Is my mpg reasonable?

[turi]

Hi everyone.

I have had my 2021 - Max limited 3.5L EcoBoost for about a month and a half now, did a bit more than 600 miles on it, and did about 3 full tank refills. I'm lucky if I do 12mpg! Doesn't matter how "gently" I drive - the best I saw it do is less than 15mpg. If I drove it any slower where it counts most - from a full stop - I would be arrested for holding back traffic accelerating like a kick scooter...

What's up with that?

I'm talking combined driving here - about 50/50 city and highway, and on the highway - I'm getting the 15-16mpg at the most looking at the "real time" average fuel consumption display, driving at about 65-70mph, on around the 1,500rpm level - the average trip mileage gauge shows about 12mpg throughout a full tank. Forgot to mention I'm not towing anything, relatively flat road on average, and with just me in the vehicle...

What's up with that?

Thank you for everyone's helpful responses. I bought the vehicle used with about 36,000 miles on it about a month and a half ago.

It rides on the stock 22" all terrain tires, and I either drive it in normal or eco mode. I make an effort to accelerate rather slowly - as I wrote - to a point where I've already had drivers behind me honking sometimes, so I try not to be doing it like a fully loaded 18 wheeler, but it's far from "flooring it" or even somewhat "flooring it"...

It's a Max, and has the towing hitch (albeit still covered by the plastic tender cover that goes over it, as I don't really need to tow anything at this stage), and it's only me in it - not loaded with people or cargo.

I live in a suburb outside Toronto, work from home, so other than three trips a week going between very little traffic city driving to get out of my suburb (which is very close to the highway) and then again when I get into Toronto itself - the rest of my drives so far were in very light traffic city driving in my suburb for groceries and such - to doing about 200 miles roundtrip on a proper highway toll road (highway 407 ETR) to the dealership a few times for some repairs.

 

[SyndicateZ]

19 limited stealth edition w/ HD Tow, 3.73 gear 4x4 (not the max)

I get about 12.7 mpg "real time" with Alot of stop and go City driving (without using auto stop/start feature) no towing and just me easy driving

When im looking at the real time fuel economy guage my fuel economy bar is between 4mpg-7mpg when accelerating from a red light lightly which kills the mpg overall.

purely On the highway im at about 19-23mpg range

 

[Zig10]

It'll improve a bit as you break in the engine, but if you've got the HD tow (not listed in your specs) then that is not all that far off from ours. We get between 12.5-14 on my wife's daily commutes. No highways, just suburban stop and go.

 

[SyndicateZ]

i live in the city (think Boston city traffic lights) And get about 12.5 actually

 

[Fastcar]

I've 20K on mine with the HD tow, 3:73's, 4X4, get consistent 19 combined and 22 on the highway depending on traffic. Not a max though.
What are you running for tire pressure? It should improve after 5K

 

[BSarchet]

I have a 22 with HD tow and SPP. I’m about 50/50 and I average 17-18 combined. 12 seems extremely low.

 

[Deadman]

What mode are you running it in? Normal, Sport?

My 18 Max4x4 Max tow has a lifetime average of 19.6mpg in the dash computer.....

 

[Deep8174]

What fuel in usually in your tank?

 

[TheDoug]

I have 2018 hd towing w/ 3.73s and tuned running 93 octane. On freeway I can get 22mpg around 70 to 75, BUT in town I get 12.5 or so with all the lights and my heavy foot. This is all running in normal mode.

 

[Rezolution]

I've gotten 15.3 on average consistently for the last 4 years. 2019 XLT, no tow package.

If I leave it in sport mode for most of the tank it dips down into the 13s.

 

[GaryH]

My '03 with the 5.4 engine gets 16 mpg combined. At least that's what the computer says. Seems about right.

 

[BrianDA]

That seems low. My '22 gets about 21mpg at about 75mph (I do a LOT of interstate driving). When I'm home I get about 15mpg around town. You've owned this '21 for about a month, so I'm assuming you bought it used? Did the previous owner make any upgrades you may not know about?

 

[BIGRED03]

It takes a long time to break in these. All the moving parts with low miles on this vehicle is causing drag from the brakes rubbing the disc to the gearbox being so tight. The engine and the attached accessories is still factory tight all the way back to the differential. Take it on a long drive of at least 500 miles of mixed driving and that should help loosen up the truck. Being an old school type I still "break in" a new vehicle which means lower rpm's and reduced top speed for the first 500 to 1,000 miles, no max performance take offs and no hard braking. Don't use cruise control during this period, you want the engine at varying speeds until it's broke in. Good luck! BTW, My 21 Platinum 4x4, HD tow ranges from 12 city to 21 highway with 4k on the clock.

 

[18MaxLimited]

My wife's 18 max platinum, 4x4, hd tow gets 17mpg. Some long stops here and there but mostly free flowing roads here in coastal GA.

I tease her all the time since I get 19.5 in my 2020 powerstroke

 

[LokiWolf]

Plugs, Plugs...did I say plugs. Replace them. Check out the gap on the ones you pulled out, I will bet they are WAY off.

 

[SyndicateZ]

My 19 gets the same mpg as my 07 Navigator did City. 12 mpg....

 

[Saltwater Soul]

My 2018 Max with HD Tow is clocking in at 18.1 over the last 44,000 miles. This is hand calculated and not the onboard computer which is about .9 mpg optimistic. I use 93 octane 95 percent of the time, and this is a mix of city/hwy driving with my work commute being about 20 miles of mostly hwy.

 

[keny01998]

I just took a 1000 miles road trip and I got around 23 mpg average. New plugs, new air filter, new oil change and I drove around 70-75 mph. I got around 520 miles on a full tank when I filled up.

 

[BIGRED03]

I just took a 1000 miles road trip and I got around 23 mpg average. New plugs, new air filter, new oil change and I drove around 70-75 mph. I got around 520 miles on a full tank when I filled up.

I got the same from Macon, Ga to Jacksonville, Fl., lightly loaded and a tail wind. I set the cruise on 70 the entire distance. I used 93 octane.

 

[duneslider]

I have had 2 expeditions now and mpg has been pretty consistent with both. Most of our driving is short trips in town and doing that the mileage is not great 12-15 but usually more in the 12-13 range. These are not great at short trips around town. MPG has been the same for both I have owned around town.

Thus far my new 2020 seems to get slightly worse mpg on the highway and towing, this is hard to scientifically quantify due to all sorts of external factors but I seem to be consistently about 1mpg less in the 2020 on the highway. I only have about 3k miles on the 2020 so it is hardly enough to make any sort of statement on it. We may still be running winter gas for most of that too.

I will say that I for sure have seen better mpg when using premium gas than lower octane, especially when towing and on long highway runs.

I should follow @LokiWolf advise and replace my plugs with something better. I was about to do that on my 2019 before it was no more.