Frustrated and disappointed

[CNCGeek]

Mayday Jay, I can sympathize with the problem.  In my experience the average mpg (after I reset the lifetime) went up to around 42mpg for the first thousand miles or so and then dropped down to around 39-40 as the weather got colder - all in mixed driving.  35mpg is very poor, and since you are in FL where the weather should be warmer, you may want to check with your dealer - I recall a post here about a fusion owner who was getting poor economy and they found the plugs were fouled so it is at least worth checking if something is amiss (that owner had other symptoms aside from poor fuel economy however).

 

It has also been mentioned before, and there are many posts about how the EPA tests are flawed (especially highway ratings) when comparing to real world driving, and I have not read many (any?) posts defending the tests.  Trying to get the rated mpg therefore seems like chasing a dream.  Ford pushing the EPA number to highlight the fuel economy in their advertising is the only problem I see (for them), since it may reduce owner loyalty if people feel deceived, and has already led to a class action lawsuit which will likely help nobody.  But to be fair all manufactures do the same thing, it is just in hybrids where it stands out.  That said, I do like my C-max , and it has impressed me in some ways, but I have come to expect less fuel economy than when I purchased it. 

Edited January 16, 2013 by CNCGeek

[Wingrider01]

I have to admit I'm surprised by your numbers.  My previous 2006 Ford Escape with the 4 cyclinder only averaged 21mpg.  My C-Max was averaging in the 40-41mpg range during the summer in So Cal driving at 65mph freeway speeds and 50/50 freeway/city driving.  Once the weather dropped into the 40's the average dropped to 39.5 to 40mpg.  I'm surprised that your getting such low numbers when your freeway speed is at 60mpg which should allow the electric to kick in.  I've done a few freeway runs at 60mph (at night when there was no other traffic) and can easily get mid 40's if I stay to 60mph and below.  During the day in So Cal though 60mph is not really possible unless there's heavy traffic.

 

I lease so I keep accurate numbers on mileage vs lease maximums, like I said that is my average - as far as speeds go, since I am never off duty anyone that screws with me when I am in my personal vehicle will have a surprise for them, the portable red flashing light is always there. I don't give the 5 mile an hour freebie if you tailgate me and have never given a warning ticket in my career

Edited January 13, 2013 by Wingrider01

[Wingrider01]

What outside temps are you experiencing? Have you checked your odometer with portable GPS? Mine was off by 1.5% or .5mpg. You lose about 2mpg for each 10deg.F drop from 70deg.F on your gas mileage. Look at mileage forum, 3mpg gained with grill covers thread for more info.

 

current outside temp is 40 to the high today of 68. I won;t do grill covers, if the car cannot get the near the advertised mileage then I would have been better off with the focus titanium. If they increase the mileage then the manufacturer should have had them as standard equipment. as far as MPG, don't depend on what is stated, i compute my own in a spreadsheet. The mileage numbers are way off, that is the accurate statement,

[KinCityKitty]

Hi MayDay,

If you are putting a lot of miles on your car, you might consider your speed.  I am still not getting 47, but I have high hopes that it will happen after the break in period.  However, I have to drive at 55 or 56 mph on the freeway with the cruise control on to get my higher numbers.  It is a little unnerving when folks fly passed me like I am standing still, but my fuel economy is important to me.  I also glide as much as possible; and make long, slow brakes to get the most of the regen braking.  Again, people probably get upset that I try to do everything very long and slow in this car, but that is what helps the mileage.

 

Still, you might want to ask the dealer why your mileage is so much lower than expected.

 

KinCityKitty in Mad Mab

Las Vegas, NV

 

 

[ptjones]

current outside temp is 40 to the high today of 68. I won;t do grill covers, if the car cannot get the near the advertised mileage then I would have been better off with the focus titanium. If they increase the mileage then the manufacturer should have had them as standard equipment. as far as MPG, don't depend on what is stated, i compute my own in a spreadsheet. The mileage numbers are way off, that is the accurate statement,

If you drive it like a hybrid you should be getting atleast 40mpg at 40deg.F which would be 45mpg at 70deg.F. Today I was testing and at 68deg.F with no covers, ECO cruise set for 70mph and I got 38.9mpg. Are you taking short trips, less than 10mi?

[jmckinley]

200 miles today, 150 miles on flat interstate at 65 mph, the rest 60mph on two lane road.  59 degrees F, AC off, just the two of us, no extra cargo.

 

Computer says we got 35.3 mpg!

 

Avg. for last two tanks was 34.7 based on fillups.

 

Only 1200 miles on the odo, but this is pretty crappy.  I'll be surprised if I ever see even 40 mpg.

