One mile round trips, enough to make a person crazy

[Laurel]

I just had to run out to the local super market which is 1.6 kilometers from my garage--roughly 1 mile away.  Since it was cool out at 10C with hail, I put on climate to 22C (in the toasty 70's F).  My mileage over was 18.9 L per 100 kilometers which nearly gave me heart failure as that is about 12 mpg US.  On the way home, I turned climate off and got 1.6 L per 100 kilometers which is 147 miles per gallon US.  That made my palpitations settle down, but boy is it ever hard to get my life time mileage down with those extremes! 

[Jus-A-CMax]

Short trip are killers to the MPG mind game. Being cold, your engine would have been trying to warmup and you've most likely pulled out and started driving, ICE is on almost practically there so I don't think u had much EV to help - but your batteries would have been full, I guess. Result low MPG.

 

And then your return trip, engine has some warmth so it doesn't need  as much gas to heat it up and you're probably using the high batteries from your initial charge to supplement the trip back....higher MPG. 

 

I wouldn't worry - just change the mindset to the overall MPG for the tank that counts. For the un-informed newbies, this would have been a another "oh noes, this is not a 47MPG car".... :runaway:  

Edited April 21, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[Laurel]

Right you are Jus.  Our normal trips are ranging from 4.2 to 5.2 L per 100 kilometers (45 to 57 mpg US).  It just bugs me that my little hops drag down my life time mileage.  I am tempted to reset it now that temps are up as the winter temps really buggered it, but that seems a little dumb in a way and dishonest.  We are very happy with our mileage and the car.

[RachelnLa]

I want to reset the lifetime too but something stops me each time. I can see the difference in tanks and trips. Those make me smile! That lifetime seems stuck and ticks up verrry slowly.

[Laurel]

I get puzzled at how slowly the life time mileage changes.  I have had a zillion great trips with mileage better than as advertised, but ours takes forever to show an improvement.  You want yours to go up and we want ours to go down --crazy how the Canadian and American mileage accounting is so different.  We are aiming for a consistent 5.0 L per kilometer and you are aiming for 47 mpg--so every time ours drops I'm thrilled and every time yours goes up you are thrilled.  My brain gets strained trying to translate mileage and temperatures into mpg and farenheit LOL.

[Tree63]

Ya,Laurel, the conversion of fuel consumptions between neighbours is something.  There is only one thing more confusing: how Transport Canada got its 4.0/4.0/4.0 L/100km numbers - this is like 57 MPG US (vs their EPA numbers of 47 MPG).  With the warmer weather coming, I've just started seeing milage improvements - but I can count on 1-2 fingers the number of times its dipped under 4 on any trips more than 10 km. 

 

The way I look at it now is that my lifetime average, considering all 4 seasons, will likely be near my friend's Prius  average of 5.7L/100km (about 40 MPG), but the C-Max gives me  the potential to reach some amazing numbers depending on my patience, driving skills and ambient temperature.  It's the same technology  so in the end no surprise.  But my attitude and new way of driving with a hybrid can make a difference in ways that no other car I've driven ever could.  Still worth it!!

[Laurel]

Ya,Laurel, the conversion of fuel consumptions between neighbours is something.  There is only one thing more confusing: how Transport Canada got its 4.0/4.0/4.0 L/100km numbers - this is like 57 MPG US (vs their EPA numbers of 47 MPG).  With the warmer weather coming, I've just started seeing milage improvements - but I can count on 1-2 fingers the number of times its dipped under 4 on any trips more than 10 km. 

 

The way I look at it now is that my lifetime average, considering all 4 seasons, will likely be near my friend's Prius  average of 5.7L/100km (about 40 MPG), but the C-Max gives me  the potential to reach some amazing numbers depending on my patience, driving skills and ambient temperature.  It's the same technology  so in the end no surprise.  But my attitude and new way of driving with a hybrid can make a difference in ways that no other car I've driven ever could.  Still worth it!!

They must think we all travel downhill 90% of the time.  I wrote to Ford Canada and said that those 4.0 and 4.1 calculations could never be consistently achieved.  No response from them.  On the highway, we are getting between 4.8 and 5.2 lots of the time.  I have some 3.6 and 3.8 locally on short trips.  We still haven't taken our car on a long trip yet. 

[SnowStorm]

I get puzzled at how slowly the life time mileage changes.  I have had a zillion great trips with mileage better than as advertised, but ours takes forever to show an improvement.  You want yours to go up and we want ours to go down --crazy how the Canadian and American mileage accounting is so different.  We are aiming for a consistent 5.0 L per kilometer and you are aiming for 47 mpg--so every time ours drops I'm thrilled and every time yours goes up you are thrilled.  My brain gets strained trying to translate mileage and temperatures into mpg and farenheit LOL.

