• Buying experience

My previous car was a 2005 Pontiac GTO. The 400 horsepower 6 liter V-8 provided a heaping helping of torque but had a thirst for lots of premium unleaded (the few times I calculated mileage in that beast I came up with around 19-20). The Australian (Holden) designed vehicle had the fuel tank in the trunk, directly above the rear axle for traction. The US (Pontiac) version had all sorts of collision requirements surrounding that fuel tank, so the US cars were left with a miniscule trunk.

This car served me well for about 14 months, and then… pregnant! It became clear that the GTO was not going to work out for us for two key reasons: the trunk was too small (couldn’t fit the stroller back there), and it was too expensive to operate ($3000 per year on gasoline). We looked at a few different things but the Ford Escape Hybrid solved both problems most effectively.

I went to my local dealer in late August of 2006 and they had a 2007 on the lot. It was grey AWD with the appearance package, the 110v outlet, and the safety package. I went for a test drive and was very impressed with the technology. The car I aimed to trade in for this had an engine almost three times larger, but the Escape Hybrid seemed to have enough power to be able to merge into traffic safely. I thanked the dealer and told him I would be in touch.

I went home that night and searched the web for more info the FEH. Of course from the dealer I was able to gather that the hybrid Escapes had been on the road for two years, and other manufacturers had hybrids out on streets for six years or more, but I still had a big knowledge gap about hybrids and how exactly they work. Google pointed me to www.greenhybrid.com and I was amazed to see some of the mileage people were posting in their signatures. This one guy had an average of 37-something! This guy can go 715 miles on a tank of fuel! That night I read and read everything I could until I was bleary eyed and exhausted. Within a matter of weeks my GTO was traded in on the very FEH that I test drove.

• Driving experience

From what I had read on GH, if you’re going to participate in the Mileage Database don’t start counting from the first tank. The dealer fills it up and tops it off, and you’re going to be showing the vehicle to a lot of friends, who will inevitably want to drive it and floor it, killing your mpg. So I didn’t sweat that first tank, but I was floored to see that I went almost a week and well over 400 miles before I needed to fill it again! My GTO would take me around 300 miles in 3 days and then it was time for gas. So already I knew the Escape Hybrid was a good purchase.

Over the next few months I was just taking it easy with the vehicle. No double taps, no fake shifts, no drafting… just trying to start out slow, coast to stops, and use EV as much as possible. I watched my mileage go from 33 down to 30 as winter settled in. The colder it got the more often the engine would run just to keep the vehicle warm. I became discouraged with the downward trending fuel economy and I gave less priority to trying to drive efficiently. As such, my worst tank bottomed out in mid February at 25.2! What the heck, I didn’t shell out thousands of dollars to switch vehicles just to improve by about 5 mpg!

Just then the weather started to turn. In just a little over a week we went from an average daytime high of -1 to +19 fahrenheit. My mileage started increasing and so did my feeling about my purchase. I ordered a scangauge so that I could start keeping a closer eye on my mileage trip by trip.

The scangauge came in March, the average daily high temps were finally above 32, and I found a gas station that sold pure gasoline, no ethanol at all. I set three consecutive high tank mpgs: 34, 35, 36! My mileage took a sharp dip for an Easter road trip, and then kept climbing… 37, 39, 40! I found myself taking a more direct route to and from work that involved some slower roads. I experimented with some of the driving techniques showcased on this and other forums: pulse and glide (too inconsiderate for other drivers), drafting (too dangerous), double tap (usually what I do is one long tap so nobody behind me thinks I’m sending them a message), fake shift (too involved), forced auto stop.

I would say the things that I use daily that help me average in the high 30’s (in the summer) are traffic, fuel, route, and time. Traffic helps me because I drive from the suburbs to the city every day with tens of thousands of others. If I time it just right so that I’m in the roll-and-go, the FEH is in that sweet spot where my average MPH is around 25-35. Fuel is a help in that I use 100% gas when I have the opportunity. Yes, it burns a little dirtier, but I use a whole lot less of it. My route is planned around not only increasing FE but also decreasing total mileage. I used to go out of my way a little bit to use more expressway, now I weave through side streets. And time helps my FE because if I just leave a little earlier so I don’t have to rush I can take it easy on the gas and focus more on driving efficiently.