 

All this technology and batteries and CVT transmission and computers and regenerative braking and no spare tire and 700 pounds more than a Focus and I get a measly 8 mpg more that my 1,000 pound heavier 2005 minivan gets at 70 mph on the same trip.

 

A comparable Focus would have cost $3,000 less. Based on Fuelly, 2012 Focus' are averaging about 32 mpg and C-Max avg is 38 mpg. So, by my calculations, I will get my $3,000 back in only 173,000 miles.

 

And, don't expect big things when the cold weather goes away.  Just wait until you start running the air conditioner and see how much your mileage drops.

 

If these things don't get better mileage as we all start to reach the mythical break in point (was 2,000 miles, now Lord Motor Co. says 6,000)  and the word gets out, we can kiss our resale value goodbye.  We won't be able to give them away.

 

Tomorrow I have 300 freeway miles, mostly on I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville where there are trucks and hills and a 70 mph speed limit.  I'll bet that will be a total disaster. 

 

And, I don't want to hear about jury rigging radiator covers.  We shouldn't have to do things like that to get reasonable hybrid level mileage!!! The same goes for creeping around obstructing traffic, drafting trucks and 50 psi tires.

[ptjones]

200 miles today, 150 miles on flat interstate at 65 mph, the rest 60mph on two lane road.  59 degrees F, AC off, just the two of us, no extra cargo.

 

Computer says we got 35.3 mpg!

 

Avg. for last two tanks was 34.7 based on fillups.

 

Only 1200 miles on the odo, but this is pretty crappy.  I'll be surprised if I ever see even 40 mpg.

 

All this technology and batteries and CVT transmission and computers and regenerative braking and no spare tire and 700 pounds more than a Focus and I get a measly 8 mpg more that my 1,000 pound heavier 2005 minivan gets at 70 mph on the same trip.

 

A comparable Focus would have cost $3,000 less. Based on Fuelly, 2012 Focus' are averaging about 32 mpg and C-Max avg is 38 mpg. So, by my calculations, I will get my $3,000 back in only 173,000 miles.

 

And, don't expect big things when the cold weather goes away.  Just wait until you start running the air conditioner and see how much your mileage drops.

 

If these things don't get better mileage as we all start to reach the mythical break in point (was 2,000 miles, now Lord Motor Co. says 6,000)  and the word gets out, we can kiss our resale value goodbye.  We won't be able to give them away.

 

Tomorrow I have 300 freeway miles, mostly on I-71 between Cincinnati and Louisville where there are trucks and hills and a 70 mph speed limit.  I'll bet that will be a total disaster. 

 

And, I don't want to hear about jury rigging radiator covers.  We shouldn't have to do things like that to get reasonable hybrid level mileage!!! The same goes for creeping around obstructing traffic, drafting trucks and 50 psi tires.

Than I guess you will have to wait for Summer.  I did test run today at 68deg.F stock CMAX 38psi ECO cruise at 70mph and got 38.9mpg for the 14.1mi trip.

[Wingrider01]

If you drive it like a hybrid you should be getting atleast 40mpg at 40deg.F which would be 45mpg at 70deg.F. Today I was testing and at 68deg.F with no covers, ECO cruise set for 70mph and I got 38.9mpg. Are you taking short trips, less than 10mi?

 

about 1 percent of my driving is "short trips" my primary daily drive 6 days a week is round trip of approximately 59 miles, with 57 of them on highway, the only short trips I make is to the grocery store and my estranged wife's place to pick up the kinds on the weekend. If I have any grocery shopping or other errands to run I incorporate them into my round trip for work. Lets stop blaming the drivers habits Ok? I repeat, I love the car just not happy with the gas mileage, should have kept the escape or gotten the titanium

[Jus-A-CMax]

I just came back from doing a 580 mile round trip from San Fernando, CA to Mammoth Mountain - I see this discussion is still going on so it looks like plenty of posters are trying to help out the OP.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[HotPotato]

about 1 percent of my driving is "short trips" my primary daily drive 6 days a week is round trip of approximately 59 miles, with 57 of them on highway, the only short trips I make is to the grocery store and my estranged wife's place to pick up the kinds on the weekend. If I have any grocery shopping or other errands to run I incorporate them into my round trip for work. Lets stop blaming the drivers habits Ok? I repeat, I love the car just not happy with the gas mileage, should have kept the escape or gotten the titanium

 

Wingrider, I share your frustration. I "only" get about 35 city, 38 highway, 35+ combined. But the truth is, we could not have matched our MPG with the Focus, Titanium or otherwise. We could not have matched our MPG in an Escape. We couldn't match the city MPG even in a Fiesta, for Pete's sake. The numbers are all here: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=make&path=4&year=2013&make=Ford&srchtyp=yearMake -- EPA estimates and real-world reports.

