I've got about 2100 miles on it. When I fill up it's saying it has about 370 miles to empty. Is this normal? Or should it be higher by now? I see some people posting pictures of 600 - 700 miles to empty, and I'm getting about half that.

I'm also curious how the car determines how many miles it has until empty.

How dramatic is the AC's effect on MPG? I'm in the Dallas area, and I generally leave it on Econ (although occasionally I will switch it off as I'm starting to drive because it's still hitting the high 90s here).

Last, the FAQ mentions 35PSI as the target for tire pressure, but I've seen threads where others mention going "above the Ford recommended amount." How high are people going with this?

 

Intro-
I got my '08 in April. You'll get a good MPG bump aroud 4500 miles. Before then, it's pretty much in the late 20s for mileage, which is still darn good. I have an FWD and am getting 32.5 after some bizarre funny business; I'd gotten up to 36 MPG for a tank. I have 7300 miles on the truck.
I have my PSI at 40. It made a huge difference in the mileage. I think 42 or 44 is the max. I'm too chicken to go all the way, so just did a little more.
You'll love it if you don't already!

 

Mark,

Don't worry. While it is true there are some hypermilers that can get extreme mileage...most FEH owners get around 29mpg (AWD) to 32mpg (2wd). This yields 400-500mi range.

Check out the compare section...you'll see there's a really a pretty tight window.

You will start to get slightly better FE after your FEH breaks in, but 600-700mi is the extreme exception rather than the rule.

Nate

 

Ok, thanks for the feedback. If I can live between 400 and 500 (preferably closer to 500), I'll be happy.

 

It balances your recent MPG against the fuel in the tank. It doesn't calculate using the entire tank, it leaves off about 1.3 gallons. So, as your MPG increases, so to does your range on the MTE display. So, reduced MPGs result in reduced MTE's. High MPGs result in higher MTE's. It's also rather common to see as your mileage goes up, the Miles To Empty display also rises or stays constant for several miles.

Depends on the speed and the specific AC settings. At expressway with it not blowing hard, not that much. High fan settings in idle traffic, a lot.

I've been running mine at 45 PSI, but 40 shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

 

It's been a couple of weeks since I filled up, and since I don't normally watch that info I didn't want to guess and be wrong. So today i filled up and it says like 460. I'm just under 4400 miles, average about 32mpg per tank. Took a dip to 28 during the 100+ degree week. Like Dallas, OKC is still pretty warm, and we use ECNO most of the time. Sometimes at night, early morning we can go with it off, but havn't had to use Max in a while.
I think I upped to 40Psi, but didn't notice a difference in ride or mileage. I live in the country so I do mostly "highway" driving, long streaches up to 60mph.

As it cools, you should easily get there w/o trying real hard. It'll take time to bring the overall average up for the computer to calculate it tho.

 

The a/c compressor draws the same amount of energy regardless of the fan setting, right?

 

Thanks for the answers!

And... I know I said "last," but apparently I lied. I've got another question.

This may be a newbish thing to ask, but I'm new to this hybrid thing, so I'm asking:

The gas engine seems to come on and off quite a bit. When I drive in residential areas, it generally comes on between traffic lights but goes off when I hit the light. On my ride home from work, it probably comes on then goes off at least 12 times or so.

Is this bad for the engine, all the on and off? I realize it's designed to be a hybrid, but I sometimes worry that it's going on and off so much.

 

I'm not sure on the '08's to be honest. On the '07's and prior, you had an AC mode that was either off when the ICE was off, or on all the time and kept the ICE on; the draw was the same, it just managed the AC. Fan settings do change the vehicles energy consumption quite a lot in the earlier models, Ford themselves had a graph that showed something like a 28% loss of fuel economy by having the AC on max and the fan on high due to the high draw rates of both.




LOL, relax, it's a hybrid, it goes on and off. A lot. The periodic coming on the ICE when it's cooler is to make sure that all that on and off activitiy doesn't do a thing to the engine.

 

At least a couple of big differences make that not a problem. 1) The starter is the generator... its got alot more power than the standard starter, you'll notice that the car doesn't "crank" like a normal vehicle even when you start it. The engine starts in less than 500ms I've read. 2) BECAUSE the engine is starting WARM all those times, oil is distributed throughout the engine. It hasn't had time to drain back down into the oil pan... So the wear and tear of a typical engine start is not present. Hope that helps.