Rexracer

As JATR4 said, it doesn't matter what the meter says, what is she actually achieving? Was she actually going 26-30 miles on a charge, and now she is only going 15 in the same driving? The big one, is she running the heater now, and before she wasn't I can cycle my heat on off and go from 22-24 down to 14-16. If you do look for another Energi, look used. I have seen SE's in the NW for 21-23 with 10-20k miles on them. Thats a lot of savings. And as a friend pointed out, you can get a Leaf for 11k with 28k miles on it also. Even if you got another SUV, if you do any amount of driving each day, putting the miles on a Leaf would be handy.

Do you really think they are going to do the Mondeo HID/LED headlamps as standard units? THey are WAY to cool to come to the US, so for that reason I say it could never happen. :lol:

So your conjecture is that if 7-10psi under vehicle recommendation = 10% loss in fuel economy, thus going 10psi over recommendation would be an additional 10% improvement? I completely agree under inflated (less then the 32-35psi typically called for) is dangerous and helps lead to bad economy, but i expect that going over has diminishing returns.

What does your tire wear look like? I run by factory recommended settings, and adjust if I notice the outsides wearing more then the insides or vice versa. I think prematurly wearing out a set of $600 tires to save $20 in fuel does not make sense. Not to mention the ride/handling compromise.

A couple of things. If you are measuring every tank, and still always getting 40mpg, your Cavalier is very special. On Fuelly, I would say for for model year 1993-1995 people are averaging 27mpg. I only saw 1 other car that ever got up to 40mpg. Remember the hold Civic HF, they could get 50-60mpg? People always ask "why can they do it in the 80s-90s and not now?" Well many reasons. a) weight (virtually no safety equipment, no amenities, tiny car) b) the car only had what 60hp? c) emissions standards I saw a guy claiming to have gotten 90mpg in his Civic HF!!! of course his next tank of gas he got 19mpg, but he ignored that fact, and claimed to get 90. I can get 100mpg in my Suburban also! I go and drive 100 miles, then I go to a gas station and put 1 gallon in, and Viola 100mpg! This is why don't put any weight in anyone's MPG claims unless they track every tank of fuel. The guy claiming 90, you look at his Fuelly log and he was registering 90, 19, 70, 23, 81, 28, etc etc averaging out to *gasp* wouldn't you know it, 48mpg or so. I parked my Fusion next to a friends Sportwagen the other day, it dwarfed it by comparison. 12" longer, wider, etc. The Dart weighs in at 3242lbs, the Energi is 3913lbs. When your using the ICE, that big battery is dead weight in the car, this is why the Energi isn't as good as they Hybrid on the highway. The reason the Energi requires the Atikson engine is its ability to start/stop quickly/efficiently and without damaging the engine. Without it, you don't have what makes a hybrid a hybrid. All that to say, it does sound like there is an issue with your car, you shouldn't be smelling any burning smells. I have worked really hard and not been able to get any less then 36-38mpg over the course of a trip, so getting 30 makes it sound like there is huge drag on the system. But as a reminder, new cars need to break in. I noticed great efficiency improvements over new around 1-2k miles. So if your under that don't judge. Also, Cold weather kills the performance of the Energi. So again, don't judge till its warmer.

So I have been hearing a small pop noise for a while sometimes (not always listing for it), but yesterday I heard it as loud as this one. Not totally sure what it is, but doesn't seem like something is breaking so not really concerned.

It idles at 1500 to warm up. Since the engine is often rarely on, it has to get warm quickly. Like mentioned in another thread, if its not run frequently enough, it will run itself to "maintain the oil", it needs to burn off the condensation water in the oil pan that collects in the oil.

If I have the heater on my car shows 13 miles, if I turn it off, it will jump up to 22-25.

But its NOT ILLEGAL in some places, e.g. California. That's where probably 80% of the Energi users are from, thus very prevalent to the conversation.

