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EcoBoost MPG Results at 35,000 Miles


Gimp

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Edited with updates on 7 October 2014

 

I've been tracking my fuel usage since I purchased my Edge EcoBoost in late November 2011 and wanted to post my results for informational purposes:

 

  1. Miles: 4,924 US Gallons = 194 5,000 Mile Average = 25.376 MPG
  2. Miles: 9,908 US Gallons = 388 5,000 Mile Average = 25.677
  3. Miles: 15,154 US Gallons = 591 5,000 Mile Average = 25.816
  4. Miles: 19,964 US Gallons = 778 5,000 Mile Average = 25.738
  5. Miles: 24,969 US Gallons = 971 5,000 Mile Average = 25.938
  6. Miles: 30,004 US Gallons = 1,165 5,000 Mile Average = 25.082
  7. Miles: 35,045 US Gallons = 1,364 5,000 Mile Average = 24.65
  8. Miles: 40,186 Gallons = 1,558 5,000 Mile Average = 26.513
  9. Miles: 45,090 Gallons = 1,750 5,000 Mile Average = 25.434
  10. Miles: 50,020 Gallons = 1,939 5,000 Mile Average = 26.135
  11. Miles: 55,060 Gallons = 2,128 5,000 Mile Average = 26.691
  12. Miles: 60,008 Gallons = 2,313 5,000 Mile Average = 28.838

 

Lifetime Average MPG = 25.932 MPG (Up from 25.87 at my 55,060 mile update)

 

Notes:

 

1. Most of my driving is a roughly 80 mile daily commute to work and home in the metro Detroit area.

 

2. I set the Trip 2 meter for the last 5,000 miles and came up with 26.3 MPG vs. the 26.135 that I calculated manually. The meter is much more accurate than I had expected.

 

3. I finally took a long road trip that didn't involve carrying a canoe on top of the vehicle. Carry three adults at fairly non-stop speeds of 73 and 58 MPH over 960 miles I showed an average of 32.3 MPG as calculated by re-fills. The meter on the car called it 31 MPG.

Edited by Gimp
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I’ve been experimenting with both. I picked up my car in the winter (late November 2011) and ran it on regular for a couple of months. Out of curiosity I tried a couple of tanks of premium but didn’t notice any difference. In June 2012 I decided to try the premium fuel again. The weather was getting warmer and I was starting to use the air conditioner. My seat of the pants impression was that the premium fuel gave me improved acceleration from a stop compared to regular fuel. I also think that I was getting slightly better fuel economy. At the price of fuel then, premium was 5% or so more expensive than regular. If it gave me better pick-up and about 1 MPG better fuel economy, it seemed worth it. I’m not an automotive engineer, but I think that the better fuel economy is a result of improved low end torque on premium, which means that I can use a lighter foot on the accelerator than I would with regular to get the same pick-up. I’d love to see a comparison of the premium and regular torque curves on this engine.

 

I used premium all summer last year although I experimented with regular a few times, and then switched back to regular full time in mid-September when the weather was cooling off. I tried premium fuel again for about 2,000 miles of driving in February of this year and didn’t notice any difference from regular fuel although I may have gotten a ½ MPG bump in my MPG. I switched back to regular and have stayed with that until my latest fill-up on Monday of this week when premium was only 20 cents (or 6%) more per gallon. Once again, I think it accelerates better from the stop. As I’m driving in a lot of stop and go traffic in my work commute this seems useful. If I were mostly driving on the highway as I was on my recent all highway trip it wouldn’t be worth it as I wasn’t stopping and starting very often.

 

 

 

Nice tabulation. Are you running regular or premium?

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

If.....your car isn't detonating on 87, and if....the CPU isn't pulling too much timing to run 87 because of detonation...(big "if's I know), you should get better ful economy on 87. 87 is more volatile (why it fires early....detonation), and can have more energy content than 91, and therefore can give better fuel economy than premium. That's why the mfg's would prefer to set the car up for 87....if they can make it work. Again a big "if". Turbo charging effectively adds a bunch of boost over and above atmospehric pressure and tends to make fuel fire early. With direct injection and latest engine electronics, this is much better controlled than in the past.

 

In a non turbo car.....87 is a clear winner over premium in a fuel economy contest when vehicle is designed around use of 87.

Edited by RJG
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  • 1 month later...

Updated Results:

 

Miles: 4,924 US Gallons = 194 5,000 Mile Average = 25.376 MPG

Miles: 9,908 US Gallons = 388 5,000 Mile Average = 25.677

Miles: 15,154 US Gallons = 591 5,000 Mile Average = 25.816

Miles: 19,964 US Gallons = 778 5,000 Mile Average = 25.738

Miles: 24,969 US Gallons = 971 5,000 Mile Average = 25.938

Miles: 30,004 US Gallons = 1,165 5,000 Mile Average = 25.082

Miles: 35,045 US Gallons = 1,364 5,000 Mile Average = 24.65 (lots of road construction on my route to work pulled things down)

Miles: 40,186 US Gallons = 1,557 5,000 Mile Average = 26.512 (road construction is over)

Lifetime Average = 25.8 MPG

 

You can see that my average is slowly increasing by just a bit, but the results are easily influenced by driving conditions. All it will take is a couple of good snow storms affecting my daily commute this winter and my next 5,000 mile average will drop down.

