WPWoodJr

I ordered one too! Can't wait!

im actually unhappy(im really picky with sound). the highs are not clear and the mids/high seems a bit muffled. im actually looking to spend some money on good quality speakers if it will mkae a difference.

I agree with you. I noticed that music that used to sound clear and defined in my Audi's Bose system sounds strangely undefined and smeared in the Sony system. Not sure if its a problem with the tweeters or what.

What kind of subwoofer did you get and how did you mount it? I was lusting after a JL Audio 13 inch one that's only 2 1/2 inches deep or so!

I don't think the economic argument is valid. Its all based on cost of opportunity. If you spend so much time on the road commuting from the house you lose all that time and all that gas money (and all that patience.) I live 4.5 miles from where I work, so my round trip is under 10 miles. This is why I have a FFH:

 

1. I want Ford to survive. Now I am adding to the fleet MPG.

2. I want to shake out their new technology. I will pester them until they get it right.

3. I don't want bicyclists flipping the bird at me anymore.

4. Hybrid is sexy, generates a nice buzz, turns heads.

5. The car was loaded with every hi-tech gizmo.

6. Solid, quiet, comfortable, flat in turns, gets on the highway = great car!

I agree with your reasons too, but I also got sick of going to the gas station and spending $35-$70 every 250 miles.

What are you doing to upset those bicyclists?!

I've been trying to eek out some great gas mileage from the FFH and having some success (currently at about 45mpg), but it requires a lot of concentration and sometimes painfully slow driving. I began thinking about what I was really saving per year - the answer might surprise you.

Today I went to yet another Ford dealer and make a deal on a FFH ! - however *none* of the Fusions (I checked um all, SE, Sport, hybrid, SEL) had folding mirrors ! (all new 2010s) at another dealer they all (except for the hybrids) had folding mirrors (I physically checked both times) so YMMV, be careful out there

Congrats on your FFH! Did you order it or buy off the lot?

Interesting that some have folding mirrors and some don't...

I think the non-folding mirror helps with aerodynamics (mirrors closer to the body). I don't mind it. I've never had an issue with any vehicle's mirrors in over 20 years of driving (knock on wood)

I was surprised though that the FFH did not have folding mirrors. As you say, probably (hopefully) not a big issue.

I tried the link but got a 404 error.

Sorry! I fixed the link:

http://ffh.squarespace.com/blog/2009/6/27/...ion-hybrid.html

I think you'll enjoy my impressions of the new 2010 Prius as compared to my FFH.

The mileage display on the vehicle will never be completely accurate. When you think about what it is doing it is pretty amazing... it is measuring the precise amount of fuel passing through the injector each time the injector fires, and adding that up. It needs to know the exact fuel pressure, temperature, and the exact distance traveled. Even adding 2 pounds of pressure to the tires will cause the calculation to go off (the distance traveled per rotation will change ever so slightly). To that end your own calculation based on gallons added will never be totally accurate either as it also relies on the distance on the odometer which will be off based on tire pressure too.

 

If you check your pressure very consistently, like every morning using your own gauge and being very precise then at least you can keep your measurements consistent.

 

Jon

Good points, but as for the tire pressure, as long as the tire pressure doesn't keep changing, it should be the same for the manual and automatic fuel efficiency calculations and would not be a factor.

I maded my first "real" fillup this afternoon after a controlled experiment that involved 4 roundtrips to/from work. The route is about 70% highway, and has very much elevation change (through Phoenix) and is 38.5 miles one way. The weather has been relatively cool in the mornings and topping out around 109 for the trip home. The car stated 43.6mpg for this period, but the actual computed miles from the fillup is 41.25.

 

I don't buy all the crap in the manual about why the two might differ (you filled up on a hill, blah blah blah). I'll be curious to see if this starts to track more accurate over time. Either way, I'm very happy with the results thus far, utilizing moderate "hypermiling" techniques.

 

Hey wstcoaster07, we're of a similar mold. My lifted Wrangler also gets 15.3mpg. What a great change of commuter vehicles.

So like me you're getting 6% or so less actual mileage than what the computer says. Hopefully it will get more accurate as the car wears in.

I'm also coming from a car that gets low mileage - 1998 Audi A6, I could never get more than 16 mpg around where I live doing mostly hilly suburban driving.

Question about getting your actual MPG's... How can you be certain the exact amount of fuel the car used? For example, pump to pump sometimes I get more gas before it auto cuts off. And, unless you run till the car shuts down, how can you be sure how much gas is left over in the tank unused? I do "actual" computations with my jeep all the time and as long as they are within a couple mpg's I assume it deals with discrepancies of "empty" and "full" (usual discrepancy is within 1gal of gas)

 

Either way, I would be excited for 39 compared to my jeeps 15 haha

 

 

 

p.s. 2 weeks in to my wait for my FFH from when I put the order in

 

oh yea, and love your blog

Thanks!

