So today was a very nice day with outside temps. in the upper 60's-low 70's and I had to take a 68 mile roundtrip, and I thought it would be the perfect time to see whether warm(er) weather (not hot, not cold, just right) in mixed city/highway driving brings the mileage back to spec. on shorter hops, after dipping during the winter. The trip was over a series of roads where the average speed ranges from 25MPH to 65MPH for a couple of stretches, mostly 2 lane but a couple of 4-lane stretches, up and down some moderate hills, with a few flat sections but not many.

I reset the SYNC/NAV energy flow computer when I left the premises, no warmup, just hit the road, and decided to drive gently, not "little old lady" but not pushing it, which wasn't hard because there was a moderate level of traffic hewing closely to the posted limits.

At one point the car ran in pure EV mode at ~40-45 MPH for more than a mile and a half. I would estimate the total fraction of EV mode driving at 20% over the entire distance. I saw a couple stretches where the ICE was turning around 1,500 RPM at around 55-60 MPH, barely ticking over (but that's above the speed where EV mode can function.) That says to me that the driveline isn't "sticky" in terms of energy loss, or the computer would have been commanding more RPM.

End result: 36.9 MPG. This includes some stop-and-go, about a half dozen stoplights in each direction. It's also on the new Pirelli tires, inflated to 36 PSI, and they are definitely "stickier" than the old, hard, partially dry-rotted and balding original Michelins that came off the car.

Again, I was driving non-aggressively, maximizing momentum and so forth, switching between gardening tips on NPR and 50s do-wop as entertainment, but I did have to pull two hills that entail elevation changes of at least 250-300 feet in each direction, over a span of several miles. My max speed was about 73 MPH downhill on the return leg.

It looks like the Hybrid system is back to normal when operating close to the optimal temperature range. I had the A/C (blows cold) on for about 1/3rd the distance because the sun was bright and it was getting warm inside the car. The cabin temperature never really got over 75 degrees and the A/C felt comparatively cold, so I know it has to be blowing in the 40s at least, but I didn't use a thermometer. I never used the cruise control, this was the original interpretation of "self driving car."

Good results. I'll take that. Next up is running the FORScan battery balance function. My Windows 10 laptop destroyed itself on the last Patch Tuesday (I have no idea why) and I have to wipe it and reload it, so that's taking a little extra time.

 

Aside: While driving this trip of 68 miles I spotted at least four other Escapes of "our" years, 2004-2012, one of which was a beautiful black Hybrid in what looked like perfect shape -- I think a 2010 in Black Pearl Slate Metallic -- and another was a white Flex-Fuel which IIRC were 2010-12. So these cars can last a long time and people are obviously getting their money's worth out of them, with some care. I probably didn't see all of them, either. People are keeping them running and they like these cars. I don't think I saw any newer Escapes. Maybe 1. FTM has a rather sad video about a customer's 2015 Escape, in which you have to remove the doors in order to remove the dashboard! And the heater core/evap/blower motor/flap system is a perfidious beast of a thing. The later Escapes are the Ford Europeanized cars and man do they make them tough to work on. Europe - the place that obviously doesn't want anyone working on their own cars ever again. Soon to be the USA.

"This is NUTS!" - and I agree. You need to fix the A/C and heater flaps? Remove the whole dashboard, but first, take both front doors off. What's next? Take off the back wheels, unbolt the subframe, drop the transmission and remove the sunroof before topping off the coolant? Go out to about 4:50 here....




A week ago I met a restaurant delivery driver behind the wheel of a 2011 Hybrid in Lime Squeeze Metallic with over 200,000 miles on the clock. The car looked NEW on the outside, with newly polished factory rims, and it was striking. Really nice. He said he loved it ("You only got 62 thousand miles? Man that's GREAT!") but I only had about 30 seconds to talk with him (we were driving and pulled up to a stoplight next to each other.)

So my takeaway from this is that all the work people have done and contributed to this forum and elsewhere to help keep these cars running has been worth it, and I really thank everyone again. The cars are good values when maintained properly, and they don't look "old."


2011 Ford Escape Hybrid Lime Squeeze Metallic

 

Think these days mileage is over rated. My 80 whatever K sounds good on paper but the car still needs hella work. I hope to see gas mileage in the 30s, so far I've only seen 4mpg in the short distance I traveled. How accurate are the onboard economy meters vs torque or forscan, etc?

And if you think taking off doors is bad, check out when people work on upscale cars. Lots of engine pulls for every little thing.

 

For the most part I watch the *gas* mileage to confirm that the Hybrid system is working the way it "should." Of course, my own observations are not scientific so it's just a ballpark/OCD thing at this point. But yeah, I think you're right about driven mileage. As long as they're maintained it really is irrelevant. The transaxles will go 300,000+ miles. The 2.5L engine is understressed. The rest of the car is not fiendishly complicated. Rust will destroy it before mileage will if you're not careful.

I have a friend who owns a Ferrari F355. Every year he sends it to the shop to get it "ready for the season" which always takes a couple of days. Except when it takes a week or more.

In general I don't like the trend on these newer Ford vehicles to package everything so tightly and with so much "total modularity" that nothing is independently serviceable without a lot of effort. It's really because these cars were designed for Europe first and then homologated back to the United States. A relative owns a 2015 Ford Transit Connect - which I actually like as a small cargo van, great mileage with decent capacity - and it's very much the same way. He had a blower motor burn out and it was a nightmare for our mechanic. I don't have the receipts, but it was a lot.