My 2007 FWD works just fine for me but I stay on roads, maybe 50 miles of dirt a year in Maine. My Phila area location is similar to yours. The vehicle handles pretty well. Remember it is an SUV not a sports car. I get ~32 mpg in the winter and summer and ~36 in the spring and fall. A really cold day in the winter I will have trouble breaking 30 mpg on my 20 mile trip. My best days are up near 40 mpg. Good luck.

 

Yep front wheel drive '09...

just trying to save gas one drop at a time.
but I just can't keep up with Gary!

 

I take that as a compliment but remember I'm a 55 year old disabled Battalion Chief and have generally more time on my hands than most people. I do keep up with traffic and use my horn more than most on stupid drivers. You know the ones that stay at a green light just before it turns red!

In my opinion a good winter tire on the two front rims in severe winter conditions on the FWD FEH is all you need. Tires with studs on the front in ice conditions would be worst case IMO. I've had 3 4WD Bronco's and one 4WD STX Ranger and all of them were a waste of money and gas mileage.

The '09 can offer Prius and HCH mileage in an FWD SUV made by the Worlds finest - Ford! It is very nice getting over 50mpg tanks and 700 plus miles in an SUV folks!

GaryG

 

I would always have wished for all wheel drive if I had not gotten it.

I have the 2008 FEH AWD. There's been a lot of snow and very cold weather this winter. AWD is worth it for me, this vehicle does great in snow. I am very please with the suv.

As for millage. I have a fairly short city drive, stop & go so I get less than most people. I don't speed but tend to be lead footed but have gotten better now that I have the mpg gauges.

My best millage is 31.64, I typically get better than mid 20's MPG in the summer on shorter drives. My worse is MPG below 20 has happened 3 times all in really bad snow weather and where trafic was very slow due to many stuck cars. I had no problem moving except that other cars were stuck & blocking the way. I have the GPS so I can see the MPG bar graphs.
What you typically notice is that the first 5 minutes the car is cold so the mpg is low. After 5 minutes I am in the high 28's to 30. This is fairly typical for my 25 minute commute. A quick example shows that in a short drive the first 5 minutes brings your overall average down. For example if the average mpg every 5 minutes is as follows 15, 29, 29, 29, 29 then you get 26 mpg for that drive but most fo the time you are getting 29. If you drove for an hour the average would be almost 28.

I had a focus before the Escape and on the same commute I was getting 18-22 MPG. And it's a car that can get 32mpg.

Best of luck

 

Buying an FEH with F/awd is a quite reasonable method of alleviating, reducing, the HAZARDS of a FWD in wintertime roadbed conditions. Find me a 4WD/4X4 owner that leaves the system with the center diff'l locked once underway and I'll show you either an idiot or a very inexperienced 4WD/4X4 owner.

Plus you get the actual advantage of having F/awd available at those times of need.

I would only purchase a FWD, ANY FWD vehicle for use strickly south of the snow line, AZ maybe.

 

I'm one of the 5% of SUV owners that actually takes the car off road. I'm a hang glider pilot and often the only way to get to a launch site is a steep, rocky/slippery trail. You also usually carry 3-4 pilots+driver with you and al their gear -- call it 1000 pounds.

When I got a new car I wanted a hybrid and the FEH was the only SUV hybrid that did NOT say "not intended for offroad use."

I've posted before on the shortcomings of the FEH for off-road use. However the FEH does pretty well and I'm pretty pleased with the tradeoffs. The biggest problem is that on the downhill run there is no compression braking, and the electric braking doesn't last long enough to save the disc brakes from wearing. You just have to ride the brakes down the hill.

My bigger beef is with the stock Eco-Plus Continental tires. Not really meant for that kind of work and I'll look forward to replacing them. Also, I don't like the idea of an under-sized spare.

 

I think my 2008 came with a full size spare...

 

I was under the impression from other posts, that when the battery fills up, the extra power will be sent to the motor to "spin" the engine.... effectively performing the function of compression braking (ie, you still get inductive regenerative braking, except with the battery full the power gets burned off turning the engine.

Did I get that wrong somewhere.

 

Yes it does do that. The problem is that with the parameters they set it only provides effective braking at speeds of 25MPH or more. In a conventional 4WD system with a transfer case with a low-gear range, you can put it in 1st and roll down the hill at 3-5MPH. The trails I am talking about are not safe at anything above that.

Try it -- put it in "L" down a reasonably steep hill and see how fast or slow you go. Then imagine the same street with 16-inch rocks in it, hairpin twists, one and a half axles wide, and a 300 foot drop off of one side. I don't think ya wanna do that.

I have wondered if the FEH could have the same action as a low-range transfer case with a software modification, or if it would take some different mechanics in the drive train.

 

Alan. At 3-5 MPH ( heck, even 9 or 10 MPH ) there is absolutely NO PROBLEM with using the brake pads full time. The metal will be able to heat sink the heat as fast as you create it, and you will not encounter brake fade.

NO PROBLEM MON!

P.S. I take mine off road too! To some pretty remote areas. And I am very pleased with the performace of FWD. It recently went up a 10% driveway with 6" of fresh snow. There was some wheel slip, ( too much torque actually ) but it kept on truckin' and with FWD you can steer on snow and ice exceptionally well, even with wheel slip. Something you CANNOT DO in a deathtrap RWD!

P.P.S. If you "ride" the brakes too long in "D" the car will figure "silly human" and will switch to compresson brake ( via high RPM runup ) without being in L position. The car is smarter than the average bear!