 

Make no mistake, the discrepancy between sticker and pump is glaring; perhaps Ford ought to give us gas cards like Hyundai did for their disgruntled owners. But MPG is still better than any ICE-powered equivalent, and most tests find real-world mileage of the C-Max and its competitor the Prius V to be pretty close.

Edited January 14, 2013 by HotPotato

[jmckinley]

As promised, today I drove from Near Dayton, OH to Louisville, KY on I-71, 150 miles.  Ambient temp ~32 degrees.  Eco cruise set to to 70 mph on the way there, mpg = 35.2.  Return trip Eco Cruise set to 65 mph (very scary on 70 mph speed limit road) - mpg = 34.6.

 

Hot damn, almost down to Focus mileage according to Fuelly.

[zhackwyatt]

Doesn't the C-Max have a larger cargo area than focus?  Not purely an apples to apples comparison.

 

I haven't looked at the prices and data but comparing a fusion vs fusion hybrid might be illustrative.

[Jus-A-CMax]

Not surprising, its damn cold out there across the west coast and moving across to the East, hey it is winter and hybrids suck in the cold.

 

Most of the time the ICE is on and also, as I found out, using the EV even at 55mph, seems to be less than "useful", in the sense that the EV power doesn't seem to give it enough oomph to sustain that speed as say, at 50F. The cold is taking a toll on the EV. We are talking about -4F here, as compared to say regular 50F driving. That's one of the observation from my second trip to Mammoth. Oh driving on the icy, snowed roads to the town, Max was superb, no spin, controlled and steered great. 

Edited January 15, 2013 by Jus-A-CMax

[ptjones]

As promised, today I drove from Near Dayton, OH to Louisville, KY on I-71, 150 miles.  Ambient temp ~32 degrees.  Eco cruise set to to 70 mph on the way there, mpg = 35.2.  Return trip Eco Cruise set to 65 mph (very scary on 70 mph speed limit road) - mpg = 34.6.

 

Hot damn, almost down to Focus mileage according to Fuelly.

Never said where you checked your odometer with portable GPS.

[Laurel]

I have driven the Focus and the Fusion hybrid.  C-Max is far more comfortable, better vision, more head room, seating position is much higher and feels safer and is easier to get in and out of as you age..  The C-Max may not achieve the advertised mileage in winter but I would have still chosen the C-Max based on likeability in comparison.  Life is too short so if people are unhappy they should get a different car.  Nothing in this world is as advertised.  I bought a Smart Car in 2011 and loved it, but hubby hated it due to his size.  We took a financial beating upon selling it, but it was better than listening to belly aching for the next 5 years.  We both like the C-Max so will now live happily ever after LOL.

[dtorres]

I drove a 2012 Focus 4 door hatch for a day (rental). There's no comparison the C-Max is hands down a better car. Its roomier, better build quality (in my opinion), quieter and drove better. Even at the same mpg I'd buy the C-Max instead and am pleased that I didn't buy the Focus.

[GoEV]

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml

 

As promised, today I drove from Near Dayton, OH to Louisville, KY on I-71, 150 miles.  Ambient temp ~32 degrees.  Eco cruise set to to 70 mph on the way there, mpg = 35.2.  Return trip Eco Cruise set to 65 mph (very scary on 70 mph speed limit road) - mpg = 34.6.

 

Hot damn, almost down to Focus mileage according to Fuelly.

I sympathize with those not getting the mileage they expected.  I mean, we buy a car based in part on the advertised mileage.  But, the advertised mileage "is for comparison purposes only. Your mileage may vary."

 

The blame should not fall on drivers ( except for horrible speeders and lead-foots), but with the EPA tests, especially highway. The MAX speed for the highway test is 60 mph. The average is about 48 mph!  Link above. So, one can only realistically hope to get 47 mpg highway if one drives like that on the highway, which obviously is not a realistic way to drive on a freeway.

 

So the fact that the Cmax does not get EPA advertised mileage on the highway is not actually surprising. But it is frustrating for the average consumer who thinks the EPA numbers should reflect the way people actually drive on the highway.  Ford doesn't design the test, so it's not really anything they did wrong - just a poor system.

 

I'm still waiting for my Energi to arrive, and although I would be thrilled to get the EPA numbers, I know that they are obtained under very different conditions than I drive my car, so I don't actually expect them.