Yours isn't the only brain getting strained!  I sure wish the US had "gone metric" way back, decades ago, when it was being considered.  I was telling someone from Japan just the other day how it had been about 85F for three days here, oops, no, that's, hurry up brain, 30C?  I think I got it about right.  (It is supposed to be 34 tonight - I mean 1C!)

 

I also much prefer the L/100km.  Its metric and, even better, flipped over - fuel on top, distance on bottom.  Works much better for comparisons considering cost.  An improvement of, say, 0.5 L/100km is always the same amount of fuel (or cost).  Conversely, an improvement from 20 to 25 mpg is far more significant than one from 45 to 50 mpg.  Converting is easy - just divide either one into 235 to get the other one.  I found it quite interesting that 47 mpg converts to an even-up 5.0 L/100km.  (Now if converting temperatures were just that easy!)

[Jus-A-CMax]

Yours isn't the only brain getting strained!  I sure wish the US had "gone metric" way back, decades ago, when it was being considered.  I was telling someone from Japan just the other day how it had been about 85F for three days here, oops, no, that's, hurry up brain, 30C?  I think I got it about right.  (It is supposed to be 34 tonight - I mean 1C!)

 

I also much prefer the L/100km.  Its metric and, even better, flipped over - fuel on top, distance on bottom.  Works much better for comparisons considering cost.  An improvement of, say, 0.5 L/100km is always the same amount of fuel (or cost).  Conversely, an improvement from 20 to 25 mpg is far more significant than one from 45 to 50 mpg.  Converting is easy - just divide either one into 235 to get the other one.  I found it quite interesting that 47 mpg converts to an even-up 5.0 L/100km.  (Now if converting temperatures were just that easy!)

 

As someone who totally came from a metric system, I have no problem adopting my new country imperial system. Infact when I am back home in Aus, I still play golf in yards - take the number of yards as measured by the laser and add 1 more club than what I use, simple. I can go either way as far as temps go...so when I sometimes say it's "40s" and a "scorcher"...people sometimes give me this puzzled look...really?  ;)

[RachelnLa]

My head is spinning. In the south we reference distance:

 

It's Bout 20 miles as the crow flies.

 

Its about 20 mins up the road

 

Similar sayings for temps...

 

It's colder than a witches t*t.

 

It's hotter then a whore in church on Sunday!

 

Even directions are referenced:

 

Go on down til you see the pasture with the hay bales, hang a left and follow that til you see the house with the big porch. If a big dog greets you, you found them!

 

My daddy even referenced time:

 

The BBQ will be ready after I drink this beer.

 

Oh, the beautiful South.

[Jus-A-CMax]

Good gawd...I am watchin "You Don't Know Dixie" on the History Channel when you posted that....holy smoly....coincidence  :)

 

PS I would be worried if u started saying the beer being in the "mountain ridge" ...lol, as usual, we're all OT...thats ok, mod approved  ;)

Edited April 22, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[RachelnLa]

That would be moonshine in the mountains!

[Adair]

My head is spinning. In the south we reference distance:

 

It's Bout 20 miles as the crow flies.

 

Its about 20 mins up the road

 

Similar sayings for temps...

 

It's colder than a witches t*t.

 

It's hotter then a whore in church on Sunday!

 

Even directions are referenced:

 

Go on down til you see the pasture with the hay bales, hang a left and follow that til you see the house with the big porch. If a big dog greets you, you found them!

 

My daddy even referenced time:

 

The BBQ will be ready after I drink this beer.

 

Oh, the beautiful South.

Awwww, that made me feel right at home.

 

And don't forget *yonder*, as in *down yonder* or *over yonder* Or * a spell*, as in, " I'm gonna sit a spell before I start dinner,"

Edited April 22, 2013 by Adair

[JAZ]

SAE/Metric is a nightmare:  I'm afraid to travel to Ontario with my nephew, Miles, for fear we'll have to change his name to Kilometers...

[SnowStorm]

SAE/Metric is a nightmare:  I'm afraid to travel to Ontario with my nephew, Miles, for fear we'll have to change his name to Kilometers...

LOL  :)  Let's chuck both systems and measure speed in kilo-furlongs/fortnight (100km/hr = 167 kFur/Ftn - I think!).  And for fuel economy, why, of course it is furlongs/firkin!  (Or is it firkins/100 furlongs?!?)  Somebody else "out yonder" can figure that one out!

 

Quizz:  Is that little stalk on the left side of the steering column a "turn signal" or a "directional"?