SnitGTS

Hey all, just got back from a 955 mile trip to Canada and back and I wanted to share my results. First leg driving from northern New Jersey to a rest stop about 50 miles from the border. We took a sections of Rt. 80, Rt. 380, and Rt. 81 through Pennsylvania & New York state that goes through the Appalachian 'hills' (sorry, they do not qualify as mountains!) and there is a whole lot of long uphill climbs that kill fuel economy. I'm not sure what the total elevation change was, but it felt like a lot. We needed to get to Niagara Falls by a certain time because we wanted to ride the Maid of the Mist so I probably averaged 71 mph for the trip and used Eco Cruise for the majority of the trip. Also, used the air conditioning about half the time to keep the girlfriend happy. This next leg is the last 50 miles of the drive in the US, what we drove in Canada, and about 35 miles back into the US to a rest stop. We stopped at Niagara Falls for a couple days then drove up to Toronto for a couple more. Really didn't do much driving at each location, so most of this is highway driving plus about two and a half hours of sitting at the border waiting to cross. Both times I hit the border traffic with a full battery, ran it down to nothing both times and the car ran while I was sitting to charge the battery... The last leg was from the rest stop home, and the hills that hurt me going to Canada helped me coming home, you can see how many more miles I drove in EV this time. We weren't in a rush so I set the car on Eco Cruise at 67 mph and the air conditioning was on the whole time to keep the girlfriend happy. I kept resetting trip 1 based on when I filled up, but I didn't reset whatever you call this trip. As you can see, I averaged 43.1 mpg round trip.

True, I guess I started with it because this is my first hybrid and just haven't changed it. Any recommendations for what I should replace it with in myview?

Interesting thought, I didn't think about that. Having the engine more aggressively charging the battery would explain why the engine sounds louder at 2 bars when charging the battery and why it hurts my 'score' on the coach.

I agree, I bought this car because it is a great driving car, I love how it handles, there is plenty of room inside, the car itself feel solid, and *bonus*, it is a hybrid that gets 47 mpg! My decision was always between the C-Max and the Focus, and in the end the C-Max was just the better car IMHO. (and actually with all the gas I'm saving it is actually costing me less for the C-Max then the Focus despite the Focus being a cheaper car) I don't do it much but I love to step on the gas once in a while, this car has some serious power!

Post update, I achieved a personal best mpg to work this morning despite it being a muggy, rainy morning. (previous best was 72.4 mpg) Definitely please with the update!

Ok, as promised here is my pic from my morning commute. It was raining a little and muggy so there was a little AC use and it was not the best driving day with lights and traffic, but still broke my previous record handily. In addition, I took a picture of my return trip home. It was pouring, muggy as all heck, I lost count how many times I got cut off and had to hit the brakes then use the ICE to get back up to speed, and traffic was a bear. I've had worse days with worse mileage, but my normal for driving home is around 45 mpg so this was a little disappointing. I'm sure on a better day I will do better.

It was a rainy and muggy this morning, used the AC a little and still managed to pull off 76.1 mpg to work! Beats my previous record of 72.4 which happened on a near perfect day. I'll post the pic tonight when I get home.

So I took my car out for a nice almost 30 mile round trip tonight to pick up my girlfriend's car that was at the mechanic, the mechanic is less than a mile from my parents house and I know the route extremely well. On the way it's about 5 miles of 40 mph roads and 10 miles of a 50 mph highway with lots of hills. On the way back I took a similar, but different route of about 7 miles of 40 mph roads and 8 miles of a 50 mph highway that is much less hilly. My speeds were typically 5 mph faster than the speed limit on the roads and 5-10 mph faster on the highways and I had the air on for maybe half the trip as it is cool here but very muggy. I haven't seen anyone else say they noticed a difference in the car, but I honestly feel a little bit thrown by the changes. Here is what I've noticed so far: - the car seems determined to keep the battery state of charge higher, I actually filled the battery a couple of times tonight on my way to the mechanic and I've never done that before despite travelling the same roads many times. - when I was able to drain the battery on my way home the threshold came down faster than before, a couple of times I was running on the ICE and I didn't even realize it. I got really good at getting extra mpg with a low battery before the update, but the car does not let me get the battery nearly as low as I could before. - the car was much more aggressive with the EV assisting the ICE in acceleration and hills, but this may just be because the state of charge is consistently higher. - the ICE sounds louder at 2 bars, I have no idea why, but I swear it is. - acceleration a couple pixels over 2 bars is hurting my 'score' for the acceleration coach, it drags me down well into the orange when before I was able to stay in the blue up to about 2 and a half bars. I'm pretty sure they are scoring this different now. I honestly felt terrible about the trip, I even somewhat gave up on getting good mileage on the way back and drove a little faster than I would have otherwise. When I got home I was going to be happy if I got 45 for the trip with the updates, which I laughed off because I thought there was no way I was going to get that high with how I was driving. I don't get it, but I'm not going to complain! I can't wait to drive to work tomorrow!!! Edit: My previous norms for mileage to and from my destination are 50 mpg to and 45 mpg from, if I had done a full round trip I'm guessing it would have probably come in right around the 47 mpg rating and that's with being 'good'.

