Gimp

I just went over 25,000 miles today so I did a bit of math with my results. 1st 5,000 Miles Average MPG = 25.376 2nd 5,000 Miles Average MPG = 25.677 3rd 5,000 Miles Average MPG = 25.816 4th 5,000 Miles Average MPG = 25.738 5th 5,000 Miles Average MPG = 25.938 I don't think that you can really draw any conclusions out of this since I've alternated between regular and premium fuel, and I was carrying a canoe on my roof for about 10% of the miles.

As a follow-on, here is a government website that discusses the EPA driving cycle that is used to establish the city and highway MPG figures. There are a lot of variables, but just taking a simplistic look at the highway column you can see a top speed of 60 MPH and an average speed of 48.3 That's rather eye opening. http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/fe_test_schedules.shtml Honestly, if I were an automotive engineer I'd be desigining my vehicle parameters to get the most efficient numbers in this test schedule because that's how the government scores you. Every fraction of an MPG improvement is important as it impacts your corporate fleet average. Every foreign and domestic brand probably does that.

From what you wrote I believe that you had the first oil change at about 5,200 miles. Now, 4,200 miles later you're at 0%. Since the oil change meter can go up to 10,000 miles or less (depending on what the computer determines based on your driving conditions) I would say that your oil life didn't get re-set to 100% after the first oil change. I just did an oil change last week. Under the oil life re-set options I had 100% and some lower figures as options. (I couldn't figure out why anyone would re-set to less than 100% after an oil change) I don't recall what those were, but you might look to see if one is low enough to reset and get you the remaining 800 miles you were looking for. Another option is to ignore the oil change message that comes on every time you start the car, or just change the oil early and be done with it.

Perhaps on the previous fill-up you didn't actually get up to full, and with the second fill-up you did. I normally start looking for a gas station when I hit 1/4 of a tank remaining. From there it normally takes about 15 gallons to get the tank full. If the 50 mile low fuel light comes on it's usually about a 16 gallon fill-up. When I fill-up, the gas station nozzles always cut off at 11 or 12 gallons depending on the nozzle I'm using and that's 3 or 4 gallons short of full. Then I have to carefully fill the remaining 3 gallons at a very low rate of flow. That involves listening very carefully to the sound of the fuel in the filler neck. With previous vehicles I've owned when the nozzle cut off automatically it meant that I was actually within a gallon of almost overflowing. My thought is that on your first fill-up you let it fill until the nozzle cut off and considered it full although you were actually 3 gallons short of full. With the second fill-up you managed to get more into the tank. That would make the 13-gallon figure in your display pretty accurate. I'm at 23,976 miles on my Edge EcoBoost so I've had a learning curve with the fuel tank and fill-ups. It's slightly annoying characteristic of the Edge but I've gotten used to it. I don't have the enhanced display feature that you do so I can't personally vouch for its accuracy.

