roundtrip

Thanks 'Jmckinley' for posting the Ford letter, and I too have now experienced the low hwy mpg. Normally my drive to work is 50% city and 50% hwy and I have had high of 44 mpg avg back October but now dropped to around 40 mpg and have about 5800 miles on the odometer. I recently had to take a 250 mile trip for work that was mostly expressway from Detroit to Ludington MI with stops in Lansing and Muskegon. The elevation is pretty flat and air temps in low 20s and my speed was 70-75mph which resulted in a 31-32 mpg. Two days later the return trip was not much better at 32.5 mpg avg. I know my speeds where a little high at 72 but these are typical for freeway. I could have taken 2 lane roads at 55 mph but this trip was for work and not for sight seeing. l agree that the speed is a big factor and it seems like you would need to maintain a 48 mph avg to get a 47 mpg hwy given the ambient temperatures and break in period for the car. I don't see why Ford engineers chose 62 mph for the EV mode, I mean this works fine for the city roads but 72 mph would be better for the expressway. I know there must be some transmission and electric motor heating limitations requiring this 62 mph limit, but given the low air temperatures it seems like there should be some kind of mph range for EV mode. The whole trip the car never goes into EV mode, also the ECO cruise did not make a difference. I can drive slow in right lane but many times I become a hazard since the typical speeds are 70 mph+ out in the country. It seems to me that the Ford engineers missed the EV mode by 10 mph. I get it that "spirited" driving will hurt your mpg, but 72 mph on the freeway is pretty typical for Michigan expressways.

One thing I have noticed on my car is that my "Trip 2", which I have never reset, shows what appears to be my fuel use since I have purchased the car. You can see in the attached pic that my "Trip 2" and my life time odometer match Right now I have 4003.4 miles total on the car and have used 94.49 gals with 42.3 mpg. Also I want to thank "darrrelld" for help in understanding the hybrid concept and thinking of the battery like second fuel tank. At work everyone has been asking me if I am hitting the 47 mpg mark, I then have to explain what mpg I am getting and also the whole hybrid concept of which I am not well versed in. I do really like my car. I am beginning to think the EPA city mpg number might actually be low and the EPA hwy mpg a little high, but its early to tell and at my location the ambient temperatures are right now lower than the EPA test of 75F. I did look at the Chevy Cruze, and regular Focus but would need to get the manual transmission to get this kind of mpg and I really wanted an automatic since my last two cars were stick shifts. I looked at the other hybrids but they felt underpowered. Diesels take a long time to warmup and the fuel costs match that of preimum gas so its hard to tell if they make sense. I know that from my pic above that it looks like I have spent about 102 hours behine the wheel to go about 4003 miles for about an average speed of say 40mph and maybe this helps explain the fuel economy you can get with this type of car. It might help to see other peoples trip2 to get a rough idea of what their avg speeds.

Regarding "skwcrj" post below: "BTW... I'm not picking on you. Most of the users can't get the C-Max to give a tank average (by that I mean a 400+ mile tank) of more than 40 mpg." I'm not sure I understand this comment.. I have been able to get this mpg from my daily drive to work since purchasing the car, however, I have had my mpg fall from a high of 44 avg down to about 42 avg. since the ambient temperatures have been dropping. See attached pic from this weeks tank. Also while it is true from last weeks tank that my ICE mpg is only about 29 mpg, however, I'm not sure I understand "skwcrj" comment about this being a low number. I am new to owning a hybrid type car, but this number seems typical as I used to drive a Mazda with 4 cyc and avg about 31 mpg. I think when the warmer temperatures return that it seems possible for me to get the 47 mpg number.

I'm new to the forum and want to share my experience. I bought a new C-Max SE and having been driving it since early October. The car is my daily driver and my commute to work (Troy to Ann Arbor, MI) is about 51m by freeway but can as short as 46-47m if I take more surface streets. I have about 3000m on the car and have achieved about 43.1 mpg avg. This is down from a high of 44.5 avg which I think is due to the recent drop in air temperature. I have been doing careful driving; keeping speeds around 60 – 65 mph (right lane) on the freeway and revs under 3000 rpm and typically 2000 rpms. I have had runs as low as 33 mpg (70mph middle lane on fwy) and as high as 51 mpg (55 mph right lane), it just depends on how fast you go. I think the break –in period for the car is over and it looks like with careful driving I will get about 43-44 mpg avg. I have attached a pic of my dash with typical trip home. I do like the car and the smooth automatic transmission.