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MPG - Focus Auto 33 hwy v/s Taurus 28 hwy


macattak1

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Even with my 3.27 rear, my fuel mileage estimator shows 28-30 mpg at around 60-65 mph cruise. That's with just a 24 horsepower rated difference and substantially more torque over the 3.5L Taurus.

 

Recently I calculated my mileage the old-fashioned way on a 200 mile trip of mixed city/highway with my heavy foot, three passengers plus trunk cargo, I averaged 22 mpg. That's traveling at a mix of 65-80 mph highway speed and a variety of stop and go city driving.

 

 

Ya that seems to be pretty average milage outta the Panthers. When my car was younger 30 plus was not out of the question.

 

The best fuel milage I ever got I ever got was about 4 years ago. And this is exact. And Higher than this as there was still gas in the tank.

 

I ran the GM outta fuel in FT Mac. I usually carry 10 gals (2, 5 gallon jerry cans) in the trunk when up there. I stuffed both in to the car. The drive from FT mac to my front door is 550KM about 342 Miles.

 

I made it home on the 10 Gals then drove the next day in to the city (anouther 7 or 8 miles) and filled the car up. I did a failry steady 68-75 MPH on the way home. So the Mileage on that trip was an astonishing 35MPG. The car had over 500K miles on it at the time.

 

Usually I averaged 29-33 MPG on the hyway in my GM and that is with the a 3.27 and the Old AOD tranny.

 

The Panthers are notorious for getting much better hyway milage than the EPA ratings.

They are a pretty slippery body and once you actually get that 2 tons moving it does not take much to keep it moving. And they coast forever so you do not need to be on the gas full time. You can pretty much just feather the throttle to keep them moving along.

 

There is almost no engine braking in the old AOD series trannys in OD and the transmission basically overruns.

 

 

Many many people report hyway fuel milages in to the 30's in these cars. But you do have to know how to drive them. You will always be able to get better milage than what the cruise can give you in these cars.

 

 

Matthew

Edited by matthewq4b
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I made it home on the 10 Gals then drove the next day in to the city (anouther 7 or 8 miles) and filled the car up. I did a failry steady 68-75 MPH on the way home. So the Mileage on that trip was an astonishing 35MPG. The car had over 500K miles on it at the time.

 

Dude...did I read that right? You averaged 35MPG on a car with over 500,000 miles on it?

 

Ford can only wish that their new models are as good as that.

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That's what all the Japanese cars do, hence the recommended premium. They use ratings from Premium, but the engine gets lower power on regular. So they have nice window stickers of high mileage and HP, but the HP drops a bit when regular gas is used.

 

THe only mid-sized V6s I could find that were tested on Premium, according to fueleconomy.gov, are the Nissan Altima/Maxima, Volkswagon Passat, Mitsubishi Galant, Subaru Legacy -- apart from the Altima, none of the big names.

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Um...if she can drive a TAHOE, then she can handle a Panther. Not to mention she'd even be able to actually see out of the back of a Panther to reverse.

 

Huh? You can see all 4 corners very clearly in the Tahoe. It is a short wheel base and you sit up high. Its a 96. The next iteration was a little more flowing.

 

My wife is actually a very good driver. Well, excluding about the time she tried to kill us, but we don't talk about that any more unless we first start with how she almost about tried to kill us. No really, she is a good driver, but does much better with shorter wheel base.

 

Peace and Blessings

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Huh? You can see all 4 corners very clearly in the Tahoe. It is a short wheel base and you sit up high. Its a 96. The next iteration was a little more flowing.

 

My wife is actually a very good driver. Well, excluding about the time she tried to kill us, but we don't talk about that any more unless we first start with how she almost about tried to kill us. No really, she is a good driver, but does much better with shorter wheel base.

 

Peace and Blessings

 

 

I drive a 1996 Suburban and a 2002 Suburban regularly at work, neither is anywhere as easy as a Panther is to backup, and we have a 1999 retail CV I drive there frequently as well.

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