pluggedin

While it was distressing to see you having problems right out of the gate it is comforting to know there is a dealer out there that has the expertise to work on the Energi and actually fix the car. It's great to see your numbers improve so dramatically. Happy driving to you :shift: .

Yeah, I gave up trying to program our security gates and the button on the visor for the garage door works poorly so I will probably go back to the visor clip on buttons I used in the past.

When I plugged my L2 charger into the car last night I heard a loud thunk, or pop, come from the charger. I've heard that before though and the car has always charged.

I drove into a Toyota dealership today to pick up some touch up paint for my Camry and when I parked the Energi in front of the Used Car Sales Office one of the salesmen came out and gushed all over the car. He said he wasn't aware that Ford made a plug-in and was totally impressed with the mileage figures I lied to him about (not really, I didn't lie).

Uh-huh, same thing happened to me, as you may recall. The best I could do was get the dealer to split the $750 with me and I let Ford have it with both barrels on a survey they sent me. And I still think Ford should make their offer good. Good luck bro, I'm happy your time has come.

You are welcome. Sorry you are having such a bad time with charging your car. So far, you do seem to be the only one with the problem, or the only one posting the problem anyway. So, a little more info, if you will. When you plug the charger in and hear your pop, does a red light show on the charger? A green light? No light? If you have a red light the charger is defective or you have a fault in your wiring. If the light is red try plugging the charger into an outlet somewhere else in the house and not on the same circuit/breaker you have been using to see if you still get a red light. If there is a green light on the charger, pop or not, the charger should be working. But you say the car is not being charged. If your charger is working the light ring should be active on the car once you plug the charger into the charge port of the car. If the light ring is not active then there is something wrong with the car, not the charger. It will take 7-10 hours for the car to charge completely using the 120V charger that came with the car, but I'm certain you know that. The car is a rolling computer so I am very surprised that there isn't some sort of message on one of the screens that will tell you what is happening, or in your case, what is not happening. I am assuming you are able to drive the car in hybrid mode since you haven't mentioned having the car towed. Let us know when you find out what was wrong.

If the green light on the charger is on before you plug it into the car, the charger should be okay. I copied and pasted the following from the Owners Manual, make sure you are following these procedures. CHARGING THE HIGH VOLTAGE BATTERY CHARGING THE HIGH-VOLTAGE BATTERY (ENERGI VEHICLES) WARNINGS Do not use the 120-volt convenience cord with extension cord or adapter. In Canada, do not use the 120-volt convenience cord in commercial garages. This equipment has arcing or sparking parts that should not be exposed to flammable vapors. This equipment should be located at least 18 inches (80 millimeters) above the floor. Charging Equipment E78097 Your vehicle comes equipped with a standard 120-volt convenience cord located in the floor compartment behind the driver’s seat. Note: The 120–volt convenience cord allows you to charge the high-voltage battery in your own garage using a standard 120-volt household outlet. Using the standard 120-volt convenience cord takes up to 10 hours to completely charge from an empty battery. E145429 Ford recommends upgrading to the optional 240-volt charging station for faster more efficient charging. Use of a 240-volt charging station will take approximately 3–4 hours to fully charge a empty battery. 170 High Voltage Battery Note: Your electrical source must meet certain requirements for the high-voltage batteries to charge. The AC outlet must be a three-prong 110-120 volt AC outlet that is properly grounded, 15–20 amps (or greater), and in good condition. The line also must be dedicated, which means that no other appliances should be connected to the same circuit. If a dedicated circuit is not used, the circuit breaker could trip or open. If a dedicated circuit is not available, contact a licensed professional electrician for proper installation. Make sure that the 120–volt convenience cord is completely unwound before charging. Always plug the cord into the AC outlet before connecting the charging coupler into the vehicle’s charge port receptacle. The 120–volt convenience cord inline control box has three indicator lights that represent the charging status; power, charge and fault. Power (green light)— this indicator lights up when the cord is plugged into the AC wall outlet. Charge (green light)— indicates status of charging: • No light means the cord is not connected to the vehicle. • Blinking light means that the charging is in process. • Solid light means that the vehicle is connected but not charging. Fault (red triangle light)— Lights up in case of a detected failure. No charging is possible: • Blinking red triangle light – means that the 120–volt convenience cord is trying to reset the failure and could restart the charging cycle. • Solid red triangle light – means that the fault is permanent. The cord needs to be unplugged and re-plugged to reset the fault. If the fault persists, contact your authorized dealer. Charge Port The charge port is located between the front left side door and front left wheel well. There is an indentation located on the charge port door that allows you to press to open and press to close the door. E144779 Note: Do not force the charge port door open or closed. Forcing the door open or closed will damage the charge port. The light ring located around the charge port indicates the charge status of your batteries while connected to a charge station or convenience cord. The charge port light ring is divided into four quadrants that inform you of the charge status. There is a cord acknowledgment feature that will be activated when a charge cycle is initiated. The four light quadrants will each individually flash clockwise starting with the top right light and ending with the top left, two full times confirming a charging coupler has been detected. 171 High Voltage Battery Different sequences of the light ring will represent the status of the charge. You can use your keyfob to view the vehicles charge status at any time by pressing the unlock button. The light ring will light up the corresponding quadrant(s) so that the current state of the vehicles charge can be determined. If the charge is below 25 percent the light ring will not illuminate. Don’t forget to press the lock button on your keyfob to re-lock the vehicle. Charging Note: The vehicle must be in P (Park) to charge. To charge your high-voltage battery: 1. Put the vehicle in P (Park) and power down the vehicle. 2. Press the indentation located on the charge port door and the door will rotate open. 3. Plug the charging coupler into the vehicles charge port receptacle and make sure the button clicks confirming that it is completely engaged. E144780 4. Verify that the cord acknowledgment feature activates. This indicates the beginning of a normal charge cycle. 5. If using a 240–volt charging station, follow the instructions on the charge station to begin the charging process. When charging, the light ring will display how far along the charge is: • When the top right quadrant is pulsing the charge is between 0-25 percent. • When the top right quadrant is solidly lit and the bottom right quadrant is pulsing the charge is between 25-50 percent. • When both right side quadrants are solidly lit and the bottom left quadrant is pulsing the charge is between 50-75 percent. • When three quadrants are solidly lit and the top left quadrant is pulsing the charge is between 75-100 percent. • When the entire ring is solidly lit, the charge is complete. Note: The illuminated ring will shut off one minute after reaching a full charge. Note: If a vehicle charging system fault is detected at any point in a charge cycle the entire light ring will flash continuously for one minute and then shut off. If this happens unplug, and then re-plug the charging coupler into the charge port receptacle. If the problem persists contact your authorized dealer if a charge fault is detected. Disconnecting the Charging Coupler Note: Do not pull the wall plug from the wall while the vehicle is charging. Doing so may damage the outlet and the cord. 1. Press the button on the charging coupler. 2. While holding the button, remove the charging coupler from the vehicle’s charge port receptacle. High Voltage Battery E144781 3. Close the charge port door by pressing the indentation on the charge port door. Continue pressing the indentation while the door rotates counter clockwise and closes.

I think I would wait and see if that reoccurs on a regular basis. If it does I would be looking for an explanation as to why it's happening. But good luck with that since you probably know more about the cars system than most mechanics will at this point in time. We have been in the 80's here and I have not noticed being forced out of EV to cool the batteries. And I run the AC all the time.

I got my rear mud flaps two weeks ago but the front are still on back order. Can you believe that? Seems I have to wait on everything for this car, including the car itself. I even had to order touch up paint for goodness sake. I too wanted color coded mud flaps, at least on one side anyway. But I was unable to find any. These are molded, fairly rigid, rubberized, mudflaps. I suppose one could have them painted but I don't know how long the paint would stay on before peeling off.

I got my rear mud flaps two weeks ago but the front are still on back order. Can you believe that? Seems I have to wait on everything for this car, including the car itself. I even had to order touch up paint for goodness sake. I too wanted color coded mud flaps, at least on one side anyway. But I was unable to find any. These are molded fairly rigid, rubberized, mudflaps. I suppose one could have them painted but I don't know how long the paint would stay on before peeling off.

Man, you are stylin' for sure! But I would be hatin' life cleaning 8 of those wheels. That impact blue is awesome too. Are your neighbors circling your cars looking for water spots, like mine are?

I'm not yet sold on EV Auto. I've used that mode while on the freeway headed for home before, with around 8 miles of freeway driving, and was surprised to watch the car use up about 14 miles of battery, while still on the freeway, and then run out of EV battery power before I got home. In general, when I am on the freeway I use EV Later and then EV Now once I exit the freeway and am traveling 50 mph, or less. I wonder why the computer can't learn my driving habits and my home location from the choices I make? Maybe it will.

6,000 miles on one tank of gas is just crazy! You are obviously someone whose driving habits this car was designed for. I would need to drive a second car, for freeway miles, to get the results you are getting.

All of that being true and said, I must say Volt4me's numbers are real world and pretty darned impressive to me. I have a new found respect for the Volt.

If the car didn't have a windshield, I would have bugs on my teeth from smiling so much.

Capt, don't forget the rear camera option for sight line issues. I have never had that option before and find it extremely useful. Volt4me, almost all of us have had our cars for less than a month so real world mpg/mpge are not yet available from us. In my case, as an example, I have 720 miles on my car and my lifetime miles are right at 80 mpge. However, my driving is about 80% less than 25 miles, about 18% less than 80 miles and 2% over 100 miles. At the 720 mile mark, my gas gauge is showing a little more than half full (just a tick over). Based on that I am going to guess that I will get around 1,400 miles on one tank of gas, or 14 gallons of gas, if I run the tank dry. That comes out to 100 mpge, which is right on the mark for what the EPA rated the car for. My window sticker shows 100 mpge combined city/highway (gallons per 100 miles & kWh's per 100miles, with 43 mpg combined city/highway gasoline only). What I don't see happening is meeting the 43 mpg gas only city/highway figure, unless part of the driving is done in EV only mode and then it will not be a true gas only figure. It's too early for me to tell but I am going to guess that the gas only figure is going to be somewhere south of 40 mpg. However, I have taken a couple of those 80 mile round trips and my average has been around 46.5 mpge, because I used my 21 mile charge once I got off the freeway in Tucson and used what was left of the battery to get me home, which was mostly freeway driving. Now, if I do more driving in Tucson than normal the overall mileage will surely get closer to that 43 mpg figure, but will still be combined gas/electric. Regardless, I am going to be getting around 1,000 more miles per tank of gas more than I got out of my all gas Camry, that gets around 30 mpg highway. So whether we are driving a Volt, a Fusion Energi or a Tesla our goal is to use less gas then we have in the past and it's working for me.

Okay, makes sense, there are holes/vents in the thingy (a very technical term) under the grill. But the hook you attach the baby seat is there too and it appears to be attached to the thingy.

The car was in the garage and I was going by feel. It's pretty hard to see black in the garage and the windows tinted dark. Anyway, you had me wondering about the fourth grill so I took a flash light out to have a look. The fourth grill covers the baby seat anchor which is painted the same color as the car, but you can't see it for the grill. I actually find it a little odd.

We think a lot alike. I even sent Ford a request last year to see the 2013 MKZ would come in a plug-in model. However, I think the Fusion looks better, even if it is smaller. If I had bought a hybrid only though, I would have bought the MKZ.

I see four speaker covers in the back tray but I only see three exposed speakers in the trunk. I thought maybe the one in the overhead console was the sub woofer because it vibrates like crazy with the bass and is dormant otherwise. At any rate I fooled around with the fade, bass, treble mid range settings this afternoon and it sounds much better. I just didn't want to be driving around with one speaker not working. :doh:

Does anyone know where there is a diagram of the 12 speakers in the Ti? There is what looks like a speaker cover in the overhead console but no sound coming from it in my car. Is that supposed to be a live speaker, or not?

I just took a friend of mine for a drive in my car while in EV Now. His comment was that the car was WAY more impressive than he had imagined and raved about how comfortable the seats are...also my first impression. I'm going to be interested in your review once you test drive the two cars. The Fusion hybrid should be very similar to the Energi in most respects...especially if it is a Titanium or SEL. I had blinders on when I decided to buy the Energi and obviously did not research the Volt at all. Apparently the Volt IS a hybrid and I have enjoyed the discussion on this thread, so far.

Well, you have some pretty good help here so far but let me add a couple things. I never considered the volt because of its limited all electric range and the Fusion does not have that problem because it is also a hybrid. However, the Fusion all electric range is meager at best and I would bet the 21 mile range will be improved upon in 2014 and beyond. The Fusion Titanium, which I own and drive, is one of the most comfortable and pleasurable cars I have ever driven. It is reasonably roomy, the options are more than ample (I hear they will even have cooled front seats in 2014) and the seats seem to wrap around and hug you when you sit in them. At 75 miles for your trips, you are right on the cusp of the Fusion not being right for you. I have done several 80 mile round trips and averaged about 46 mpg, using the 21 mile battery range and hybrid mode. Since I have not driven over 100 miles in one trip yet I can only guess that your fuel economy will drop to around 37-41 mpg, depending on your terrain, driving habits and whether your are using the AC or not. All of my figures, that I mentioned, are with the AC on. Your local trips of 21 miles or less will result in great mpge's of anywhere from 100 to 160.1 mpge (160.1 is the highest I have achieved so far, with the AC off) and that is where the Fusion shines. Good luck with your decision captmable.

Oooooh, I bet it is sticky and hard to get off too. You had a synthetic applied to the paint though so it may not be so bad. We get a lot of pollen here to (we have winds up to 60 mph the last three days) but you can't see it. Your sinuses let you know it's in the air though. Not much sticks to my paint since I put the synthetic on it, but bird poop, and that will leave a streak that has to be spot treated again.

Great, thanks...Pollen? I stopped into the parts dept of my dealer and asked for Ruby Red touch up paint...just in case...had to order it. Also asked for some black gloss touch up paint for the front grill and rear bumper trim but was told it's not available. Seems they make it up at the body shop as needed but don't package it for touch up. I'm not sure I believe that story so will keep checking.