Ford Focus : no instant MPG readout.

rodenal said:
I honestly don't understand what real use an instant mpg-o-meter is?

I look at my average out of interest when I'm about to fill up but I honestly never look at the instant readout. I even turned my daft "eco" lights off on the dash as they annoyed me (civic)
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I`m sure when we hired the aforementioned Ford Ka in Shetland it helped me get an even better mpg. I like to think I drive pretty smoothly and use a lot of anticipation (I consider I`ve failed if I ever have to brake on the motorway.....) but that little readout just took it to another level. I wasn`t going flat out but we weren`t dawdling either, yet we got 57mpg on the equivalent of B roads.
 
Justin Smith said:
I`m sure when we hired the aforementioned Ford Ka in Shetland it helped me get an even better mpg. I like to think I drive pretty smoothly and use a lot of anticipation (I consider I`ve failed if I ever have to brake on the motorway.....) but that little readout just took it to another level. I wasn`t going flat out but we weren`t dawdling either, yet we got 57mpg on the equivalent of B roads.
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......but the average readout gives you a much more accurate readout of how your doing. The instant just flips out all over the place.
 
Brookert said:
......but the average readout gives you a much more accurate readout of how your doing. The instant just flips out all over the place.
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Not for me it isn`t. I find the constant and instant reminder of how much fuel my over eager right foot is using is very effective at making me drive even more smoothly and efficiently. Classic example. I`m going up a hill, I can either maintain 55mph by changing down and my mpg reading plummets, or I can keep in 5th drifting down to 50mph with a far less depressing readout on my instant mpg. What significant difference is it going to make to my journey time anyway (particularly as I`ll usually catch up with some other traffic anyway) ? But it makes a significant difference when I get to the filling station.....
As it happens it was a hire car but if, in the above example, it`d have been my own car, I`d also have taken just that little bit less wear and tear out of the car`s gearbox and clutch.
 
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I had a the mk2 focus 2005 - average mpg only. I wouldn't want an average in the cayman. Im content with my average of 24.5 :( , though I have hit 29 on a motorway run :)

Edit - my parents old BMW had it and it didn't really change my driving style, I quite enjoyed the needle flipping to 0-5 section
 
Justin Smith said:
Not for me it isn`t. I find the constant and instant reminder of how much fuel my over eager right foot is using is very effective at making me drive even more smoothly and efficiently. Classic example. I`m going up a hill, I can either maintain 55mph by changing down and my mpg reading plummets, or I can keep in 5th drifting down to 50mph with a far less depressing readout on my instant mpg. What significant difference is it going to make to my journey time anyway (particularly as I`ll usually catch up with some other traffic anyway) ? But it makes a significant difference when I get to the filling station.....
As it happens it was a hire car but if, in the above example, it`d have been my own car, I`d also have taken just that little bit less wear and tear out of the car`s gearbox and clutch.
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You already know what you need to do, so why does looking at an instant mpg reading make this any better?
 
I believe it is spec dependant i.e. Mondeo Zetec/Edge do not have instant MPG but higher models i.e. Titanium do. What spec Focus is it?
 
energy said:
I believe it is spec dependant i.e. Mondeo Zetec/Edge do not have instant MPG but higher models i.e. Titanium do. What spec Focus is it?
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Hi, that is more than likely the reason because Ford fit a type 1 and a type 2 dash. Also, why on earth are people posting their experiences from different ford models? There's another factor too because sometimes instant mpg will be displayed only after a ecu update as instant is there, just not displayed. It can be displayed under the diagnostic mode...
 
chriscatt said:
Hi, that is more than likely the reason because Ford fit a type 1 and a type 2 dash. Also, why on earth are people posting their experiences from different ford models? There's another factor too because sometimes instant mpg will be displayed only after a ecu update as instant is there, just not displayed. It can be displayed under the diagnostic mode...
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Mine`s Ghia and it still hasn`t got it !
How do you get an ecu update ?
 
