GregTR

I hit 100% today while cruising home from work.



By the time I got home, it dropped to 99% as my speed had to fluctuate a bit once I got off the interstate:



Stupid gimmicks like this and competitive personalities make efficient drivers.

AErcen

I thought only I had too much time in my hands.
63 degrees? That sounds like a blizzard to someone like me in Florida. I bet you didn't have the AC on.

GregTR

It was actually 72F when I left from work and it hit 85F in the afternoon but the cold front was rolling through as I was driving home. And I did have A/C on. Economy has nothing to do with A/C or even speed or even fuel consumption. You can be doing 50-60mph and still suck at economy or you can be doing 80mph and be a smooth driver with high economy.

2006_C350

I hit 32 MPG before in my gas E350, my wife told me to quit driving like a grandma but I just had to test it out and I got better than the rated MPG

mleskovar

If it has nothing to do with fuel consumption then why do they call it economy? Curious what it takes into account.

GregTR

It's all in the manual. It monitors three things. How quickly you accelerate (eats a lot of gas), how much your speed fluctuates (again, eats gas) and how much you use the brakes instead of driving while anticipating traffic flow (again, wastes kinetic energy/gas).

But if you accelerate slowly to 100 mph, maintain 100 mph for 20 minutes then coast to a stop your economy will be high as you attained the feat the most optimal way.

Now if you accelerate hard to 50mph, then you accelerate and decelerate like a jackrabbit between 48 and 52 mph and come to a full stop using the brakes hard your economy will be low while your MPG will probably be higher than had you driven the entire distance at 100mph as you'd have to fight 4x the wind resistance at 100mph than you do at 50 mph.

So ECO is a good measure on how optimal you drive regardless how fast you like to drive. A higher ECO percentage for a given average speed will yield a better fuel efficiency no matter what.

mleskovar

That's what I thought and it's a good reference for someone's personal efforts. Efficiency and economy aren't the same thing.