I am a fourteen month owner of a 2012 Edge 2.0 EcoBoost and I would like to provide my comments on my fuel economy results. I've posted parts of this in answer to discussions in the Edge forum but have decided it would be a good idea to post a consolidated version here. It's lengthy, but I have a lot to say. To start, as of my last fill-up yesterday I had driven 23,858 miles and used 929.32 gallons of fuel for an average fuel economy figure of 25.67 MPG. The EPA rating for the vehicle is 21-City, 30-Highway, and 24-Combined so I’m just above the Combined rating. My results: My driving profile has been 80% metro-Detroit driving 76 miles per day in a mostly highway, rush hour commute. Depending on the conditions, that can be a little or a lot of stop and go, intermixed with highway speeds of 50 to 70 MPH for a few miles if I’m lucky. Each day varies depending upon rain, snow, and accidents. I think these driving conditions generally fall in the “combined†category. About 10% of my mileage is local trips to the store, etc. in urban driving conditions, and about 10% of my total miles have been ‘all highway’ trips going north and south on I-75. But, since I’ve carried a canoe on top of my vehicle for those trips my highway MPG hasn’t been much above the combined MPG rating due to the increased drag. I had a canoe rack on top of my car for 6 months of last year and even without a canoe that introduced a drag that probably had a small negative impact on my MPG. A single all highway trip of 400 miles at 65 – 70 MPH with the roof rack but no canoe yielded an MPG of 29.56 as estimated through a fill-up. Measuring fuel efficiency: Determining fuel efficiency on the Edge isn’t really easy. The fuel economy meter on the dash gives immediate feedback and has called my attention to my own driving behaviors that decreased fuel efficiency. I can verify that rapid acceleration is a significant factor in reducing fuel efficiency. You can even see the significant impact of going uphill versus flat terrain when the engine is clearly working harder, even if you can’t hear it or notice the grade. However, I don’t think the average MPG displayed on the meter is especially accurate. There is a setting for 5-minutes, 15-minutes, and 30-minutes which implies to me that it’s reflecting your fuel efficiency average for those short time periods rather than your entire trip. Filling up the tank and measuring fuel use the old fashioned way is also not very precise due to the design of the filler neck. When I know that I’m down to a quarter of a tank remaining, it takes about 14 or 15 gallons to get to back to full. Almost every single fuel station nozzle kicks off at 11 or 12 gallons so I end up trickle filling the last three gallons. It is an iffy process that relies a lot on my ability to hear the fuel. That’s often difficult due to background noise so my fill-ups to ‘full’ may vary by half a gallon to gallon. However since I’ve recorded every single fill-up with this many miles I’m pretty confident about my long term 25.67 average. 30 MPG expectations: I think that people are making a mistake by focusing on the 30 MPG highway rating of the EcoBoost Edge. It sets up false expectations. First of all, the highway rating comes from an EPA driving profile and the EPA profile for highway isn’t 70 miles per hour. My casual observation is that the best “highway†mileage comes at a constant (no stopping and starting) speed of between 55 and 60 MPH. It’s hard to find that driving condition but I think you can easily meet or exceed the 30 MPG rating at that sustained speed. When you start going over 60, the MPG (based upon the meter results) begins to decline as the speed increases. When you go over 70 MPH, the MPG begins to drop much faster as you push toward 75. That’s an impact of exceeding the optimal point it’s tuned and geared for, and the increased wind resistance which is significant. Carry a canoe and watch the tension on the tie down straps and you will get a much stronger appreciation for the differences in wind resistance on a vehicle between speeds of 45, 60 and 70 MPH. Fuel choice: I picked up my car in the winter 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 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 a noticeably better pick-up than regular fuel. I also think that I was getting slightly better fuel economy. At the current price of fuel, premium is 5% or so more expensive than regular. If it gives me better pick-up and about 1 MPG better fuel economy, it’s a fair trade. I’m not an automotive engineer, but I think that the better fuel economy is somewhat a result of the improved low end torque, which means that I can use a lighter foot on the accelerator than I would with regular to get the same pick-up. I used premium all summer 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. Purchasing the 3.5 or the 2.0: When I made my purchase decision the EcoBoost Edge was just being released and there was no customer feedback available yet. I was interested in it because of the very positive reviews of the F150 EcoBoost owners. However, due to the $995 dollar price premium I wasn’t sure if it was worth it. Comparing the 22 MPG combined rating of the 3.5 and the 24 MPG combined rating of the 2.0 and my anticipated 20,000 miles driving per year I figured it would take me close to 4 years at a 2 MPG increase in fuel efficiency to make up the $995. I normally keep vehicles for 6 or more years so it would have eventually paid off but I was leaning toward going with the 3.5 engine as a known product. Note that I did not calculate the probability that the EcoBoost might bring a little more back in resale value so there is that to consider. The thing that made up my mind for the EcoBoost Edge was the driving experience. My test drive of a 3.5 Edge went fine although I didn’t really like the way the transmission shifted in my test vehicle. Since I hadn’t read any complaints I assumed it was just because I wasn’t used to it and that both the transmission and I would adjust over time. Then my salesperson at the dealership let me know that first EcoBoost had arrived and he told me that I needed to drive it. He seemed surprised by his own test drive. So I drove the EcoBoost and had something of a “wow†experience. The specifications reflected that it had better low end torque than the 3.5 (for those that don’t understand torque, think improved pick-up / acceleration) and its actual performance showed it. The pick-up was great and the transmission seemed to shift much smoother. So smooth that I had a hard time detecting the shift points. I really liked that acceleration and that combined with the increased fuel efficiency was what sold me on the EcoBoost Edge. Here are a couple of last comments: I don’t like to let my wife or daughter drive my Edge. They both seem to enjoy the turbo too much and they really enjoy the fast take offs from a light. If my fuel meter is showing an average MPG of 28 and then they take it out, it always returns at the 22 or 23 MPG level. That really messes with my fuel efficiency. I personally like to save the turbo for a highway entry when a semi is flying up behind me. Also, a co-worker purchased the 3.5 after I bought my Edge and we compare notes. His driving style is similar to mine and he’s about 2 MPG below my results. Right where he should be. While the 2.0 ended up working for me, it might not be the right choice for everyone and I could easily recommend the 3.5 choice to a friend. I’ll just end by saying that I have no regrets.

