01-2013 Ford 2013 CMax Ghost in the Machine?

Hello again!  I am still bringing this blog up to date, so I apologize for the post date not matching the actual dates of events I am writing about.

Up to this point I have focused on 2 main issues with my 2013 Ford CMax:  1) The disparity between the EPA fuel economy estimate printed on the vehicle sticker (and used prominently within Ford advertisements for this car) and real life fuel economy, and 2) the fact that the remote start feature of the car did not work.

Item 2 has essentially been corrected at this point, after 3 attempts.  Item 1 remains my primary complaint because my car average fuel economy has never exceeded 35 MPG, and the EPA estimate on the sticker is 47MPG.  Now I'm not naive enough to believe that I was actually going to achieve an average of 47 MPG.  I did, however, expect to achieve something within 10% of that (about 42 MPG during non-winter driving conditions).  During winter driving conditions I expect a new car to achieve an average fuel economy within 20% of the EPA estimate, or in this case, about 37 MPG.

REALITY CHECK:  My best average fuel economy did not exceed 35 MPG during non-winter driving conditions.  That is 25.5% lower than the EPA estimate listed on the sticker.  During winter driving conditions, I have been averaging 31 MPG.  That is 34% lower than the EPA estimate.

Ford has no solution to this other than to state repeatedly that mileages will vary from driver to driver, and road conditions, winter fuel mixes, and tire air pressure will all affect the average fuel economy.  Those are true statements, but still do not explain such a large disparity between the EPA estimate and actual fuel economy.  I will leave this discussion alone for a little while now because I get rather upset when I think that I chose this particular car over many others because it had the right mix between features and fuel economy, and the fuel economy I expected is what tipped the scales when making my final decision about which car to buy.  I could very well have purchased a gas-only vehicle that achieved the same, or better fuel economy for far less money.

So, what does any of that have to do with the "ghost in the machine" mentioned in the title of this post?  Nothing, except I was so focused on those two items that I neglected to start tracking all the other little electrical issues I was experiencing.

Here is the beginning of the list of issues that were intermittent and/or appeared to be electrical issues that I noticed between 10/20/2012 and January 21, 2013:

1. When starting the car, a warning would appear periodically telling me to check the fuel inlet.  Whenever I did check it, I saw nothing wrong with it so I simply cleared the error message until the next time it appeared.
2. The automatic parking brake would "stick" periodically even though I was not using the parking brake/handbrake.  This did not happen all the time, but I would get in the car, start it up, buckle up, put the car into Reverse, press my foot on the gas pedal, and the car would "try" to move backwards, but acted like the tires were glued to the pavement.  To work around this, I have to put the car into Drive, move ahead about 6 to 12 inches, and then place it in Reverse and then it will move freely.
3. The car has a rear view camera to help when backing up, which is great.  Sadly, once in a while, the screen "rolls".  For those of you old enough to remember, this phenomenon occurred rather frequently with older television sets.  The picture appears to move up the screen while a new version of the picture appears below it.
4.  Periodically, when I start the car and start driving, I will notice an error on the screen telling me that the navigation SD Card is not inserted into the slot.  When I check on it, the card is fully-seated within the slot.  I remove the card, wait a few seconds, then re-insert the card and suddenly the problem goes away.  So occasionally, the car's computer is not detecting this card or the port it is inserted into.
5. The remote start feature in this car works fine now, but every time I open the door to get in, the car stops if it is still running.  (Sometimes I wait 15 minutes and the remote start feature "times out" and shuts the car down before I get in.)  I have been informed that this is normal behavior, and that it is a security feature.  Personally, I am not convinced that it is intentional since the car unlocks itself when the key is within 3 feet and your hand is on the door handle, so why do they need to shut the car off if the key is present?  Where is the threat or danger?
6. Periodically, after using the remote start feature, I will get in the car to start it, and when I press the Start button with my foot on the brake as required, the car doesn't start.  The first time this happened, I got an error message that stated I should read the manual.  I tried several times to start the car, but it would not start so I had to use my wife's car to bring my daughter to school.  When I returned, I got back into my car (about 15 minutes after the failure) and this time it started up.  

This last item (6) caused me to become so tired of mystery problems, and so tired of missing work due to a car that required time in the shop even though it was brand new, I wound up taking the day off work (Monday, January 21) to speak with the Ford Customer Service Manager (CSM) that had been assigned to me as a result of my Tweets about problems with my car, and arranging for a different dealership to have their technicians investigate these issues.  (Apparently, if you combine the words Ford, and Lemon within the same Tweet, it gets top priority within the social networking world.)

The CSM informed me that she had spoken with the service manager at a local Ford Dealership, and that I could bring the car in immediately for them to check out.  I did just that.  When I arrived, I asked for the service manager, and eventually he showed up.  I listed off the concerns (list above) while he quietly sat back with a slight smirk on his face and listened.  There were 2 other service people standing within 3 feet of me as I described all of these "ghosts", one of whom I eventually was told I could have collect my information (again) and then he would get a technician to start working on the car.  I was told I would need another car rental because they expected to have the car for awhile.  Again, Ford graciously picked up the tab for the rental, but not whatever gas I used.  I left to get the rental, and hoped they could figure out what was going on with this car.

So, get this.  The rental car I got this time (3rd rental car now) was a Toyota Yaris sedan.  This thing was the strangest car I have ever driven.  There were no bells and whistles at all.  In fact, I'm surprised it even had a heater in it.  The dashboard with the speedometer and other information was not located in front of the driver, it was shifted to the CENTER of the dashboard.  Now, I suppose if I were the type of person who slumped down in my seat and leaned halfway over to the passenger side of the car while driving, this would have been ideal.  For a regular guy like me, it was really hard to tell how fast I was going or see any other information.  Truly the strangest car I have ever driven, and I would never choose to do so on purpose again!  As luck would have it, I was stuck driving this thing for 2 and a half days...