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Yesterday for about 1hr 20mins I had a lovely little chance to hypermile my friends new Econetic Fiesta. This was the first time that I had the chance to hypermile a diesel as the car I have for driving instruction is a pathetic Vauxhall Corsa (GM btw..) who drinks more petrol than an alcoholic stuck inside a booze warehouse.

I wasn't overly scientific about the test (unfortunately) as it was a spur of the moment kind of thing, but we had some time to kill and he suggested I'd give "all that hypermiling kerfuffle" a go in his new baby. I wish I had my cellphone with me to get a picture of the trip computer at the end of it because I was pretty impressed!

Route distance was 29.4 miles with about 11 miles of that being on the motorway. Roughly about 10 miles of it was on A and B roads and the rest was stop and go busy weekend traffic. The tires were fully inflated to the max on the side wall (They were 15 psi short of the max! :eek: ) Techniques used was P&G, High Speed P&G, FAS (where appropriate), proper timing of traffic signals, DWL and DWB (very fun!)

The Driving Standards Agency is strongly against coasting but after seeing the benefits of it, it truly is an incredible and valuable fuel saver. I believe the DSA here is wrong now to teach against coasting. If you coast on your driving test here 3 times, you fail your test. The new fiesta really likes to roll alright and she can go quite far when coasting! And was particularly fun to do it on the motor way. After a few miles or so of playing with high speed P&G (50mph down to 40 mph) I decided to go up to 55 and then pull her into neutral. Well I didn't have to step on the gas AT ALL for the rest of the motorway part of the route, the car just kept going and going (down a very shallow hill) and my friend was stunned at what he was seeing, we went all the way up to 60 in neutral and the only pedal I had to touch was the brake when we were going too fast. Overtaking people in neutral was quite incredible! :D The next time she was in gear was when i moved into second for the roundabout then hit a busy "A road" doing P&G from 40 mph to 30mph.

The good bit:

For a car rated 73.6 mpgUK (61.3 mpgUS / 3.8 L/100km) I got an incredible 112.1 mpgUK (93.3 mpgUS / 2.5 L/100KM)

Exceptional! Which I'm sure is due to the long coast on the motorway and by staying in 5th gear above ~32mph

My friend couldn't believe it, and was quite literally absolutely stunned by it all and loved it! Especially DWB ;) Except that time he banged his head off the window because of it! :D

wow,great report! i want one now! :D thanks Gordon!

Hi Gordon:

___OMG! You are so lucky to play with this ultimate vehicle that some of us will only dream to be able to drive!!! Absolutely excellent FE for your first time out and 100 + is a guarantee with some more seat time.

___Thanks again for bringing your drive to our attention.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Not a problem! I was more than happy to get behind the wheel of it and see what she could do when hypermiled. Without a shadow of a doubt, the strength of the Fiesta is its highway driving. On extra-urban it is rated 88.3 mpgUK, and with its very impressive gliding at high speeds it isn't hard to imagine the possibilities it has when cruising for long distances. On the UK motorways using high speed P&G and DWL I don't think its hard to imagine that one could easily get 100+ mpgUS out of it.

Gordon,
Way to show 'em all that hypermiling kerfuffle! :D - Dale

Sweet!!! :D:thumbs_up:

If only we could convince Ford management to bring the diesel here!

I am very impatiently awaiting the ecoboosted Fiesta (Hopefully with a nice little 1.2L or 1.4L)!!

WOW! Great job Gordon. You are very lucky to be able to get behind the wheel of that car.

WOW! That's amazing. I really, REALLY wish they would bring some of these direct injection, common rail diesels over here. I hate modern cars, but I might actually start looking at modern cars if they had some diesels in the lineup.

Well there is one way to try and get them to do that, and that would probably be if we started a petition to Ford to bring the Econetics to the United States.

If we get a list of people willing to buy the car and say they'll put a deposit down on it immediately then maybe they'll listen. That way they wouldn't be able to claim, "There isn't much demand for this in the United States."

Count me in on that list (specifically the Fiesta version)!! The biggest stumbling block I see is the whole Diesel emissions issue. It is MUCH more expensive here in the states than in Europe. However, I would be more than willing to pay for it!!

I have always loved eruopean cars. We in North America really dont get the technology and styling that you get over there. My car has a diesel option pretty much all markets but ours. Its very frustrating!

Gordon, congrats for your result :thumbs_up:

Personally I want the Ford Focus Hybrid. Why isn't it in Europe ?

Denis.

Hi Denis:

___The Fusion Hybrid, right? The Europeans have the diesel powered Mondeo with similar attributes as the Fusion. Mazda 6 underpinnings and a very fuel efficient TDCi. Around town it would get killed but I am sure on the highway, it would eat an FFH alive.

___Gordon, would you like me to pursue a Review vehicle for you? We would need at least 500 miles of driving and no stone unturned. You can read the 5-latest previews/reviews as to what ids needed. If you are willing to do the work, I will see what I can do about getting you an Econetic for a week. That is if Ford has a provisional press fleet in Scotland or not?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Yeah Wayne that would be great, 500 miles and reviewing the car for a week would be perfect. If it can be arranged I'd gladly do it for the site.

Hi Gordon:

___Check your E-Mail as I cc'ed you with a request to my US based Ford contacts to have you take out a Fiesta Econetic. Jay or Alan should get back to me shortly and hopefully we will have you in contact with Ford's European/UK based press fleet coordinator(s) in a few days.

___I wish I could be sitting behind the windscreen with you because there are so few vehicles in the world that are capable of 100 + mpg and 1,000 miles on a single tank while traveling the highway. Take advantage of whatever this presents and I am sure you are going to love it as much as I am going to love reading about your adventure with the mightiest of super diesels available on the planet :D

___Take great pics of the Fiesta Econetic in front of all-things Scotland related to make it more a theme review than just a std. review... And please take a notepad along with you so as to record the Fiesta Econetic's nuances at every stop that most of us will never know about unless we are fortunate to drive one in the future.

___Most of all, enjoy your upcoming adventure as there will be thousands of CleanMPG’ers wishing you the best of luck while you are driving your local roadways in the Econetic :)

___Good Luck

___Wayne