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Ford Escape Hybrid MPG-Real World Numbers

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  • stevefehstevefeh Member Posts: 2
    I've owned my 2005 FEH 4WD new out of the factory. It now has 45,000 miles. I love it, and my wife has gotten used to taking it for local driving :)

    For the first half of its life, I drove it about 70 miles per day on open highway. Since then, about 30 miles per day on mostly <50mph and local roads.

    From the FEH display, I often see 29MPG average on a 15 mile trip. When trying to hypermile I've gotten it near 40 for a few miles here and there.

    The fuel to tank measure is quite a bit different though. Here are my yearly averages:

    2006 - 25.0 MPG (12 data points)
    2007 - 23.4 MPG (14 data points)
    2008 - 22.5 MPG (20 data points)
    2009 - 22.0 MPG (18 data points)
    2010 - 19.9 MPG (3 data points) All COLD winter here, snow, etc. :(

    Other information: In the summer I use the A/C mostly on norm, not MAX.
    In the winter, lots of high heat.

    I exclusively use full synthetic (Mobil 1) and change it 4x per year.

    Replaced the factory hard/noisy tires with Goodyear TripleTred. Much quiter, much better handling, no noticeable gas mileage change when plotted year on year.

    Has anyone else seen such year on year reduction in fuel economy? I might just be imagining it, but feel the battery doesn't run the car as fast or as long as it did prior.

    Otherwise, we are very satisfied with this first model year.
  • ekiehnekiehn Member Posts: 33
    Mines a 2006 (in service April/May 2005). My millage is still up there in the 31 to 32 MPG range, though I have noticed that it sometimes takes a little longer to charge the batteries than before (very subjective on my part).

    I do my oil change and other maintenance strictly per the manual (every 10,000 miles) and so far it has worked well. Tires... those originals were very noisy and I replaced 2 of them with Goodyear, the other 2 now definitely need replacing (doing that this week) but I just couldn't let them go until they got down to the wear indicators (yup I'm cheap) and now that I've hit around 79,000 miles I think I can part with them. I also don't have to deal with snow to often and could get away with it :)

    Love the vehicle, but the new ones make me envious when I see all the niceties that we didn't get with our early run units :D
  • rpmurarpmura Member Posts: 9
    I bought a new 2010 FWD a couple of months ago. It may be a little premature, but I don't seem to get any better than 24 mpg. This is mostly city driving in Los Angeles. I try to drive conservatively since I know I can be a little heavy on the foot. The motor goes on whenever I accelerate, period. I thought the electric motor would run a little more. In fact it seems to run mostly when I'm just coasting, or in a parking lot. Is this unusual? It will occasionally run while driving if I'm very careful not to accelerate at all. It will briefly run up to about 42 mph on the electric, but then I have to stop at a light or something and then it's back to gas motor.
    I talked to a friend who has one that's maybe 3 years old and she says she gets 30 mpg in town.
    Am I doing something wrong? Could the gas motor be coming on to frequently?
    I have never seen over approx 28 mpg on a long trip. My mileage is worse in city driving.
    Otherwise, I love the car.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    Thank you.
  • stevedebistevedebi Member Posts: 4,098
    "I bought a new 2010 FWD a couple of months ago. It may be a little premature, but I don't seem to get any better than 24 mpg. This is mostly city driving in Los Angeles. I try to drive conservatively since I know I can be a little heavy on the foot. The motor goes on whenever I accelerate, period. I thought the electric motor would run a little more. In fact it seems to run mostly when I'm just coasting, or in a parking lot. Is this unusual? It will occasionally run while driving if I'm very careful not to accelerate at all. It will briefly run up to about 42 mph on the electric, but then I have to stop at a light or something and then it's back to gas motor.
    I talked to a friend who has one that's maybe 3 years old and she says she gets 30 mpg in town.
    Am I doing something wrong? Could the gas motor be coming on to frequently?
    I have never seen over approx 28 mpg on a long trip. My mileage is worse in city driving.
    Otherwise, I love the car. "

    Once the engine is warmed up, the ICE should cut out at all stops. My 2008 does not have a temperature guage, I use a scanguage 2 to monitor the temps. If engine stop is not occurring, take it back to the Ford dealer. The FEH is sensitive to short trips and needs careful acceleration and braking to achieve decent results. Also, it has been cold in LA lately (I live in the valley), and even my 2008 is sitting at around 29 during these temperatures. But I regularly get over 31 MPG on trips to Anaheim. I have the AWD model.
  • rpmurarpmura Member Posts: 9
    Thanks for the reply. It does shut down at stops and and usually when I'm coasting below 43 mph as well. It's probably my driving. I'll try to ease up a little more.
    What's a scan guage? Was it easy to install? I don't have a temperature guage either. That's one thing I think the car could use.
  • stevedebistevedebi Member Posts: 4,098
    Actually, there is no water temperature guage in the engine. They calculate it from the cylinder head temperature.

    A scanguage is a device that plugs into the OBD port. It is designed to read the engine error codes, but there are several dozen custom codes that you can program to read the instant MPG, state of the battery charge, and (of course) water temperature reading. They cost around $150, but by setting one up and using the information, you can increase the MPG. Of course, it might also come in handy if one of those lights come on indicating a problem with the vehicle.
  • ekiehnekiehn Member Posts: 33
    As an old timer FEH 2006, I can tell you I had a very similar experience (and if you go way back in this forum you would probably see my posts saying almost word for word what you said). Don't give up... It takes a little time to adjust how you drive, and yes once you re-learn how to accelerate, brake etc you milage will go up. I typically get around 31 to 32 MPG fairly consistently. I did learn on that for the best most consistent milage gain I needed to drive in Low (2006 model) or probably press the eco button (later models) and just leave it there. You get the max re-generative braking effect which boosts the milage. Side benefit... At around 79,000 miles not even close to needing new brake pads :)

    Once you re-learn the driving thing, I actually find it more relaxing and find it fun to see how I can time the lights, traffic, lane changes etc to get the best out of the vehicle. Once you get in the new habits, I find I apply them to our Explorer as well and while not as dramatic, get better milage on that one to.

