After having researched the FEH for a year (diligently reading these and other forums and reading as many reviews as possible about the FEH, and especially the '08 FEH), I finally made the plunge!

On Saturday, Nov. 10th, I bought my '08 4WD FEH!

This model was exactly what I would have built, had I ordered one. Instead, my local Ford dealer had that very model on their lot! As I wrote in another thread, I viewed this as a sign.

I debated about this for a week because it is a hit to my monthly budget. I will have to arrange a few things. And right now, I don't drive that much to necessarily warrant a hybrid. But I anticipate changes - maybe some very big ones - next year where driving a lot more may become my life.

I was able to get the Ford dealer to actually pay me more for my trade-in that what I owe (!). As we all know, that's a rarity. Plus, they knocked off over $3K in the price. I debated a lot about the extended warranty... that was one issue I wonder if it's worthwhile. It could be a waste of $$, but I decided to get it only because of the technology involved.

I love driving a clutch (manual), but knew that FEH only comes in automatic. Yet, in my limited driving so far, I don't miss my manual! In fact, there's so many things to play with in the car, that it's kind of nice not to have to worry about shifting! I'm more interested in seeing if I can keep the mileage up!

The vehicle only has 45-ish miles on it - so any advice for a new FEH owner is appreciated. I hope to post a lot more in the coming years (and ideally, all positive!).

John

Welcome aboard. I followed this site for like 9 months before I bought my Hybrid in June of this year. There is a lot to learn and share about your vehicle. One warning that was previously posted: New hybrid owners are more likely to have a fender bender in the first 4-6 weeks of ownership due to information overload. Take it easy at first.

2005 AWD Escape Hybrid
Best Interstate tank trip MPG 39.02 (scangauge II) for 402 miles on I-70, 10.3 gallons used over mostly flat terrain.

Best Interstate tank trip E30 MPG 34.6 for 271 miles along I-80 in Indiana and Ohio.

Best multiple road tank trip E30 MPG 36.2 for 202 miles in Southwestern Pa.

The warning is heeded. Already I've had to watch myself a few times because of all the information available! So I will be extra careful!

Gratz on your new hybrid. Hope you like it.

You'll no doubt want to watch the fuel economy to see how it does. The first tank is often quite poor and should be disregarded. As the car 'breaks in' it will improve. You'll see that it's better at 2500 miles and better still at about 5000 miles.

Of course with winter coming on (depending on where you live), your engine will have an extra-long warm-up period (e.g. more like 20 mins to warm up instead of 5). This will *really* chip away at the economy if you live in a frigid place (my worst tank ever was about 21-22mpg but that was with single digit temps -- usually my winter tanks are around 26-28mpg and summer tanks are around 32-34mpg). If you live in a cold place but you own a garage, keep it in the garage... it'll shorten the warm-up period and help your fuel economy average (and in the summer, the shade of the garage means the interior isn't as hot and doesn't require as much AC to get it cooled off... so it saves fuel economy in the summer as well. Garages are always good for hybrids.

The newest hybrids (e.g. yours) seem to do about 2 mpg better by design.

There's lots of tips to learn about to eek out better economy. I'm sure you'll find loads of tips here.

YEA! Welcome to the CLUB!

I had test driving the first FEH and was impressed and know the 2008 has been improved. You're in for a real treat!!!

I believe there is a FEH FAQ with a lot of good lessons learned. Don't worry about recording your first tank . . . call it 'training'. Afterwards, I'd recommend treating your new car as an experiment and use mileage tracking to find what works and doesn't work.

GOOD LUCK!
Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

Automatic, stock, backup car.
Free speech, dialog and knowledge thrives without the poison of SPAM.

Welcome to the forum! It's so exciting to get your very first hybrid, isn't it? Well, congratulations, and I hope you love it as much as most of us here love our hybrids. The FEH is a very solid hybrid choice, and there are plenty of people here who know tons about it and should be able to help you answer any questions you might have. Hope to see you around GH! Best of luck.

Thanks for the welcome - however, I've been on this forum for over a year. I teased the mod for moving my thread here because I'm not "new". ;-) Before I bought a new car (as I already had a 2006 SUV that obtained decent mileage - for a non-hybrid), I wanted to make sure it was good and worth the $$.

I haven't had need to drive it a lot, but so far so good! I had wanted a SUV hybrid since Ford first released their vehicle - but I also didn't want the first or second year models as I feared there would be too many problems. While I'm sure the '09 model will get even more upgrades, I'm happy with what I have. It does what I want and then some. As I drive it more, I'll keep people posted.

Y'know, I thought it was wierd that you JUST JOINED, yet had 40 posts.
I thought you were just REALLY into the site here.

Anyway, welcome to the group of hybrid OWNERS.

Steve

STOP terrorism - Drive a HYBRID

Vehicles:
350 miles a week ------------ 2006 HCH II, Magnetic Pearl, w/NAVI (born on May 25, 2006)
350 miles a month ---------- 2003 Mazda Tribute ES-V6
350 miles a year (for now) - 1986 Mercedes 560SL

Per the mods, this forum is for both new hybrid owners (even if they have been on this site for a while, like me) as well as new members. I may have introduced myself a while ago, but can't recall - I usually don't do such things.

But again, thanks for the welcome!

I bought my FEH on Nov. 10, 2007. I recently did a cross-country trip (San Francisco area to the Chicago area). From Western Wyoming to my home in CA, I travelled in frigid -9 degree weather and through heavy falling snow in the Lake Tahoe. In the mountains, the top speed was only 30 miles per hour and the 4WD was used. On the flat roads, the average speed was 75 miles per hour. Despite all of these conditions, I still averaged 27.5 mpg!

Well, there are certainly posters here who are not hybrid owners- just being interested in hybrids is enough, of course, but many, many of us do own hybrids, so I guess you took us a bit by surprise. I have seen people buy hybrids, join, and post many times in the first week, or join first and put up a few posts about how they were looking for hybrids and trying to pick one, and then post a lot right after they buy, so being a new owner, a new member and with 42 posts isn't out of the question. You are just unusual! Not a bad thing to be. Well, anyway, congrats again on finally taking the plunge and I hope you enjoy the car.