thanks to those whom have shared. first post from a lurker. i purchased from a ford deal. a 2007 feh - awd w) 70,000 miles recently.

first hybrid. i live in the snow belt region of western ny.

a bit pricey imo at $13,995 but ......thats hybrids.

i forked out the cash for four new general grabber hts tires and the needed allignment.

auto fax back ground check was good & clean. came off a corperate lease.

learned a good deal here about potential soar spots to include electric coolant pumps, blend doors,etc. thumbed through cold weather drive tips, what to expect, look for, listen for etc. thanks helped ease the nerves a bunch.

knock on wood mine seems to function well considering it's dead of winter early feb. (cold and snowy) here. pulling averages of 26.5-29 mpg on hilly semi rural setting. expect the mpg to rise with outside air temp. and improved hybrid drive tech.'s by me and my wife i have done some of the various tests suggested here, observed,listened close and feel it's function is proper.

watching the bar graph while driveing helped a bunch along with double tap and cold weather techs in general. now attempting to share such with my wife.

had to search a bit to even find a a.w.d. escape hybrid in price range. the travel distance of 80 miles to the small town ford dealer has for the most part been a good experiance. they do have a ford cert. hybrid tech. and told me they had checked out the hybrid system and all was good. from notes i have gathered here and tried it appears so

aside from the hybrid function we like the vehicle. we have owned several suv's, 4x4's,jeeps,trucks when gas was less costly. the escape is a bit smaller than some but well thought interior space and fuel effeciancy makes up for it. it drives very well and we both prefer the more boxy truck like appearance as compared to some of the rounded,sloped and slung crossover.......things.... offered today.

again thanks to those tech types whom took the time to share. in times of stress it helped me have some peace.

also found that the local ford dealers garge has hybrid techs.

so far so good

i will let ya know when we break the 150,000 and 200,000 mile markes

 

Good luck with your new ride. You could be seeing a 4-6 mpg improvement during the summer months depending upon a variety of factors.

 

thanks,

you are directly south of my location. i live in southwestern ny along the pa. border.

how many miles do you have on your escape?

have any members of this forum broke 200,000 miles with out to many problems on their f.e.h. yet ?

 

Update- sorry, guess I jumped the gun on this. Further real world mpg tests rather than meter read outs from calculated spins shows just low 20's mpg.

Disappointed – Time for a chat with the dealer whom sold me it..

 

Hold on! You are probably on the first tank of gas?

This is the worst, abosoutely worst time of year where you live for MPG.

Mine can get as low as mid-20's for MPG in winter, but it is easy to get mid 30's for MPG in spring and summer.

I can get tanks in the mid 40's for MPG ( close to Prius ) if I try hard at it.

TOO SOON FOR YOU TO MAKE JUDGEMENTS!

 

well ..... I found out today that my fav. Mobile gas station does use 10% Ethanol and I used it for a full tank off E plus another.

took a 85 mile trip down the expressway today and did 28.6 overall while cruise @ 65mph. Through sections of 55mph it stayed over 30 mpg...........this is with the 10% ethanal. My new General Grabber tires are @ 35psi.

Once off the highway the ev mode worked better than ever around the small town to dealer.........after that trip.

Dealer has it (needed to go in for other anyways) and will check out the pumps,dampers,etc. Goal - see if my in town and semi rural mpg can improve. May just be the short trips for such, very cold temps,hilly,4x4,ethanol,tires.........us (wife and I) combo.

I did learn the double charge tech. for cold starts and it seemed to get me in ev mode much sooner. Just seems that it should stay in ev mode longer. I can't get a "mile or two @ 25mph". Lucky to get 1/2 - 3/4 mile @ 10mph.

Will see what the dealer says......

 

Some FEH owners run higher PSI than 35 in their tires. The hypermiler drivers do not constantly drive the FEH in EV for 1+ mile at 25 mph. They use a variety of methods including pulse and glide. The colder winter weather is going to hinder your ability to obtain high mileage and those short trips kill the mpgs. You report of 28.6mpg at 65mph in sub 20F temperatures is about right with a 4WD vehicle for this time of the year.

 

i did not attempt such for better mpg but, rather per gpsman1 suggestions for battery pack test "1-2 miles @ 25 mph in ev on flat road" "1 1/2 mile = good battery system".

as noted in my feh 4x4, dead of winter i can only get .5 - .75 miles at about 10mph. BUT........it's so darn hilly here i can not find any flat stretch that long.........so.........i don't know? will see what the dealer says. should get better mpg around town and semi rural, even with short trips imo, or it's not worth the extra $ for the hybrid.

thanks

 

You will drop out of EV sooner if it is cold, not due to battery capacity, but due to the engine and/or catalyitic converter getting too cold.

To stay in EV, the water temperature must stay about 125 degrees and the catalyst must stay above about 800 degrees. Hard to do in cold weather.

Trust the bulk of people here, your MPG will get 25% to 50% higher when the weather warms up.

( also type of tires and air pressure play a larger role than most realize )

 

thank you very much sir........