SnitGTS

Very interesting! I found this line particularly interesting: "falling 2-mpg short in a car that's rated at 24 mpg is roughly the same, in terms of extra fuel consumed, as falling 7-mpg short in a car rated at 47 mpg."

Check to make sure all of your vents are open, including the one right above the shifter, I didn't realize some of mine were closed and once I opened them the noise and vibration lessened.

I look at this a little differently. If I see a light changing to red from a distance I will coast until the point where I can lightly press the brake to initiate the brake regeneration process to keep regenerating for as long as possible. If the light is already red and I think there is a possibility it will be green before I get there I will brake a little initially to slow myself down to a speed that I can maintain the rest of the distance until the light turns green. (I don't jump the light because I saw someone get into an accident doing that but I do watch the cross-light) Basically I try to conserve the energy the car already has because any amount of regeneration will not recoup everything that is lost.

Congrats orphoto! I bet we have 5 confirmed members with 700 mile tanks by the end of the summer! Again it's still very early, but 119 miles driven and my car is telling me 587 miles to empty. That's better total mileage according to the car than yesterday but I'm still at 52.4 mpg for the tank.

I saw that people were correlating 3.5.1 to FE on one of the other threads, to me that doesn't make any sense since Matt has been getting incredible FE and his is one of the earlier build dates with the older software. The only thing I can think of is I hear the hybrid screen wasn't part of the old software and because it tells you why the ICE was turned on you can adapt to avoid those situations, but I can't believe that's a 5 mpg difference. I drive modestly but outside of that I really don't feel like I do anything special to get my mileage, it's the car. For the record, I'm not sure of my build date but my car came with 3.5.1 installed already. Edit: I just realized I read your post wrong... Hopefully 3.5.1 will help you. :)

My bad Adair, I meant 'only' in regards to it being less than the sum of my miles driven and miles to empty (702). Yes this is my 2nd tank, I wish I could explain why I'm getting better mileage then others. Has yours improved with the weather?

I just looked up my commute to work on Google and it is about 7 and a half miles on local highways where I'm going between 50-55 mph, 4 miles on main roads between 35-45, and maybe a mile on side streets around 25 mph. Last night I went to my parents house after work, it was about a 25 mile round trip and probably 20 of it was on local highways at 50-55 mph. The local highways have traffic lights, so that helps my FE.

Yeah, I doubt my 2nd tank is going to end up a 700 mile tank. I'm "down" to 52.4 mpg which over 13 gallons is only 680 miles. I wonder how the miles to empty is calculated. Anyone know?

Not to jinx it or anything, but 85 miles into my 2nd tank of gas and my car is telling me I have 617 miles to empty...

I traded in a Corolla so I'm included in that group too. Matter of fact my last two cars where Toyota's. I looked at them before I went to Ford, I just thought they looked cheap on the interior and that they were falling behind in quality. I'm glad to support American manufacturing too, they built a great product they deserve it!

Admittedly I have a long way to go, but a little over 70 miles into my 2nd tank of gas and I'm at 53.1 mpg for the tank. This includes driving in 90+ degree heat over the weekend and rain today. Also, my lifetime average is now up to 45 mpg (from 19.8 when I got it).

Before I got my C-Max I read a lot of reviews about the car, I saw the reports that it wasn't getting the mileage it was supposed to but then I read forums on the Prius and saw a bunch of people complaining about the same thing. I was going back and forth between the Focus and the C-Max, and I was leaning Focus before I heard people say they were getting better gas mileage as the weather was improving. I figured I should be able to achieve a minimum 42 mpg combined, and my gas savings based on that alone would offset the extra cost of the C-Max (over the Focus) in two and a half years. That convinced me to go C-Max, and by chance when I went to visit my local dealer they had the exact car I wanted. I didn't expect to, but I drove home with my new car the same day! I would be happy with my car even if I was only getting low 40's per gallon, but if I can continue to get the 47.8 mpg I got with my first tank that extra cost will be covered in under 20 months!

Jus and Matt, what does your 'mi to E' say after you fill up? How accurate is that to what you actually get for the tank?

I have used the AC a few days, it was 97 here Thursday when I was driving home. I set the AC to 75 as that was as high as I could set it and feel comfortable. Mostly It has been high 70's to mid 80's, and just having the windows down is sufficient to keep the car comfortable. On a side note, after having a 06' Toyota Corolla CE with manual locks & windows it is sooooo nice to be able to roll down all my windows and feel the wind!

Is that even legal?

Got it!!!

Test two!

Just signed up for Fuelly and testing to see if my link works. Nope, how do you guys have your fuelly set up to get the image?