It's the formula used to come up with the octane rating in the U.S. and I believe Canada as well. Europe and Japan use another method of calculating the octane rating. For that reason, I understand the an gas that has an octane rating of 87 here, would have a higher number in Europe. I think that the reason they specify that is in case North American built Edge is exported to Europe the owner will be able to know that the correct octane rating number will be different due to the different scale. (Or at least Ford has covered itself for the warranty.) In this case an example I can think of would be members of the U.S. military who have their cars shipped to Germany or Italy for their tour of duty there. (I did that many years ago although I had no idea about this formula and apparently just correctly assumed that regular here was regular there.) Of course, few people other than petroleum engineers are going to understand what that means in the owners manual.

I've had about 13 months and 22,000 miles of experience with an Eco Boost Edge to date. During cooler weather I've found that there is no discernible performance difference between regular or premium fuels so I stuck with regular and everything was just fine. However, once the weather got a lot warmer I found that premium offered better performance with improved acceleration. Steady state driving shows no difference. Premium also seemed to give me better fuel economy in the summer. At nearly $4 per gallon premium was about 5% more expensive than regular, but the fuel efficiency improvement was a bit better than 5%. I switched to premium in mid-June and back to regular by mid-September and I live in Michigan so that might give you an idea of the temperature range. I initially planned on purchasing the 3.5 engine as I figured the extra $1,000 charge for the Eco Boost would take about 4 years of 20,000 miles per year to recoup the extra cost. (I did my math using the combined fuel economy figure for both vehicles) However, after I test drove both vehicles I was extremely impressed with the low end pick-up of the Eco Boost engine. It was clearly better than the 3.5. I also thought the transmission shift points were a lot smoother. So, I bought the Eco Boost more for the performance, figuring that I would eventually break even on the extra cost. So far I'm very happy with my choice. Also, there is no reason to think that regular fuel will cause you to experience increased maintenance costs. Millions of miles were probably put on that engine during dyno and road testing, on regular fuel. It was tuned for regular. The Eco Boost has been out on the F-150 truck for some time now and I don't think anyone is complaining of increased maintenance costs from using regular. It's not the same engine, but it's the same technology.

My driving is primarily 80 miles a day / 400 miles a week of rush hour traffic in metro Detroit. It's a mixed bag of stop and go with occasional short burst of highway speed followed by more stop and go. I try really hard to not become an aggressive driver. I see too many car wrecks every single day. In the stop and go conditions, I don't want to rear end anyone and I don't want anyone to rear end me. When I'm walking through parking lots I often glance at the tires on the cars around me. Most of them don't have sufficient tread. I always assume one of them is behind me and I drive accordingly. The canoe does add a lot of drag. Consider that it's upside down and the air flow going over the windshield is catching in the underside of the boat. I can see the strain on the the front tie down ropes as I increase speed. A kayak and many roof boxes would be much more aerodynamic. When my wife or daughter drive my car the MPG drops quite a bit. They both like fast take-offs and they really like the turbo on the Edge. They also get several thousand fewer miles on brake pads so that is the other impact of their driving style. I think that most people are complaining about their fuel economy because they aren't getting the numbers that they saw posted on the vehicle sticker. We're seeing more things like that in the news now with the Ford C Max. The problem is that here in the U.S. the fuel economy numbers come from a very specific driving profile established by the Environmental Protection Agency. All manufacturers tune their vehicles to attain maximin fuel efficiency at those conditions. Unfortunately, most people don't know what those driving conditions are, let alone drive in that profile. Manufacturers and dealerships would be doing themselves a favor by educating their customers on how the fuel economy numbers are established. The might help to reduce a lot of unrealistic expectations.

I have to admit that I'm one of those "I baby my vehicles" people with the same engine as you have. I've tracked my mileage and fill-ups since day one of ownership over the last 13 months. Over 21,909 miles (roughly 35,000 km I believe) I have used 853 (US) gallons of gasoline for a lifetime average of 25.68 MPG. About two thousand of those miles involved significant drag from a canoe on the roof. Thus, I'm reluctant to follow your advice. You aren't using Imperial gallons in your MPG calculation are you?

