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Ford Freestyle Real World MPG
Share your Freestyle's actual MPG with other owners here.
"Real World" Fuel Economy vs. EPA Estimates
"Real World" Fuel Economy vs. EPA Estimates
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We currently have 1300 miles on the car.
I currently get 17 city and 22 hwy. These are actual numbers; the onboard computer numbers overstate the city mileage and understate the hwy mileage.
I have 2600 miles on the car so I expect my mileage to increase slightly as time goes by.
Also, on a related topic, we were scared to death to have to fill the gas tank for the first time. (we took delivery from the dealer with a full tank) Especially with the prices of late. It was a moral victory that it stopped @ $39 and didn't make the $40 mark. Trying to get used to the jump from a 12 gallon tank to a 19 gallon tank.
Second trip was 200 miles going down from 816 ft to 11 ft. Reset the mpg computer at the gas station in town to get a more accurate round-trip number. Drove a little faster, 70-80 mph most of the way. Final number was 26.5 mpg.
I'll reset the computer during the week while the wife drives it around town and report back for a city number.
Only about 1000 miles on the car so I'm expecting the mileage to get a little better.
Some tanks do all city driving and during those times I'm seeing about 18 mpg average.
I traded in a 99 volvo v70 xc and was getting about 22 per tank in the summer and I'm happy that I am within 2 mpg of that. I expect the number to go up a bit as the car breaks in.
Obviously we drove a little slower on those 2 lane roads than we would on big expressways, but we are really pleased!
Karl
While playing with the computer, I've gotten 4 mpg while idling at a stop light right after resetting it and I've gotten 80 mpg while going down a hill with my foot off the gas after resetting.
Reset the computer and you should see a difference.
Finishing a short trip from the airport on city streets brought the average back to 19.
Are these prices Canadian dollars or U.S.?
What part of Canada are you in?
How much are you paying per litre?
I think the one easy thing that improves mileage is to use cruise control whenever possible. I set my speed at 70-75 mph and the Freestyle purrs along at about 2,000rpm consistently except for the occasional need for hill climbing power.
The Freestyle is a very comfortable travel car and has lots of cargo space. We're very happy with ours
My FWD FS has 1700 miles now, and we still get 14 MPG city and 19-22 freeway.
Can this huge difference from your numbers be caused by driving style?
I am beginning to think that I've got a bad one. It is noisy (think jetliner hum), hungry and sways in turns quite a lot.
"sways in turns quite a lot."
I doubt it. This isn't a Ferrari you know.
City mileage varies considerably due to variations in traffic patterns, stop & go driving, idling on the freeway (0 mpg) and other issues. Drive defensively and friendly. You can't drive agressively (race from stop light to stop light) and expect good gas mileage.
Our highest MPG rating for our Freestyle was 29.9 mpg for one tankful driving all the way across New Mexico on I-40 with cruise control set at 75mph and the a/c running hard in June of this year. Also had 20.6 mpg on the same trip driving through the mountains in western New Mexico.
I read in another post if you can keep the rpm around 2k during acceleration that really helps gas consumption with the CVT. I am experimenting with that during this tankful and I seem to be getting another .5 mpg so far. It really makes moving out from stoplights kinda slow but I past the time by watching the speedometer go up while the tach stays at the same rpm. (Now if I could only convince my wife to drive like that...)
I have about 2500 miles on mine.
I have reset the computer driving on the freeway and I get 30 -30.1 MPG. Great! But in the city I am dying to see the average dropping slowly back to 14.5.
I've had a 91 Escort that went to 185K miles before a drunk hit it, and it was practically trouble free until about 115K miles when I had to change the waterpump & alternator, and I currently own a 99 Cougar with 115K miles and the only problems I've had were an alternator replacement at 70K and 110K miles and the A/C pump at 110K miles. Not too bad.
Is your Freestyle an:
AWD model rated 19mpg city/24mpg highway?
Or is it an FWD rated 20 city/27highway?
May I suggest that you reset your message center MPG computer to zero every time you fill-up. From your posts, it doesn't sound as if your mileage numbers are really off the mark very much. The difference between what you are getting and what others achieve could easily be explained by one's driving habits and the type of "city" driving that one does.
Now - new experiment. My wife is driving @70 Mph. Straight freeway. I t crosses my mind to set the Cruise and reset the computer. After a few seconds of MPG 72, 36 etc, it seems that it hovers around 29.5 but slowly, to my desperation, it starts counting down al the way to 22 when we had to exit.
Otherwise I drove it through the city and I averaged 16.5 driving very conservative. It crosses my mind to experiment again. I set the cruise at 40Mph on a straight street after driving like that at 16.5 MPG. The moment the cruise is on the numbers start jumping up and in a very short time I have 18. I had to stop.
This tells me that the CVT knows that the cruise is on, so it settles on a higher gear. That also means that even if I keep my foot on the accelerator constant the CVT stays in an inefficient ratio. That sucks!
And let me say this: 24 and 29 MPG are EPA averages not the best of the best. We think that those numbers are not achievable, but I constantly beat it them with Hondas. Anyway, the difference between 24-29 and 14-19 or whatever numbers I may get is absolutely huge. I read other people complaints that resemble mine, but they are rare. So I feel I got a bad one. Even if the mileage will improve in time, why should I pay double to travel, just because bad programming or who knows why?
1) Your FWD SEL is rated 20/City and 27/Hwy. Not 24/27 or 29 as you sometimes state.
2) You cannot compare the mileage of a Honda Accord to a Freestyle. The Accord is a much smaller and lighter vehicle.
3) The CVT transmission in your Freestyle does not know if the cruise control is on or not. It's response to throttle inputs are the same, regardless of source.
4) 16.5 MPG in the city is a perfectly reasonable number for a vehicle rated 20 MPG if your driving includes a fair amount of stop-and-go and an occasional hill. Do you live in an area that includes some hills?
5) Buy quality gasoline. If your buying from that el-cheapo no-name place to save a nickel/ gallon, stop doing that.
6) Ask your dealer (nicely) to make sure your Freestyle has the latest software upgrades for it's CVT.
7) Relax and enjoy your car. From reading your posts, it seems you're determined not to. Man has never built the perfect machine, but my Freestyle seems to come pretty close!
Elevation plays a part in gas mileage also.
Why is it unfair to compare the mileage on an Accord? I am comparing the actual mileage with the EPA rating for each vehicle. How come with a Honda Accord I can get better mileage than the EPA and with my FS I can not. And you know, I would be happy with some lees then the EPA. But you say 16.5 is acceptable with stop and go etc. OK. I got 16.5 driving on a straight path with constant speed. In normal driving I get 14. My wife gets 12. 12!! I could have gotten an Explorer for this mileage. Not that I would trade the FS for the Explorer.
And this is what I am trying to say: Before buying the car I read a few posts of people asking the others "how do you get those numbers, because I can get only 17 out of mine". There were only 2 or 3 like that in a sea of people reporting 24 -31 MPG. So I said to myself - heh they got a bad one. It would not happen to me....
And in the end if that's what it is, that's what it is. But when I'll try to sell it, the buyer will look in the computer and say.... No way man! And I paid the same money as the next guy that's saying he gets 24 MPG average.
And with my car, this is just about MPG. There are other issues that i will not discuss here. It just came as a big promise and it fell a little short. Instead of being my dream car (like my first Volvo 740 turbo diesel) it is just a car that moves me from here to there... and it hurts my heart.
The idea with asking the dealer to check the software in the CVT is good, but I made the mistake of buying from the biggest or number one dealer in the world. They are like a factory. Somebody takes your car and writes down the complaint, somebody else tries to fix it and somebody else test drives it. They can never find anything wrong. The guy that took the car from me didn't even know how to read odometer. I had to show him. When I complained about the mileage he asked me how much I should get.
I am thinking of trying a smaller dealer, but I am afraid that they'll reject me because I did not buy from them.
"A couple of days ago, we picked up the new 2006 Freestyle Limited FWD we ordered last month, and we love it! We took a small road trip to "Grandma's" and it got 27.7MPG average on it's first tank! It had 3 miles on it when we picked it up, and now has 467"
Mine got 12-14 in the first 3 tanks on 5 freeway driving straight at 70 mph. It took two full tanks to get me from LA to Sacramento. I know you don't believe me but it is true. Why can't you believe that there might be something wrong with mine? I am just trying to find out what!
You will not be "rejected". Take it to any Ford dealer you wish. However, I wouldn't avoid the dealer you purchased from just because they're high volume. They want you to be happy with your purchase. If you are reasonable and calm with their service department, they will make every effort to assist you with your mileage concerns. Mention that you've heard that there are software updates for the Freestyle and it's CVT. Ask them to check to see if your Freestyle has those updates. Make sure they understand that your main concern is gas mileage. It sounds as if you live in SoCal where there are plenty of hills and a lots of stop-and-go driving. This is not an environment conducive to getting good gas mileage. People who make posts saying they get 27.7MPG may be talking about an entire tank of gas consumed between Topeka and Terre Haute on I-70. There is a huge difference between that and the type driving your wife does in a highly urbanized area. A person's driving habits can also make a large difference in MPG. Some people accelerate all the way up to a light or stop sign. Light turns green and they're off in a cloud of dust. You generally then see them at the next light as well. I see it every day and cringe when I think of what mileage they're getting.
I will definitely talk to a dealer. Actually I already did the first time I took it in. They told me they would not even look at mileage until I have 5000 miles on the car. It will cost me a lot to get there. I am not concern anymore with the city mileage. I will see tomorrow what mileage I get going to Disneyland on the carpool lane - about 100 miles of flat or mostly very mild descent.
I have all 76 gas stations around me. I always used good gas. And on another note I know that the manual says in one place use 87 or higher and in another place that Ford does not recommend use of higher octane. I am pretty familiar with what the gasoline does in the engine and what the difference in octane is. I experimented a lot with my previous two Accords. The first one 87' required 91 octane or higher and the difference in mileage and power was very visible when using different octane. The next one a 97' required 87 octane and there was almost no difference in using different grades. Actually the results are expected.
I would like to run an experiment on the FS trying 91 gas. Do you think it will damage let's say the CAT? Or maybe it is too soon? I have 2300 miles.
Again, thanks a lot for your support