I've got over 11,000 miles on my 08 MMH 4WD, purchased in January, and have yet to see a tank over 27.3 by the nav system display and have never seen that display top 28.3 (I used to let it run without resetting; now I reset every tank).

I don't drive above 70mph, I live in a moderate climate, and the 06 FEH 4WD we had routinely gets more than that (as high as 34 mpg on certain routes). It has a sunroof and the MMH doesn't, but otherwise they're equipped exactly the same.

I really do wonder if there's something off about this specific MMH, since I can drive the other one the same way and same places and get better mileage. It's not off enough to be alarming, but it's not good.

 

Ouch. Times like this I sure would like Ford to have me travel around to visit people who are having problems with their FEH/MMH/MTH and drive it, to see if there's a problem with the vehicle, the route, or the driver.

 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's the vehicle, since the driver claims to have achieved 7 mpg better with a virtually identical vehicle.

 

Here's a question for you....when you fill up, how many gallons are you putting in? How many miles are you getting out of a tank?

The answers to that should indicate if it is a problem simply with the calculations/display or if it is something with the vehicle. If you are putting in 13 gallons and getting 400 mile tanks that would indicate a problem with the MPG gauge/display. If you are getting 360 mile tanks it would indicate something else is the issue.

 

We've owned our 07 for a little over a year. about 16K on the clock. When we lived in Salt Lake City (mostly city driving) we would average 20-24 depending on the climate. We recently moved to Roosevelt UT which is in the Uintah basin and is mostly flat and mostly highway driving(if you blink driving through the "city" of Roosevelt you miss it) and we are now averaging 30 MPG. This is just driving it like any other car, ie, no hypermiling techniques.

 

Thanks for all the responses. It's definitely not the display - I consistently see about .5-1 mpg lower than the nav system figures when calculating based on gallons added and the trip odometer A, which I reset with every tank (which is consistent with what a lot of other people have reported). I write my trip A mileage, total mileage and nav system mpgs on every receipt. And just to be clear, the 34 mpg on the FEH was on particular trips (CA Hwy 1 north of the Bay Area); that car was averaging more like 29-30 on a consistent basis.)

Maybe I've just developed some bad driving habits ;-)

However, this car does make a funny whine at certain speed bands (around 35-40 and 60-65 miles per hour, in particular), that the other car doesn't; it makes the noise whether in ICE or not, when braking or accelerating, and with the sound system off or on, so it seems like some transmission or electrical component is the most likely culprit. This might have something to do with the discrepancy, might be my imagination, or none of the above.

Would love to see Ford pay Pravus and the other hypermiling pros to travel around - I'd even pay for a visit!

 

Here you go.

 

56,456 miles; guts, feathers and all... 32.1mpg with a 4WD

 

LadyLou, I have a 2006 FEH AWD with 31,000 miles on it. I consistently get 32.4 MPG by my dash display. I stopped checking my tank by tank mileage against my dash display as it was pretty accurate after the 10,000 mile point. Before that, the dash display was consistently low on the average MPG.

I live in the foothills west of Denver at 7100' and drive down a winding canyon road to Lakewood at 5400' every day and back home at night. About 12 miles of twisty canyon road and 10 miles of city streets up to 50 MPH to get to work. I have let my Hybrid teach me to conserve momentum and fuel so I don't drive quite like I did before buying it, but I'm not creeping along in the right lane by any means. The jackrabbit drivers pass me but I often catch back up to them at the light.

I traded in a 2003 Mazda Tribute 4WD with a V6, the close cousin to the Escape with different sheet metal, when I bought my Hybrid in Oct of '05. My Tribute got 18 MPG on the same commute and I would have to say the power is so close to the Hybrid as to be a non-issue. Now my wife wants one as she prefers my Hybrid to her 2000 Explorer with a V8. It's much more nimble and pleasant to drive than a mid-sized SUV like the Explorer.

Hope that helps.

 

I have an '06 4WD FEH and get 26 mpg on average. I drive all over Southern California where rarely do you have a flat stretch of land, AC running all the time with either stop and go traffic or city driving. I will say it's the best vehicle I have ever owned...