It's not the quantity of posts, but the quality of the posts that is important. This site as a lot of quality information with minimal, non-useful distractions.

Have you checked with your Ford parts department for the number? I added the Ford side rails after I took delivery of my 2012 last November. Part of the change required new plastic mounting clips for the front and rear of each side. The middle clip didn't change. You should figure out if the clips used for the rails will still work with the non-rail plastic insert. I suspect they may not, otherwise it would be the same clip whether you had the rails or not. If you need to change clips, you will also have to fill in and seal an empty bolt hole under each of the clips.

Go to the system settings, choose "vehicle", and then "rear view camera". You can turn the guidelines back on. It just takes a few seconds. The recent software update added a dashed black line to show the center line when backing. I don't tow, but it would be useful for lining up a trailer. I think it's just useful for backing up as it gives me a better sense of where my vehicle is going. A friend owns a new Taurus SHO and he also just got the new update. His display has the two multi colored guidelines, but he doesn't have the black dashed line. The additional thing the SHO display has is a set of white lines that show the projected wheel track of the vehicle when in reverse.

I installed the update 11 days ago and have had no problems. This is my second update and each time it seems like the functionality improves and it becomes much more user friendly although I can't always put my finger on what has changed. Aside from the obvious return of the outside temperature to the display, my rear view camera display now has an additional detail in the form of a dashed black line that denotes the center line of the vehicle. That addition helps in backing up to a specific point. Anyone who needs to align a trailer hitch should like that feature. A suggested future change would be to allow the calendar on my phone to sync with the calendar on the display.

Check the plastic pan that's below the engine. After my first oil change I didn't secure the fastner that was next to the drivers side wheel well sufficiently and it worked its way loose resulting in a rattle. Sound often doesn't originate from where you're hearing it so search further out as you look for the loose part.

Last weekend I took my Ecoboost on its first extended road trip. I was carrying a canoe on my roof so that obviously introduced a lot of drag and reduced fuel economy, but the results were interesting. On the outbound (mainly) highway part of my trip my fill-up reflected 26.8 MPG. Due to the boat I generally kept my speed at 72 MPH. The next tank was used on paved side roads with a 55 MPH speed limit, as well as lots of slower driving on windy gravel and dirt roads in a national forest that yielded a 25.9 MPG. The highway ride home involved some significant head and side winds and the last tank down to a 24.8 MPG average. It was interesting to watch the fuel meter during the return trip. You could see the immediate effect of increased drag from the head winds as the average would drop, similiar to when you are climbing a hill. One of these days I hope to make a long road trip without the canoe or canoe rack to see how my MPG works out then.

I didn't care for the LTD for the reasons you mentioned, especially the faux wood trim. Therefore I chose to buy an upgraded SEL instead. I have the leather seat option and my passenger seat absolutely does fold flat.

The only time the engine has seemed loud to me is when I pull into the garage with my window down and the electric fan is running. I've never stood outside of the vehicle as it idled so I don't know how that is. The vehicle seems to have excellent noise insulation so from the interior I don't notice anything.

I wouldn't worry about the amp. As akirby said "add an amp if needed later". Unless your are an audiophile I don't think you will need it. There is always someone who will try to sell it to you, but I don't think it's necessary. The factory speakers are pretty poor and even a 'good' (not even great) set of replacements from Crutchfield will make a huge difference in your sound. I had pre-ordered four speakers before my SEL was delivered late last November. I changed the two rear speakers on the day I took delivery. When I switched the balance back and forth between the front and rear speakers I was amazed at the improvement in the quality of the sound. That confirmed my decision to change all four of them. I highly recommend Crutchfield. They know what fits your car and they provide the necessary wiring adapters. I didn't bother calling them but there will be a number of speaker choices so you may want to ask for their advice. They are happy to give it and people who have talked to them recommend it. They will ask you some questions about your listening preferences and steer you toward the best speakers for your likes. If you have them installed, ask the shop to demonstrate the difference between the old and replacement speakers. Also, hold one in each hand and you will see the quality difference.

I am attaching a copy of my MPG log and notes for reference. The vehicle has not left the metro-Detroit area since I took delivery so all results have been from urban driving, primarily my daily commute.

