Throwing the flag on My Ford Mobile - Community Rankings

[Neil]

So, I have always been a little suspicious of the numbers on 'My Ford Mobile, Community Rankings', but I finally did the math and at least one of the rankings is not physically possible.  

 

According to the web site, the award for the 'Gas Sipper' category goes to 'Chewsion' with a total of  10,321 miles.  The 'Gas Sipper' category is defined as "The most Miles traveled without adding more gasoline."  The qualifier is 'Last 30 days' - and that is the KEY part.  To me that means how far you have gone in the last 30 days without adding gas.  Apparently not, because if Chewsion's number was accurate, it would mean he would have had to driven an average of 344 miles per day.  Using a liberal figure of 25 miles per charge, that would mean 13.76 charges PER DAY.  To do that, you would have to have a charger that can charge your battery in an hour and 45 minutes - but then you would not have time to drive the 344 miles per day.  so....

 

Either I am misinterpreting the meaning of "Last 30 days' or there's a problem with the system.  And yes, I am bitter cause I never win  :)  ... not really.  

 

[jeff_h]

Either I am misinterpreting the meaning of "Last 30 days'

 

I don't see a clear explanation of it, but looks to me like that number registers when the owner finally does have to get gas and that triggers the posting.  Note that the top owner in Region 1 is over 15k miles.

 

I could be wrong, again I don't see a clear explanation anywhere, so happy to be educated by others if they know a different definition?

[murphy]

I drove my car on electricity for almost a year and never got higher than 22 miles for that metric.

[stevedebi]

OK, I gotta ask... how many yards was the penalty?

[Russael]

The 30 day thing is misinformation.  What it actually does is literally count how far you've traveled without adding gas, until you add gas.  The timeline is bogus... but I don't know anyone who has let their car sit an entire month without turning it on either.

 

What Murphy indicated was an older bug that's been corrected - it used to tally how far your longest trip was (your house to your grocery store as an example, if that was the farthest trip traveled from home).  It didn't care if you added gas or not.  Mine used to be 10 miles.

[jeff_h]

I drove my car on electricity for almost a year and never got higher than 22 miles for that metric.

 

Mine was like that for about a year as well (back in 2013 I wrote to the MFM people and they replied that it was a known issue and was being worked) and then they did something to the site which had it reporting the numbers it does today.  I would say they "fixed" it but the description is not clear enough to assess whether that is true, so again what I wrote above is just a guess.

[cwstnsko]

As I understand the way they calculate this one, as long as you don't open the fuel filler door, the number keeps climbing.  Once you open the fuel filler door, it stops, and that number holds for 30 days, unless you surpass your previous mark within 30 days, then it starts climbing again.  Opening the fuel filler door is what resets the counter, not the act of adding fuel. People who accidentally hit the button, or pop the door open to add stabilizer or some other additive, have there number stopped and counter reset at that time.  When the counter resets, your score in MFM doesn't drop to 0, it holds, but after 30 days, it drops to whatever number you are at, at that time

 

It's really seems to be more of a "best high score" in the last 30 days metric.

[lonzo71]

I think the whole ranking system is a joke and needs to be taken off. The regions are unfair, the "rules" as in 30 days, dont apply and even if the system was more "fair", there are ways to "cheat"...So rather than try and get the system fix, I just dont play. You can remove yourself from the rankings, but if its anything like the rest, they take your numbers and add it to the rest...

[Hybridbear]

Our car currently shows 1038 miles for the Gas Sipper ranking. We have only driven about 450 miles since we bought gas on 10/31. But 10/31 was less than 30 days ago. 1038 was close to the miles driven before buying gas on 10/31. I wonder what it will show once the 10/31 fill up is more than 30 days in the past...

[rbort]

Guys:

 

MFM used to be correct and work "within the last 30 days" for all categories until the user community (means us) complained to Ford about the gas sipper ranking because they didn't understand the idea of it and had Ford hack it after the fact and change the programming so that it counts forever until you add gas.  They failed to remove the wording "for the last 30 days" in that category.

 

How is worked in the past in 2013 before this change is that it was your "high score" most miles driven in one ignition cycle within a 30 day rolling window.  So if you were driving EV only, the most you could probably muster was about 30 miles per ignition cycle.  One day you drive 22, the next day you do 25 so now that's your high score, then later you do 30, and it will stay for 30 days and then drop off (like the other 3 categories) and once dropped the next highest number of miles would take the high score spot.

 

With the setup, the absolute most you could get with gas sipper would be about 650 miles, 618 on gas and say 32 on EV, and you would have to do it all in one sitting without a bathroom break or if you pull over to go you need to leave the ignition on.  Possible if you are on a trip to FL for example.

 

It was a challenge, and most people were in the 400-500 range who were in the high scores.  Gas sipper meant you had to be efficient driving as if you go 80mph you're never going to make 600 miles on a gas tank, so that's what separated the men from the boys.

 

Now they changed it because people complained about it, and in reality its more meaningless and less well thought out,  Now you get the guy who drives EV only all the time and they are about to 10k miles and getting to a worn out battery as they never use the engine.  

 

The last 30 days is a good thing, because it means you won't stay up there forever if you did have a high score of 650 miles for example it will drop off after 30 days to give someone else a chance to get up there unless you keep repeating it.

 

The car, in its original design of 2013, also had MPGe and Lifetime summary and other misc items that have been deleted from newer models due to folks complaining about this and that.  To be honest it was better then with more data than less, I'm fortunate that mine has all the features originally intended.

 

-=>Raja.

[Doug0716]

It's always been meaningless to me. In another category, for efficient brake use, I've see people with 100%. To achieve a 100% efficiency rating you either have to be cheating or driving on roads w/ no red lights and no other drivers... or they just have the most amazing luck and never catch a yellow as they are approaching the light.

Edited November 28, 2015 at 04:28 PM by Doug0716

[jeff_h]

It's always been meaningless to me. In another category, for efficient brake use, I've see people with 100%. To achieve a 100% efficiency rating you either have to be cheating or driving on roads w/ no red lights and no other drivers... or they just have the most amazing luck and never catch a yellow as they are approaching the light.

 

I've had trips with 100% brake score many times, car had 98% lifetime brake score.  I had many trips with driving scores of 99% but never got a 100% driving score on any trip (and I tried and tried).

Edited November 28, 2015 at 11:22 PM by jeff_h

[stevedebi]

I don't bother looking at MFM much, but I do find myself in the Renaissance Man randings between 35 and 25 or so in the West Coast rankings. I just drive sensibly and try to use the regen as much as possible.

[shaggy314]

It is also bogus as there was a user with over 10,000 gas free miles in our TX zone, but they never showed up on the other two that would be REQUIRED to get that many miles, % electric or (either Renaissance Man or Braking Expert). We think it might be towed while powered up, as otherwise you are using gas and not getting 10,000 on a tank of gas.

[rbort]

Getting 100% brake score for a trip is not impossible to do if you are patient and precise in braking.  There is only a small window for a light to turn and screw up your brake score, sure it can happen, but sometimes it turns too late and you can keep going, other times it turns too early and you can muster a 100% brake score stop, sometimes by overshooting the stop line by a few feet.

 

I try to get that all the time (100% brake score), and just recently my lifetime brake score moved up from 98 to 99%...woo hoo!

 

-=>Raja.