Focus ST Fuel Economy

[minipower]

My mums had her Focus since about june and has done over 3000 miles in it. Performance wise it's been great and my mum loves it.
Now we know fuel economy was never going to be great but the car proceeds to read 19-21mpg all of the time. Town driving and motorway driving give exactly the same result.
So the question is, will the fuel economy get better as the engine "loosens up" or is this what you would all expect?
Although it is more of a sporty car, my mum I would imagine won't be driving it like most of the people on here with it very rarely getting close to the redline, so we don't know whether there is a problem with it or not.

Any help is much appreciated.

[Marcellus]

The ST is very thirsty in traffic regardless of what you do!!

Does your mum reset the mpg with every tank? If not it is unlikely to move as the average distance increases.

On Focusstoc.com there used to be a lot of discussion on the mpg topic and iirc a poll once showed the average of most was about 22mpg.

HTH

[atom111]

I am always amused by the words Focus ST assuming current shape and Fuel Economy as they cannot go together

We had one for about 3 or so months and we averaged 20.1mpg my wife would use it around town and got about 20mpg and i'd use it for country lanes and some longer runs and managed low 20's.

I was staggered by how much fuel it used so much so it was changed for a Golf GT TDi which has saved us a fortune.

They just are not economical unless you do a run in it and drove like a saint, around town it's bad.

[minipower]

Cheers for the info.
The mpg is reset with every tank, so going on what you say about the average for the people on the owners club, it is obviously just a poor car on fuel economy. My mum loves driving it though, and other than its fuel useage it does everything else she needs. Just need to wait an age before I can get on the insurance.

[D1MAC]

All depends on how you drive & where you drive so to me it sounds like your mum needs to think about her driving style. Knowing how much throttle to apply, when to apply the brakes (and when not to apply them) can make a fair old difference to mpg, amongst other things.

I'm always surprised by tales of low 20s and worse, even more so when these figures are supposed to be across a range of driving & conditions.

Mine's 100% std and I've never managed less than around 23-24 mpg, have seen 33-34 on an M-way run and probably average about 26 mpg overall. Oh and no I really don't hang around at all when necessary/desirable.
That average includes lead boots, local stuff, crawling rush hour m-way and freer flowing m-way.

As a reference point, same conditions and same driving style gave about 29mpg in a CTR so the ST numbers are hardly disastrous by comparison.

[minipower]

D1MAC said:

All depends on how you drive & where you drive so to me it sounds like your mum needs to think about her driving style. Knowing how much throttle to apply, when to apply the brakes (and when not to apply them) can make a fair old difference to mpg, amongst other things.

I'm always surprised by tales of low 20s and worse, even more so when these figures are supposed to be across a range of driving & conditions.

Mine's 100% std and I've never managed less than around 23-24 mpg, have seen 33-34 on an M-way run and probably average about 26 mpg overall. Oh and no I really don't hang around at all when necessary/desirable.
That average includes lead boots, local stuff, crawling rush hour m-way and freer flowing m-way.

As a reference point, same conditions and same driving style gave about 29mpg in a CTR so the ST numbers are hardly disastrous by comparison.

Now you say it, maybe it is driving style. Even though she doesn't 'rag it' it may come down to all the other aspects of driving. It is strange though as we've got a 5.7ltr v8 yank tank that she happily gets high 20s and even 30s in. Obviously all cars are different so it might just take time to being more used to driving it.

[D1MAC]

minipower said:

Now you say it, maybe it is driving style. Even though she doesn't 'rag it' it may come down to all the other aspects of driving. It is strange though as we've got a 5.7ltr v8 yank tank that she happily gets high 20s and even 30s in. Obviously all cars are different so it might just take time to being more used to driving it.

Hope that didn't come across as too negative but I'm not sure what else it can be, unless I have a particularly parsimonious ST or there is a major difference in terms of mix of driving. Thing is, the 'on a run' figures should be reasonably close to mine, even if there is a bit of a difference in terms of amount of local stuff.
Unless it's a case of the above or just enjoying the noise of the ST too much then I reckon that getting better at when not to brake and knowing what gears you can get away with at certain speeds ought to make some difference. Maybe the last bit is where the Yank tank helps with it's additional torque - although the ST has enough low down to let you get away with a lot.


The other thing might be choice of fuel but it seems that super unleaded is a bit scarce in parts at the moment.

Edited by D1MAC on Monday 8th October 11:14

[minipower]

No thats fine, it didn't come across as negative at all. She drives well but as its a new car it may take time to get used to it.

[red_zed]

is a remap supposed to assist with regards to fuel consumption?

[Marcellus]

I think there werer claims in the early stages of ST Remaps that they did....personally I haven't seen any improvement.....contrary when you do use the right foot it does become very very thirsty!!