I posted pictures of the headrest at various example angles a few months ago: http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?/topic/8607-new-2012-ecoboost-sel/ Scroll down to post #18. I don't think they actually look any different.

Due to dealership concerns over the possibility of a lawsuit, the parts department clerk probably can't advise you on whether or not you should change your own oil. They can just tell you the correct filter and oil for your model of vehicle, as per the book. You have to understand that constraint and just make your own decision. If you asked the clerk 'is this headrest safe to use in my vehicle', they would probably backpeddle away from answering that unless they had a formal Ford document that said it was an authorized replacement part. (I would strongly suspect that it is.) In my case I happen to have gotten lucky and have the new headrests. If I didn't, I'd be looking at the $400 price tag as you have and pondering whether or not the existing headrests were really causing me $400 worth of aggrevation. Probably not. If I were more youthful and wore my hat with the brim on the back of my head, it probably would be worth it.

That was for the rear headrests: http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?/topic/5997-2011-rear-headrests/page__st__20

You don't have the adjustable style? With mine there is a detent button on each side. One sticks out, the other is flush. You need to press both and pull up.

Regarding AWD, I was raised in the snow belt along the Lake Erie shore in Ohio, spent several years in a mountainous area of souther Germany, and have lived in lower Michigan for 18 years. When I learned to drive as a teenager it was expected that you would find a big empty parking lot full of snow and have fun learning about how to handle a car in it. I have never owned a four wheel or All Wheel Drive vehicle and never missed it. I do however make it a point to always use all season tires with very good tread on them. Traction control on the vehicle provides a lot of additional assistance. If I lived a little further north I would probably buy snow tires and have only wished that I had them about twice in the Detroit area. While the winter in S.E. Michigan was milder than usual this last year, we still had snowy and icy roads and my Edge handled it really well. I don't really like the tires it came with, but they did fine, especially when brand new. The unsafest I have ever felt when there was snow on the road was when I lived in Kentucky and North Carolina. Generally that was about once or twice a winter and it only lasted a few hours. Unless you are in Eastern Kentucky, you know what I mean. AWD wouldn't have helped because the problem was always the other drivers who weren't used to it and would come sliding my way with big eyes and the "ooooh" look on their face. My final comment on four wheel and All Wheel Drive is that I think it can give drivers over confidence and they drive too fast. I admit that on more than one occassion I have taken some small measure of enjoyment out of seeing a vehicle plowed into the median strip several minutes after they blew by me on a snowy road. When you hit the right icy patch all of those wheels still just spin and then you've got the additional problem of a lot of speed built up behind a lot of weight taking you where you don't want to go.

You got the Ltd so you have a loaded vehicle. My only two recommendations would be an immediate, high quality wax job, and purchasing a screen protector for the glass display. I bought one from NuShield to protect the screen (primarily from stray sheepdog paws) and to reduce the glare. You don't even notice it's there. I wouldn't say that the EcoBoost MPG is an issue. I think that expectations were just a bit too high. All the hype on the Edge EcoBoost is about "30 MPG". That comes from Ford as well as the automotive news sources so it's easy to buy into. The reality is that highway MPG on any car is only obtained in a set of optimal conditions which few of us actually drive with any frequency. If you look at the "combined MPG" rating of 24 and set your expectations there, I think that you will be much more satisfied. It's the realistic figure. Anything above that is gravy. If you're a bit below the 24 MPG figure I can understand why you would be feeling some buyers remorse. Then you need to look at the alternative vehicle or engine size you considered and remind yourself that in the same driving conditions, the alternative choice would have been worse than the 4-cylinder EcoBoost. When I was doing my purchase research I did some math on the money savings for the EcoBoost vs. the 3.5 Edge using both vehicles combined ratings. At my 20,000 miles per year of driving it would have been nearly 4-years before I saved enough money to justify the nearly $1,000 premium price. I concluded that it wasn't worth it. I ended up buying the EcoBoost for the superior low end torque and have not regretted my decision. My combined MPG average over 8,700 miles has been 25.358 and I admit that I had hoped for a bit better than that as I'm a light footed driver. My very worst MPG on a tank of fuel was 22.4 and my very best was 30.14 so it all depends on the driving conditions. I should note that I lived in Kentucky for three years and rarely saw a section of road that wasn't going up or downhill so that's going to have a negative impact on your MPG compared to the relatively flat section of Michigan where I commute.