gas milage

[Gimp]

I bought my Ford Edge Jan.2013. Love everything but the gas mileage. Very disappointed in that. Paid extra for the eco boost to save gas and this isn't any better than the 06 Buick I traded in. I called Ford and was referred to the US Dept of Energy. They sent me info on how they test the cars. What a joke. Average city speed 21mph. Highway 48.3 mph and high speed 48.4 mph. If I did those mph I'd get run over. The simulated distance is also laughable.  Here is the link the DOE sent me. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml.  I believe these test are designed to give figures that the government needs them to be to meet standards set. I have 5000 miles now  and here are the results of my own test. I filled up and drove 150 mile in city only and average was 17.3. Average speed 35-40. Then drove the next 150 miles as city/highway about 50 percent each and got 21.4. Average speed about 50. Last was a 120 mile round trip all interstate and the best I got was 24.9 at 70 mph average.

My Edge has settings to moniter the fuel efficiency at 5, 15, or 30 minute intervals.  I use the 5-minute setting because it gives me a sense of how current driving conditions are impacting my MPG.  Is it one of those settings in your display that you are observing?  I don't consider it to be reliable for actual MPG calculations and have been recording my fill-ups from the first day of ownership in late November 2011.  I'm currently at 36,160 miles with a lifetime average MPG of 25.69 which is better than the EPA rating of 24 MPG for combined driving.  I've had a canoe on my roof for about 10% of my total miles and that additional drag pulled my efficiency down.

 

As the Ecoboost is only rated 2 MPG higher than the 3.5 FWD (24 vs. 22 combined) I did created a spreadsheet prior to making my purchase and compared a couple of price points for gasoline (I think it was $3.50  per gallon and $4.00 per gallon)  At the lower figure with my 20,000 miles of driving per year I figured it would take me nearly 4 - years of 2 MPG savings to make up for the extra cost of the Ecoboost.  If the gasoline went up, that period became shorter.  I convinced myself that it probably wasn't worth it.  But then I drove both vehicles and personally felt that the Ecoboost had much better lower end pick-up and was more enjoyable to drive.  With the slight fuel efficiency savings, and the better performance I decided it was worth the extra dollars.  (note that if the Eco-boost commands a better trade in value the pay-off period gets shorter.)

 

If you start to document your actual fill-ups you will need to be careful and patient.  The design of the capless filler neck makes it very difficult to get a consitant full tank of fuel.  From one fill-up to the next it can vary by 1 to 3 gallons.  So, sometimes the MPG seems much to good to be true, and sometimes it seems to be much to bad to be true.  Long term though my average seems to be fairly stable at 25.69.  The closest that I've ever gotten to what may be the advertised 30 MPG highway was on a local highway that was flowing at about 50 for a long distance and then my 5-minute setting started to show 30 MPG or so.  That makes sense when you look at the EPA testing cycle for highway at 48 MPH.

 

I have no idea how the EPA came up with those numbers but you need to realize that all the car companies are tuning their engines, etc. to achieve the maximum fuel efficiency at exactly that test setting.  That's how the government appraises them fleet averages and puts the pressure on them if it's too low.  If you had bought a similiar competing vehicle you would probably be experiencing the same thing.  I thought the old EPA test cycle was more accurate, but as I recall they made the change to adjust to todays driving style/conditions or words to that effect.  Maybe that's the Washington D.C. driving style.

[mightydog]

Anyone getting better MPG now?

[Donald Brown]

 I have  an  013. I assume we're talking about the 4 cyl and not the eight. 13,000 miles on it now. After 700 miles took a trip and netted 29 going up and 30 coming back. Now this is doing bet. 50 and 80 miles as an average. Around town, doens/t matter what your driving, it's just not going to happen, good mileage that is. Original trip showed an awful lot of soot on the tips. Since then it's not so bad. Disappointed with speakers on the SEL. Have to replace them. Otherwise terriffic vehicle.