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Waiting In The Shenandoah


SnowStorm
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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is my average gas pump MPG versus miles driven.  Car's lifetime is running about 1 MPG higher.  You can sure see the 3000 mile break-in but it doesn't look like its going to get much better - at least not until the August upgrade!  But 46 MPG on RUG (mostly E0) just leaves me - :happy feet:

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  • 4 weeks later...

"The Enterprise" received it's MPG "transfusion" on August 5th and here is the first result after 900 miles.  I must say I am quite pleased!  My wife reset the AVG MPG at the dealer when the upgrade was done and it is now at 49.0 (lifetime has gone from 46.7 to 46.9).  For the first 400 miles or so the AVG MPG was above 50 which was a thrill to see.  General observations are as others have described - seems to work the battery harder, charges faster, engine goes to higher RPM and, of course, EV at the higher speeds!  It is quite amazing how often EV cuts in with Eco CC at 65 mph on rolling hills.  AC is still great (mostly runs at 250 watts as before) but the abrupt increase in air temperature when adjusting above about 76F is now gone.  To be picky, I actually preferred the way the engine operated before, but differences are very slight and I'm not about to complain about a 6% increase in MPG!  Below is my pump based cumulative MPG average with the average restarting after the upgrade (last point).  The change is rather dramatic - we'll see how it looks a few weeks "down the road".

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BTW, EV miles had averaged 34.9% before the upgrade and is now 41.7% since - overall similar driving.

Edited by SnowStorm
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  • 1 month later...

Well its a few weeks down the road and you can see why you might not want to trust one data point.  ;)  Not sure what happened but I can't find a mistake.  The second point after 10,000 miles had a lot higher percentage of 65 mph so the lower mileage is expected.  Or maybe that 48.8 point was a tank not quite full which then hurt the following point.  Anyway, looks like we must go a bit longer to get this "after FE upgrade" to settle down.  EV mileage since upgrade is now at 42.1% versus 34.9% before.  Lifetime is up to 47.5 mpg and Avg MPG (indicated) since upgrade is at 49.1.  Again, this is my pump based cumulative MPG average (odometer corrected) with the average restarting after the upgrade (which was just before 10,000 miles).

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Still crazy about the car.  Really like the power for passing (you do get some opportunities on those two-lane 55 mph roads).  Shucks, I almost look for a slow car just to have the "excuse" to stomp on it and go zooming ahead! :drool: What fun!  Oh dear, what's happening to me? :headscratch:  Slow cars used to be a pain!

 

I finally "realized" that EcoCC resume function starts working at 20 mph.  So after a stop, accelerate to 20, tap resume and get a nice steady acceleration back up to speed.  For so many years I did it manually to prevent cars from surging ahead like idiots!

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  • 10 months later...

The Enterprise had its 1 year anniversary since the MPG upgrade last August.
The indicated average for this past year is now 48.2 mpg! :)

 

Recently completed a trip from Virginia to Nova Scotia - all the way to Meat Cove!  See photos below.
The 3300 mile (oops, 5300 km) trip ended with an indicated mileage of 49.6.
Pump based mileage (odometer corrected) was an even up 48.0.

Took the full size spare along but, thankfully, didn't need it.

 

The Enterprise stops on the Cabot Trail along the Gulf of St Lawrence.

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Get off the Interstates and find something cool!

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"Thanks For Driving A Hybrid!"

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Man, you really get around! Have you taken the Enterprise to Shenandoah National Park? That's one of our favorite camping spots. I've taken my NRG there twice so far. :rockon:

 

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boy that is a fully loaded CMax, not much more room where you could store something

Edited by mtb9153
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So what was the gas mileage carrying a load like that? lol

Total miles: 265 (119 EV)

MPG: 41.7

Gas used: 6.37 gallons

Energy used: 4.8 kWh

 

Left with a full battery, and didn't charge again till we got back home.

If you figure i got 20 EV miles from the fully charged battery, that's an overall trip MPG of 38.46 in hybrid mode. Not bad at all for a car fully loaded with camping gear and is only supposed to get 38 mpg once the HV battery is depleted. :smile2:

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  • 6 years later...
  • 4 weeks later...

The Enterprise just got home from a trip to California (daughter's wedding).

Now even more impressed with this car!

   6900+ miles driven

     950+ EV

   41.0 mpg indicated average for complete trip

   55 mph moving average from GPS

   91 mph max speed

Bought mostly Shell mid-grade gas. (Why is it only 87 or 88 octane out west?)  We pretty much drove the speed limit or up to 5+ but no cruising over 80.  Mostly I64 and I80 going out but came back a more northern route that included route 20 through Wyoming and Nebraska.  Some of the older roads are a delight - so peaceful and free of traffic, and with lots of interesting things along the way.  A bit slower, yes, but what's a couple of extra hours out of 120 - and better mileage too!  Along the way we saw Virginia City, NV, Lake Tahoe, Redwood NP, Lave Beds NM, Craters Of The Moon NM, Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Hell's Half Acre, WY (a wild example of erosion) and lots of the little old-limey wind mills - some still pumping water!

 

Back to the car.  I installed the hitch I bought locally years back and added a platform carrier for the full-size spare (not needed, thankfully!) and other stuff.  The hitch maker insisted on support straps if used with a carrier so we had two red ones going from the cargo tie points in the back, up through the hinges, and down to the carrier.  It looked weird but nothing broke.  We tent camped mostly but were also set up to sleep in the car - front seats all the way forward and boards to fill in the space.  You get a full 6 foot long bed.  Now for the good part - just leave the car ON and you have A/C or heat all night.  The ICE only comes on occasionally for a short time to charge the HVB (A/C mode) or create heat (heater mode).  I think we used A/C once and heat the other few times we did this.  You can have 68F inside with overnight temps dropping to 26F and use about 0.6 to 0.8 gallons of fuel.  Thankfully, we had NO problems with the car - just sailed around slower cars and over big mountains like they weren't there - well, not quite!.  All with over 200k on the odometer.

 

Hmmm - where next?

 

  

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  • 1 year later...

"The Enterprise" made history today - hit 100k EV miles out of 242k total!  That's 4 times around the world with the ICE OFF!  I never would have thought the EV miles would be 41% of total.  I reset Trip 2 and will track on-going EV miles that way.

 

Well, actually its sitting on 99999.9 miles!  Ford either 1) didn't have enough faith in the C-Max's longevity, 2) didn't think there were any real hypermilers out here or 3) the programmer was just too lazy to program one more digit!  I'm voting on #3.

 

But I still want a car (or truck or microbus) that gives 100% EV miles!?

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48.0 mpg.  It was up to 49 IIRC but I've been driving up to the speed limit in recent years, though still trying to overcome the family reputation of being a "slow" driver!  I often think about how my dad, back in the "good ol' days", was happy to get anything over 20 mpg on the highway with a 6 cylinder engine and manual transmission.  I do use E0-87 gasoline almost exclusively, so that helps.

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  • 8 months later...

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