Trip Report: 2,000 Miles in my Focus Ti - Good, Bad, and Ugly

[VOLDAR]

TiPilot,
Nice job and even though you had some problems, it seems to me it was a great trip.

About the Park Assist, I encourage you to not let the car to go all the way in R, you can brake and put it in D and it will continue its parking job too. I say these because you might find yoursel in a situation where the tires will be too close to the curb and you don't want that.

[TiPilot]

Originally Posted by VOLDAR

TiPilot,
Nice job and even though you had some problems, it seems to me it was a great trip.

Yup, it was definitely a fun trip. Saw lots of great sights, ate lots of great food, and drank plenty of great beer!

[Focus YBTC]

Originally Posted by rgonyer

Starting to really stress about MFT. I have a 2013 ST ordered with option package ST3 which includes Nav and MFT. I really want the package for the HID's and black leather seats, but unfortunately you can't get those without MFT. I have a real problem with "technology" that has this many problems being included on cars. Nevermind texting and driving, I wonder how many people have crashed or nearly crashed trying to change a song on the radio etc.

The only problem I've had with mine so far are the Sirius station presets have lost the station names w/graphics twice and I have to restore the presets. One thing that must be remembered with human nature is that people that have a problem with their expensive new cars are much more vocal than those that don't have problems. I think the odds are that you'll be very happy with your awesome new ST w/MFT.

[copernicium112]

Originally Posted by wantz12

Next time you're in Allentown, hit me up! I'll show you everything there isn't to see here!!!

Ditto for Rochester!

Sounds like a great ride and time though, MFT problems aside. So much to love about driving this car that if they could just fix this system, it would be damn near the perfect road trip car! Excellent work on the documentation.

[xpartmgr]

Nice overview. Thanks

[macatron]

Wow, thanks for such a detailed writeup on your trip! The thing that interested me the most, though, was the large spike in MPG when you were running 93 octane. Now, I know that there is already a HUGE thread debating this already, so I am just making the observation. Although, I might just have to try a tank of 93 on my next fill to see how my Focus likes it. Again, thanks for all of the information and pictures (especially).

[TiPilot]

Originally Posted by macatron

Wow, thanks for such a detailed writeup on your trip! The thing that interested me the most, though, was the large spike in MPG when you were running 93 octane. Now, I know that there is already a HUGE thread debating this already, so I am just making the observation. Although, I might just have to try a tank of 93 on my next fill to see how my Focus likes it. Again, thanks for all of the information and pictures (especially).

Yeah, some of those threads are what piqued my interest. I figured that 2,000 nearly-all-highway miles in a short time span would be an ideal time to test it out. Unfortunately, that possibly screwed-up pump after the first tank threw a bit of a wrench into everything.

Still... as I mentioned in the one note, based upon where the fuel gauge was when I filled up and its consistency during the rest of the trip I'm inclined to think that I actually used about 6.8 gal as opposed to the 8.3 the pump ticked off. If that's true, then my two tanks on 93 would be 43.0 and 45.0 MPG.

I know I need more data before I can say anything one way or another, but it's interesting. Taking the rest of the trip on 87 into account, it looks like I managed 36-37 MPG on those tanks. So, using the least-beneficial-$-wise case...

- If it's a $0.30 to $0.40 difference per gallon (which comes out to +12% assuming Regular's $3.40/gal)
- The difference in MPG is +16% (37.0 vs 43.0 for nearly 100% highway miles)

...then filling up with Premium would still make sense.

Like I said, it's certainly not conclusive at this point but I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot for a tank or two and seeing how your car fares.

[Gregd]

A few things to consider. Tank 0 not listed may not have been filled to the top. Also the fact that tank 2 had the highest gas mileage makes me think that the suspect tank #1 was filled higher than the rest. A large factor when topping off the tank to the brim. Isn't the pump. If you fill up with the filler neck on your car on the lower end of a hill you will get much less gas in the tank. Could have been you pulled up to tank #1 with the filler on the top of a hill. Even a small slope with cause more of a differnence than you would think.

[misfire]

nice trip!! you were close to my area in Chester/Lancaster Counties in PA

[Revelations]

MFT isn't that bad. From my experiences, it does get tangled up once in a while, but a majority of the time it's fine.

I feel if they release another light update, it would be flawless.