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Ford Focus: MPG-Real World Numbers

76 messages, Last post on Oct 28, 2009 at 1:15 PM
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Replying to: basiliskst (Aug 04, 2008 9:20 am) |
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Replying to: sryder32 (Jan 20, 2009 7:40 pm)
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Replying to: auto2009 (May 13, 2009 12:15 pm) And even though calculating your mileage is simple (and something I do at every fill-up) a lot of people make basic mistakes when doing so. I recall one person who was looking for a new car, but wanted something that got the same mileage as her old one. She said she was getting 35-40 mpg on her old car, but there was no way that was happening since the EPA mileage estimates on that car were like 25-27 highway. What happened was the very first time she filled the car up, it took about 10 gallons of fuel, so she assumed that a fillup meant she had a 10 gallon tank. When she'd drive a tank almost dry, she'd fill up and then divide however many miles she had driven by 10. Problem was she had about a 15 gallon tank! So while she THOUGHT she was getting 35mpg, she was actually getting 23mpg. But the basic calculation is simple. Fill up, drive, and at the next fill up, divide the miles driven by the number of gallons you put in the tank. Yes, you can get the occasional "short fill" when a pump shuts off short of really filling the tank which can give you a higher mileage number, but that will correct itself the next fillup when you actually do fill up completely. I use the mileage calculation as a general guide to the health of my cars. If the mileage suddenly changes lower I sort of go on alert. If it stays low on the next fillup or tow, there may be some problem. But if it comes back to normal, it either was a fillup variation or some change in my normal driving patterns that caused the drop. But back to my original point, I don't think there's any way that a pump is delivering 3/4 of a gallon less than it says it is. On a 10 gallon fillup that's a 7% error. Just not going to happen on a regular basis. |
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| We have had our Focus (2009 sedan -SEL) for just four weeks. Around town we were getting about 28.5 to 29.0 per gallon. My wife is an RN and makes short (10-15 mile) trips from visit to visit. This past week-end, we traveled 358 miles from our home in Southwest, FL to Brunswick, GA. I was very surprised and pleased when the car would "only" take 10 gallons of gas when I filled up for the return trip. That 35.8 figure with automatic and cool AC while cruising at 75 mph was really good news. I traded in an Escape that would do only about 25 mpg highways on its best day. | |
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I kept track of the '04 Infra-Red SVT Focus I had for 7358,8 miles. In that time: 28,73mpg average 21,22 worst 36,61 best I noticed that SVT's are fuel-intensive in town, usually getting 22-24ish on a commute cycle, though with some mild hypermiling I usually garnered in the range of 27-28 on my commutes. However, on extended freeway travel, knocking down 33-35mpg tanks wasn't that hard to achieve. |
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