Ford Taurus MPG question

[Flandry]

I recently drove from Birmingham, AL to Pensacola, FL in my wife's 2000 Ford Taurus. The car is bone stock with 150K miles and was packed with the family and luggage. My average speed for the trip was in the low 70s. Before the trip I changed the oil, oil and air filters, washed and waxed the car, and rebalanced, rotated and properly inflated the tires in the hopes of getting decent fuel economy. But I was exceedingly surprised to find I averaged 31.5 mpg (the official EPA highway figure is 26 mpg). Does anyone else here have a 2000-2006 Taurus? If so, have you gotten this kind of mileage from it?

 

[kert0307]

We can get 29-30 hwy with ours (2000 Taurus) if we don't exceed the speed limit too much. We have the DURATECH engine.

It really amazes me the difference between city and hwy with it. It will get low 20's in town...

 

[snoborder42]

Don't have a Taurus but, my dad drives an 08 Fusion. He gets similar mileage, hovers around the low 20's in town but around 33 mpg on the highway. So you aren't too far off.

 

[Flandry]

That's really cool. I forgot to mention I've got the Duratech engine as well. Daily in-town driving seems to stay around 24 mpg with no driving techniques to enhance mileage. I wonder why the mileage is much better than the EPA figures of 17/26? Our mpg figures are comparable to the 22/31 quoted for a 2008 Accord I4 with a 5-speed tranny.

 

[Joe Dirt]

My '04 Duratec was 19-ish city and 26-27 highway (70-75) and 28-31 highway (55-65)

My '99 SHO V8 is about 20 city, and 25-28 highway regardless of speed

My '95 SHO MTX was 21 city, 29-33 highway.

I know a lot of friends that run bulls, and the mileages have no rhyme or reason. They can show anywhere in a window of 10 MPG for some reason.