rmcmast

Coming home from work yesterday I was on a 45 mph 4 lane road, slightly down hill and had myself setup for a nice glide when someone came up and rode my bumper. No other traffic to been seen so passing me would have been really easy.

Time for a reverse pass: I went over to the left lane, slowed a little to let the car pass and moved back to the right lane.

Below is a link to a thread where I asked the same question over on CleanMPG. For me I noticed it overnight. I took pictures of the SoC level on my Scangauge when I parked, and another the next morning. It went from 42.7% up to 48.0% overnight.

Consensus was parking with a warm battery and then cooling off may account for this.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47474

I discovered a difference with MFT 3.5.1 and my iPhone 5 when connected via USB. Before 3.5.1 and even in my old 2009 FEH, you could not see the music app or select anything with it. There was some message and a white screen on the iPhone. You could only control the music on the iPhone via the MFT screen, or voice commands. Now you can also select your tracks or playlists right on the phone.

I took Max in this morning for the 3.5.1 update. When I first took it in they told me it would be about an hour. After waiting for an hour they came to the waiting room with a loaner car. I miss Max but they loaned me a brand new Escape. It's amazing how easy it is to get used to since the interiors are almost identical. It's a very nice car except that I was only getting 18 mpg. The first thing I did when I got in the car was change the left view to average mpg. I think I'm addicted to Hybrids lol. Hopefully I'll have mine back tomorrow. I'd hate to fill up the escape tank instead of Max.

I had a 2013 Escape for a while last year after an accident I had with my 2009 FEH. They are very similar. When I traded for the C-Max once they came out, it really felt like I was driving the Escape.

I am having the work done on the rear hatch also. Mines pretty consistent, takes 2 kicks if the car is locked and 1 when it's unlocked. Hope the check engine light isn't too bad to get the work done tomorrow.

I had to take my car in today for service when the check engine light came on. The code according to the Scangauge is P0456 (evap emission system leak?). They can't work on it till tomorrow but I decided to have them check my VIN for the Sync 3.5.1 upgrade. To my surprise, it's available! I bought my C-Max back in Sept 2012.

I had the service rep check to make sure it's 3.5.1 and here is what's on my service ticket:

BB/12285/V 3.5.1

It's listed as a recall. If all goes well I may have 3.5.1 tomorrow!

Rick, are you on Fuelly? We could sure use those numbers there!

I'm not on Fuelly. I do post tanks on CleanMPG though.

The real key here is the Ruby Red... You wouldn't have made it that far in any other color.

 

But seriously!  52.9 MPG average is really something!!  Way to go rmcmast!!!

 

With 11.44 gallons used up, by my calculations, you had about 1.5 gallons left in the tank. At 52.9 MPG, that would have taken you all the way to 684!!!

 

You might have just been able to eek out a 700 mile tank.

Thanks! I had been over 53mpg indicated earlier in the day, but had more highway driving than I wanted. This was my second +50mpg tank in a row. 50.4mpg on the previous tank (510 miles).

Really like the ruby red!

Here's my first +600 mile tank! May have been able to push this close to 700 but my wife wanted me to fill up after the fuel gauge went yellow.

Here is my best trip after stopping at the store on the way home from work. This was the last 14.2 mile leg of a 62.5mpg 33 mile trip home earlier in the week (before winter retuned to Kansas City). This was mostly 2 lane rural highway. On the round trip to and back from work that day I ended up with 56.3mpg over 63.7 miles.

Sorry about the image size. I need to figure out how to get them smaller. This is an shot taken with my iPhone 5.

EDIT: Fixed size to Medium:

I had my best tank yet. I filled up today coming back from a 156 trip and measured 48.47mpg over 547.4 miles (indicated was 49.5 for the tank).

Since the weather has warmed up I've been having a lot of +50mpg trips to/from work which is mostly highway. Taking an alternate route home one night that cut the highway distance to about 1/2 the trip I wound up with 57.4mpg indicated over 30 miles.

I have Power+Threshold and coolant temp also. I flip down to MyView to check warm up getting starting in the morning. I'd like to use MPG off of Trip 1 or Trip 2 on the right, but unfortuantely I only get time, diastance an EV miles. Does anyone know how to show MPG from the Trip meters on MyView?