• Stats

Miles driven in my first year (approximately): 23,973
Gallons of regular unleaded gas consumed in the FEH: 723
Gallons of premium unleaded gas I would have consumed in the GTO: 1261
Fuel cost, Escape 723 x 3.0 = $2,169
Fuel cost, GTO 1261 x 3.2 = $4,035
Money saved by the decision I made: $1,866.
Tons of greenhouse gasses saved: 7.4

• Conclusion

First of all, if you made it all the way through thanks for reading! Secondly, thanks to the people who were posting on GH in August 2006- you helped convince me to take the plunge! This is a smooth vehicle that I’m happy to say I haven’t had any problems with, except for losing some local gas merchant friends! My only regret is that I don’t feel like I have been able to influence anyone in my social circle to buy a hybrid of any kind. I’ve shown it to many, and discussed my great fuel economy with many more, but nobody has joined in. Hopefully there are some lurkers out there reading this post that will be motivated to go to a dealership and try out a hybrid. You won’t regret it!

The wild thing is there is a stretch of road with a golf course on one side and a corn field on the other. It’s one lane in each direction with a speed limit of 35. I used to love this road in the GTO because I could get the car up to 100 before I had to slow down for a stop sign. Now I love it in the Escape because I can drive down the whole thing without using a drop of gas!


This is a chart of my mileage vs ambient air temperature for each of my 57 tanks. The sharp dips in MPG that don't match up to temp changes are road trips. Speed and air conditioning tend to rule our road trips.


Here is a pic of the best MTE I've seen on my display after filling up. Well actually there was a 611 once but I didn't bother to shoot a picture since it was only one more.

 

Excellent! Glad to see you still love yours.

 

Wow, that's excellent data Brady. Yes, it was long, but I enjoyed reading the post...always enjoyed reading about FEH/MMH owner's experiences, esp the very positive ones that much mirror our own experiences. Keep the the great FE with your FEH!

 

Nice write up. I'm in a similar situation. I have an 06 GXP tuned to 320hp and it's awesome. However, with 95% of my driving in the suburbs it's killing me to continue contributing to the oil companies at an average rate of 13-15mpg.

It's certainly a more creature comfort loaded vehicle than most of the Hybrids I'm looking at.

I am intriged to look at the Ford or Mercury Hybrid SUV's. I may just go and look at them again today.

My main comparison isn't just what the difference is going to the Hybrid vs my GXP but also the Hybrid vs non Hybrid versions and how long will I have to drive it before the difference in price is made up.

Of course compared to my GXP, the 35-45mpg difference will be huge and the costs made up quickly. However, I'm torn as I could simply go get any FE small vehicle and see a marked savings.

I'm still in investigation mode yet.....my guess is though for the money, which I don't want to spend $28-$30k, I'll end up with a Prius. If I'm going to spend more like the SUV's, I'll just stick with what I have and use the money towards gas as the difference would be a wash to get what I want.

 

I think this is the mistake alot of prospective hybrid buyers make. A good way to compare gas mileage in the real world is to average the highway and city ratings. So your small non hybrid will get you about 21 mpg, which is not bad but only 5 mpg better than the GP. However the FEH can return an honest 30 mpg all the time. That is double the mpg of the GP. Another thing to consider that I have never heard mention is the MUCH lower cost of maintenace. Brakes last twice as long, Oil changes are 10K, tune ups 100k+, trans service is 5 quarts drain and fill. There are NO alternators or starters. The only extra maintenace is the additional cooling system and the cabin air filter for the battery. I would estimate the maintenace costs to be 1/2 of a regular non hybrid.

The other thing is the cool factor. You obviously like cars and the hybrids are a technical marvel. Prius' are a dime a dozen around here but I get alot of "I didn't know Ford made a hybrid---what kind of gas mileage do you get?". Most are floored when I say about 30mpg all the time.

