2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid Lost ALL POWER

General Discussion
1

We have a 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid 5 door and for the FOURTH time, it had to be towed from our house BACK TO THE FORD Dealer b/c it doesn’t have any power, nothing! No Lights, Can’t start it, nothing! We drive it for while then any given morning we go out to start it and NO POWER!

The mechnics at the dealer have no idea WHY this vehicle loses power. First they said it was the computer and gave it back to us, then it was towed back to them (a month or so later), then the next couple of times, well maybe it the battery…

Any ideas why this Hybrid loses power?

2

I will take this in a different direction. This car may be a lemon. Do you have receipts for all 4 visits? If so, you are close to meeting the requirements for a lemon law return. Do a web search for lemon law and your state to see what the requirements are. When you meet them, you will likely have to write a letter to Ford before you take it in for the last repair attempt. That alerts them they have just one more try and then owe you a replacement. You have to fallow the rules to get the replacement if the dealer can’t figure it out.

3

A 2013 vehicle that will not go from point “A” to point “B” is a lemon. There is no excuse for a nearly new Ford C-Max Hybrid that won’t run when you need it to. Document everything and get rid of this defective vehicle. It will not get better over time…only worse.

4

Yep, lemon law time. I hope you have everything in writing, research the lemon law requirements in your state, start the process.

5

jtsanders, missileman and texase THANKS all 3 of you!!! We’ve kept records (no receipts b/c they don’t charge us for something they can’t fix) The lemon law here in CALIF, The Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act (The Lemon Law) is difficult to say the least. We bought this ‘thing’ with 2,000 miles on it so it wasn’t ‘new’. Were looking into options now.

6

It might be worth a few hundred to talk with an attorney.
Now you know why the original owner dumped it after only 2000 miles. Your scenario is my greatest fear about buying late model used vehicles… why are they back on the lot so soon?

Sincere best.

7

More to the point, if the previous owner returned the C-Max for this problem, why is Ford selling it without fixing it? Ford should not allow the dealer to sell the car with a known power loss problem. This is hypothetical, of course, since we don’t know why the car only has 2000 miles on it. But it seems like a reasonable conclusion.

8

My guess is that if the dealership was ABLE to fix it they would have done so for the original owner.

9

Agreed

10

Until you get it sorted out, you might try keeping the 12V battery charged with this:

Hook it up every night. If this works long-term, you’ve got a big clue to the problem.

11

I expect you already know that it’s not possible to diagnose this problem via the internet. But it should be possible for a Ford dealership to diagnose and fix. When I have intermittent problems like this I’ll put the necessary tools in the trunk, and when it happens I can make the measurements and work on a diagnosis when the problem is occurring. That’s really the only way to solve this type of problem.

You probably don’t want to diagnose it yourself, so I think what I’d do in this situation is take the car to the dealership and tell them I’m leaving it there until it is working, and request that they provide me a loaner in the meantime. If they refuse to provide a loaner, I’d either take the bus or rent a car in the meantime. Tell them it is ok w/you that one of their techs takes your CMax home with them and uses it as a daily driver, to get some experience with the problem and most important, to get it to the shop while the problem is occurring.

12

And don’t let anyone tell you its because its a hybrid car and they are too complicated and you need to be a witch doctor to fix them. When I bought a 2013 prius V I crossed shopped the ford c max. They are no where near as smooth or refined.

Another customer burned by the big 3.

13

Big 3: VW, Toyota, and Daimler. GM, Ford and Fiat (née Chrysler) are 4, 5, and 6 respectively. Probably referring to them as the Detroit 3 is more appropriate.

14

@‌jtsanders

Yes, im stuck in the past.

15

Me too, Rick.

16

Not so stuck as you might think:

17

My source documented world wide sales for 2013, not US sales only for one month. Still, it is once to see other car companies products selling well

18

With 2k miles on it, was this a “dealer demo” model, or was it a genuine used vehicle you bought?

19

One sticky issue you may have with the Lemon Law is that you maintained your own set of records.
That is not the same as an official paper trail of repair order copies stating the exact complaint and what if anything was done to solve the problem.

Ford could get involved and say the Lemon statute doesn’t apply because the complaints varied and/or different fixes were done.

A mechanic gets paid off of the repair order so no paperwork means:
A. The mechanic was coerced into spending time for free; and free usually means little effort.
B. Nothing was ever done to the vehicle and it was handed back after a claimed repair.

My vote is with Mountainbike about a pre-existing problem. Maybe some digging needs to be done as to where that C-Max began life.
Ask the service manager to show you the OASIS report on it. That might be an interesting read either due to prior problems or a clean slate. Of course, the latter would raise the question of why it’s that way.

20

Hello everyone!
Well, Once again (the 5th time) our 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid HAD NO POWER when we went out to start (or even get in it) it! Its now sitting BACK AT THE DEALER. We’ve contacted FORD about the California Lemon law and are dealing with bureaucracy BUT WE ALSO have a Great Attorney that is assisting us. Still, Ford has NO IDEA why this car all of a sudden losses all power.

The car does get GREAT GAS MILEAGE (sitting at the dealer!, Ha! Ha!)