Low MPG on new 2012 Titanium Hatch

[FordCustomerService]

Originally Posted by Tra1969

So that's all good information. So all of that may equal out to a 1 to 2 mpg difference. Not the 10 mpg difference I am getting. I sould be getting 30 to 32 NOT 23.8. No if you can find a way to justify that I would really like to hear the answer. I'm looking for anything I can look at to find a solution. If you read eairlier post from me, this is the car that got 29 mpg on a trip from kalamazoo, mi to Chicago, il all highway miles. The car was looked at by the dealership and have not seen 30 mpg's but once since then. And steadly getting worse. But that for the reply but all ready been through all those excesses.

Hi again,

If you're still concerned, you should have your dealer take another look at your vehicle, especially if the situation is getting worse. Keep in mind that you're welcome to get a second opinion at a different Ford dealership; some people have had success when going that route.

If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to me via PM.

Have a great day,
Crystal

[Tra1969]

Originally Posted by HuskerFocus

One thing to consider is wind. I drove from Champaign, IL to Omaha, NE a while back against a mostly west wind (it wasn't that strong, maybe 10mph), but that knocked my MPG down to 33-34 instead of the normal 37-38 I get on the same trip (going 65-70mph most the time).

But that would only affect certain/occasional trips... not all.

HuskerFocus,
If I could hit the mid 30's ever I wouldn't have any complaint. My best ever is almost 34 mpg(that was the second tank after I took it in. And that was only once. The norm was 28-30 till the service was done. Now it's 23 to 26 no matter what I do. I live in Southwest Michigan, it also is not to hilly and I mostly drive country roads with few stops and the interstate when ever I can. And even in the summer I still never hit the mid 30's mpgs. I had a 2011 Feista for a year before I upgraded to the focus and took a little hit for doing it to. I drove the Fiesta like a go-cart/stockcar. And I never seen under 31 mpgs with it and even at 80 mph I still got 40 to 44 mpgs on the trips up north. I don't drive the focus as crazy as I did the Fiesta. That should make up the difference in size and weight difference. the fuel mileage estimites on the window stickers were only 1 mpg difference. It would stand to reason I would at least be close to the same with the same driving mix. I guess I will need to do some checks on the car myself. I think I got a 1/2 bad injector but not bad enough to throw a light on the dash. But I am not quite sure how to test for that and Ford is not willing to help anymore till I get a code to show up. Just really frustrated that they don't do more. They could have at least pulled the plugs and inspected them for sign of problems. I worked for Firestone and pep boys for over 12 years but I'm scared to look at anything, cause they would probly blame everthing on me. Well I talked enough.

[TiPilot]

Originally Posted by Tra1969

HuskerFocus,
If I could hit the mid 30's ever I wouldn't have any complaint. My best ever is almost 34 mpg(that was the second tank after I took it in. And that was only once. The norm was 28-30 till the service was done. Now it's 23 to 26 no matter what I do. I live in Southwest Michigan, it also is not to hilly and I mostly drive country roads with few stops and the interstate when ever I can. And even in the summer I still never hit the mid 30's mpgs. I had a 2011 Feista for a year before I upgraded to the focus and took a little hit for doing it to. I drove the Fiesta like a go-cart/stockcar. And I never seen under 31 mpgs with it and even at 80 mph I still got 40 to 44 mpgs on the trips up north. I don't drive the focus as crazy as I did the Fiesta. That should make up the difference in size and weight difference. the fuel mileage estimites on the window stickers were only 1 mpg difference. It would stand to reason I would at least be close to the same with the same driving mix. I guess I will need to do some checks on the car myself. I think I got a 1/2 bad injector but not bad enough to throw a light on the dash. But I am not quite sure how to test for that and Ford is not willing to help anymore till I get a code to show up. Just really frustrated that they don't do more. They could have at least pulled the plugs and inspected them for sign of problems. I worked for Firestone and pep boys for over 12 years but I'm scared to look at anything, cause they would probly blame everthing on me. Well I talked enough.

Just curious... do you usually set the car on cruise and, if so, how fast?

My best mileage has been on two long highway trips.

#1 - all highway, cruise at 65 MPH, possibly slight tailwind, premium 93 octane, 45.0 MPG over 486 miles

#2 - highway and country roads, cruise between 55-65 MPH, not sure on winds, premium 93 octane, 41.8 MPG over 492 miles

[HuskerFocus]

Originally Posted by TiPilot

Just curious... do you usually set the car on cruise and, if so, how fast?

My best mileage has been on two long highway trips.

