focus st fuel consumption
Discussion
Context required on this topic for it to be fair discussion...
My ST2 is used mostly on a 13 mile commute, on A&B roads, on 2 x short dual carriageways (so not much cruising), then into Birmingham traffic. It gets used around Redditch on short dual carriageways, lots of roundabouts and town roads.
If I really try hard to maximise MPG, I get very, very bored and it doesn't better 25mpg. Instead, I drive the car in an appropriate / spirited manner and average 24.5mpg.
On a motorway, at average (sensible) UK cruising speeds, it does around 29mpg.
Not sure if the Dreamscience upgrade gives better economy, but unless you're on the m-way all the while, do your sums based on a vanilla car giving approx 25mpg would be my advice.
It is not an efficient car, so be under no illusions that it's going to cost a few pennies!
My ST2 is used mostly on a 13 mile commute, on A&B roads, on 2 x short dual carriageways (so not much cruising), then into Birmingham traffic. It gets used around Redditch on short dual carriageways, lots of roundabouts and town roads.
If I really try hard to maximise MPG, I get very, very bored and it doesn't better 25mpg. Instead, I drive the car in an appropriate / spirited manner and average 24.5mpg.
On a motorway, at average (sensible) UK cruising speeds, it does around 29mpg.
Not sure if the Dreamscience upgrade gives better economy, but unless you're on the m-way all the while, do your sums based on a vanilla car giving approx 25mpg would be my advice.
It is not an efficient car, so be under no illusions that it's going to cost a few pennies!
I have just done nearly 100 k in mine in 18 months, ok its a company car and they pay for the fuel but I have managed 29 mpg out of it over 100k however with the price of fuel I reckon that's cost maybe £23k so your looking at roughly half that on fuel alone before servicing, a maybe 3 sets of tyres over 50k miles.if you can swallow that go for it !!!
Krise said:
I have just done nearly 100 k in mine in 18 months, ok its a company car and they pay for the fuel but I have managed 29 mpg out of it over 100k however with the price of fuel I reckon that's cost maybe £23k so your looking at roughly half that on fuel alone before servicing, a maybe 3 sets of tyres over 50k miles.if you can swallow that go for it !!!
You must work for either a very successful company or one that will soon go out of business. How anyone can authorise a Focus ST as a company car when they do more than 60,000 miles per year is beyond me. I hope you don't have a lot of colleagues running similar cars with similar mileages....Yes the company is doing well, I'm rewarded with a nice car for the work I do, however its not that much difference to driving a 5 series or c e class oild burner when my compnay looks at the fuel consumption for cars on our fleet like that they only really return 30 ish mpg as people have the tendancy to drive the nuts of them ! And don't drive them economically, also we have a auto mondeo on our fleet that is only returning 28 mpg !
Just to drag this back onto topic...this is going to sound like a really boring/stupid question, but there is a reason that I will explain in a mo. What economy would you get at 60mph steady motorway cruise? Now the reason I ask is that the only way I can justify my boring diesel is it I get the maximum economy out of it. This means doing the 30 miles to work in the left hand lane at 60mph. It might sound boring, but is very relaxing and doesn't actually take any longer to get to work when you factor in traffic.
I have to say, if economy & cheap running costs are your main driver then the ST may not be for you. Once, I reset the computer (about 3% optomistic I've found) on the car and then drove from London to the Midlands and never exceeded 70mph... the car managed an indicated 32mpg and I was horribly bored. I've tried driving to work slowly and it just doesn't work out... you see there is a problem: it's a great car to actually DRIVE. You don't have to rag it everywhere, but it's character only comes thru' when you actually use it.
It's easy to drive a boring car in a boring manner, but when you've got a car like an ST, with a lovely "voice", torque-rich power delivery and playful chassis, you have to drive it a bit.
As for cheap to run, I would disagree. My car is a fully-maintained company car and I have to laff at the way it gobbles up tyres (I have a lot of corners on my way to work!) in 7,000 miles. The rear last about double that, but it is a fairly heavy car, so when push, it hurts tyres.... especially if you have sticky'ish, rubber. I've tried 3 different brands of tyres and I find that the harder wearing stuff (Michelin / Conti) last a bit longer, but cause the car to trigger it's ABS & TC too much. Back on it's std rubber (Good Year Eagle F1), they don't last long, but the car drives better.
Being a bit blunt, an ST will never be a cheap car to drive, unless you drive it like a Focus TDCI with an egg under the throttle.
After 2 yrs of ownership, "my" ST delights me everytime I drive it, but it's not friendly on my pocket or the lease companies. That's not what it's about tho'...
It's easy to drive a boring car in a boring manner, but when you've got a car like an ST, with a lovely "voice", torque-rich power delivery and playful chassis, you have to drive it a bit.
As for cheap to run, I would disagree. My car is a fully-maintained company car and I have to laff at the way it gobbles up tyres (I have a lot of corners on my way to work!) in 7,000 miles. The rear last about double that, but it is a fairly heavy car, so when push, it hurts tyres.... especially if you have sticky'ish, rubber. I've tried 3 different brands of tyres and I find that the harder wearing stuff (Michelin / Conti) last a bit longer, but cause the car to trigger it's ABS & TC too much. Back on it's std rubber (Good Year Eagle F1), they don't last long, but the car drives better.
Being a bit blunt, an ST will never be a cheap car to drive, unless you drive it like a Focus TDCI with an egg under the throttle.
After 2 yrs of ownership, "my" ST delights me everytime I drive it, but it's not friendly on my pocket or the lease companies. That's not what it's about tho'...
chr15b said:
friend of mine got one today, had just over 3/4 of a tank of fuel when delivered, 25-30 miles later, just under 1/4 
i thought my R32 liked a drink
Does your friend have even the slightest concept of gears or mechanical sympathyi thought my R32 liked a drink
Unless it was driven everywhere at 5k - 6k rpm (effectively in a manner that would befit a track day in a motor someone else was paying for) then I just don't understand how anyone could manage what would be about 5 mpg, I really don't.
I'm not known for hanging around (without being daft/dangerous) and I've never managed to get mine below 20mpg for any worthwhile distance. In a total mix of driving & over 50k miles, I've managed between 22 and low 30s on a run, with an overall average of somewhere in the 25-26mpg range.
As for the life of other consumables, must also be down to a combination of roads and driving style. I get 14-15k out of a set of front tyres, 30k+ out of rears and 50k+ out of brakes, so to me tyhe running costs aren't that horrific, apart from insurance that is
Edited by ClintonB on Wednesday 9th September 22:28
ClintonB said:
chr15b said:
friend of mine got one today, had just over 3/4 of a tank of fuel when delivered, 25-30 miles later, just under 1/4
i thought my R32 liked a drink
Does your friend have even the slightest concept of gears or mechanical sympathyi thought my R32 liked a drink
Unless it was driven everywhere at 5k - 6k rpm (effectively in a manner that would befit a track day in a motor someone else was paying for) then I just don't understand how anyone could manage what would be about 5 mpg, I really don't.
I'm not known for hanging around (without being daft/dangerous) and I've never managed to get mine below 20mpg for any worthwhile distance. In a total mix of driving & over 50k miles, I've managed between 22 and low 30s on a run, with an overall average of somewhere in the 25-26mpg range.
As for the life of other consumables, must also be down to a combination of roads and driving style. I get 14-15k out of a set of front tyres, 30k+ out of rears and 50k+ out of brakes, so to me tyhe running costs aren't that horrific, apart from insurance that is
Edited by ClintonB on Wednesday 9th September 22:28
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