High winds

Odometer: 20284.8
Tank Mileage: 601.5
Gallons Added: 15.596
Long-Term Average: 41.3
Short-Term Average: 39.8
Calculated Average: 38.5

I drove all week after the marathon before I needed to fill. The last 150 miles were into a fierce headwind which dropped my mileage significantly. The 6-minute average dropped to the 30 mpg range. I am quite happy with the handling of the car in these conditions, even when I had that wind from the side. I expect I may start seeing somewhat reduced mileages as the weather cools as it takes time for the car to completely warm up in the morning.

Another milestone on this fill was the 20,000-mile service point. I went back to the same dealer as the 10,000-mile point. I scheduled this through the Ford Owner website. Also, the service tech I talked with when I dropped the car off seemed to better understand what was needed for this service point. The only confusion was an item not noted which is part of the scheduled maintenance for a related vehicle. It turned out that this car is designed slightly differently and that item doesn't apply. The work was handled well and I was out of there fairly quickly.

I forgot to mention the Fuel Economy graph resets that I am still encountering. At least I haven't had a recurrence of display resets I had earlier.

Killer commutes

Odometer: 14556.5
Tank Mileage: 584.8
Gallons Added: 15.510
Long-Term Average: 38.9
Short-Term Average: 38.9
Calculated Average: 37.7

I had a week of commutes where I was running behind and didn't try for enhanced mileage. This is reflected in the lower tank mileage.

I like the segment mileage report I get when I stop the car. I wish this was stored in a location where I could retrieve the last 10 or so segments. I'm a data junkie and making it easier to collect the data would be a plus. Having the car send the report as an SMS or an email would be a way to do this.

One minor item: While the display, and longer term mileages, hasn't reset recently, I am noting that the fuel efficiency bar graph clears its data every so often. I haven't figured out a pattern yet. This is currently in the "that's odd" category as opposed to "that's annoying".

[Posted 2010-07-19]

Spontaneous Reset, Take Two

The display (and the short- and long-term averages) was reset this morning when I started the car for my commute. Based on reading online, there is a fix for this. I will have this addressed when I bring the car in for its 10K service point next week.

On a better note, I had my best mileage for the drive in at 46.2 mpg. This included going through a construction zone on the Interstate.

An unexpected reset

Odometer: 2844.4
Tank Mileage: 608.9
Gallons Added: 15.578
Long-Term Average: 40.5 (reset during tank)
Short-Term Average: 40.5 (reset during tank)
Calculated Average: 39.1

I will need to figure out how I'm going to calculate, and report, long-term average mileage. One of the sites I'm recording my mileage on reports my overall average as 37.7 mpg.

Between the time we parked to go to lunch and the time I started the car after lunch, several items were reset: short-term average, long-term average, the dash display settings, and the fuel efficiency display settings. Trip A and Trip B were not reset. I have no idea what triggered this reset and no operational impact has been noted, but it is annoying.

I had 10 miles to E showing when I stopped. I already knew the low-fuel warning activated at 50 miles to E. This is accompanied by an alert tone. This tone is repeated at 25 and 10 miles to E. One thing that will make me feel better is that I drove more than 40 miles after the 50-mile warning. Fuel remaining goes down quickly from 1/4 to the low-fuel warning, but the slope appears better after that point.