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  • 2 months later...

Another update:

 

At 45,090 miles I've used 1,750 gallons of gasoline. My lifetime combined MPG is now 25.76

The average MPG for the last 5,000 miles is: 25.434 This is down just a bit from my 40,000 mile report. I attribute that to winter gas and several long, slow crawling commutes due to winter storms.

 

I'm not sure if I'm going to continue documenting my fuel use. Not much is changing and my wife and daughter think I'm acting obsessive / compulsive in this data gathering. :)

 

 

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I just changed my oil at 25000 miles in my 2013 Limited with the 3.5 engine. My MPG per trip 2, which I only reset every oil change (5000 mile intervals) was 24.2

 

I've always been between 23 and 24 every oil change. Very happy with those numbers as I usually do 65-70 mph when on the highway. Have to use only ethanol blend (10%) since that is all that is available in the Dallas area. Most of the time the A/C is also on.

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I have never had enough faith in the vehicle computer to give me an accurate reading on my MPG. I've viewed it mostly as an estimate for short term feedback. While reading this comment it struck me that it's certainly within my ability to record what the computer says along with my mileage whenever I fill up the gas tank. My spreadsheet gives me a per tank MPG based on my actual miles and gas used data, so I can certainly add an extra column to document what the computer says just to compare the two figures over an extended period of time.

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I have never had enough faith in the vehicle computer to give me an accurate reading on my MPG. I've viewed it mostly as an estimate for short term feedback. While reading this comment it struck me that it's certainly within my ability to record what the computer says along with my mileage whenever I fill up the gas tank. My spreadsheet gives me a per tank MPG based on my actual miles and gas used data, so I can certainly add an extra column to document what the computer says just to compare the two figures over an extended period of time.

 

I use an app to track my mileage and I put in the notes what the computer said mileage was and how much was used. Always seems to be within a half gallon or so. Doing this I have noticed that position of the car (front end up/down hill, etc) does make a difference. Plus when you know about how much fuel you should put in, you notice that some pumps are very sensitive and cut off way too early.

 

I've really noticed that the sensitivity is turned way up on those pumps where you get a discount -- like at grocery stores where your purchases drop the price. Got a tankful for $1.54 the other day!

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Giant? Safeway limits your discounting power :( But can't complain. I use them especially when I want to add some premium fuel now and then. Doesn't hurt so much (up to 50c diff, ouch!).

 

 

 

I use Weis, but have noticed the sensitivity being set high at Giant as well when I fill up my parents car for them.

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  • 2 months later...

Good report. So your overall MPG with the Ecoboost is 25.8, with a good mix of highway driving.

 

At $3.50/gallon, 15,000 miles per year, your fuel cost would be $2,035/year.

 

If my average with the 3.5 V6 is 22.8 MPG, then my fuel cost would be $2,303/year.

 

The difference is $268/year. If the Ecoboost option is $1,000, then it would have a 3.7 year payoff.

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The estimate of 3.7 years is correct at the $3.50 per gallon point. When I was deciding on which engine I wanted 2 1/2 years ago I put together a spreadsheet of several possible fuel prices ($3.50, $3.75 & $4.00 per gallon) and used the official average fuel efficiency ratings for both vehicles which without looking it up was about a 2 MPG difference. I calculated that the $1,000 would be paid off somewhere at around 3 1/2 to 4 years with my 20,000 mile estimated annual driving distance. I normally keep my cars for 6 years at a minimum so it gave me a long term savings. I just wasn't impressed by how much that savings was and leaned toward the larger engine. What sold me on the Eco-boost was the greater low end torque which I really liked. The one unknown factor in this calculation is resale value of the Eco-boost. If I get any part of the extra $1,000 back in resale, the pay-off period would grow shorter. At 50,000 miles, I can say that I don't regret my engine choice. If I'd gotten the 3.5 liter engine I doubt that I would have been curious enough to track my fuel efficiency as I have.

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When I bought my Ecoboost, I didn't bother doing the calculations you both did. At that time people on the boards were talking about a longer payoff period. Didn't matter to me. I keep my cars at least 10 years so I figured it would pay itself off at some point.

 

My biggest concern at the time was that Owe'Malley was floating some trial balloons about making the gas tax a percentage instead of fixed. They figured out that when gas prices go up, people drive less. That plus increasing CAFE regulations mean less money coming into the state. Because of all that, I just wanted to give them less of my money.

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  • 5 months later...

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