hasn't even advertised the 5 as far as I've seen so their numbers don't surprise me.

2012 Ford sales- http://media.ford.com/images/10031/Dec12sales.pdf - which shows 13,309 C-Max sales in 2012.

2012 Mazda sales- http://www.mazdausamedia.com/2013-01-03-MAZDA-ACHIEVES-BEST-YEAR-OF-SALES-SINCE-2007-BEST-DECEMBER-SINCE-1994 shows 14,460 Mazda 5 sales in 2012.

You may be noticing that the 5 has been for sale quite a few years- 2011 they had 19,155 sales whereas the C didn't even show up until late 2012.

I drove a c-max this weekend and I take back what I previously said. It's a good point to point car; I'd be interested in replacing my MZ5 with one if it was available with manual and it was time to replace the 5.

In reply to Javelin:

I remember being at the auto show the year it came out, thought "huh, not so bad" then I opened the hatch and saw it was full of batteries.

the C Max that is the same size as the Mazda5 with 3 rows and sliding doors is the Grand C Max.

I remember reading a couple years before the C Max released here we were supposed to get the Grand C Max in non hybrid form. Then Ford changed their plans obviously. Seems like they are trying to fill that spot with the new Transit Connect.

Works for me, the Transit Connect is way cooler. What would be even better would be if they put the C-Max hybrid drivetrain in it.