Wildcat2xx5

Update 2: The last week it has been in the high 40s-50s, and 60-70 in the afternoons. I am getting more like 40-42 mpg in the morning and 44-50 in the afternoon, depends on if i can time the gym crowd and lights home. I average about 2.8-3 miles EV for my 5 mile commute.

Husky

Ice Storm, at first I wanted Sterling grey and the wife wanted Ice Storm, but now that I have it and see what the Sterling grey looks like in person ( a person I know at work got a Fusion Se), I am glad I went with Ice Storm. I would have been happy with Sterling grey, but it looks a little darker in person than I would have wanted. Ice Storm looks sharp in the sun and confident in the dusk. Looks like the wifey knows best....again ;)

Well, I have two round trips from work and so far I can only get ~35-37 mpg average. Fact of the matter is it is still double what I was getting a week ago, so I am happy. The inbound trip is not ideal as there are a lot of little hills, not many flat stretches, the outbound trip is only half the inbound trip, the other half is mostly downhill. I am hoping that the summer will buy me a few more mpgs, I'm happy regardless for right now. Update: Getting more used to driving with the car, last two days i was over 40 mpg. I think it will only get better as I learn more about how to maximize on my routes to and from.

they just called and read verbatim off their screen, "no upgrades, yadda yadda yadda..." I guess i have to wait for Ford to send the upgrade to hybrid, electric, and plug in owners in the first quarter?

My dealer keeps telling me that my car has no upgrade available, that it is part of an upgraded package. I am knowledgable and I have the Internet, when will they learn they can't BS people anymore?

jeff_h, I hope to be able to replicate your results when I get my car. My commute is 5 miles each way, and by choice, I have taken to not even bothering to put HVAC on . My current (old) car would take almost 2/3 of the distance to warm up and get the cabin comfortable, so I have conditioned myself to go without.

Update** I can't get the car until Saturday now :doh:. Since the driver isn't going until Thursday to pick i up, they said they have to get it back, inspect(gotta love PA and their monopolistic enterprises), and do their thing. Then Friday doesn't work for me, so I have to wait until Saturday. I think i can still stop by on the way to bowlingThursday and take a peek at the car.

That would work really well, hopefully my salesman goes over all these cool features.

I finally found one that I wanted. It took a little bit longer than I had anticipated. Here were the specs to my absolute perfect car: Sterling gray exterior Moonroof My Ford Touch Remote Start This is what I settled on: Ice Storm Moonroof My Ford Touch Ice storm was second on my color choices and first on my wife's. And now that it is finally (even after 2 in of snow last night) warming up, i think I can live without remote start until maybe when the sun start baking my car while I am out playing rounds of golf. I have faith that getting remote start installed by the dealer shouldn't be an issue. Biggest hurdle was options, remote start isn't a popular option (only on a handful of cars I searched), and I really didn't want Navigation and Rear Sensing system. My iphone is easier to navigate with, and why do i need a rear sensing system when i have a back up camera. In any case, I wasn't thrilled about spending an extra $1000 on options I didn't want. And I didn't want to order a car, seeing as from reading the forum it is taking longer and longer to get cars out recently. Unfortunately for me that meant there was only 1 car within 300 miles of me that had the options (minus remote start) that I wanted, and it only loses a few points for being a different color. I pick it up on Thursday. Pretty excited.

So, I have a question. If running in EV mode at higher speeds actually acts as a detriment to gas mileage, why did Frod set the EV capable speed so high?(I know, rhetorical question) Can I also make an assumption here, straight line, flat commutes that have average speed below 60mph will suffer most from this EV cycling? Can one overcome this EV cycling conundrum if they have long hilly stretches in both directions? I hope I am understanding this the right way, but would being able to "charge" on down hill stretches alleviate some of the demand on the ICE at these higher speeds? I just want to note that before even buying the car, i am learning so much about reality and expectation, and learning some great tips. Also random question about cruise control, when you are in CC and you start coasting downhill, does the car take advantage of gravity for you or do you still need to hover over the brake?

The Accord looks much better with the Aero Kit, and the interior I agree was rather plain (not as plain as the Camry, that was super boring, however, it had a cavernous trunk)

I've seen pics of the Energi trunk and I don't think it would work for me, or my family. And I don't like the idea of putting stuff in the back seat, I know people are going to take stuff if they want, i would rather they go through the extra effort to get into my trunk. another dagger is the extra cost, I don't drive enough miles to make the cost/mpg decision (I did my calcs and it would take nearly 8 years to recoup, while i expect to keep the car at least that long, i would only be re-couping initial cost and not benefitting from mpg increase). Just too much downside in my case. X-plan and the right incentives, would afford me upgrades and immediate fuel savings. Now i just need to convince the wife a FFH is the best option when compared to the Accord and Camry.

I think the ability to carry golf clubs is a huge deal, after all, I carry them almost 9 months out of the year. My wife thinks i am a looney for having that as a criteria.

I may be wrong, but I ruled the Jetta hybrid out because it takes premium gas.

Fynack, what do you mean by lose money heating the block? Not entirely sure how an engine block heater works, is why i ask.

Does anyone drive the Energi model of the FF? What are your thoughts? How is your mpg?

Hypothetically speaking, if you could start in and maintain EV mode, how long would the battery last and how far could that get you assuming you get no regenerative charging along the way? Does anyone have a super short commute on residential roads, where acceleration is minimal and speeds are low?

Went to the dealer last night to take a look, up and close, and to test drive. I have read most of the major reviews and made sure to check out all the nit picking the reviewers had for the car. My biggest concern is the trunk, acdii, is right, it is not wide and flipping down the seat seems to be the best option for multiple golf bags. I was surprised that the saleman offered, without any questions or comments, that the car would likely not achieve 47mpg, more like 41. Ideally, this car would make the most sense for me if I could operate in EV mode for my commute, and rely on mixed gas and EV for everything else.

Riggo, how long have you been waiting?

I was curious what the typical wait time is for the 2013 FFH, I did a quick search but didn't see anything posted already.

So glad i stumbled on this forum, as I am currently looking into the FFH. Never owned a hybrid before so I had some questions, hoping you can help me out. My typical driving includes a 10 mile roundtrip commute, on mostly residential roads, where i should not exceed 40mph. Furthermore, the highway I frequently travel on I cruise at no more than 63 mph. Reading all the reviews and some of the topic on this forum, it seems to me that the FFH may be an excellent choice. Are there other things that I should be considering? I am worried about trunk space, do we have any golfers on this forum that have experience with 1-3 golf bags in the trunk? How is the cold weather condition handling? Unfortunately the storm preparedness and remidiation is suspect in my region. Any thoughts and insights are appreciated.