 

I totally agree with those who have made the point that grill covers should not be needed to improve mileage. If they are that useful to mileage, they should have been designed into the car.  I have to wonder just how consistently they do improve mileage, given that such a simple device was not engineered into the car.

 

 

 

 

[darrelld]

I have been driving my new Cmax sel since December 31. I have put almost 800 miles on it and have yet to see better than 35mpg. Not much better than my 2009 Toyota Venza. (32mpg average)I feel cheated and lured in by misleading claims. I only bought this vehicle because I am a hospice nurse and I drive most of the day, sometimes up to 260 miles a day, so fuel economy makes or breaks me. If I would have know I would have had to take a course just to learn how to get the mileage it advertised I would have by passed it all together. I didn't purchase it for its looks or because it was fun to drive! If I told my patients I was giving them 4 mg of morphine and I only gave them 2mg I would lose my license and my job, more importantly , their trust, like Ford just lost mine. I live in Florida so it's mostly flat and doesn't get too cold so these are a non issue as far as driving conditions and temperatures.

 

Fuelly users report the 2009 Toyota Venza average mpg at 20.6???

 

http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/venza

[Roggie 51]

I enjoyed the video, but I hope you don't have to drive 25 MPH to get good mileage. Because that's basically all he did. And at the end of the video it flashed a 35 MPG Avg. i don't have my fusion yet, but looked like that was his tank avg?

Yes indeed it is not fast, but the guys did a very good job to show us that the car is very economical driving slowly. the goal here is to show us how to drive in town at low speeds and regenerate the battery. and as he says if you do the highway you are better off with a diesel engine.

[Ryan McEachern]

Fuelly users report the 2009 Toyota Venza average mpg at 20.6???

http://www.fuelly.com/car/toyota/venza

 

I have had this same issue when discussing our c-max purchase with other families. One guy said, "why didn't you just buy the new dodge minivan, they get 36 mpg and so much more room. I told him that after happily owning several grand caravans, i knew that I would never beat 20 mpg, regardless of the window sticker. I don't know what the general public gets in those vans, but I know that I get 20mpg when i am travelling, 16 mpg just running around town. We rented a new one last time we were on holiday, there has been no improvement in city economy as far as i can tell. 

 

I think a good strategy for predicting fuel economy, if you can't rent the target vehicle, is to rent one that is close, and compare your mpg to the EPA, then compare to what others are getting on the target vehicle. For example, I know that when I drive a Prius on my daily routine, I get about 40 mpg, so I am predicting 35 mpg in hybrid mode with the taller, heavier, more powerful C-max.

[valkraider]

Our Dodge grand caravan was below EPA rating as well. It was EPA 17/22 and we got about 15/17. True highway speeds (above 70) we got 15 or less. It was like driving a brick.

 

In my VW TDIs I could exceed EPA but it when driving the way they do in the EPA test. If I drove the way we drive normally I would be pretty consistently below EPA.

 

My truck gets 75% of EPA numbers, even worse with the city numbers usually.

[valkraider]

Averaging 32 in a 2009 Venza would be pretty impressive:

 

http://fueleconomy.gov/feg/PowerSearch.do?action=noform&path=1&year1=2009&year2=2009&make=Toyota&model=Venza&srchtyp=ymm

[Jus-A-CMax]

Our Dodge grand caravan was below EPA rating as well. It was EPA 17/22 and we got about 15/17. True highway speeds (above 70) we got 15 or less. It was like driving a brick.

 

In my VW TDIs I could exceed EPA but it when driving the way they do in the EPA test. If I drove the way we drive normally I would be pretty consistently below EPA.

 

My truck gets 75% of EPA numbers, even worse with the city numbers usually.

 

+1 on that Dodge Grand Caravan brick. When that nitwit hit my wife's Jaguar and tboned it to death, that was my rental car while she drove my Jaguar. Given the distances I travelled, I could not get anything out of mile-ing that thing including neutral hill descents and what I found out is that the idle rpms is pretty darn high and you're not saving anything by coasting it in neutral. Mileage really sucked but did I LUV the space in that thing....CMax storage on steroids.

[valkraider]

Yeah, my wife always hated the van. Until she wanted to move junk. ;)

 

It was a 2008. Very nice, also very long. Just too much vehicle for our daily uses...

[Jus-A-CMax]

Yeah, my wife always hated the van. Until she wanted to move junk. ;)

 

It was a 2008. Very nice, also very long. Just too much vehicle for our daily uses...

Ha...thats what my wife said when we were at the rental place..."go pick up the van so I can use it to move my stuff". did she, nope  :runaway: