In my previous post, I should also have mentioned that I have started to use regular gas from Costco - I had been using only Shell. Costco sets prices here daily and are generally about 5 cents a litre (about 19 cents per US gal) cheaper than others. I am not sure, though, who provides their fuel. Has anyone noticed any real difference in mileage among gas company fuels?

 

I have been documenting my mileage and what I spend on gas since I purchased the car. I have a spreadsheet on my phone and keep track of the mileage, fuel used, and cost of fuel. Since October (Less a month grounded) I have 5104 miles on the car, used 191.14 gallons of fuel, average mileage of 26.7 overall. Much better on the highway. Drove from Orlando to Beaufort SC and averaged 30 mpg avg speed 75 mph

We do a lot of driving to Orlando and Tampa so you get into the stop and go which, really kills the mileage numbers.

Driving conditions 75-80 MPH highway, city stop and go, and rural driving 55 MPH two lane roads. Fuel cost is $716.54 average $3.74 per gallon 93 octane. At .30 cents a gallon price differential I have probably spent $57.3 more that I would have with regular since October.

I also, noticed different brands of gas will deliver different mileage results. So, far I get the best with Shell.

 

We purchased our 2013 back in Oct 2012, have about 6500 kms. Quite frankly the gas milege SUCKS!,average about 22-25 with 2.0 Ecoboost AWD.
The other problem I am having is the soot and oil drops left on my nice clean garage floor. Had to purchase a drop mat so I can make clean up alittle easier.
This soot and droplets are coming from the exhaust tips and making a real mess.
So far not impressed with Ford's Ecoboost engine, would not purchase again. Thinking about switching out my 2008 F150 for a new F150 but would go to the 5.0L.

 

I'm a little confused. People here are saying they have AWD and the website shows the 2013 Escapes are 4WD. Now I'm new to the SUV scene, so maybe I'm just not understanding.

But if a vehicle comes with 4WD, can't you, for the most part, leave it in FWD and only put it in 4WD when needed? Wouldn't this save on gas mileage?

Conversely, if a vehicle comes with AWD, it is always in AWD and you can't change it to FWD?

 

Agreed, it's confusing. I'm not going to pretend to understand the technology. They are calling this vehicle 4WD. But user has no control over engaging it. So it is "intelligent" 4WD, which is akin to AWD. It is supposed to engage as necessary.
Personally I'd prefer to control it myself. Cars / trucks used to be mechanical objects, now they're a collection of a dozen or more processors on 4 wheels. The electronics are muddying all the rules and negating the things I practiced and learned to do as a teenager, like countersteering a skid and parallel parking.

 

I can't speak to the 2013. But on my 2006 hybrid awd I just went through something similar. The rear engages a clutch when it wants to go from 2wd to 4wd. This was fine for years but eventually my active torque converter stuck in 4 wd. This drove mpg down to 21.4. Now, the rear end can't be fixed, just replaced. So to avoid this I pulled fuse 18. This disabled the 4wd control module and thus the car never goes into 4wd. This gained me back my pre-problem mpg plus 2mpg. I then replaced the air filer and gained 2mpg more. This bring me to a net of 4mpg so far. The point is, if you can, pull the fuse for 4x4 only. Drive the car using only 2wd and put the fuse back in for those winter months etc.
There is no issue driving in only 2 wd. You'll find, in the hybrid, it stays in electric mode longer, runs smoother and gets better mpg. Again, this is my 2006 experience but might apply to the 2013.