Fuel Guage MPG vs Real World MPG

[dschwark]

Hi all,  I've been driving my 2013 for 10 months now.  I like the feel and drive of this car a lot, I am averaging about 41 mpg.  One thing though that really irritates me is the discrepancy in the electronic gas mileage reading that I am "being told"  I am getting versus the actual gas mileage I am getting when I fill my tank.  That discrepancy amounts usually to around 10%.  In other words, when my car says I am getting 44 mpg, my pocketbook says I am only getting 40 MPG.  AND I BELIEVE MY POCKET BOOK.  And the gas mileage is always LOW!"

 

When I queried the dealer on this discrepancy in gas mileage, I got this kind of dumb look, and and lame answer.  "Oh, there's nothing we can do about that"   I say What?  All the electronics and gauges, and fancy stuff, and it's not even right?  All those fancy electronics probably add at least $1000  of extra costs to the car.  You can't calibrate the the mileage so it is at least more accurate?  NO,  you can't

 

Is anyone else having this particular issue with their C-Max?  It seems like they spent their money on the wrong thing.  Instead of accuracy, they went for pretty.  

 

Thanks Dan

[HannahWCU]

There are many threads on this. I don't know of anyone who's actual mpg (calculated) is equal to what the car says. Mine is off more than 5%. I agree that Ford should be able to get it closer than this. The funny thing is, the car under estimates fuel use when calculating mpg, but over estimates fuel use when calculating miles to empty. Go figure.

[RaPieR]

As stated above by HannahWCU, plenty of threads/discussions on this topic already.  There are way too many variables on the fuel reading.  I fill up at the same pump at the same time 6 - 6:30am every week or so and I'm hovering around a 6% to 8% difference between the dashboard reading and the gas pump reading.  This has been consistent with not only my C-Max but with the Mazda3 and Mazda Protege I've driven.

[ScubaDadMiami]

My gauge is pretty close to the fill pump reading.  I can't say that the pump is more accurate than the C-MAX.  It is very hot here, and there could be a lot of evaporation, etc.  So, I just go by what the C-MAX says.

[hybridbear]

This is common in every car and there have been articles about it like this one from Edmunds. With our Fusion I've found that when I also account for the fact that the odometer reads less miles that I've actually driven then the MPG gauge on the dash is pretty accurate. Our Honda Accord Hybrid which we owned before the Fusion was off by 12-15% typically. This is more egregious than the 6-10% most C-Max and Fusion owners have found.