#1 - all highway, cruise at 65 MPH, possibly slight tailwind, premium 93 octane, 45.0 MPG over 486 miles

#2 - highway and country roads, cruise between 55-65 MPH, not sure on winds, premium 93 octane, 41.8 MPG over 492 miles

And I just thought of something else, because a friend did this for a while without noticing... do you drive in S or D? S will only go up to the 5th gear, and kill some MPGs. Often times I'll drive in S in city, but shift to D for long stretches to take advantage of the 6th gear.

[Tra1969]

TiPilot,
No I do not use cruse control. I pride myself for having a pretty steady foot. I don't like the jerkyness of cruse when I have to hit the brake to slow down and when I reingage it. I do have a issue on my streach of traveled highway, everyone does 75 to 83 pretty steady. I drove my 2011 Fiesta the same way and got 42 to 44 mph out of it. When I did all highway miles @ 80 mph I got 29 mpg. Ouch!

HuskerFocus,
I have used the "S" gear once or twice just to test it out, but it doesn't feel right with out a clutch peddal. I Drive with it in "D" pretty much all the time. Over last weekend I did disconect the battery and checked all the electrical connections on the fuel injectors and in the engine compartment to make sure nothing was loose. Just filled up this morning, will know in a couple of week if it changed aything. If the computer est. is any sign of the future MPG's I appears to be headed in the right direction. But don't want to get my hopes up before the chicken's hatch. I will post my results when I fill up again. Also When I tried out the "s" it showed I was in 5th and I was able to bump the up arrow again an mine did shift into 6th. Done it a couple of times.

[suss6052]

Originally Posted by Tra1969

TiPilot,
No I do not use cruse control. I pride myself for having a pretty steady foot. I don't like the jerkyness of cruse when I have to hit the brake to slow down and when I reingage it. I do have a issue on my streach of traveled highway, everyone does 75 to 83 pretty steady. I drove my 2011 Fiesta the same way and got 42 to 44 mph out of it. When I did all highway miles @ 80 mph I got 29 mpg. Ouch!

HuskerFocus,
I have used the "S" gear once or twice just to test it out, but it doesn't feel right with out a clutch peddal. I Drive with it in "D" pretty much all the time. Over last weekend I did disconect the battery and checked all the electrical connections on the fuel injectors and in the engine compartment to make sure nothing was loose. Just filled up this morning, will know in a couple of week if it changed aything. If the computer est. is any sign of the future MPG's I appears to be headed in the right direction. But don't want to get my hopes up before the chicken's hatch. I will post my results when I fill up again. Also When I tried out the "s" it showed I was in 5th and I was able to bump the up arrow again an mine did shift into 6th. Done it a couple of times.

Again S automatic only goes to 5th gear, but if you engage S + manual mode by using the shifter to shift into 6th manually you lock the car into gear until the engine speed is either too high or too low for a given gear when it will still over ride you by shifting if it thinks you have too little engine load for a given speed while demanding acceleration, or at 1100ish on deceleration if you do not shift it back down through the gears.

S manual goes through all the gears, but S auto (when it also does not display the current gear selection) only goes to 5th gear.

[Tra1969]

That makes sense now. That's why I don't use it is because I never really took the time to educate myself on it. I woundered why I didn't see the gear it was in when I initially shifted it into S. Now I know, very interesting, thanks for the info. I'm really new to the select shift world. It has always been either mannual or auto in the past.

[Tra1969]

Wow you guys are great. I looked up info on the "select shift" and now I understand what you all are talking about(told you I was new to the Select option). Very cool feature. Now the question is, If in stop and go city traffic, let's say, 25 to 45 mph and is it better to run in S automatic than D? What would give you better fuel mileage?

[HuskerFocus]

Originally Posted by suss6052

Again S automatic only goes to 5th gear, but if you engage S + manual mode by using the shifter to shift into 6th manually you lock the car into gear until the engine speed is either too high or too low for a given gear when it will still over ride you by shifting if it thinks you have too little engine load for a given speed while demanding acceleration, or at 1100ish on deceleration if you do not shift it back down through the gears.

S manual goes through all the gears, but S auto (when it also does not display the current gear selection) only goes to 5th gear.

Yep, I should have clarified, I was in "automatic" mode

[HuskerFocus]

Originally Posted by Tra1969

Wow you guys are great. I looked up info on the "select shift" and now I understand what you all are talking about(told you I was new to the Select option). Very cool feature. Now the question is, If in stop and go city traffic, let's say, 25 to 45 mph and is it better to run in S automatic than D? What would give you better fuel mileage?

It would all depend on your shifting points/how you shift. Since you can select your shift points in the S+ mode, you can better control your gas mileage (or acceleration, depending on how you want to look at it). You have to hit 1500 rpm before you can shift into the next gear for S+. S+ will also downshift for you if you 'forget' in order to avoid stalling.

Obviously D will shift depending on how hard you are on the accelerator, but generally it looks to shift around 2500 - 3000 rpm from my observations and driving style.