2013 Hybrid MPG Results

[Fynack]

The EPA is already investigating to make sure that Ford followed protocol. At this point we are assuming that they did. Based on the assumption that Ford didn't mess up the EPA cycles then your lawsuit has no merit and is a demonstration of what is wrong with America and this "sue-happy" society. Anytime someone is unhappy they think they can sue. You make me sick when all you do is... :stirpot: stir the pot of discontent

 

No im sorry but im just not a push over like you. Your fuelly shows 38-39 and you gladly except it. I as well as others makes sure companies do right and deliver what they state. This is pure capitalism. If a company doesnt deliver as promised they get punished by the consumer via complaints and if need be lawsuits. What choice does the consumer have if complaints go unheard?? Just live with it?? I spent my hard earned money expecting certain things from this purchase but it was a complete lie. If you choose to accept it and say oh well then thats your choice. I guarantee you because of us and the lawsuits that makes you sick. The 2014 model will be totally different and 2014 buyers will be more satisfied then 2013 buyers. To say that that im sue happy is ridiculous. Ive never sued anyone in my life. You clearly ignore the facts about your car or any negative statement because you dont want to face reality. And how did you get invited to a pro ford video interview anyways? What kind of organization invites only people who have good things to say about the fusion hybrid to an interview with the chief hybrid engineer?? Ford corporate?? Ford legal?? Which department staged that interview?

[Fynack]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/02/28/epa-gas-mileage-ford-cmax-fusion/1954967/

 

We should know soon enough.

 

What ever happens Ford will make adjustments. If the epa doesnt change testing protocol then ford will redesign the 2014 hybrid system. If thr epa does change it then the 2013 fusion hybrid mpg rating will almost certainly go down.

[expresspotato]

Yup... Just waiting for that EPA press release that finds out Ford completely charged the vehicle before every test or something...

[fusionTX]

I will say that I'm not seeing those 47/47/47 commercials anymore.

Are they still airing them?

[acdii]

I will say that I'm not seeing those 47/47/47 commercials anymore.

Are they still airing them?

Fine print. They are still airing commercials, but not actually saying 47, but in the text they are still posting 47.

 

Ford Dealers are just as culpable, if you go to cars.com and search Fusion Hybrids, just about every dealer advertising a car will state, Gets 47 MPG.

 

 

Seller's Notes: Sunroof; Heated Leather Seats; Heated Mirrors; Rear Air; CD Player; Satellite Radio; Hybrid; Overhead Airbag. EPA 47 MPG Hwy/47 MPG City! Hybrid trim;

[tombarker13ffh]

Would love to see a video so the people who arent getting the decent mpgs can see how to drive correctly. Also does your car come with a block heater? Their standard in Alaska and Canada but dont know about your state.

No block heater. Looked at putting one in, havent spent the money on it yet. Took a longer trip today, did pretty well. 36 degrees. Drove 60-65 mph. I dont know why people are having so much trouble with them. Mine is fairly new, built in jan/feb. It seems to me like its getting easier to get good mpg averages. I drove a 26-mile trip today also and had 47.5. Lifetime average is up to 38.9. 700 some miles total.

Edited March 1, 2013 by tombarker13ffh

[Fynack]

No block heater. Looked at putting one in, havent spent the money on it yet. Took a longer trip today, did pretty well. 36 degrees. Drove 60-65 mph. I dont know why people are having so much trouble with them. Mine is fairly new, built in jan/feb. It seems to me like its getting easier to get good mpg averages. I drove a 26-mile trip today also and had 47.5. Lifetime average is up to 38.9. 700 some miles total.

Wow. You only got 34 out of 147 in ev miles and got 43. Wow you must have gotten one of the good ones with an efficient ICE or software update.

Edited March 1, 2013 by Fynack

[Fynack]

Wow. You only got 34 out of 147 in ev miles and got 43. Wow you must have gotten one of the good ones with an efficient ICE or software update.

 

From what I remember on my tests I needed about 50% ev miles to see your number.

[tombarker13ffh]

Hmm. It was 95% interstate, cruise control set at 64 mph, and it was doing 45 mpg instant on slight declines and more like 37 instant on slight inclines, all on hybrid drive mode. If i came on traffic i would tap the cc- button down to like 61 mph and it would ev coast for a bit.

[hybridbear]

And how did you get invited to a pro ford video interview anyways? What kind of organization invites only people who have good things to say about the fusion hybrid to an interview with the chief hybrid engineer?? Ford corporate?? Ford legal?? Which department staged that interview?

 

I have no idea how I got invited. After I purchased the car I was contacted by the marketing firm JLA Research and then from their I was invited to the Youtube chat. In the first Skype interview with JLA I talked about both things we do like about the car and things that need improvement. I just try to be balanced

[hybridbear]

Let's try to bring this discussion back to a more mature level. I think what causes division here is that not all Fusions are having the issues that acdii, Fynack, nmadole and others are having with their gas mileage. I think that most of us truly empathize with you guys who received defective cars. I can't imagine what I would do or how I would feel in your situation, it must be truly frustrating.

