[eonac]

I have put 6500 Miles on my Fiesta. So far I have averaged since new 39.6mpg. This would mainly be considered highway miles. Recently I increased air pressure in tires and for the last two tanks have been conciously driving to maximize MPG. ie. Coasting in neutral, light acceleration,short shifting, parking so as to pull through, and minimize idling. These seem to have paid off as my last tank was over 45MPG calculated.
I am very curious as to what those with the SFE or getting versus the regualr Auto Trans. I may opt to purchase the underbody panels if they show any promise of a further MPG increase. Any input?

 

[anverc]

remove the AC unit, and the passenger and rear seats...

 

[Jazzdog]

first couple of miles in the morning are really important, drive it like you have an egg under your foot. Until the catalytic converters get up to temperature you can really lose a lot MPG's if you step on it.

 

[Krnac#15]

hyper..

today i got 43.52 mpg...had 121 miles since last fill and car took 2.78gallons to fill..iam running 38 psi in tires and like posted i drive only about 5 miles of my 120 mile round trip commute in city. set cruise on hwy @67mph,and drive aware of possible slow downs to avoid braking and heavy throttle use.i am showing 43.4 mpg long term since getting the car..my highest mpg was 46mpg...

 

[tjl]

Ride a bicycle (on the road).

Seriously, when you ride a bicycle, you are the engine, and you naturally want to do things which conserve momentum and avoid wasting energy. Some of these things you learn while riding a bicycle can be applied to driving a car (although some, such as drafting, can be too dangerous in most road circumstances). For example, when a light ahead is red, coasting and slowing down so that it turns green before you have to stop is more energy efficient than racing up to it and then having to come to a complete stop.

 

[Agglutinator]

Ride a bicycle (on the road).

Seriously, when you ride a bicycle, you are the engine, and you naturally want to do things which conserve momentum and avoid wasting energy. Some of these things you learn while riding a bicycle can be applied to driving a car (although some, such as drafting, can be too dangerous in most road circumstances). For example, when a light ahead is red, coasting and slowing down so that it turns green before you have to stop is more energy efficient than racing up to it and then having to come to a complete stop.

I second that. I'm a college student and bike to campus every day (despite having a car), and you never really appreciate the additional exertion it takes to overcome a stopped state until you bike a lot. Even the slightest bit of forward movement while waiting to go can really help.

 

[eRic]

Ride a bicycle (on the road).

Seriously, when you ride a bicycle, you are the engine, and you naturally want to do things which conserve momentum and avoid wasting energy. Some of these things you learn while riding a bicycle can be applied to driving a car (although some, such as drafting, can be too dangerous in most road circumstances). For example, when a light ahead is red, coasting and slowing down so that it turns green before you have to stop is more energy efficient than racing up to it and then having to come to a complete stop.

when I was cycling, I would do a track stand at red lights and stop signs. that way I didn't need to unclip from the pedals.

 

[Norm201]

Try applying the bicycle mode while driving up hill. This is the single biggest gas waster. Accelerating up hill is nearly impossible on a bicycle and uses up energy (think gas) exponentially.

Provided I don't impede the flow of traffic I will gradually slow down as I let the car pull itself up the hill without adding more gas via the pedal. Same for starting out from a dead stop. Gradually come up to speed.

 

[Fastskiguy]

Try applying the bicycle mode while driving up hill. This is the single biggest gas waster. Accelerating up hill is nearly impossible on a bicycle and uses up energy (think gas) exponentially.

(apologies for going off topic here but...)

Unless you are a spanish climber on clenbuterol, then you can rocket up the hills!

 

[Aglie]

SFE vs Standard Fiesta

A coworker of mine got an SFE Fiesta hatch, I have a 5-speed manual SE hatch (no SFE available, though I would have paid extra for a 6-speed manual with SFE tweaks).

I see very few differences between the SFE and my car. One thing I've seen is that the SFE has more of the front grille blocked off from behind (asymmetrical, more blocked on the right than the left). I looked under both cards and saw no differences, though I didn't have them side by side so maybe I missed something. The rest of the exterior looks the same except I have the LED parking light and the SFE doesn't.

I've been driving mostly in the suburbs, and am working on calibrating an UltraGauge so I can have a better idea of what my instantaneous gas mileage is. Long-term I'm averaging 33-34 mpg, though I've never had a full tank of highway driving and most of that has been in the winter. I have tried premium gas and increasing tire pressure, no obvious difference with the stock Kumho tires (note that the SFE does have a different brand of tires). I'm still trying to figure out if it's better to coast in neutral or in gear (and of course this too may differ between auto and manual).