I use Trip 1 for the current trip, be it going to work, or whatever. I'd like to be able to flip down quick to my view to check overall trip MPG and then back to Empower.

I've had mine since last October and I still reach for the pocket from time to time. Usually in the morning before the coffee's kicked in.

My C-Max is responding well to the warmer weather. The last few days have been 50°'s and today was almost 70°. Over 45 miles over rural highway and a little city driving I ended up with 52.7mpg.

The last 2 days coming home from work were 48.4mpg and 51.4mpg. I was using an alternate route home that cuts off a few highway miles on the 30 mile trip home and avoids a few hills.

My house is right off a two lane rural highway and many times I'm doing 55mph (or over if I have traffic behind me) as I get within 1/2 mile or so of home. EV+ kicks in for me at a consistent spot on the highway every time up to at least 60mph.

Now - the trick is to "feather" touch the accelerator pedal with just enough EV to move the car at a slow speed. Not burn it at high speed and most probably at a very slow speed. I have to climb 2 gradients back to my house and my EV+ bar is typically a tad over 1/2 to 2/3. By feathering the pedal, I have just enough speed, typically 15mph, to go up the 2 gradients and into my garage. EV+ typically kicks in 1/4 mile or less from your home.

 

However, if you have someone behind you, you may want to change and burn some gas but as its a residential with lots of kids, I go slow - stuff the guy in the back.

 

PS Using minimal EV also helps at higher speeds in non-EV mode as well. The mistakes I made when I got my hybrid at the start was to burn the EV at its maximum - so the battery did not last and it took forever to recharge. By using just enough to keep you at the speed (and you will learnt to feel this with your driving), you conserve the EV and again, IMO, keeping the batteries high has much more beneficial (aka bang for your bucks) use than say 1/4 battery. As a side note, I discussed this with the Ford engineers at the Irvine pow-wow and they had a big smile.

Ron - next time, take note of the battery level when that happens. My suspicion is that an-almost-fully charge battery level improves the ICE MPG performance even at higher speeds. Anything less than 80%, say 1/2, does not effect it as much. 

This is consistent with what I see. When the battery is less than 60% or so any pressure on the pedal takes you down to 20mpg or lower. In Eco Cruise I've seen the mpg rise with the ICE on as the battery charge rises.

I haven't gone to grill covers yet, but here is what i do for mileage:

I try to keep my max speed on the highway 60mpg or less when I can get away with it based on traffic. I leave late for work when I can which allows me to be a little more flexible with traffic (and to sleep later).

I have several alternate routes I take about 70% of the time which allows additional city driving and avoids some hills. Tire pressure is up to 42psi.

Most of my daily drive to/from work is highway with rolling hills. I let speed bleed off going up if traffic allows, speed up over the top and coast down or glide in N if battery charge is high and I don't need to regen on the way down. On straight always that are level (or near level) I stay below 62mph and use EV.

Hey welcome to the forum rmcmast- yeah, don't worry about the MPG, it's a takes a long while (> 5000 miles) till the engine breaks in and the summer heat enhances your chances for better MPGs, be patient. In the meantime, enjoy the forum and enjoy the car  :) 

 

As a prior owners of 2 Escapes, is the CMax more responsive, same or less? Jus' curious.

We are over 7,000 miles on the car so I'm past break in. Since I live in a rural area and work downtown, I have a lot of highway driving, so not a lot of city to get mpg back up on either side of my daily commute. There are also a lot of rolling hills.

Just a quick note to say hi. I just found this forum.

I've had my C-Max SEL since last September. This is our 3rd Hybrid. The previous 2 where a 2007 and 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid.

I was planning to take a serious look at the C-Max when they came out since there were no more FEH's after 2012. An accident last June changed my plans and I had a 2013 Ford Escape for a few months. We really liked the car, but missed having a hybrid.

I'm not impressed with the mileage yet and I'm hoping things improve when temps rise. Other than that, we love the car. The passenger room in the front feels the same as the Escape, just less space in the back which we didn't need anyway. And its fun to drive.

I had something similar happen to me. Took my 2007 Ford Escape Hybrid in for an oil change once and they had about 15 new 2009's on the lot. Ended up trading for a 2009 FEH which I had till an accident last June.

We had a 2013 Escape which we really liked but got a bad case of Hybrid Envy when the C-Max finally came out late last year.