MaineFusion

Okay, today's commute to work with the temps in the minus teens had me wishing for a grille cover.

Paul, I have a better gas saving idea, I just need to telecommute more days per week!

I'm not too keen to use something like a grill cover unless it is staying below zero for a long period of time. As far a my Fuelly numbers go, ya dropping out of the 50mpg club kinda sucks.

We were in single digits today. Going to work I was able to get about 42mpg, but coming home I was less than 40mpg. In part I was a little less tolerant of cold this afternoon and use the HVAC and seat heater more. I was also driving a little faster on the trip home. Another factor may have been that my car sits in a garage that never goes below freezing so the car started a little warmer than in the afternoon where it had cooled down to the teens by the time I started it to drive home. Supposedly we're supposed to get hit by a nor'easter this weekend. Thank goodness I have Monday off. I am so done with winter and we haven't even reached the winter solstice. After living for eight years in Alaska and 13 years in Maine, I can boil my winter survival skills down to two words: "stay indoors!"

I've found the heat system can really drop my MPG. One way I deal with this is to leave the heat system off for the first five minutes or so. I'll also turn it back off about five minutes from my destination. This helps a little. I also resist using the seat heater unless it is wicked cold out. My biggest MPG hit is when it is raining hard or the roads are really slushy. Pure snow/ice isn't too bad because traffic slows down so much that the lower speeds make up for my loss in MPG due to the cold.

I'm going into my second winter with my 2013 FFH (I got it last Feb). I have no complaints so far with winter handling. I can't say that I really test the limits of its winter handling ability as I'm a pretty experienced and cautious winter driver. Before moving to Maine in 2000 I spent eight years in Alaska. Honestly, 90% of handling is about the way you drive. All the new tech to help keep us on the road is great, but all the winter handling tech in the world won't save you if you drive like an idiot in the winter. When driving on a snow/ice covered road, if you don't have 10 seconds to the driver in front of you and/or haven't slowed way down, you are asking for trouble. Have you ever noticed how many wintertime accidents originate in the left lane? It's because the drivers were going too fast and/or following too close because they were too impatient and over estimated their driving skills.

It could be due to network caching. Websites can give caching instructions that internet service providers can use to help speed up the loading of webpages and reduce their own network traffic by keeping local copies of files for a predetermined period of time. I do this on my websites for static content like CSS files and images.

To get things back on topic.... Did everyone who was waiting for their replacement FFH or waiting for their FFH to get out of the body shop due to various accidents get their FFH?

Indeed, I just happened to have had a cached copy of the old look. Shows how much attention we paid to the colors. We can tell it changed, but not what it changed from. I guess these colors are better. But can I vote for blue?

Some Maine drivers were pretty bad this morning. We had our first snowfall of the year. It was barely more than a dusting. It was pretty obvious that the roads weren't ideal and most drivers were taking it good and slow, but there were still enough idiots to keep police and tow trucks plenty busy. I got on the I-95 Turnpike at 7:00am this morning and past three left lane accidents within maybe fifteen miles. It was obvious they were all trying to speed past "slow" moving traffic, but anyone with a half ounce of sense could also see the left lane was in the worst condition. By the time I got off the turnpike, I had past five accidents going in my direction four in the left lane and one pickup truck in the ditch on the right side. The last accident the driver smacked the center guardrail pretty good and got spun around. It tore up his entire front end. Every year we go through this, first couple of snowfalls of the winter takes a toll on everyone who forgot how to drive in snow. I always here "come on... this is Maine we're supposed to know how to drive in snow." But you know what, when I lived in Alaska it was the same thing every year. The first week of winter always destroyed a lot of cars.

Ack!! I know the FFH is supposed to be a "green" car, but please bring back the Ford blue.

Boy, it sounds like we need to find a safer place to drive, some place without other drivers. ... Maybe Mars?

I should be up for an oil change in about seven weeks

I'm glad you got vindication on this. I know how frustrating it can be when you know something is wrong, but can't convince others that there is a problem. I run into this all the time with my computer work. Everyone likes to point fingers in another direction or claim it is within design tolerances. It can get really frustrating.