 

Well you compare an 07 Prius at roughly $23k vs say a Nissan Versa at $14,800 or even the nicer sentra at $17,000 the difference in price alone is pretty steep.

Looking at a Sentra 2.0S with some really nice features, the difference in avg. MPG is 28 vs 46mpg overall average. That equates to about $630 per year higher costs for the Sentra at $3gal. That's a long time of driving to make up the difference and initial costs the Prius brings. Between 8-10 years at 15k per year in my book. Now I may not keep this next car past say 5-6 years so resale will come into play....but even at that point, it will likely be a wash and I won't bank a decision on what if's regarding resale....just a consideration though.

I also don't find maintenance costs that much really. Brakes are cheap and really, most of the new cars are maint. free. Oil life is roughly 7,500-10,000 on most cars nowadays. I've always gone a min. 7,500 miles even back to my first car, a 1983 Hurst Olds that is still running fine

Don't get me wrong, I do like cars, and I like the Prius as it is a little different/unique still. I like it a little better than the Civic Hybrid so far. However, I will always have a toy car for show. This is going to be a Daily Driver and I'm just trying to weigh the differences.

Looking at the Ford Escapes based on the new 08 EPA ratings, there's about 7mpg difference in AWD models. that's about $580/yr difference. with roughly a $4,400 difference in price between the Hybrid AWD and the XLS AWD I looked at today. Again, about 7.5 years to break even on the two.

Decisions......hmmmm.....at least this part is fun.

 

Of note, the EPA ratings (obviously) aren't always accurate. Now, whlie it is certainly a valid point that by using the ratings you're creating a standard base from which to draw a comparison, different vehicle models return different results than they are rated for.

I have had my AWD 2008 FEH since June. In the three months I have owned the vehicle, I am averaging over 33 MPG in combined city and highway driving. Still assuming 15k miles per year at $3/gal, thats "only" an improvement of 5 MPG from the EPA-rated 28 MPG (averaged), or a cost difference of $243/yr.

Therefore, you could realistically achieve a gas savings of (580+243) = $823/yr by purchasing the Escape Hyrbid (AWD) over the gas model. I'm running at stock 35-psi tires, no mods, roof rack still on - nothing other than driving a little smarter.

... but wait, there's more! Act now and we'll include the federal government Tax Credit on fuel efficient vehicles - a credit of up to $2200 for the AWD FEH (and $3000 for the FWD). If you qualify for the entire savings (and at least personally, I've projected that I will), that cuts the price difference in half between the Hybrid and XLS Escapes. And if you're solely looking at gas savings over a break-even period, you're looking at under three years to break even.

I hope some of this information helps your decision! Personally I can't say enough good things about my FEH, and hopefully I'll find the time to post about my experiences and thoughts over my first 4000 miles of ownership soon! Its a lot of fun, and everybody asks about the hybrid tech - not to mention the fuel savings (discussed above). Good luck!

 

I too calculated about 6 -7 years to make up the difference between the FEH and any other vehicle that would fit my needs. But I based that on fuel costs alone (and back in the "good old days" when gas was $2.00/gal)

But I was able to retain most of the $1900 federal tax credit and just this year realized that I will be saving approx $500 per year (average) on personal property taxes that my state/county have granted to hybrids. I am sure that break even number is down to 3 - 4 years now (does anyone think gas prices are going to go down in the long term?)

 

Believe me, there have been many debates about the financials of hybrids and the "apples to apples" comparisons of hybrids and their regular gas counterparts. For me it wasn't just about the money. Becoming a father really changed my perspective on a lot of things. Suddenly the long term future is more important than the present. I don't want my son to be sent to some war in a distant corner of the Earth to fight for oil. I don't want my grandkids to get those yellow sweat deposits on their undershirts from global warming!

 

Nice original post Brady.

I just read a report that says something like 85% of all hybrid sales are either purchased by the female in the family, or the decision to purchase a hybrid was strongly influenced by the female in the family. One reason stated was, that women tend to think about "what will this do for my children" when most men think "how much gas/money will this save me".

I just found that interesting, a bit shocking, but probably true.
At the time, I had no female in my life, so made the decision 100% on my own.
-John