Yeah, in the Yaris. 32 mpg with an average road-trip speed of 65 mph over about 160 miles. (if you've ever paid attention to average speed while road-tripping, you know how fast you have to drive to maintain an average of 65 with stops and a good portion of your route being non-interstate!)

My favorite MPG-monitoring mode is trip average. For the typical trip, you'll spend your first 3-5 miles recovering from the cold start and trying to just get your MPG up to somewhere around EPA. From there, if you keep at it, you can just keep taking a tenth or two improvement wherever you can get it, and try to be light enough on the throttle when accelerating that you don't lose what you've gained. If you do the same on a per-tank basis, by the time you've used the first quarter tank, you don't get enough feedback to see your improvements and get that "instant gratification".

Instantaneous MPG is good for teaching yourself what works and what doesn't, but it's not a good tool for monitoring your average FE.

Just took my wife out for lunch. About 4 miles out and 4 miles back. Managed 35 mpg on the way there and 35.5 on the way back. Not bad for a short trip. (EPA City on my car is 29) Could have easily done 38-40 with less throttle and more coasting, but with lunchtime traffic, I try not to be so slow as to be in anyone's way.

 

Yeah, I run at 32-35 mpg at 45 with cruise control in 6th, or so my MFD says, but its the acceleration that kills me. My turbos are small enough to spool near instantly and my throttle is electronic so its harder to keep the engine load down low enough to keep the wastegates from closing.

 

I know this is an old post, but do you have a thread on this build? did you actually go through with it?

 

Went through with it, but it's not done yet. Been stagnant for a while waiting on some dude to build manifolds for it. You know how it goes... once a project goes stagnant, it's hard to get it going again.

I have a blog on the project, but it's not had an update in almost exactly a year! A New Focus

 

I think I'll share this with the focus community. I skimmed through some parts, but I think I saw that you had a 2.3 out of a Focus?

EDIT: I see you have focaljet in your links and '2.0' in the side info, nvm

I'm just amazed that someone saw the potential in the duratec.
OK, done thread jacking

 

Set a new record in the Audi yesterday. Road tripping from Charlotte back to daytona, cruise control set at 75 the whole way, light traffic, little bit of rain. Took 77 to 26 to 95, I think the major contributors were the hills on 77 and 26, since on the georgia-florida stretch at the exact same speed in the same conditions I only managed 20 MPG. I was also trailing a tanker truck who managed to keep around 75 mph for the first hour or so, I'm sure that contributed as well.

Car Type: 2001 Audi S4, Giac Stage II, 17psi, Borla 3", Bailey DVs, Darintake
Miles on Car: 154724
Gallons: 11.599
Miles: 292.6
MPG: 25.226
EPA: 22
% Improved:%14.66

 

Nice. You've gained another position on the list.

 

Yup, moving up slowly. Next road trip I think I'm gonna go into vag-com and disable one of my ICMs so I can be a 1.35L 3-cyl single turbo instead of a 2.7 bitrubo v6, should help nicely


I wish I could do that sometimes. I think if I have the patience the next time I cruise to tampa I'll do it at 65 and under, see if I can draft some trucks for a bit and try to break 28s.

 

Keep it under 65, turn off the cruise control, and drive with a very light foot.

At 65 w/o CC, you should hit 28. At least 27.

Cruise control hits the throttle pretty hard when your speed decreases. If you take control, you can take different action. Your actions are based on more input than just "the car slowed down". You can look ahead and see a hill before you get to it and GENTLY add 5mph before you get to it, and accept losing 5-10 mph as you climb it... then use momentum to get back to cruising speed (or a tad higher) on the other side.

You may think FL doesn't have enough hills to think that way... but it does. Even overpasses count. The more time you can spent in a completely off-throttle coast, the better your MPG will be.

Good luck!

 

I dunno, I trust my cruise control more than my right foot. It seems to stay under 5 inches of mercury once I'm at speed, and its very very good at keeping the car at speed. It almost never deviates from 10 inches of mercury while cruising on a flat stretch. When I cruise however, the fluctuations are much more noticeable and I often hit 0 inches or go into boost. My instantaneous MPG on the MFD is also significantly higher with CC on than with it off, which is probably because the car is much more predictable when its driving itself.