The_Abyss said:
You already know what you need to do, so why does looking at an instant mpg reading make this any better?
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Two reasons actually
The first, and most important, is that my mind drifts off thinking about other things, I might be impatient to get somewhere and thus forget about driving as economically as I otherwise would. Even in my Focus, which only appears to have average mpg, having it set on that is a constant reminder to me about economy. Save 10 to 20% in fuel (and, don`t forget, less wear and tear on my vehicle) or get there 5% quicker than I otherwise would, it`s a no brainer really but one can forget.
Secondly I found the mpg readout was a bit of a revelation, there were certain times when the car used more than I would have expected, and other time when it used less.
 
My Mondeo doesn't have instant read out (04).

What you can do is reset the MPG average at the start of a trip, then you'll get a reasonable idea of where your high and low points are in parts of a trip when the average jumps up or down.

Instant is a bit useless really as unless you're on a perfectly flat, open stretch of tarmac with no traffic you'll not get that reliable a measure, especially if you're in traffic as accelerating will vary from 10 to 40mpg.

It's just another distraction from the road in front of you.
 
DaveyD said:
My Mondeo doesn't have instant read out (04).

What you can do is reset the MPG average at the start of a trip, then you'll get a reasonable idea of where your high and low points are in parts of a trip when the average jumps up or down.

Instant is a bit useless really as unless you're on a perfectly flat, open stretch of tarmac with no traffic you'll not get that reliable a measure, especially if you're in traffic as accelerating will vary from 10 to 40mpg.

It's just another distraction from the road in front of you.
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Well we`ll just have to disagree about whether instant MPG is useful or not, but I do agree with you on one thing, one has to be careful to remain primarily focused on the most important thing, the road in front.....
 
Justin Smith said:
Two reasons actually
The first, and most important, is that my mind drifts off thinking about other things, I might be impatient to get somewhere and thus forget about driving as economically as I otherwise would. Even in my Focus, which only appears to have average mpg, having it set on that is a constant reminder to me about economy. Save 10 to 20% in fuel (and, don`t forget, less wear and tear on my vehicle) or get there 5% quicker than I otherwise would, it`s a no brainer really but one can forget.
Secondly I found the mpg readout was a bit of a revelation, there were certain times when the car used more than I would have expected, and other time when it used less.
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I disagree. For me, instant mpg display is little more than a novelty.

Needing it there to remind about a certain driving style seems to be little more than... being needy. A rev counter shouldn't be necessary to get somewhere 5% quicker, so I'm not clear on why the distraction of an instant mpg readout is needed to drive more economically.

It seems to be more a validation of how economical the driving is rather than being a trigger to change behaviour to drive more economically.

All that said, you don't have an instant mpg display. Are you prepared to spend money and change cars to get one and then drive more frugally?
 
The_Abyss said:
I disagree. For me, instant mpg display is little more than a novelty.

Needing it there to remind about a certain driving style seems to be little more than... being needy. A rev counter shouldn't be necessary to get somewhere 5% quicker, so I'm not clear on why the distraction of an instant mpg readout is needed to drive more economically.

It seems to be more a validation of how economical the driving is rather than being a trigger to change behaviour to drive more economically.

All that said, you don't have an instant mpg display. Are you prepared to spend money and change cars to get one and then drive more frugally?
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I think we`ll have to agree to disagree on that, I can only say having the mpg displayed works for me, and, I suspect, works for many other people as well. Humans tend to forget things, there`s nothing like having something right in front of your eyes reminding you how much your over active right ankle is actually costing you. It`s a pity you can`t programme the cost of the fuel into the computer and it could tell you how much money you were burning per minute, that`d probably work even better !

I would pay (a bit) to have instant mpg set up on my Focus, in fact it actually went into a local garage which has back end access (whatever that means) to the Ford onboard computer, but he said he couldn`t do it.
 
I'm going to post this again because I think it was missed...

Using an application called Torque on your phone, coupled with an ELM 327 Bluetooth dongle will probably give you the information you're after, as well as information as to whether the car is running rich or lean, again, helping you adjust your driving style for optimal fuel economy.
 
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