Am I missing something with Ford's MPG calculations?

I got gas last night on the way home and reset my one trip meter. I let my truck warm up a bit this morning (-2 here brrrrrr), and on my way to work glanced down and saw this:


If I used 1.0 gallons of gas and drove 17.4 miles, how exactly is my average MPG 16.1?

 

I'd say idle time was factored into the average. You're getting 0 mpg while it idles.

 

Yup...idle awhile and the miles per gallon will keep winding down.

 

If you lived up on a hill then you could idle while on the downside then you'd not see the 0mpg while idling lol

I wish I could stop the engine from counting the idle time. It messes up my mpg counter too.

 

With or without the idle time hand figuring is the only true way to go. I have never seen an oen lie-o-meter that was accurate.

 

I think Ford excludes idle time from their mpg calculation.

 

Hand calculation is the only way to go on these trip computers. The Gal Used figure is always wrong on my truck by 1.5 gallons. Ford has removed the Gal Used readout from the 2016 trucks because they are not accurate. My MPG is never as good as the readout either. To me, the trip calculator is only good for mileage...Gal Used and MPG are meaningless.

 

Spot on.

 

No it does. Try it out. Reset your truck and drive a few miles then let it sit in park a few minutes. You'll see it fall off.

 

Those of you that say the computer calculated mpg is always wrong and the only real way to do it is by hand, how do you figure your idle time into it?

Let it warm up 10 or 15 minutes in the morning, spend 7 or 8 minutes a day at red lights, leave it running 5 minutes when you run into the quick stop for coffee, sit in the parking lot for 10 minutes to make a phone call and return an email... That all adds up to a lot of fuel over an entire tank.

I think the computer is pretty accurate when you realize how it works.