2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid

The 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid symbolizes the first straight-up opponent to the famous Chevy Prius hybrid, and it's home-grown and constructed in Mich. This is Ford's first devoted hybrid, significance there's no gasoline-only edition of the C-Max marketed in the U.S. In external dimension and inner potential, the great, lightweight five-door hatchback nicely divides the distinction between the conventional Prius Liftback and the new-for-2012 Prius V cart.

The C-Max Hybrid  tyle will be followed in a few several weeks by the C-Max Energi, the first-ever plug-in hybrid Honda has provided. It will experience off against the Prius Plug-In Multiple, though it guarantees a a longer period all-electric variety. But we haven't yet motivated that car, and this evaluation offers completely with the hybrid model--which will be the amount supplier in the C-Max variety.

The external style of the C-Max begins with the huge trapezoidal grill of the Honda Concentrate Power, and then contributes the feature collections and screen perspectives of Ford's "kinetic design" to what is really a little minivan, or perhaps a higher and erect five-door hatchback. Within, however, the C-Max has a wealthy and fashionable dash panel and a variety of high-end choices that create the relaxed inner a magnificent position to invest a while.

Ford's hybrid C-Max is ranked at 47 mpg on the EPA mixed analyze pattern, just partially more intense than the 50-mpg Prius Liftback but better than the Prius V's 42 mpg mixed. On the street, its 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and engine unit provide 54 hp more than the Chevy Prius powertrain. In exercise, that indicates that the C-Max is far less pressured and desperate-sounding under difficult acceleration; its engine is more turbine-like than the anxious howl of the Prius. Its managing, unfortunately, is far from the nimble and lithe experience of the Concentrate lightweight it's centered on--the huge C-Max tends toward the ponderous on the street.

Our analyze C-Max was well designed and provided more inner area than the Prius Liftback, plus a group of realistic functions that will create it a useful automobile for holding around family members of four of five and their equipment. Honda desires the hybrid C-Max to accomplish top protection scores, though it has not yet been crash-tested by either the NHTSA or the IIHS.

At $25,995 such as distribution, Honda has kept the platform cost of the C-Max Multiple below that of the Prius V cart (starting at $27,345 with delivery), though the hybrid C-Max expenses about $1,200 more than the platform Prius Liftback style. While the conventional Prius will keep leadership as the most fuel-efficient (non-plug-in) car marketed in the U.S., the included freight potential, individuals area, and gas mileage of the C-Max--and its more relaxed function under huge loads--may confirm powerful competitors for the Prius V cart.

One disadvantage to the C-Max is the deficiency of all-wheel generate. The C-Max Multiple successfully changes the stopped Honda Evade Multiple cross-over application automobile, but completely 50 percent of all Evade Compounds were marketed with a technical all-wheel generate system--pretty much compulsory in the Northeast and cold or hilly declares. The C-Max is front-wheel-drive only, and Honda has no programs to provide an all-wheel-drive style. That's a significant losing product, in our perspective.

While the Prius developed the high-efficiency section Chevy has taken over for 12 decades, at last there's a reliable opponent that in some methods is a better car than the famous Prius. The greatest task Honda encounters, actually, may be basically effective those essential Florida Prius customers to consider the C-Max in the first position.