Short answer yes. Long answer, maybe. If your charging on 110v it may take 8kWh for a full charge (inefficiencies in charging), so that would be $1.52. Depending on what kind of driving your doing you may get more then 20 miles out of the charge, or far less. Like now during cold months running the heater I get more like 13 mile range. And also depending on your driving you may get a bit better then the 40 mpg in Hybrid move, mixed driving I'm usually around 45-46mpg in hybrid only. Now there are other factor's as well, like wear and tear on the engine. If you go all hybrid for the next few months while gas is cheap, you will likely need to do an oil change much sooner. Do it yourself $33, dealer $75. So in saving $10-$20 in electric bill, you could cost yourself a $75 oil change. No idea what it would really cost, but just giving you more factors to think about. At the end of the day, I wouldn't be scared to use gas, but I wouldn't avoid electric.

I don't think my pregnant wife is going to buy into this line of thinking... ;-)

So when its cold (not a huge problem here in the Pacific Northwest), I show 13 mile range with the heater on. I also am paying $.075 per KW, and I don't drain completely, so assuming a 7kWh charge. 13miles / 42mpg = 0.3095 gallons , Gas is 2.129 x .03095 gallons = $0.65897 cost to drive 13 miles on gas @ $.075* 7kWh = $.525 to drive the same distance on electric. So still cheaper to use electric, and like Raja said, less wear/tear on the car, but actually doing the math does show me not to be so worried about running the ICE when needed. I guess I don't have the excuse to make my wife freeze in my car "NO we are not running the heater, we can't afford those luxuries!!!" ;-)

Congrats. Is this before or after the Fed tax credit?

You maybe, though I know there are a couple of owners here that just got out of college, so your not totally alone. And I like to think I am in the younger crowed, but then I realize I was in middle school when you were born. =(

Yes! If that isnt enough deceleration, you can also shift into low gear, which is max regen braking, but... if you have a full battery, low will cause the engine to turn on to use the engine as a brake, as it has nowhere to put the re-charged energy.

Since this body is only started in 2013 wouldn't it make more sense that this is the Taurus replacement? The general shape of the body looks more Taurus then Fusion, and the high trunk as well.

There was another thread that had a video in it, while backing up there was a substantial pop/thunk. After paying more attention, I have noticed this noise, but not nearly as loud as what the video sounded like (though it could be the condition of being recorded in a garage which contained the sound compared to me being outside. My theory is, this is just the brake pads shifting from forward braking to rearward braking. Brake pads are floating, so they can shift ever so slightly on their end supports (brakes). My suspicion is all cars do this, but since your engine isn't running to mask the sound, we notice it more. Maybe this isn't true at all, but what I hear isn't loud enough for me to be concerned with. I would think someone could test this (I am to lazy), but parking there car after then have gone backward a few feet with the brakes dragging, park overnight, then in the morning listen for the thud.

What you experience "real world" is going to be 100% up to your driving habits. When around town, and I can use just electric I use no gas. When I drive across a few states I get 40-45mpg Over the last year and 12k miles of driving I am averaging right at 65mpg. Lots of people here on the forum are going about 1 year per tank of gas.

awesome thanks!

looks good, how easy to the mounts go on/off the car. Is anything left on the car or do the mounts come completely off? A side and rear shot would be nice to see! Thanks for posting

Hmm Bronze fire. Is that basically the same as the Bordeaux of previous years?

If you read the article "The plug-in Energis will be used by department administrators and detectives in the various police districts of Indianapolis." so they wont be common patrol cars. Yes they will have lights and such, but they wont be sitting around looking for speeders, and hopefully never involved in high speed chase. ;-) Though I do question the author: "Since then, he’s clocked 1,6000 miles, yet there’s still a quarter tank of gas left." So is that 1,600 miles, or 16,000 miles? and "The Department of Public Safety calculates the annual fuel savings at $70,000 for the 50 Fusion Energis." assuming they got SE's and got some sort of package discount, and got the federal tax credit, getting the price down to $30k per car, thats a 21 year pay off, not counting the higher price for the car. Not sure how I feel about it, yes using technology to save gas/emissions, but also not being fiscally responsible.

Well said!!

Sounds like a good plan to me. And I haven't seen that kind of information culminated and reported automatically.

Pictures!