On January 12, 2019, I wrote that the care may make it to the 1,000 mile mark in 2 weeks. Well, due to plenty of early morning snows and icy roads, it took until this past week to make that mark. I was able to drive the car to work the first 3 days of the week and apparently hit 1k on Tuesday, but didn't notice until Wednesday.
I also wrote that I was averaging about 30 mph but expected it to go up, which it did. for a couple of days after the last post, it started getting 32-33. Then, at about 900 miles it shot up dramatically. Driving the same routes, in the same conditions and at the same speeds, I am getting 37 mpg. Picture taken on my way home on 2/6/19.
Top left is miles that have been driven since last gas stop (at around 900 miles +/-)
Top right is average mileage (it is close to what I calculate off the miles and gallons to fill)
Bottom left is real-time mpg (obviously I was stopped at the time I took the picture)
Bottom right is expected miles to go until empty (so with the miles driven and mile to go, get about 440 miles per 12-13 gallon tank)
The thing that absolutely fascinates me, and I was warned about during the test drive so I wouldn't freak out, is that the engine will shut itself down at a stop. Now, the battery has to be fully charged - it won't shut down at the stop sign at the end of my road if I have just started it for the day. It also doesn't shut down if I have been driving a while, then stop (such as the 13 miles from my road to my first stop sign in Weare). But if it senses I am in city driving, at a stoplight, it will shut down. The second I take my foot off the brake, it starts back up and is ready to go. It will also do this if I am in slow traffic on the highway and then come to a stop. Whomever wrote the algorithm that tells the car how to tell traffic conditions really put some thought into it.
Today I was driving in very windy conditions and the mileage dropped to the high 35's - but that is still better than the old Focus did and I was more interested in seeing how much the conditions would affect the car than worried about the actual mileage.
Yeah, I'm kind of geeked out :)
It is so cool that your engine cuts out. I used to stop the engine on the Mazda 626 at long lights in ABQ - although - in some states it was illegal to do that. (I never checked for legality in ABQ.) The people who write the algorithms have a lot more data to go on these days. (Having worked on design of a new, large aircraft auto-pilot in the 1980s, I feel qualified to make such observations, even if I'm not!)
The algorithms in my 5-year-old car are not that great and frustrate me at times. No, my car doesn't shut down the engine; but, it slows down (rapidly) when the car ahead of it makes a turn - even doing so after the turning car has cleared the intersection! (Too much lag in the system!)
Posted by: Cop Car | February 10, 2019 at 11:20 AM
I have wondered how well those automatic slow down and crash avoidance systems work. Now I have a partial answer.
Posted by: bogie | February 17, 2019 at 06:37 AM
Although people are advised not to do so, most of my driving is done in "augmented" cruise control - which is the default operation of my cruise control, its taking 11 button pushes to use cruise control without augmentation. I tend not to monitor my speed very well, otherwise. Thus, I'm pretty hep on what my own system does/does not do. I would expect your system to do an even better job than does mine.
Your dad thinks that, when he hit the deer, his system automatically braked before his foot hit the brake pedal; but, in a crash situation few/none of us can rely upon what we recall. He only uses cruise control once he gets up to highway speed, which he had not done at the time of the collision. Also, I don't know whether, when he did use cruise control, it was augmented. I do recall that, when his car was new, I once saw that his display said something like "augmentation not available". I didn't drive his car enough to know what it did/didn't do. One "assumes" that his 2013 Lincoln had a system similar to the one in my 2014 Lincoln, though they were different models.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 17, 2019 at 09:59 AM
I don't have any of that fancy stuff - so my "system" does nothing at all unless I tell it to.
That is not true, if my phone is linked via sync, it will aromatically call 911 if the air bags deploy. I don't have navigation or most of the other fancy stuff that your cars have.
Posted by: bogie | February 17, 2019 at 12:25 PM
Aha! I had not caught that. Thank you. The communication via his link to sync certainly surprised your dad after the deer hit! I think that capability is great! My smart phone is too old to sync. It just runs my battery down, so I tell my phone not to respond to sync.
On his Lexus, your dad would have to pay for a subscription to their satellite phone system to get that service - according to the sales person. The sales guy was shocked to hear that Lincoln (and Ford) provided the service without on-going expense.
Posted by: Cop Car | February 18, 2019 at 09:56 AM