MPG with All City Driving

[dutd33]

Hi All,

I was wondering what everyone is getting in terms of mileage with nearly > 95% city driving. I'm averaging approx. 24.5 MPG.

Thanks.

[Sponsor]

[Some Guy From NY]

Sounds about right for me too. Sometimes LESS.

[raptor1956]

The MK3 FF gets great highway mpg but average or less city mpg. If mileage is important and you do a lot of city driving a hybrid is hard to beat. Under the same conditions the FF is getting 24mpg and good hybrid could get double that...


Brian

[kam327]

Yeah I've seen folks on here complianing about less mileage than that. I think all these compact cars now are tuned to maximize mileage for suburban / highway driving at the expense of true city or fast highway driving. And the Focus is no different than the rest. Just look at these reported mpg's in Motor Trends July '11 8-car comparo:

Civic: 29.4
Focus: 27.9
Mazda3: 27.8
Corolla: 27.6
Elantra: 25.7
Forte: 23.9
Cruze: 23.8

Jetta TDI: 32.3 (not a fair comparison)



Very good performance from the Focus, and that was with the Ti handling package!

[cobie56]

Originally Posted by kam327

Yeah I've seen folks on here complianing about less mileage than that. I think all these compact cars now are tuned to maximize mileage for suburban / highway driving at the expense of true city or fast highway driving. And the Focus is no different than the rest. Just look at these reported mpg's in Motor Trends July '11 8-car comparo:

Civic: 29.4
Focus: 27.9
Mazda3: 27.8
Corolla: 27.6
Elantra: 25.7
Forte: 23.9
Cruze: 23.8

Jetta TDI: 32.3 (not a fair comparison)



Very good performance from the Focus, and that was with the Ti handling package!

i see in ur post that the civic mpg for city is 29.4... i have an '07 civic and i never get that city driving... it pretty much mirrors what my focus gets which varies, depending on conditions and temperatures anywhere from 22 to 27mpg.

[spiderpig]

So I reset the TRIP 1 settings everytime I fill up and I always fill it up all the way. At next fill up I take the miles traveled and divide by the gallons I just put in the car. I filled up yesterday after not having any highway driving at all and got to 22 mpg.

Normally if I have city and highway driving I average more around 30. Since these numbers seemed low to me I figured since I just got the car in december - maybe I need to adjust my driving habits. Since my last car was a 2004 Toyota Echo I started to realize that I push down on the accelator a little fast. In my old car that's what it took to get her moving...but in the focus it just seems to waste more fuel.

So after the fillup yesterday I decided to ease up on the acceleration and try to retrain my foot for the focus. Keeping an eye on the avg mpg I've traveled about 100 miles since yesterday in city conditions and kept it between 27-28 mpg. I've been working on better acceleration and maintaining a speed vs constantly changing. So we'll see how that improves my mpg.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by cobie56

i see in ur post that the civic mpg for city is 29.4... i have an '07 civic and i never get that city driving... it pretty much mirrors what my focus gets which varies, depending on conditions and temperatures anywhere from 22 to 27mpg.

Don't doubt it. Though that was a '12 Civic in the comparo so it would be expected to get a little more, maybe. And of course mileage will vary. I'm guessing the numbers reported by MT were from a mix of driving the pad and the twisties. But the important takeaway is the relative performance of the cars with the same driving.

[Elizabeth]

With my 2012 it is all about stoplights. Lots of stoplights and gas mileage sucks. Few to no stoplights and gas mileage in in the low 30's for city driving.
The gas you waste at a stoplight and the resultant acceleration would have carried you four blocks if you did not have to stop.
That is a huge difference.
I stay away from places with endless stoplights.. stop signs.
And I stay out of rush hour traffic. I get 32 plus Winter mpgs.
I suppose if you have to drive rush hour, and lots of stoplights,, you are out of luck on MPGs.

[kam327]

Originally Posted by spiderpig

So I reset the TRIP 1 settings everytime I fill up and I always fill it up all the way. At next fill up I take the miles traveled and divide by the gallons I just put in the car. I filled up yesterday after not having any highway driving at all and got to 22 mpg.

Normally if I have city and highway driving I average more around 30. Since these numbers seemed low to me I figured since I just got the car in december - maybe I need to adjust my driving habits. Since my last car was a 2004 Toyota Echo I started to realize that I push down on the accelator a little fast. In my old car that's what it took to get her moving...but in the focus it just seems to waste more fuel.

So after the fillup yesterday I decided to ease up on the acceleration and try to retrain my foot for the focus. Keeping an eye on the avg mpg I've traveled about 100 miles since yesterday in city conditions and kept it between 27-28 mpg. I've been working on better acceleration and maintaining a speed vs constantly changing. So we'll see how that improves my mpg.

Driving style has the biggest effect on mileage, sure. Here's a graph I put together after some fooling around with my Scangauge. I was actually surprised there was not MORE effect on mileage with hard vs soft acceleration. But this was a controlled test - in the real world there may be more of an overall effect by always accelerating hard.

[jdetzel]

25.3 100% city for the last 7 tankfuls.