New Focus seems to drink it, then magic petrol out of thin air.
- Thread starter Michaeljcox24
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Just had a chat with the sales lad at Heartlands Ford. I told him point blank the trip computer on the focus is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. Naturally, he wouldn't agree with me, and said it was 'personal preference', but he's gonna say that aint he.
Soldato
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Well yeah, he isn't gonna diss the products he's paid to sell is he?
I got a new Focus Zetec-s 1.0 EcoBoost last February and it was only getting around 35-38MPG on a good run while it had low miles on it. The more miles I put on the car the better the MPG, after it had about 6k miles I could get up to 54MPG.
Ended up having to trade it in for a 1.5D Nissan Qashqai due to kids
Ended up having to trade it in for a 1.5D Nissan Qashqai due to kids
Why, because one function out of presumably at least five isn't as accurate as you'd like?
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I think the 'miles left' digital read out is the only useful thing on the trip computer itself. On my old motor (a Ford, so they can produce good ones if they want to), if you kept your style of driving sensible, the reading went down at a sensible rate, and was the same when you switched the car back on later.
This one, double the price of my old motor, has a mind of its own and magics juice out of thin air while it's been sat on my drive at home. It drops like a stone, no matter how fast or slow you drive, motorway or side street, and has really left a sour taste in my mouth.
The CAD Engineer at work says perhaps it's because its only 1/4 full, and behaves more 'realistically' when the tank is full. So I'm gonna do the same test as in my OP, but with a full tank, and see how fast it goes down.
This one, double the price of my old motor, has a mind of its own and magics juice out of thin air while it's been sat on my drive at home. It drops like a stone, no matter how fast or slow you drive, motorway or side street, and has really left a sour taste in my mouth.
The CAD Engineer at work says perhaps it's because its only 1/4 full, and behaves more 'realistically' when the tank is full. So I'm gonna do the same test as in my OP, but with a full tank, and see how fast it goes down.
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Because the missis bought a Fiesta that was exactly the same colour and it looked like we had his / hers motors on the drive.
I have an update for the story. Last night I filled up, a full tank was 52 quid. Total available miles was 430.
When I got home, the meter had gone down slowly, albeit a hell of a lot more realistically, to 419. Which is about right when you factor in start stopping.
A bit of a difference to when you have 1/4 of a tank in, and the trip computer estimates I live 40 odd miles away from work.
If you actually get 430 miles out of 52 quid of fuel, that's around 48mpg, which I imagine is quite good for mixed driving.
Why don't you just measure it properly and ignore the computer?
Anecdotal evidence of "My mates' brother's girlfriend's optician once had a Focus and only used to get 30mpg from a tank" is a representation of nothing.
Why don't you just measure it properly and ignore the computer?
Anecdotal evidence of "My mates' brother's girlfriend's optician once had a Focus and only used to get 30mpg from a tank" is a representation of nothing.
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I checked the litres dispensed when it 'clicked' and it was about 45,and I reset the distance counter when I pulled off.
Just glad to know to be honest, that it doesn't drop like a stone from full to empty.
Just glad to know to be honest, that it doesn't drop like a stone from full to empty.
Would it not have made more sense for the missis to buy your car? Seems like MPG shouldn't matter that much if you have that much disposable cash to chop and change cars for vanity reasons.The best way to measure your MPG is to brim the tank, then reset the trip counter, then when you refuel, brim the tank again and write down the number of miles you've driven and the number of litres of fuel you put in. This will give you your true average MPG. The onboard computer's average MPG shouldn't be far off but the 'miles remaining' will always vary according to your driving style, so it's to be taken as a reasonably rough estimate only.