I haven't tried that one, but I have a bottle of Knob Creek, which is pretty good.

Personally, I was thinking more along the lines of Mount Gay Reserve Barbados rum or a good nine year old small batch bourbon, but ya I have no interest in cheap, give you a hangover at best booze.

True, but fuel ethanol is still denatured so as to be not drinkable. I don't know what is done to it, but drinking it is probably no better for you than drinking gasoline.

The torture continues. :waiting:

On my trip to VA I tried out the traffic alerts my TomTom Android app provides for subscription. Same basic concept as your adjustable speed signs. It even provided forewarning as to which lanes were closed. Like your signs, I was able to know to slow down early and change to a better lane. I also liked that it showed not only where the jamb was starting, but where it ended. There is no sense to rush into a traffic jamb.

On my trip last week from Maine to Williamsburg VA and back I saw so many instances of drivers without situational awareness that I couldn't have kept count if I tried. I also passed at least three multi-vehicle accidents, which were no doubt caused by inattentive drivers. I especially loved the people who just tried to merge into me from on ramps without looking or using turn signals. With trucks to my left, my only choice was to hit the brakes to let them in. Had they accelerated even a slight bit faster they could have merged in front of me with no issues. Manufacturers can't bring fully autonomous cars to market fast enough for my liking. In the short run, I'd like to see the combining of BLIS with lane keeping such that audible warnings and steering wheel resistance warn drivers if they try to shift lanes into a spot that is already occupied. On this, I really wish my FFH had an audible warning if I tried to shift lanes with someone in my blind spot. Even the best drivers can use a little extra driver assistance. As far as distracted driving goes, there should be points added to driving records for texting while driving. Fines alone is not sufficient.

I got so used to bad drivers as a tour bus driver that I could continue narrating my tour while preforming evasive proceedures. Of course the tour was etched into my brain to the point I didn't even need to think about what I was saying.

It's my commercial driver training that causes me to think that checking the gauges, displays and mirrors on regular basis is a normal practice. I forget just how bad most drivers are.

Interesting... I never considered that the speedo would intentionally be reading higher than the actual speed. Even in cell phone based GPS systems, there is a great amount of ability to determine the accuracy of the GPS positioning. Since GPS antennas aren't so tightly restrained by size or weight considerations in vehicles as they are in cell phones vehicle based GPSs should be even more reliable than those on mobile devices. Working with long term averages, a pretty accurate recalibration of the speedo should be able to be able to be achieved. There may still be some imprecision in the speedo, but it could be made way more precise than it is by relying on the circumference of a pneumatic tire. In general, I think having more precisely calculated speedos, and especially cruise controls, could help tighten up the speed range of typical drivers. Yes there are outlaying drivers who go way above or way below the speed limit, but I suspect the vast majority of drivers try to travel within preconceived safe speeds (e.g. 5mpg over the limit or at the speed limit). A tighter speed range that had everyone driving more similar speeds could help improve the overall flow of traffic as there would be less passing and clumping up of traffic. Being one of those who drives at or slightly below the speed limit, what I have observed is that traffic tends to clump up in waves. When on highways, a wave of traffic will pass me and then there will be open road around me for a duration until the clump of traffic passes. Traveling in one of the open road section of the traffic wave is way safer than being in the tightly packed clump. I suspect that if speedos were more tightly calibrated, there would be less clumping of traffic.

Just took a week trip from Saco Maine all the way down to Williamsburg VA with stops in NJ and Northern Virginia (about 1,500mi) and only noticed one other 2013/2014 FFH during the entire trip. I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to see more of them along the way. I don't speed so there was more than plenty opportunity for them to pass me both coming from the other direction and overtake me from behind. I have taken to favoring parking next to regular Ford Fusions and Toyota Prii in parking lots to give their owners a chance to see what they are missing.

wmpwi, Is it there yet?! Is it there yet?! :waiting: