[86524]

I struggle to get 9.5 l/100 (25 mpg) km in city driving in my Ti. Today, i had an SE as a loaner and the same driving netted me 7.5 (31 mpg). Why such a huge difference?

Fuelly shows a couple of us with the same mileage but most are getting much better. What gives?

 

[nateyo]

How many miles does your car have on it? How did you drive it while breaking it in? If it doesn't live up to the estimates have your dealer look at it.

 

[mysticbluebmw]

Yeah, I have the same problem. I told a dealer when the car went in for the MFT update. When I picked up the car, he said Ford corporates' take is to wait 3k-4k miles before they'll take it very seriously. How you drove your car during break-in should have no noticeable impact, but I have noticed a few things.

Short trips on a cold engine will net me much lower mileage, and city mileage is fairly low to begin with. Short 5 mile trips after the car has sat for at least a few hours, I will only get around 23-24 MPG when driving so miserly, it makes me miserable. Drive normally, and I'm lucky to see 20mpg. The car really shines at cruising around 50-60mph, and I've noticed close to 40mpg in the stretches. You really need long stretches in a warm engine between lights when city driving to get anywhere near the city rated mileage. As a short trip, errand runner, this car would completely suck.

While this should be true for most cars, it is amplified in the Focus, from my experience. My 300hp/300 torques 535i when driven in a similar manner only gets about 2mpg less in the city. On the freeway, the Focus wipes the floor with it, though. Oh well, at least it uses regular.

I still plan to take it in again a little later, but I don't think it help. It could also be the larger PS3 tires on the Ti/ handling.

 

[copernicium112]

How many miles does your car have on it? How did you drive it while breaking it in? If it doesn't live up to the estimates have your dealer look at it.

Yeah, I'm curious as well about your mileage. Reason I'm curious is that I was very disappointed with my mileage for the first couple of weeks (but didn't take it too seriously as it was a new car). Around 850 miles I really noticed an increase (I'm only at 1100 right now). I filled up on Tuesday evening and on my way to work this morning I was starting to get a little paranoid that my fuel gauge was malfunctioning as it appeared not to have budged. It did move down some by the time I got to work so I felt better but it was nice that it was nowhere the amount of gas I was apparently using 600-700 miles ago for just two drives to and one drive home from work. Gauge dropped much farther much faster previously. Averaging 31 right now. Mix of city/expressway driving as a rule. I've got a long Thruway trip tonight so I'm interested to see where it comes in.

 

[nateyo]

How you drove your car during break-in should have no noticeable impact

Not necessarily. If you baby it from the very beginning trying to get good MPG's your rings won't seal as well, and you could be left with a loss in efficiency. It can definitely be a noticeable amount when everything is added up.

I mean this is probably a stupid question, but you do reset the avg. mpg counter for each trip right? If not it could be left with the terrible mpg from the factory (my car had 6 miles on it when I picked it up and had an avg mpg of 8.0 haha) and also of terrible drivers from test drives if you didn't custom order it.

Second, a lot has to do with how you drive it. If you want better gas mileage, keep distance between cars so you don't have to stop go, stop go. When you do have to accelerate, do it slowly. This is the biggest factor to mpgs. I'm getting about 28mpg city driving and my car only has 300 miles on it.

 

[BiggerBoat]

I struggle to get 9.5 l/100 (25 mpg) km in city driving in my Ti. Today, i had an SE as a loaner and the same driving netted me 7.5 (31 mpg). Why such a huge difference?

Fuelly shows a couple of us with the same mileage but most are getting much better. What gives?

I do have to wonder if something is dragging you down (bad bearing, engine sensor, dragging brake shoe) or whatever. I was going to blame your driving [whip] until you sited the SE loaner experience which indicates something may be amiss. The handling tires are probably a factor but I wouldn't think "that" big a factor.

City driving has so many variables, I would be interested to hear if you get around 40 MPG at a 60 MPH flat highway cruise (reset the trip2 MPG meter once on the hwy). If you are not getting 40 there, something is off because mysticbluebmw gets that with his handling package tires.

 

[yetanothername]

Really? I've been impressed with my mileage so far. I only have about 1500kms on the car and am already getting 7.8L/100kms (3 fill ups to date). Probably about a 30/70 mix of city and highway. I confirmed this with manual calculations - this isn't just what the computer says.

 

[nateyo]

Also of other things to note, did the SE have the S option for the transmission(Sport Package)? What I'm trying to get at here is if you drive your Ti in S and the SE only had D it might make sense that the S option was being more aggressive and thus you get worse mileage. Also the larger the tires on the Ti less gas efficient perhaps as well? Perhaps the loaner car had more air in the tires too...

 

[Montana]

We are getting a max of 28.5 according to the readout with the cruise control set at 70 and the freeway with level to slight incline/decline. Mileage is at 825 right now.

2012 Focus SE Sport Package, Only driven in D.

Montana

 

[feta_mgp]

Also of other things to note, did the SE have the S option for the transmission(Sport Package)? What I'm trying to get at here is if you drive your Ti in S and the SE only had D it might make sense that the S option was being more aggressive and thus you get worse mileage. Also the larger the tires on the Ti less gas efficient perhaps as well? Perhaps the loaner car had more air in the tires too...

This is a good post. The bigger tires on the Ti will make a difference as well as the larger rims with more open space between spokes cause more drag. That's why the SFE package has those hubcaps that are almost solid, and low rolling resistance tires. The Ti has grippy, wide tires.

There are a LOT of factors that go into your mileage... after 1300+ miles I'm just now getting over 30mpg (according to the Focus) as an average with 70/30 mixed city/highway respectively.

 

[copernicium112]

If not it could be left with the terrible mpg from the factory (my car had 6 miles on it when I picked it up and had an avg mpg of 8.0 haha) and also of terrible drivers from test drives if you didn't custom order it.

Hey, that's not all that terrible. Mine had 3 miles on it when I picked it up and I averaged 1.9 on the first drive (to my house).

 

[PratoN]

Hey, that's not all that terrible. Mine had 3 miles on it when I picked it up and I averaged 1.9 on the first drive (to my house).

Well, shift it out of first gear, you dummy! [shhh]

 

[Jazzdog]

Is everyone sure their tire pressure is correct? Look at the label on the driver side door sill and check your tire pressure.

 

[stalled]

I'm around 400mi in on a SE Hatchback MT. Been getting around 33mpg with 80% highway driving. Saw this post this morning before going to work and got me curious what the car could do. Stuck to 65mph on the highway for 12mi with AC off and got 41mpg. So the car performs as advertised; I'm happy. It's really hard for me to drive so slow though.

 

[cebeggs]

I drove from Chicago to St. Louis Tuesday and got 38 mpg....approximately 300 miles. On way back there were strong winds so ended up with 34 overall round trip.

 

[hotleadsingerguy]

Yeah, I'm curious as well about your mileage. Reason I'm curious is that I was very disappointed with my mileage for the first couple of weeks (but didn't take it too seriously as it was a new car). Around 850 miles I really noticed an increase (I'm only at 1100 right now). I filled up on Tuesday evening and on my way to work this morning I was starting to get a little paranoid that my fuel gauge was malfunctioning as it appeared not to have budged. It did move down some by the time I got to work so I felt better but it was nice that it was nowhere the amount of gas I was apparently using 600-700 miles ago for just two drives to and one drive home from work. Gauge dropped much farther much faster previously. Averaging 31 right now. Mix of city/expressway driving as a rule. I've got a long Thruway trip tonight so I'm interested to see where it comes in.

Well for those of us over 7500miles with no noticeable increase in MPGs...I'd have to say most of it is a sugar pill.

I was getting just over 30mpg when the car was new (around 30.2) and now my average (per fill-up) is around 31. 31mpg when around 70% of my driving is highway (I have a 40 minute commute to work every day...one way... and of that 26 miles only about 7 are non-highway). That's pretty ridiculous for a car rated 28-38.

 

[86524]

How many miles does your car have on it? How did you drive it while breaking it in? If it doesn't live up to the estimates have your dealer look at it.

It has over 4000 KMs. I drove it normally during the break-in period. No wide open throttle but drove it like I would drive any car.

 

[86524]

Not necessarily. If you baby it from the very beginning trying to get good MPG's your rings won't seal as well, and you could be left with a loss in efficiency. It can definitely be a noticeable amount when everything is added up.

I mean this is probably a stupid question, but you do reset the avg. mpg counter for each trip right? If not it could be left with the terrible mpg from the factory (my car had 6 miles on it when I picked it up and had an avg mpg of 8.0 haha) and also of terrible drivers from test drives if you didn't custom order it.

Second, a lot has to do with how you drive it. If you want better gas mileage, keep distance between cars so you don't have to stop go, stop go. When you do have to accelerate, do it slowly. This is the biggest factor to mpgs. I'm getting about 28mpg city driving and my car only has 300 miles on it.

Yup, I reset the trip and mileage indicators after every fuel up. I'm also tracking the mileage in Fuelly. Maybe I drove it a little too gently during break-in? I don't know. There's no exhaust smoke. Doesn't seem like anything is leaking past the rings.

 

[86524]

I do have to wonder if something is dragging you down (bad bearing, engine sensor, dragging brake shoe) or whatever. I was going to blame your driving [whip] until you sited the SE loaner experience which indicates something may be amiss. The handling tires are probably a factor but I wouldn't think "that" big a factor.

City driving has so many variables, I would be interested to hear if you get around 40 MPG at a 60 MPH flat highway cruise (reset the trip2 MPG meter once on the hwy). If you are not getting 40 there, something is off because mysticbluebmw gets that with his handling package tires.

At 60KPH I get about 5.5 L/100KM which is as good as my motocycle. Freeway driving nets good mileage too. It's just city mileage that is really bad. I would have thought the SE would have worse mileage from its 5 speed tranny.

 

[86524]

Also of other things to note, did the SE have the S option for the transmission(Sport Package)? What I'm trying to get at here is if you drive your Ti in S and the SE only had D it might make sense that the S option was being more aggressive and thus you get worse mileage. Also the larger the tires on the Ti less gas efficient perhaps as well? Perhaps the loaner car had more air in the tires too...

I drive the Ti in D mostly. The SE only had the D option. Tire inflation couldn't account for that large discrepancy unless my tires are flat, and they aren't