 

But what is frustrating for the rest of us here who are getting acceptable gas mileage and don't have defective cars is that you paint all the Fusion hybrids as being evil. Most of us are fine. There's a small group of you with issues, and those issues have be traced to cars that were built one specific week near the end of October/the beginning of November. It is a real shame that Ford won't admit that there is something wrong with cars from that week and compensate you guys accordingly. Maybe the only way for you to get resolution is a lawsuit, since the dealerships and Ford are not helping. But that doesn't mean that every person here is having the same issues that you are, or that we should all join you in suing Ford.

 

I think if everyone realizes that these few cars have a real problem with them, that it isn't just driving style or driver error, and if those of you with problems realize that the rest of us empathize and really feel bad about what's happening, it will help to keep the discussion civilized. We also have to realize that constant complaining about your mileage doesn't solve anything. What acdii has done with testing his car has helped to start to isolate where the defect is. But, to find the defect we need more information from those of you with issues and ideas from all of us of how to spot the issue. Maybe what it will take is for us to find the exact problem so that acdii and others can go to their dealer and show them exactly what the difference is between the poor MPG Fusions and the rest of the Fusions.

 

That would certainly be a more productive discussion than the name calling and constant complaining

[acdii]

Agreed. I myself am trying not to harp, but be helpful. I am pretty much resigned to the fact that I am stuck with this car now, and just have to hope for the best. Still going to fight Ford, but by other means. I truly hope that those with cars on order and have been waiting a long time get a car as good as Coach got!

 

I am just going to continue to document my drives, my tank fills, compared to the SG tool. put it all together in a nice spreadsheet and pass it on to the lawyers.

 

Even if the car doesn't get in the 40's like I had hoped it would, 30's is still better than low 20's, and it is a DAMNED FINE CAR.

 

Besides $5000 buys a LOT of gas.

[B25Nut]

My FFH was built even before Acdii's and Fynack's. I knew going into this that by purchasing one of the first builds of an entirely new car, there was almost a 100% chance I would have some issues. I even ordered one before there was a hybrid on a dealer lot anywhere that could be test driven. That fact got me in big trouble with my wife. She'll admit now I made the right decision, but she doesn't want me to make a habit of taking chances like that.

My lifetime average is 35.3 MPG. This fact has not caused one moment of stress in my life. My MPG is caused by my daily trips being less than 10 miles each way at freeway speeds in cold weather. I see 38-42 mpg on infrequent longer trips. Short city trips this morning got 47 & 111 mpg, although I think what the display tells us for trips of less than two miles doesn't mean much. The system would have to measure better than hundredths of a gallon to be accurate.

[expresspotato]

Let's try to bring this discussion back to a more mature level. I think what causes division here is that not all Fusions are having the issues that acdii, Fynack, nmadole and others are having with their gas mileage. I think that most of us truly empathize with you guys who received defective cars. I can't imagine what I would do or how I would feel in your situation, it must be truly frustrating.

I think its all that are in cooler / colder climates. Even Consumer Report's vehicle had poor mileage over 10MPG off...

[acdii]

I really do believe its just a small sample built during a 2 week period that are affected. I drove one built 12/12/12 and it got 38 MPG, and had 10 minutes of idle time while gassing up, so probably did better then that.

 

 

12/12/12 now that is the date to get! Especially for a 13.

[B25Nut]

"I really do believe its just a small sample built during a 2 week period that are affected."

 

If this is the case, I am 100% confident that Ford will update these vehicles when the causes are truely narrowed down. We don't need lawyers for that.

[acdii]

No we don't, but if it kicks Ford into gear, then its worth it.

[gemdc]

I think the build date is important. Should be included on all Fuelly as comment. My build date is 10/30/12. No 40 mpg tanks yet and I drive very carefully.

[GrayStrider]

How about reminding everyone how to find the build date of their vehicle?

[tombarker13ffh]

This is what my drive home from work looks like. Its at 3 am so I can set the cruise on 40 mph and not worry about traffic. 28 degrees out. Hopefully I can do it every night..

[fusionTX]

This is what my drive home from work looks like. Its at 3 am so I can set the cruise on 40 mph and not worry about traffic. 28 degrees out. Hopefully I can do it every night..

That's great! I don't think I would have the patience to drive 40 in a 55 MPH zone.

What do you get if you set your cruise to 55?

[hybridbear]

I think the build date is important. Should be included on all Fuelly as comment. My build date is 10/30/12. No 40 mpg tanks yet and I drive very carefully.

 

You're in the range of the cars with issues. Sorry to hear that. What's the weather like where you are?

 

This is what my drive home from work looks like. Its at 3 am so I can set the cruise on 40 mph and not worry about traffic. 28 degrees out. Hopefully I can do it every night..

