What's your long term fuel economy

[mxmx]

I am finding it a challenge to keep the longterm mileage on my 2010 at 36.5. I've even had it checked out and they said everything was up to spec. But a few months back it was more toward the 38/39 range.

 

I diligently follow all the recommendations in the above post (including the AC since we're having a relatively cool summer), but here are some other things I noticed.

 

When starting out, the car always wants to run the ICE for at least the first 5 minutes regardless of what you're doing, even sitting still. That right there sometimes causes me to lose a tenth of a mile on the overall. I've taken to sitting in the driveway until the EV kicks in and then take off.

 

Short trips put-putting around locally (to the store, post office, etc.) are deadly! This is partly due to the above reason. Now the car is supposed to get better mileage in city driving than on highway, but I'm in the L.A. area so there is always traffic and the percentage of drivers who are actually idiots who should never have been given a license is measurably higher than in other areas. So it's a lot of stop and go plus jerks who start tailgating or honking if you're not zooming to a red light at 50 m.p.h. Sometimes having to deal with this causes the ICE to kick on and stay on even when stopped or going down hill, and the general feeling is that the engine is running and p***ing away your gas for no good reason.

 

On the rare occasions when traffic is light or good routes are chosen then the mileage seems to improve. On the highway if a speed between 60-70 mph is maintained then the mileage comes in at 60 mpg or above. Finding a nice truck to get behind works great because then the people in the gas-guzzling SUVs who want to do 90 can pass you and the truck they'd be passing anyway. Even these occasions are rare for me, though, partly because my average driving is probably less than most (I've had the car just over a year and the mileage is about 8500).

 

Does it sound like the reason I feel like I'm struggling with the mileage is because of the area I'm in? Can anyone relate to these comments?

 

One final pointer is to make sure that the intake vent for the electric battery is never blocked with anything.

[mirak]

Does it sound like the reason I feel like I'm struggling with the mileage is because of the area I'm in? Can anyone relate to these comments?

 

If you're not using much AC, 36.5 seems low for that climate. My guess is that you are hitting a lot of stop & go traffic (dings mpg because you can't sustain momentum) and/or you are taking a lot of trips that are too short to maximize your use of the hybrid technology. You are correct that super short trips will ding your mpg because the car always runs on ICE for at least the first couple of minutes after powering up. There is no way to bypass this.

 

But, I can tell you from my experience that it really doesn't help your mpg to just let the car idle after powering up. A better way is to cut down on the super short trips. When I'm running errands and I need to just dash in and out of a store (carry out, dry cleaning, daycare, etc.), I leave the car running (without AC). Might be a bad idea in LA, though.

[lolder]

You CAN run in EV after the initial 30-60 second ICE systems check run. If the HVB is charged, when you slow below 14 mph, the ICE will stop. You can accelerate past this speed in EV at a slow rate up to the max 47 mph (not often) or until the HVB SOC requires engine start. Cabin heating demand will prevent this. Normally you don't want to accelerate in EV because there is enough power demand for the ICE to run efficiently but until the EV components reach temperature (green thermometer in "Empower" dash mode), the ICE will run even if HVB is charged. Idling the car for any reason wastes fuel.

[Grey]

At 8.500 miles we are sitting at around 36 MPG long term. However, since we are running the A/C full blast in Hotlanta, the last 2 tanks were around 34 MPG.

 

Still much better than the 16-18 MPG from the trade-in.

 

Trunk is full of swimming and soccer stuff, including lawn chairs. I had better clean it out and blow up the tires again.

Edited August 2, 2010 by Grey

[Nick Nudell]

Please sign up and track your mileage over at www.fuelly.com

I've been using it and very few FFHs are there to compare.

[lolder]

Please sign up and track your mileage over at www.fuelly.com

I've been using it and very few FFHs are there to compare.

It looks like the average of the five FFH vehicles there is 38.98 mpg.

[Nick Nudell]

It looks like the average of the five FFH vehicles there is 38.98 mpg.

 

There are only two FFHs that come up for me. Here is mine: http://www.fuelly.com/driver/medicnick/fusion or maybe this will work. With 25 fuel ups I have an extended mileage history. Looks at the graphs by following the link, I think that is particularly useful.