I've gotten several messages from people asking me what I'm doing to get such good gas mileage in a brand new car, and why I honestly don't feel like I'm doing anything special, I figured I'd write it down here for others to decipher. My main 'strategy', if you can call it that, is that I set up the MyView to show the Power + Threshold screen and the Coach. (I’ve mistakenly called the Power + Threshold screen the Engage screen before, my apologies) If no one is behind me I try to accelerate in EV mode, but if there is someone behind me I will let the ICE come on and fill the gauge up to the 2nd notch. I also do this when going up hills; I’m happy with whatever the 2nd notch can give me. This amount of power keeps the Acceleration bar in the Coach mostly full. I try to anticipate when I will have to brake and either coast or brake much sooner than I used to, this keeps the Brake bar in the coach mostly full. The Cruise bar stays full until you top about 50 mph and drops to about 75% full at 60 mph. I do on occasion Pulse & Glide but not consistently, more often than not it’s after noticing my speed dropped off when going up a gradual hill. I will watch the Power + Threshold to keep the car in EV mode up to the next stop when I take routes where I’m driving on a residential road to avoid a main thoroughfare and each block has a stop sign. (I’ve taken these routes long before I got my C-Max to avoid congestion; NJ is the worst for traffic!) I think more than anything my commute is the reason for my mileage. After getting my C-Max I made two changes, on my way to work I drive around a big hill that I used to go up and over, and on my way home from work I have started taking back roads instead of a freeway. (I used to take the freeway to work too, but the toll doubled about a year ago and I’m not paying $2 a day to get to work 5 minutes faster, the ride home on the freeway is free) My commute is about 13 miles each way, 5 miles on back roads at an average of 35-40 mph and 8 miles on local highways where the speed limit is 50, I never top 55 mph. It’s almost like the EPA test was built around my commute. (or vice versa) Here is what I don’t do: - Try to keep the car in EV mode longer than it wants to. I accelerate modestly and maintain the speed limit (+/- 5 mph), the car figures out the rest. - Use Premium gas. I’ve only filled up once and I used regular, I assume the dealer also put in regular. - Overinflate my tires. I haven’t even checked them yet to be honest. They look expensive and I’m not going to trade off having to replace them sooner for a mile or two a gallon. - Mods. My car is completely stock and I do not plan on doing anything to it. - Hyper-mile. As much as I’d love to get a 600 or 700 mile tank I’m not going out of my way to do it. I don’t consider modest driving to be hyper-mile driving. In addition, the weather here has been mostly pleasant, outside of a couple 90 degree + days and a few days where it rained the past 3 weeks have been as good as it gets here. I do have the Intro-Tech sun shade, but going forward if we have lots of 90 degree + days and lots of rain I expect my mileage to go down a little. I hope this helps those who still aren’t getting the mileage they expect, but I don’t think there is anything ground breaking in what I have said.

I have yet to see another C-Max, I thought I saw one once but it turned out to be a Focus hatchback...

I'm aware of the psychics involved and what not, but I've been thinking about this for a couple days and in a few specific situations I think a hybrid can take advantage of a hill to maybe get a little better overall FE than you would otherwise. (I say overall because obviously the hill itself is going to hurt your FE) Now I've only had my C-Max for 3 weeks so I have no real world data to back me up, but here's what I'm thinking. Before I got my car, I drove a route to work that took me up and over a steep hill that I'm guessing is about 250 feet high, as soon as you peak you come right back down to about the same level you started at, I went this way because it is the shortest & most direct route to get to a local highway. After going over it for the first time in my C-Max, I realized how bad my FE was going over it and that I should never go over it again! I now drive a route that is maybe a half mile longer, but the hills are much more gentle. Once winter comes around our cars will have to run the ICE initially to warm up anyway, so I might drive up the hill a few times to see if the extra strain early in the trip gets the car fully warmed up fast enough that I get better overall mileage. Not to mention that by the time I get down the other side my battery's SOC should be pretty high!

So I'm going to have to wait another 3 weeks or so to join the 600+ mile tank club, I chickened out today when the 'Miles to E' dropped from 40 to 25 in about a mile and a half of driving. Honestly I'm glad I did, I pumped in 12.7 gallons of gas which is a full gallon higher than the 11.67 the trip odometer was showing! I suspect that gallon difference is mostly not getting 48.8 mpg during the first 37 miles I drove before resetting the trip odometer when I was showing friends and family just how fast my hybrid was. (Speaking of that 37 miles I drove before resetting the trip odometer, that would make 607 miles on the first tank!!!) (I know it doesn't count but...) I will say, as long as these numbers hold it looks really good for this next tank!!!

So I'm doing the math again, I've been getting 49.2 miles per gallon for this tank and over 13 gallons that comes to 639.6. Take away the 37 miles I drove before resetting the trip odometer and that's 602.6. That's tight... Come to think of it, that 49.2 is down a little because I've been running the air today (97 degrees out today) and its going to be just as hot tomorrow... I'm going to try, but damn this is making me nervous...