My dealer had not heard of the upgrade either, I had to tell them it was code 13B07, that there wasn't any parts required that it was only a software update, she had to go to the manager to ask if they did it, it was a hassle to get the appointment but I dropped it off and they updated it successfully on the first try, so don't give up on it yet.

My cost on Fuelly is 7.2 cents per mile, which is about what I've calculated by hand and that is at 50.2 mpg overall. As much as I'd love to be in Cali the gas prices here in Jersey are much better. (still not great, but...) Edit: For comparison, my Corolla was costing me almost double that, 13.8 cents per mile, before I got my C-Max.

I would absolutely get the update, yes. I got the update yesterday so I can't speak to what my mileage will be after the update but both of my trips since getting the update have returned better mileage then I expected. The trip to my parents house is usually around 50-51 mpg and yesterday it was 53.7, the trip home is usually around 45 mpg and yesterday it was 48.2. This could be a one off fluke or it could be that the new updates really help, none of us will know for sure until we get a couple of tanks under our belts which most likely no one has because the update was just released. A lot of the dealers don't even know about the update yet, I had to convince my dealer that it was real and that it was only software and they didn't require any 'parts'.

SDM, that's about the difference I see when I have to run the AC versus when I can run without the AC, it is a pretty big swing! I can't wait to see what it is going to be like with the update, whether we keep more of the mpg's when the AC is on. Have you gotten the update or scheduled your appointment yet? Another technique I use sometimes when I'm in traffic is what I will call 'stepping', I get up to my 10-15 mph in EV, pulse at 2 bars until I've caught up to the traffic ahead of me, glide in EV until the traffic starts moving again, pulse at 2 bars until I catch up, glide, pulse, etc... until I hit the speed limit + 5 mph. I don't have any proof one way or another which is the better technique, but I feel like I get a better charge on the battery this way and I'm on the gas less. Edit: I just want to be a little more clear if I wasn't before: I'm charging the whole time when stepping! When I'm on the gas it charges via the engine and when I'm gliding I'm charging via regeneration. I don't really use EV mode until I'm up to speed.

The engine will come on when it needs to be on at any speed, it will only remain on 100% of the time when over 85 mph. Basically this allows you to glide down hills in EV mode at normal freeway speeds. Even on relatively flat ground my car would not go into EV mode at 70 mph, the blue threshold bar was there, but well below my power requirements so it would have never come on. Jus, I can't wait to see what type of mileage you can get with this update, but I feel like you are so in tune with how your car works now that you are going to have to 'learn to drive it' again. I haven't driven it a lot since the update, but it feels like a different car to me. Definitely more aggressive with the use of the electric motor and it seems to make an effort to keep the charge higher than before. Could just be my imagination, but that is the feel I got from my first day with it. I'm not going to work today, it's raining pretty hard so I'm gonna work from home. (love being able to do that!!!) So no attempt at breaking my 72.4 mpg record to the office today, maybe tomorrow.

I got the update today, wow! I feel like over the past 3 months I have gotten very in tune with my car and I know just what it will do and when, and today the car felt completely different! It's like I am driving a different car, I would even go as far as saying the engine sounds different to me. I felt like it was more aggressive about charging the battery and using it during acceleration & cruising at higher speeds, I also felt like the battery held a higher average state of charge. Nothing scientific about that, just my observation, but I can tell that there is a difference. Went on two drives, a 20 mile ride to my parents house from the dealer and a 15 mile drive home, drives that I am familiar with and know what to expect for mileage and both times my mileage was better than what I had experienced before. My record mileage to work is 72.4 mpg, I can't wait to see if I can break that tomorrow morning! (assuming it is not raining, which is a possibility) edit: They weren't that bad to my car at the dealer, but my miles to empty put my full tank at just under 700 before I dropped her off and now I'm looking at 660, so it is unlikely I will hit 700 miles on this tank of gas but next tank is a real possibility.

Jus, you have that I used 50.4 gallons to go my 1800 miles in post #1, it should be 36.78 gallons @ 50.4 mpg to get my 1800 miles, and 1205.1 miles of that are EV, not 205.1.

Ok, here we go, I was actually a tenth higher than I thought I was, 50.4 mpg for Trip 2. Oddly it says 205.1 miles of the 1854.8 miles are EV miles when it should say 1205.1 EV miles. I guess the Trip gauges can only display 3 digits for EV miles? My Lifetime is up to 48.7 mpg. (from 19.9 mpg when I got it with 40 miles on it) You can see here that my car has 1230.3 EV miles on it, which when you add in the 60 miles not in Trip 2 that my car has driven backs up my 1205.1 EV claim above.