 

Edited August 3, 2010 by _8172

[Zack]

5.5 l/100 km (Canada), 25000km so far. Comes out to about 42 MPG. This means cold winter and now hot summer, mostly highway driving and light foot on the pedal by my daughter

[lolder]

There are only two FFHs that come up for me. Here is mine: http://www.fuelly.com/driver/medicnick/fusion or maybe this will work. With 25 fuel ups I have an extended mileage history. Looks at the graphs by following the link, I think that is particularly useful.

 

They're not all listed correctly. And without you it would be much higher.

Edited August 4, 2010 by lolder

[allen84]

for the past 2 months now, im jumping between 5.1 - 5.2 L /100km long term fuel economy. which is i think about 46 mpg, im almost 7000 km on the odometer. so i use on average about $20 a week on gas driving about 450+/- KM a week

[lolder]

My wife had the car the other day shopping in a nearby town and came back with a 29.9 mpg trip!! It's going to take me weeks to get it back up to 40! She said it was hot and raining! She must have driven it backwards! I usually get 45 mpg. on that route. We have a nephew with a Prius who's wife does the same thing. Oh well........., she's sweet. I believe the bell curve of mileage with the FFH is wider than that of the Prius because of the higher power. It's easier to get lower figures with the FFH and that's borne out by comments here. I have a Prius friend with a lead foot and he gets 49 mpg no matter what he does.

[mirak]

My wife had the car the other day shopping in a nearby town and came back with a 29.9 mpg trip!! It's going to take me weeks to get it back up to 40! She said it was hot and raining! She must have driven it backwards! I usually get 45 mpg. on that route. We have a nephew with a Prius who's wife does the same thing. Oh well........., she's sweet. I believe the bell curve of mileage with the FFH is wider than that of the Prius because of the higher power. It's easier to get lower figures with the FFH and that's borne out by comments here. I have a Prius friend with a lead foot and he gets 49 mpg no matter what he does.

 

In one weekend of borrowing my car while I was out of town, my mother-in-law dropped my lifetime (14k) mpg by 3/10 of a mile. It will probably take me the rest of the summer to make that back up. I wish I could put a block on how hard you can run the AC or accelerate, kind of like child-proof safety locks. In fact, if Ford is reading this, that would be a great feature for the 2012.

[Buster1]

Where do you find lifetime MPG?

[lolder]

It's called "Long Term Fuel Economy" and is displayed at the bottom of the trip summary after each shutdown. It is resettable in the dash display menu. I reset mine at each oil change. Suit yourself.

Edited August 8, 2010 by lolder

[Buster1]

It's called "Long Term Fuel Economy" and is displayed at the bottom of the trip summary after each shutdown. It is resettable in the dash display menu. I reset mine at each oil change. Suit yourself.

 

oh yeah, thanks!

[murkish]

I bought my FFH at the beginning of May and my long-term average in Houston is 36.1.

[toolman1]

check out the topic [b]Reset on its own? [/b] and see if the same problem is familiar.

Edited August 20, 2010 by toolman1

[NYCubby]

Hi all

 

Bought my 2010 Black 502A FFH in May. Just over 7000 miles on it.

 

Last tank mileage was 690.2 with a tank average of 43.6 mpg. Lifetime average is at 42.3

 

Getting better all the time! Yonkers, NY here.

 

Aaron

[kb9ilt]

I've had my Fusion Hybrid since mid May and have driven it about 5000 miles. Lifetime mpg is 46.7 and average for the past month is 48.5. With cold weather on the way, I don't think I'll get the lifetime average anywhere near 48 - at least not until next summer. I've already noticed the ICE running longer on cool mornings. :(

[lolder]

I just had 20,000 mile oil change and service. I reset the Long Term Fuel Economy at 10,000 mile oil changes and mine read 41.7 mpg since the last one at 10,000 miles. This is actually about 2% high so the actual is about 40.8 mpg. I'm in an ideal location in S. W. Florida and I work at the mileage. The Ford dealer Quick Lane service adjunct knew how to reset the oil life this time. I don't think they see many hybrids here.

[Buster1]

38.0 today. 4000 miles total on the car. Mostly hwy miles.