    Last thought cold does make a difference, but I'm here is Florida and at this time of year I push the 33MPG mark, but get killed in summer when I it's sometimes hard to get 30...
  • rpmurarpmura Member Posts: 9
    Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I ordered a scanguage on Amazon. It sounds like a cool thing to have.
  • rpmurarpmura Member Posts: 9
    Thank you for the info. I tried some of the low gear driving last night and the average mileage started to climb. I don't have a eco button though. Is that something that some models had?
    Thanks again.
  • ekiehnekiehn Member Posts: 33
    Maybe... I never saw one, but some posts after my model year referred to one, maybe they went back to the gear shift method to select the programing (which I think would be smart).

    Back in 2005 when I got my FEH it was so new that most of us didn't realize that Low gear was a way to change the performance programming than to change actual gears. I found over the years that for my driving around town, low does the trick. If I drive extended Highway good old regular Drive is the ticket.
  • Chuckles37Chuckles37 Member Posts: 16
    The ECON button you refer to on the 2009 (I believe) and newer FEHs is for the AC system. If you have the AC running on earlier models, the ICE would not shut down at a traffic stop. The ECON button overrides the AC on signal if all other conditions for ICE stop are met. We run with the ECON button on whenever we use AC, unless it is blistering outside and can't take the heat when the residual cooling in the AC coil is gone. There is no ECO/ECON button associated with the transmission to adjust shift patterns like on some other models. As for mpg numbers, we get 30-32 in winter and summer and 33-36 in spring and fall in central NC.
  • stevefehstevefeh Member Posts: 2
    The information in this forum is great, thanks to all who post.

    I wanted to clarify my comment/question on fuel economy.

    My 2005 FEH 4WD mileage statistics are based on bi-weekly fill ups and mileage driven, not just on the mileage indicator on the instrument panel. Are the other mileage numbers here based on fill-to-fill actuals or on instrument/Scangauge data? Does the Scangauge have an accurate long-term gas mileage report?

    Here are some of my actuals, detailed data points which resulted in the yearly averages I previously posted. Mileage is taken from the odo prior fill up to current fill up. Most of this driving is local, about 30 miles per day, 35MPH type speed limits with a couple of miles daily at 55; is this representative of any other owners?

    Fill Date .. Miles .. Gallons Average
    5/30/2009 270.00 , 11.50 , 23.48
    6/15/2009 269.70 , 12.00 , 22.48
    6/30/2009 298.40 , 12.30 , 24.26
    7/30/2009 289.90 , 13.50 , 21.47
    8/30/2009 261.70 , 12.90 , 20.29
    10/8/2009 278.80 , 12.50 , 22.30
    10/15/009 200.60 , 08.65 , 23.19
    10/30/009 261.60 , 12.30 , 21.27
    12/30/009 242.10 , 12.50 , 19.37
    1/06/2010 233.70 , 12.20 , 19.16
    1/30/2010 261.60 , 13.20 , 19.82
    2/15/2010 272.70 , 13.20 , 20.66

    Thanks for additional insight!
  • ekiehnekiehn Member Posts: 33
    I use a mixed method of determining my milage.

    I have, over time, found that my instrument reports are about .3 to .5 MPG too high so I typically round down. Every time I double check by calculating based on the refills and milage I end up about right. So in this forum when I say I typically am averaging 31 to 32 MPG the computer is usually reporting 31.6 to 32.5.

    I verify that the reporting is correct about every 2 to 3 months.
  • stevedebistevedebi Member Posts: 4,098
    edited March 2010
    "Here are some of my actuals, detailed data points which resulted in the yearly averages I previously posted. Mileage is taken from the odo prior fill up to current fill up. Most of this driving is local, about 30 miles per day, 35MPH type speed limits with a couple of miles daily at 55; is this representative of any other owners? "

    I have a 2008 FEH AWD. My normal drive is very short, less than 10 miles, which is very bad for MPG. However I do live in LA, so the weather does not get so drastically cold. My lifetime average is around 29.9 right now. The past month or so I've had some poor tanks - around 28 - 29 MPG. But that is about the worst I've seen on my vehicle. I use a scanguage 2, and calculate at fill ups based on miles driven. I find that the internal trip computer is at least .75 MPG too high.
  • rodsterinflrodsterinfl Member Posts: 1
    Greetings!

    Hoping to join the ranks of Escape Hybrid owners I shopped and waited for a hybrid to come to my area but without success. The local dealers could not get a hold of one. My loss led me to more research and I wanted to mention it to those that may be in the same situation I was in. I read consumer reports about a " VW sportwagen" so I went and looked. Once I got past the idea of a "wagon" the test drive was great. I was surprised. Now, here is also what I discovered. It has the same cargo space as the Escape albeit 3" less ground clearance. I ended up buying one and have found in the past few weeks that I am getting 30mpg city and 47 mpg for an overall average of about 38 mpg. Regardless though. I have enjoyed all your posts and read through the thread with great interest. If you cannot get an Escape in your area perhaps you may want to look at a VW Sportwagen TDI if it meets your needs of course. Oh, and there is a $1300 credit I am told.
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