Larry Riley Jr

Hmmm ok so I'm in the 600 mpg club, but only if you define it as "how far you went since you last put gas in the tank" (which seems to me like a fair way to define it). Over the last few tanks, for some reason I've been able to consistently get a bit more gas into the tank on every fill. I use the lowest latch on the pump, and fill 1 gallon at a time before stopping, pulling the pump out of the tube halfway and waiting 30 seconds before putting in the next gallon. It takes a while, but at my last fill up, I was at 10 DTE and I got 13.94 gallons into the tank, which was a record. I just wanted to see how much I could actually get in there, since I'll never be able to do much more than 42-43 MPG here in Atlanta. I'll try to record a video to document my next fillup so that folks don't think I'm full of s#$t on this.

Totally agree with KLH. I did 32% ceramic all the way around, as well as a clear ceramic on the windshield. I think it makes a difference for heat, but I still use a sunshade, and the additional privacy when stuck in the insane traffic here in Atlanta is nice too. But my main reason for tint isn't temp reduction or privacy, but enhanced UV protection. UV is always coming in, even on cloudy days, so I consider it an one-time investment in protecting my interior (plus my own skin LOL) from much of the effect of UV.

$3.25 here in Atlanta

Thanks! Makes total sense: the route was uphill AND rain had an impact, so it was a double whammy.

I took my first road trip in the FFH this weekend. It was a quick trip from Atlanta to Fredericksburd, VA (just south of DC) and back. Left on Friday afternoon, returned Saturday afternoon. It's 586 miles each way, and I used eco cruise the entire trip, and kept the speed at 70 MPH. On the way up, I got 41.0 MPG, which is about what I expected. But on the way back, I only got 35.5 MPG. One major difference was the weather: on the way, the weather was pretty much perfect, but on the way back, it pretty rained the entire way back. So my question is, could the rain have made that much of a difference in the mileage? I can't think of any other variables to account for such a big difference other than perhaps I got a bad tank of gas in Virginia? Thanks for any feedback.

I've noticed something interesting: over my last three tanks, I've been able to put more in each time. On a road trip this weekend, I put in 13.66 gallons with 3 miles DTE, and only one click.

I LOVE mine!!! I only have black cars as well. It's always a tale of extremes: the look awful when dirty but man oh man when they are spotless . . . .

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully this is some interesting food for thought: Like many folks of this forum, I'm currently keeping a very detailed log of the current tank of gas. I reset the Trip 1 screen when I last filled up, and after every trip (no matter how quick), I record the elapsed time, total trip distance, MPG, fuel used, EV miles, DTE, and trip MPG (the one that shows up after you turn off the ignition). From here I've built a spreadsheet that computes all sorts of data points that is really helping me monitor how well my driving habits are improving in the car, as well as understanding the impact of each trip on the RAFE, the actual MPG of the ICE, how much gas I actually have left in the tank, etc. One of the things I've noticed, as has been noted elsewhere on this site, is that there is usually a discrepancy between the reported MPG for a trip, and what it calculates out to when you divide the distance travelled vs. the fuel used as displayed on the screen. This is especially true on short trips. For example, according to the trip computer, I drove 2.0 miles earlier tonight on the way back home from an errand, and burned .04 gallons, which calculates out to 50.0 MPG. However, the reported trip MPG was 46.5. Although they are different, both numbers are actually right . . . sort of. It's all about the rounding, which I assume is what is happening here: the distance driven could actually be anywhere from 1.95 to 2.04 miles, and it would display as 2.0. The gas burned could be anywhere from .035 to .044, and it would display as .04. So if I actually drove the shortest distance that would show 2.0, which is 1.95, and I burned the most gas possible to show .04, which is .044, then the worst possible mileage that the car could report to me is 1.95/.044=44.32 MPG. Conversely, using the furthest distance and least fuel, the best possible mileage is 2.04/.035=58.29 MPG. So in other words, it's possible for the car to display 2.0 miles driven and .04 gallons burned, yet display a mileage anywhere between 44.3 and 58.3 when I turn off the ignition! So as long as both the reported trip MPG and the calculated MPG fall within this range, then there really isn't a discrepancy; it's just that we'll never have the actual numbers past the decimal places displayed on the screen, even though I'm sure the car has those numbers out to the nth place internally and uses them in it's calculation.

It's funny how much I really loved the Five Hundred as well. It was a company car that I bought when it was time to turn it in, so I got it for $9,000 in 2009 when it only had 53,000 miles on it, and I sold it I actually sold it to my parents for $5,000 (117k on it, still runs like a champ), so really did get my money's worth out of the car. But the net cost of the Fusion after the sale, plus the projected gas savings made this a no-brainer for me.

Thank you both for taking the time to reply!

Hopefully not a dumb question here, but does the braking score give you a clue as to how much you are actually using the friction brakes? For example, if you get a score of 100%, does that mean you didn't use the friction brakes at all? Thanks in advance for any replies!

. . . I went from a 2006 Five Hundred that got about 19 MPG combined over the 7 years I owned the car, which is right in line with what's out there on fueleconomy.gov (LOL, and that was the "hybrid" in the house because my wife drives a Tahoe). I've never believed that I would get anywhere close to the MPG on the window sticker of a car, so I factored 40 MPG into my math about the savings I would generate to partially offset the fact that I was picking up a car payment again after 4 years. So the 42.2 MPG that I'm getting now is far more than I expected, and it's simply awesome to me. I have a spreadsheet set up to help me track the gas savings I'm getting vs. driving the Five Hundred the same distance, and it's already up to $139 on just the 3 fill-ups I've had to date. It's early so far, but I'm on pace to average $170 per month in savings vs. the Five Hundred (or something with similar MPG), which is almost 30% of my payment!! I am keeping track of what the savings would be if I was getting 47 MPG, and it's another $15 over the three tanks, so that will add up over time, but a some point I gotta just be thrilled with where I am and look forward to getting better over time. Just the musings of a happy FFH owner. (Disclaimer: if you aren't happy with your MPG, then please don't be offended at this post. I'm certainly not downplaying anyone else's experience here, just sharing my own :happy feet: )

"Going in, I did not expect to get 47/47 all day any day. With a couple of months on the car, NO problems or complaints, no defects, mileage lifetime just under 40 for mostly city driving, AND great AC here in the very humid south, I am extremely happy. Some days I get well over 40 MPG, some just under 40. Once in a while closer to 50 . . . I am seeing what I expected, usually more, driving a car that exceeds my expectations in almost every area, and think it is the best looking family sedan available. Keeping that in mind, to reiterate, I am not feeling let down by the mileage. I like the challenge of driving smarter not harder, and the anticipation of turning off the car and seeing what my trip mileage was. This forum has some great members, great advice, passionate postings and true love for members cars. Is there more you can ask for? Post-update, I will track mileage and report, as many others have. I don't expect much, so I probably won't be disappointed." Wow this is a PERFECT summary about my feelings as well, and the mileage numbers are the same I'm seeing. I went from a 2006 Five Hundred that got about 19 MPG (LOL, and that was the "hybrid" in the house because my wife drives a Tahoe), so getting 40 MPG is simply awesome to me. I have a spreadsheet set up to help me track the gas savings I'm getting vs. driving the Five Hundred the same distance, and it's already up to $135 on just the 3 fill-ups I've had to date. It's early so far, but I'm on pace to average $170 per month in savings vs. the Five Hundred, which is almost 30% of my payment!! I am keeping track of what the savings would be if I was getting 47 MPG, and it's about $15 over three tanks, so that will add up over time, but a some point I gotta just be thrilled with where I am.

The Titanium doesn't come with the Dune Leather interior as an option, which is why I didn't get one.

The Titanium doesn't come with the Dune Leather interior as an option, which is why I didn't go for it.

I second everything here, including the pic. Followed the order instructions exactly, and it worked perfectly, so thanks for all of the info on how to do this!

"That means that getting 55 MPG instead of 47 MPG only saved me $7.60 over the 18 days that we drove on that tank. That's $.42 per day. Not as big a deal as ppl think." 1) Whenever I see an analysis like this, it's interesting which "direction" the analysis goes in order to characterize the savings. For me, I look at the long term vs. short-term, which lines up with why I went with a hybrid in the first place. In this case, the savings you mention would add up to $153 bucks per year. There has never been a holiday season where an extra $153 bucks wouldn't come in handy for me! Since I expect to keep the car for at least five years, that would amount to $750 bucks, which is basically a monthly car payment plus insurance, and a couple tanks of gas. LOL, I'm sure we would all love to come to the last month of our car loans and have the bank say "hey, the last month is on us, and we'll even cover the insurance and a couple tanks of gas." 2) I noticed that a tank lasted 18 days. Good for you! I wish I could make a tank last that long, but I drive too much for that, so I'm averaging about once per 9 days. If I drove 600 miles on a tank, then you would save the same amount in just one half the time (9 days vs. 18), so the daily amount of the savings would be $.84, the annual savings would be $306, and the 5-year savings would be over $1,500. Those are the kind of numbers that will make me try to squeeze every last extra MPG or GPM I can! Thanks for this; it's definitely food for thought. My two cents (or 42 cents ;-)):

Easy as pie for me! Took about 25 minutes, and saved all of my favorites in the nav as well as the presets on the Sirius. Only thing I had to redo was the Bluetooth connection to the iPhone. The system is definitely snappier, and is more accurate in understanding my voice commands. Thumbs up here.

Thanks for the info here! I just ordered all of the parts and will get everything mounted and stowed this week!

Added!

FYI, I decided to go with a screen protector, but I went a step further and figured out how to remove the dash and trim pieces to expose the full touchscreen, so that I could ensure that the ENTIRE touchscreen was covered when the system was put together. The first 1 minute of this video shows how to do it: It's pretty easy to so, and the finished product looks great; you can't even tell that there is a screen protector on the screen because the edges of the protector extend under the edges of the faceplate. Also, there are no issues with the responsiveness to touch.