 

That's fantastic. Your commute at 3am must pretty closely mirror the EPA cycles by the results you're seeing. I've found that I'm better off avoiding the freeway as well for mileage. There are many places I go where I just hop on the freeway even though it is more miles because in a normal, gas only, car that was the best choice. But now...for example - going to visit my parents I can drive about 14 miles on the freeway and get there in about 23-25 minutes or I could drive 11 miles through the city by all the beautiful lakes in South Minneapolis and get there in about 25 minutes. The drive through the city not only is less miles, but I'll also get better gas mileage. Right now in the winter there is limited improvement driving through the city because the cold prevents the engine from warming up, but in the summer I'll definitely take the city route. For other places that my wife and I go frequently I also want to try planning ahead to allow and extra 5 minutes and then drive through the city to see how much our mileage improves by staying off the freeway. In the summer the ICE should warm up all the way and stay warm in city only driving so that shouldn't be an issue like it is now. When we were in California in January we had multiple tanks over 50 MPG in the warm climate. We found that on city only drives around Palm Springs/Palm Desert we averaged closer to 60 MPG with 2/3 or even 3/4 of our miles being EV only. We found that the ICE would kick in everytime we accelerated from a stop, and then by feathering the gas we could cruise in EV mode until the next time we needed to accelerate. If you watch the power demand level you'll see that the power required to cruise at 40 MPH is a lot less than the power required to cruise at 55 MPH or 60 MPH. Staying in the city allows the car to cruise on battery power. And when the battery gets low, the ICE will kick on to recharge while still not using much gas.

 

Remember, the MPGe ratings for PHEVs? They city number is always higher than the highway number, why? Because the electric motor is more efficient in the city at lower speeds. It's the same thing for our hybrids. Because Ford designed them to run as an electric vehicle as often as possible, driving at city speeds lead to much improved fuel economy.

 

The other thing to remember, that has been mentioned before, is that the difference from 40 MPG to 50 MPG is only a 25% improvement. The improvement from 20 MPG to 30 MPG is a 50% improvement. That's why I'm fairly happy averaging just over 40 MPG. I know that the remaining 5 MPG is only another 11.9%, I'm confident that we'll see that 11.9% improvement in the summer. And I remember that at 42 MPG we're doing about 15 MPG better than our old Honda Accord Hybrid which got about 27 MPG combined summer & winter. It only got about 24-25 MPG in the winter. So if I compare 24 MPG to 42 MPG we have seen a 75% increase in our fuel economy, and thus a big decrease in our fuel costs. Would it be nice to have that additional 11.9% up to 47? Absolutely, but I'm not stressing about that when we've already seen our fuel costs decrease by more than $50/month!!

 

How about reminding everyone how to find the build date of their vehicle?

 

http://www.etis.ford.com/home.do

Click the "vehicle" tab, type in your VIN. Remember that the date is in European format (dd/mm/yyyy)

Edited March 2, 2013 by hybridbear

[acdii]

This shows the Hybrid system is working fine, and also shows that the highway number really is unrealistic. Looks like you only used ICE for 5 miles of the drive too.

 

Since most of my driving is at 55 MPH, I bought a car that is supposed to do very good at that speed. Well 1 out of 2 can do it at least! :) I have a few thoughts rolling around RE the CAL, but will post in the appropriate thread.

[tombarker13ffh]

Well I've not taken a trip on straight 55 mph. I will today. My school commute is 60-65 usually and its done 46mpg at best at that speed. Did over 50 going a little slower. Seems at 40mph though its pretty easy to run on ev a lot and the battery charges itself on slight downhills.

[hybridbear]

This shows the Hybrid system is working fine, and also shows that the highway number really is unrealistic. Looks like you only used ICE for 5 miles of the drive too.

 

Since most of my driving is at 55 MPH, I bought a car that is supposed to do very good at that speed. Well 1 out of 2 can do it at least! :) I have a few thoughts rolling around RE the CAL, but will post in the appropriate thread.

 

I understand your frustration. I found that cruising at a constant 55 MPH when we test drove in October we got about 45 MPG when the weather was 50 degrees or so. When we were on our road trip, we got about 45-50 MPG at 60 MPH when the weather was above 60 degrees, and more like 40-45 when the weather is below 40, at 30 degrees we'll get a consistent 44 MPG @ 60 MPH, at 20 it drops to about 40 and at 0 degrees it's about 36-38 MPG.

 

That is not super surprising though, our Honda Accord Hybrid dropped from getting 40 MPG straight highway cruising in summer to sturggling to hit 33 MPG in the winter. That's a 17.5% drop. My Saab 9-3 went from 33 MPG highway cruising in summer to 27 MPG in the winter. That's an 18% drop. So the FFH dropping from 47 to 39 is nothing extraordinary, that is a 17% drop in mileage, that is right in line with my 2 previous vehicles.

 

I can be confident in those numbers because these measurements were all taken on the same route of freeway driving from Mpls to our manufacturing facility in Owatonna, MN. Over my 3 years working with my current employer I fairly regularly am traveling down to Owatonna. In all 3 cars I would cruise at 60 MPH and my driving habits haven't changed in those years, the trip is 57.7 miles one way, with 56 of those 57.7 miles being on one freeway without any slowing down or speeding up.

 

Now, unfortunately for you, acdii, you FFH doesn't get those numbers. But of those of us who have ones without a defect, that's about what we should see. I think ptjones can confirm that he probably sees similar numbers in his C-Max in Atlanta