I own a 2007 Focus 4 door sedan bought new Aug 2006.. No modifications or anything.. standard car I use for commuting.

First 9 months of ownership I was strictly highway driving about 70 miles per day and would get 350-370 on a tank of gas (11 gal fill up) put 14,000 miles in this time frame.

Since May of this year I went to mostly city driving.. to and from train station (2 miles each way), kids to school sometimes, runs to Home Depot, dunkin donuts, etc etc

I had a feeling I wasnt getting good gas mileage but I wasunsure since I hadnt used this car for much local driving.. **Everytime** I gas up I reset the trip meter.. I would get 160-180 per tank, maybe 200 once in a while.. I figure I was getting about 16 MPG (my last fill up I put in 9 1/2 gallons after clocking 160 miles on the trip meter)

Took it to the Ford Dealership Service center today, they tested it ,took it for a drive and said the computershows 25 MPG on city. Obviously thats not what Im getting since I never get anywhere near 250 miles on my trip meter.

I was wondering If I someone had 'conditioned' the cars computer by strictly doing highway only miles for the first 9 months.. Im not kidding about only highway miles, it was really a 32 mile one way commute with no traffic ever and I would do 60 -70 mile per hour.

Now I have to keep a detailed log and receipts before I go back.

BTW, I dont race from red light to red light or anything like that, pretty normal driver although I will go around a slow poke.

Anyone else have this problem?? Any ideas??

thanks

 

I dont know if your method is that accurate. Fill up next time until the gas pump quits by itself, reset the trip and when when you refill go until it cuts off by itself again. That should be pretty close to your actual MPG.

Now on to the car: With short 2 mile trips the car is probably cold most of the time, its more efficient at operrating temps. Check the tire pressure, they should probably be around 35 cold psi. Keep the oil clean and it would be a good idea to have the trasmission flushed(do you have a5spd or auto?) The Air filter should be changed every 10K-12K miles and the fuel filter should be changes every 20-30K.

Driving: You said you drive normal, but normal these days can be pretty hard. Make an effort to take it easy withgas pedal. I try to leave in plenty of time, so that I drive nice and relaxed.Try to avoid a lot of ideling and other thing that do no tpromote godd MPG. Thats all I can thing of right now.

 

I was getting about 20-22 combined with a manual! I gained 2 MPG by simply letting the vehicle warm-up before driving. I also gained another 2-3 MPG by changing my commute to reduce much of my slow-speed travel (i.e. no more cutting throughsubdivisions to avoid traffic).