2004 Ford Focus SE gave 12mpg when I had the AC on?!

[JEDI]

Granted, it was a Rental. But it was brand new (less than a month old and only had 4000 miles on it). it's rated 26mpg city/33mpg hwy. i had 26mpg in mixed city/hwy driving on a full tank. i was almost out of gas so i filled up.

the driving with that fill up was with air conditioning turned on most of the time.

i was ready to turn it in and had to refill the car. i had driven it 35 miles and re-filled with 3 gallons. 12mph...WTF?!

This was in Vegas.

 

[Pepsi90919]

the difference between the tolerance in the automatic shutoffs in the different pumps probably accounted for that. the first fillup probably stopped early for whatever reason.

 

[AvesPKS]

Come to Chicago. It's 36 right now, so there's no need for the AC...

 

[VirginiaDonkey]

its a rental....the person before you only put in the minimal amount to make it show full. you topped it off

 

[boomdart]

Stop flooring the car.

 

[boomdart]

Stop flooring the car.

 

[CraigRT]

my car gets horrible gas mileage.... similar sized engine

 

[dman]

Originally posted by: gotey
its a rental....the person before you only put in the minimal amount to make it show full. you topped it off

I agree with the folks who said the above. But, if you drove it like an animal the last 35miles then maybe not.

 

[thomsbrain]

my guess is it wasn't really full to begin with.

 

[fatkorean]

i was almost out of gas so i filled up....

the driving with that fill up was with air conditioning turned on most of the time.

i was ready to turn it in and had to refill the car. i had driven it 35 miles and re-filled with 3 gallons. 12mph...WTF?!

This was in Vegas.

Seems like he filled it up, then drove it, and then filled it up and then filled it before returned it. So he went from full to full and the tank of gas had nothing to do with the previous driver.

-fk

 

[JEDI]

Originally posted by: fatkorean

i was almost out of gas so i filled up....

the driving with that fill up was with air conditioning turned on most of the time.

i was ready to turn it in and had to refill the car. i had driven it 35 miles and re-filled with 3 gallons. 12mph...WTF?!

This was in Vegas.

Seems like he filled it up, then drove it, and then filled it up and then filled it before returned it. So he went from full to full and the tank of gas had nothing to do with the previous driver.

-fk

yeah, had nothing to do w/the previous owner. i was the one who filled it, then drove it 35miles, then filled it again for 3 gallons, thus 12mpg.

just wondering if having the AC on for this car kills the gas millage this much?

 

[ElFenix]

unless it was the same pump the cutoff could be in different places.

also gasoline, like everything else, changes volume as the temperature changes.

likely the car had the sh!t beat out of it when it was broken in and will always get bad mileage.

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: JEDI

Originally posted by: fatkorean

i was almost out of gas so i filled up....

the driving with that fill up was with air conditioning turned on most of the time.

i was ready to turn it in and had to refill the car. i had driven it 35 miles and re-filled with 3 gallons. 12mph...WTF?!

This was in Vegas.

Seems like he filled it up, then drove it, and then filled it up and then filled it before returned it. So he went from full to full and the tank of gas had nothing to do with the previous driver.

-fk

yeah, had nothing to do w/the previous owner. i was the one who filled it, then drove it 35miles, then filled it again for 3 gallons, thus 12mpg.

just wondering if having the AC on for this car kills the gas millage this much?

No it shouldn't, modern A/C systems in cars should only drop the mileage about 3 to 4 mpg. Plus one drive cycle is not enough to test the mpg of any given vehicle; even the government does it at least ten times.