My technique for fill-up is to let the pump auto-stop and don't "top off" (you'll spill fuel anyway if you top off the FFH). I'm assuming the auto-stop point is fairly consistent but I suppose I should always use the same pump to be sure.

You don't need to know how much gas is unused in the tank, as the calculation is just miles traveled since last fill-up/gallons pumped.

On my second fill-up today I had 603 miles total on the car. The built-in fuel economy gauge said 41.9 mpg since last fill-up but actual miles/actual gallons indicated only 39.2 mpg - is any one else seeing this kind of discrepancy between the gauge and the actuals?

I've had my FFH for 10 days now... and love it.

 

For other FFH owners out there, which mode of the Smart Gauges do you use? I find I like the Engage (the one with the gas and electric output power) better than the Empower one. What am I missing? The Engage seems more useful to me to know where the power is currently coming from. How do you interpret the power on the Empower gauges?

I wrote about this here on my FFH blog. I've switched for the time being to Engage.

I found it in the manual:

 

Thanks! Sounds from that like if you use the key to unlock your door you have to start the car within 12 secs or the alarm goes off. Strange!

Sure, the $3400 credit could have offset some of it, but based on our finances we wouldn't have gotten the entire credit anyway. Now, the $1700 credit would bring the tax liability close to $0.

Welcome!

The tax credit is not subject to AMT per the stimulus bill so you should be eligible for the full credit.

Tonight I turned my car off and sat in it for awhile using the DVD player. When I went to get out it started beeping (not honking) incessantly and put a message (on the dash I think?) that said something like, "To stop the alarm restart the car", which I did and the beeping went away. Anyone know what that was all about?

If there is no heat request from the climate controls then the ICE will start after some time or distance (feet) upon initial startup of the car. It will only run for about a minute if at room temp or higher. If it is colder or there is a heat request the ICE will run longer. It also depends on the accessory draw and the battery level at the time. The coolant temp gauge does not necessarily reflect the conditions for starting/stopping the ICE.

 

Jon

I read in the manual, and it seems in practice, that the little temp gauge has to go green (the coolant temp is between the "ok" bracketed zone on the temp gauge) before normal driving in EV mode is available.

The answer is supposed to be no, since they only use a portion of the available charge. They only allow the battery to go between (I think these are the numbers) 40% and 90% charge. The claim is that with NiMH chemistry, so long as you maintain the charge in that range and keep the temperature reasonable there should be literally unlimited charge life. In reality I would expect some time drop in capacity over a long period of time but since the CA warranty on the battery is 10 years I would think it would take a long time.

 

Jon

Yes, but how would you know really? I wonder what the expected watt-hour drop over time is on these batteries?

It seems everything in the FFH is very highly designed but I really wonder why they did not put in a deep cycle battery.

Maybe it would add cost when you go to replace the battery.

Jon, does the HV battery lose Wh capacity over time like a laptop battery?

your hard core, beta software (Windows 7) ?

Windows 7 is very stable and the user interface is a great improvement over XP and Vista. A lot of people are running it full time now. The only reason I didn't upgrade my main machine to it is that when the beta times out next year you will have to reinstall everything; so, instead I will wait and buy it as soon as it comes out.

Neutral does not exist in this car in any sense other than "ignore the accelerator pedal". There is no way to decouple the ICE from wheels other than by MG1 spinning. With the FFH software neutral is the same as holding the gas pedal just a bit off the stop. At that point the software does not implement the fake engine braking/energy recovery and is also not demanding power. Putting the car in neutral does the same thing but with additional risks as if you do step on the brakes you only get the friction brakes (there is a LOT of braking power in MG1 and MG2) and if you step on the gas to help get out of the way of a problem you won't go anywhere. It is better to learn the glide position of the accelerator.

 

Jon

By "just a bit off the stop" I assume you mean the point where applying more acceleration would demand power?

Nice tips.

Personally, You won't find me driving down the road in neutral. I've avoided accidents before by quickly accelerating. To each his own though.

Yeah I rarely do that either but it does help mpg.

I played around with Bluetooth stereo a bit on Friday evening http://ffh.squarespace.com/blog/2009/6/20/...-bluetooth.html

I've had my FFH for 10 days now... and love it.

 

For other FFH owners out there, which mode of the Smart Gauges do you use? I find I like the Engage (the one with the gas and electric output power) better than the Empower one. What am I missing? The Engage seems more useful to me to know where the power is currently coming from. How do you interpret the power on the Empower gauges?

At first I liked Engage better because it seemed interesting to know what power I was getting from the electric vs ICE. But as I tried to drive for good mileage, I found the Empower to be more informative in terms of how much acceleration I could apply at any given instant without forcing the ICE on.

I posted some tips for getting good gas mileage on my blog based on my experience with my new FFH.