Ford C-Max Kicks Honda Civic Hybrid From 3rd Place

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Ford is attacking Toyota’s miserly image. The blue oval announced today that its 2013 C-Max Hybrid crossover gets better mileage than Toyota’s Prius V, Reuters says.

Ford’s C-Max Hybrid, to go on sales this fall, delivers an EPA rating of 47 miles per gallon, city, Highway and combined.

Fueleconomy.gov shows the 2012 Prius V with 44 mpg city, 40 highway and 42 combined. Once the C-Max goes on sale, it would topple the Prius V from its 4th place ranking, even take the 3rd ranked Honda Civic Hybrid down a notch.

The top spots in the hybrid ranking currently go to the Prius c with a 53/46/50 ranking, followed by the Toyota Prius (51/48/50) and the Honda Civic Hybrid (44/44/44), all for their 2012 models.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Luke42 Luke42 on Aug 07, 2012

    My wife and I (very happy Prius owners) went and test-drove the Prius V the other day. We were nonplussed by it. In particular, the back seat design didn't really make sense for a two-row vehicle, and the rear-center seatbelt design looked like it interfere with the rear-right passenger. In addition, we accidentally disabled the TCS by mashing the brake pedal at a stoplight, and were put off by the center-rmount speedometer. Our carseat fit well, though, and the cargo area looked very useful. My wife decided that, despite the extra space, it was not at all better than our existing Prius. I liked the extra space, and the wagon-like form factor and didn't care about the speedometer, but the TCS and the rear-center seatbelt both strike me as safety and usability fails. We have a young child, and some extra space might be very useful in the next couple of years. We value efficiency and reliability and we're thrilled with our existing Prius and with Toyota's customer service; we're just bummed that even Toyota couldn't best their own car. We will be giving the C-Max and C-Max Energi a very close look before buying another family daily-driver. Especially since Ford made an effort to be just a little bit better than Toyota on two numbers that we care about a lot (both MPGs and Dollars), they're finally waving a flag that says "we want your business"!

  • 86SN2001 86SN2001 on Aug 07, 2012

    What Ford says and reality are two very different things. Remember when Ford lied and said Egoboost was going to get 20% better fuel economy than a V8? Yet the reality is, that a 5.0 V8 powered F-150...will get BETTER MPG than an identical Egoboost truck (even the same 3.73 gears).

    • Herm Herm on Aug 07, 2012

      What does the EPA testing say?.. or are you only considering a special application such as towing to make that comparison?

  • Conslaw Conslaw on Oct 01, 2012

    I just test-drove a Ford C-MAX this Saturday. My first impression: It drives well. Workmanship seems good; BUT the cargo room in the back has to be the smallest 25 cu-ft that I've ever seen. In a rental Chevrolet Impala, I could put two large and two medium suitcases in the Impala's 18.6 cu-ft trunk. I could only put one large and one medium suitcase in cargo hold of the C-Max, and even if I folded down the small half of the back seat, it would have been a close call for getting in the two large and two medium sized suitcases. The luggage space reminded me more of a Pontiac Vibe/Toyota Matrix than a minivan or even a true station wagon. Driving fairly gently in a loop that included light city and freeway driving,the trip computer showed 41+ MPG and climbing. (The battery was 2/3 depleted when I started.) The only other negative that came to light was that I couldn't find a comfortable place to put my left elbow. Like many cars, the natural place for me is right where the steel protection beam is inside the door. If I drove with my left hand on top of the steering wheel, then it was comfortable. My overall impression is that the C-Max is a good car and a good value, but it is more of a competitor to the standard Prius than the Prius V. It gets slightly worse gase mileage than the regular Prius, but it is also significantly quicker with a better main cabin.

  • Papaj1 Papaj1 on Aug 04, 2013

    We have about 2,000 miles on our C-Max. On our last tank of 50% local grocery-getting and 50% highway it returned 43.5 MPG. Our lifetime average started out at about 37 MPG and as we learned how to drive it properly the average climbed to 41.5 MPG, pretty darn good for a 3,600 pound vehicle. Kudos to Ford for this terrific little CUV/minivan/wagon thingy.

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