New 2012 Ford Focus Photos!

[masterchef341]

reminds me more of a 2011 ford focus than any aston martin I can recall.

[linuxwanabe]

My new car doesn't have a on board fuel economy meter. I calculate with my calculator on my iPhone. I filled up until the pump clicked off, got on the highway, drove about 100 miles, then filled up until the pump clicked off right after I got off the highway. Average was 40.8MPG.

Wouldn't it just be easier to do long division? You know, miles divided by gallons? Life is much easier if you simply save your gas receipts and keep track of the odometer. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't matter if you calculate fuel economy at every fill-up. Sometimes it's just easier to calculate fuel economy when you get a credit card statement, or even when you figure your annual mileage. Take you annual mileage and divide by the total number of gallons. No iPhone required.

My car is rated 36MPG highway. Its really easy to get over your cars EPA rating, as long as you don't drive like a Formula 1 driver and just take it easy its not hard.

Actually, you might get higher fuel economy if you drive a bit more like a Formula 1 driver. If you maintain speed around corners, you're braking less, maintaining momentum and will require less throttle when you come out of the corners. Besides saving fuel, you're saving wear on the brake pads, although it might cause additional wear on the tires and will totally freak out your passengers. You also have to know what you're doing.

As far as EPA ratings, the current revised fuel economy numbers are pessimistic. Anyone can exceed the current EPA highway ratings. From experience, I can state that the old EPA numbers were actually more accurate.

[linuxwanabe]

reminds me more of a 2011 ford focus than any aston martin I can recall.

There's going to be a tiny Aston Martin branded version of the Toyota iQ, a car that's only a little bigger than a Smart ForTwo. Aston Martin is also going to produce a crossover based on Mercedes GL. It's called the Lagonda and looks like a giant pig.

[KPot2004]

Wouldn't it just be easier to do long division? You know, miles divided by gallons?

Thats exactly what I was talking about.

I never usually gas up until my tanks empty, this was just a test because I just bought a new car and was curious how good I could get.

[masterchef341]

Wouldn't it just be easier to do long division? You know, miles divided by gallons? Life is much easier if you simply save your gas receipts and keep track of the odometer. Contrary to popular opinion, it doesn't matter if you calculate fuel economy at every fill-up. Sometimes it's just easier to calculate fuel economy when you get a credit card statement, or even when you figure your annual mileage. Take you annual mileage and divide by the total number of gallons. No iPhone required.



Actually, you might get higher fuel economy if you drive a bit more like a Formula 1 driver. If you maintain speed around corners, you're braking less, maintaining momentum and will require less throttle when you come out of the corners. Besides saving fuel, you're saving wear on the brake pads, although it might cause additional wear on the tires and will totally freak out your passengers. You also have to know what you're doing.

As far as EPA ratings, the current revised fuel economy numbers are pessimistic. Anyone can exceed the current EPA highway ratings. From experience, I can state that the old EPA numbers were actually more accurate.

any decent racer would brake into a turn and accelerate out of a turn, so I dont get your point. and, when racing, you have a very different set of priorities compared to normal driving. Basically you have to compromise between speed, fuel efficiency, and safety (risk). That compromise is done very differently in racing situations compared to driving situations. Turning is a relatively uncommon general driving technique compared to braking and accelerating, and also is much more common in racing than in normal driving. Also, acceptable levels of risk are much larger in racing than in driving.

I would say, focus on minimizing your overall acceleration, and maintaining low acceleration when you need to speed up. Focus on safety when cornering. That should get you pretty far.

Biggest thing for most people would be to brake early at red lights and coast in slowly. Ideally, you won't have to come to a complete stop before the light turns green. That will save you a ton of gas. Average drivers tend to zoom to the red light and slap the brakes. Fail.

So yeah, minimize your overall required acceleration by minimizing braking, but also focus on common situations that don't impact safety negatively. Cornering / turning is a relatively rare maneuver, so making changes there wont have the same type of fuel efficiency effect as doing something that occurs more regularly (starting and stopping, accelerating and braking on straightaways) - and cornering / turning is already a dangerous maneuver, and taking turns at high speed can cause you to lose traction which is extremely dangerous and will slow you down anyway. You should brake around corners.

Also try increasing your following distance so that if cars in front of you are slowing down and speeding up, it won't affect you as much and you can do a better job of maintaining a constant speed. That is a big one because a) it happens all the time, large gains b) it impacts your safety positively

[usapatriot]

Not too shabby 0-60 times, it will probably be a good bit faster once it's all broken in.

http://youtu.be/lmDlJxuyUIQ

[Rodster]

The dash on the new Focus looks like a cheap boom box.

[Collegekid2k]

They can make them as nice as they want, seriously the worlds slowest cars in the world, I don't care what they say it'll do I owned one and I was passed up by 1998 cavaliers stock, mini vans with loads of kids of them. PASSSS....Get a SRT4 for like 8k and you can haul butt and they get great gas mileage. I liked my Focus because it was reliable and always started minus the 2 dead batteries from AZ heat but other than that I hated it, the inside was cheaply made and it didn't get that good of gas mileage.

[usapatriot]

Not every car is designed to be a 500HP monster, sports car.

[usapatriot]

2012 Focus's are now arriving at dealerships and I've heard they are selling like hotcakes. The Focus forum I visit has seen a HUGE influx of new and old members purchasing the new Focus.

I've also seen a TON of new Ford Explorer's on the road as well, so they're selling well too. Alan Mulally is the man.