[frdmusta1]

I picked up my zx4 base in august. 2.0 pzev with an auto trans, <10k on the odo. Highway driving I get between 30-33 which seems about right I suppose. However, city driving makes my mileage plummet to 20 mpg. I drive like grandma and it still sucks gas down. I'm in a flat city (Phila) so that's not it. My old saab with bosch CIS got better mileage than this car, and this one weighs almost half what the saab did. WTF

 

[SVT_BMXer]

i wouldnt complain if you are getting 30-33 on the highway, city driving sucks in any car.

 

[aero_student]

Don't drive like too much of a grandma, pumping losses are greater at real low rpm's. Try following the shift light. Also, your motor is still breaking in.

 

[metallicnotazx5]

don't worry about it. epa test procdueres are over 20 years old. your gas milage is normal.

but i wouldn't know what normnal is becuz i drive 70 miles round trip on the highway, and only on city streeets for about 1/10th of a miles

 

[frdmusta1]

i've tried driving normally, i've tried romping on it, i've tried driving like grandma - no diff in mileage. i'm upset because most of my driving is city but when i say city i really mean around town (not urban) i think it's absolutely rediculous that my light as hell, electronicly metered and sensored up the butt car gets worse town mileage than my 22 year old constantly injected 2.5 ton slug of a saab. 20mpg is crappy as hell for a car that weighs as much as this car and has as advanced a fuel delivery/ignition system as this car. it's criminal if that's the best this car gets. i've put up with it for over 10k miles now and its not getting better. is this really normal?

 

[aero_student]

Do you have any mods?

You may want to try an intake.

 

[MattZX3]

i think its time to face the facts that around town gas mileage is crappy.. unless you grive a hybred..lol my car is amazing on the highway.. and it varies while in town driving. ive also noticed that for some reason.. ive been getting a hella lot better mileage with shell gas than i was before.. normally i would fill up wherever, now its shell all the way... dont know what difference it makes.. but i guess it does.. my mileage around town averages about 17-20.. as the car doesnt really warm up all the way before i get to where im going.. work for me is 4 miles away..lol

 

[FocusFreak87]

I'd say i get around 22MPG city, but i dont really know how good my highway mileage is because i dont drive a lot on freeways...But 20 is pretty normal if you ask me.

 

[frdmusta1]

no mods to the car yet. is there anything out there that would actually improve the mileage? i guess maybe i expect too much but i think ford should hang their heads in shame if 20mpg is the best they can get out of this car around town. 200 miles between tank ups is utterly pathetic and they should be embarrassed that for all of their technological prowess their economy car is less economical than my last antique auto.

 

[archie]

its like that with most newer foci. i think i have been one of the lucky few that get good mileage so i am not saying anyhting. i can get about 25-30 city depending on how late i am running to work during the week. the last few time i have filled up i have averaged around 35 mpg, and i drive 50/50.

 

[SVT_BMXer]

no mods to the car yet. is there anything out there that would actually improve the mileage? i guess maybe i expect too much but i think ford should hang their heads in shame if 20mpg is the best they can get out of this car around town. 200 miles between tank ups is utterly pathetic and they should be embarrassed that for all of their technological prowess their economy car is less economical than my last antique auto.

20mpg around town is decent milage, 20mpg on the highway would be a dif story. If you want good milage in town id buy a moped

 

[whynotthinkwhynot]

This helped me get better FE, and it doesn't cost much. I gained 2 mpg, the best I can do in the city with an MTX is 26 mpg. Autos are about the same as the standard, sometimes better, newer torque converters are much smaller than the old RWD trannys. Yes I agree, that sucks total balls, especially if a continuous fuel injection car can do better. I don't know how Ford is programming these computers, but I know I don't care for the returnless SFI- although in theory it should be a good idea. An SCT XCal2 helped me out also with just the standard tunes, but it's an expensive price ($400) to pay for +2 mpg if you're not going to be doing other mods where you need it. Here's a cheap way to get another 2 mpg with the stealth CAI From what I've noticed from other FF's, a catback exhaust system will really bring up the over all FE. If you're shade-tree, the stock exhaust only has one flange, so you'll need to make several cuts to remove the old exhaust. I suggest MBRP exhaust because of their price and it's stainless steel. You should call them to verify, but I'm fairly sure that the catback exhaust is the same regardless of the year of the car. I know one FF who has this exhaust on his 05.

Good luck, I hope this helps you.

 

[ST4ME]

I would take it in to the dealer. I have a 2005 ST and drive the city a lot, mixture of getting on it, and slow driving, and I get 24-28 in the city. That is with a 2.3 5 speed non-pzev.

With no difference between grandma driving and hard driving, it sounds like something is wrong, although if you get above 30 on the highway something doesn't add up. Maybe a reflash will help? I would take it in though and see.....

 

[whynotthinkwhynot]

From what I've read on here the bigger motors get better fuel economy than the little ones whether Mazda or Ford. I know one FF (Igor) who switched to a Mazda3 because of his fuel economy, and really bad customer service at his dealership.

This is why I'm seriously considering cams for my D20, at least the Crower Stage 1 cams if not Crane 2.

 

[frdmusta1]

yeah, it sounds like that's holding pretty true. the smaller engines seem to get worse mileage and then to top it off i've got the pzev which seems like the worst of them all in terms of that. i have to take it in to the dealer for the brakes anyway so i'll have them take a look at the mileage and see if it might benefit from a reflash. if you go for the cams, let us know if that does anything for your mileage. i'm really not looking for power - if i were, i'd have gotten the se with a 2.3. thanks for the last few posts guys, they're the kind of intelligent responses i've been hoping for.

eric

 

[PDQEagle]

How long are your trips, is it a regular route, like to work. If so, each end of the trips has a startup and warmup. so if its a short trip, it ups the startup/warmup portion. Also, figure your average speed. If it takes you half an hour to go ten miles, that's 20 mph, like driving all the way in second. I wouldn't complain at the mpg you're getting. Additionally, when did a Saab weigh 5,000 pounds?????

 

[frdmusta1]

trips last about 25 min at about 30 mph. it's the same trip every day, to and from work. i might have exaggerated a little bit about the weight of the saab, but it's a tank compared to this focus and still got better mileage, even sitting in worse traffic.

 

[guarinox]

There's a thread about gas mileage in here, i red the whole 7 pages of it and learned a lot, here's a link:

http://www.focusfanatics.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=77027

And also discussing with other people i came to the conclusion that if you are a short commuter and you are getting 20-21 mpg, you are just fine, that's what most people are getting.

Another thing that i believe has been mentioned is that EPA guidelines for the tests were set by the federal government decades ago, in the late 1970s, that's when our dads were out disco dancing.

I have a link for that too

http://news.yahoo.com/s/kcra/20060508/lo_kcra/3452610

In this previous link you'll see why you are not getting 26 mpg city, you'll be surprised,

As matthewstetz wisely said, i quote "i think its time to face the facts that around town gas mileage is crappy". And my 2 cents: people stating they get 35 mpg average, 28 city, well, that's a ton of BS. First tell me how you calculate the number and then we can tell if it's true or not, most likely it will not be true, they are not calculating it right.

 

[elliottcarlose]

I get 26 mpg average but not very much city driving

 

[tungfumaster]

I have an 06 ST(2.3) and I get 28-29.75 in the city consistently. I monitor my mileage religiously since I drive for a living. If you are the kind of driver who likes to downshift when stopping then you are costing yourself money every time you do so. I used to have a 2000 zx2 that never got very good gas mileage (25ish) The minute I started coasting and braking only to stop, my avg mileage shot to 29-31. Any time I am going down a hill the clutch pedal is in and i'm idling. Set your tire pressures to 38f, 40r. This will result in less rolling resistance and better gas mileage. I set the front a little higher to offset fwd understeer. I just switched to amsoil 0w30 and I'll let you guys know if there's any difference. If you have an automatic...you should've bought a stick. I just traded in my 04 auto zts pzev 2.3 on the st. I never got better that 25.4 in that car. So the moral of the story is stop being lazy and shift your own damn gears. If you don't know how, then learn. Sermon over