Hey everyone, hoping for some help to figure this out. So I bought a 2024 F150 with a 5.0 and 4wd in November 2024, and since day 1, it has been getting pretty awful gas mileage. I know it's a v8 and I shouldn't be expecting great mileage, but it is way less than the 16/24 that Ford claims and also way less than what I have read other people getting. I've owned a couple older F150s with the 5.4 and 4 speed transmissions and this new truck is getting almost as bad as those trucks got!

Truck is completely stock, STX model, 3:31 gears, stock tires, and I use regular 87 octane gas. Has about 2,500 miles on it and all are from me (only had 10 miles when I bought it). According to the truck, I get about 21-22 mpg when going 70 mph, about 19-21.3 when going 75, and about 17-19 when going 80. RPMs seem normal , about 1500 when i am going 70 and somewhere around 1600 when going 75.
And those numbers don't seem that bad, but what is really bad is the city driving. I live on the outskirts of New Orleans, so my drive to work is about 2 miles to get to the interstate, 2 miles on the interstate, and then about 2 miles of actual city driving, and I get about 15 mpg according to the truck with that on a good day. And if I am ever actually in the city in any kind of decent traffic, I am lucky to get 10 mpg.

And just to further support these bad numbers, I just filled up yesterday. The truck said I got 16.3mpg or something like that, but I hand calculated it to be only 14.7. And during that tank I had two trips out of town that were about 120 miles roundtrip each. So with more than half the miles on that tank being interstate driving, I still somehow got less than what the truck should get in the city.

The only thing that I do that is bad for the gas mileage is that I turn the auto stop feature off, but that can't amount to that much of a difference. I get on the gas every now and then, but have been driving it much slower than I normally drive to try and get the mpg up.
Truck seems to be running fine though, no check engine light or anything. It has a bit of a rough idle when it is cold but that goes away almost completely once it is warmed up fully. Only other thing is that I do see some fumes/almost transparent smoke coming out the exhaust when the truck is warming up even if it's in the 60s outside. I don't remember ever noticing this on any other vehicle I've owned, but could be wrong. I do have to rev the truck up above 2k RPM to get it to accelerate at above a snails pace and really have to get it up close to 3k to get going, which is higher than i remember having to rev my 5.4s, but I don't know if that is normal or not in these new trucks with this gearing.

I bought the truck into the dealership to get the oil changed at about 1500 miles and mentioned how the MPG seemed to be real low, and they just gave me a bunch of BS about "how the tested MPG are based on optimal conditions" and "have you tried eco mode", etc.

Any help would be appreciated! and just for the record, it isn't really an issue about having to pay more for gas (although the less money i have to spend the better), it is that it seems like something has to be messed up with the truck to be getting this poor of mileage.

 

Mine in city and highway is around 18MPG in winter. When summer gas comes back its around 20 to 21. I am easy on the pedal. Also I have done a lot of testing on highway driving and I get best MPG when in tow mode, 2022 with 3.73

 

My daily drives are short, averaging 19.6 at the moment, per the lie-o-meter. I try to baby the pedal for the most part but damit, Sport mode is fun as hell. LOL

 

This is the worst commute to any car/trucks. Short trip. The motors friction dramatically reduced as it warms up.
to give you some extreme situation for perspective, I live in Canada and we are getting sub zero temperatures, when the truck is cold, the first mile felt like I’m constantly left foot braking while driving.

 

Mine feels like that from time to time. Like the parking brake is still set but I know its not because the electronic parking brake releases as soon as I give it some gas. Still feels weird. When I come to a stop, I engage/disengage the parking brake just to make sure. LOL

 

That sounds right. Any true city driving is going to be abysmal with it. I live in a medium sized town with nothing but stroads and stoplights, and I get about 12ish usually. People saying they get 16-17 "city" don't know what city driving is.

 

That seem right for city driving. My 2024 was getting 19.2 mpg over 2,000 miles when I first got it. I was driving it easy and I don't live in a city. Now with warming it up, leaving it in 4A and driving it how I want I get about 16.5-17mpg.

 

In case anyone hasn't seen it, the "Lie-O-Meter" on the dash can be calibrated by entering engineering mode and adjusting the bias for the calculation. My '22 was off by about 10% from the factory (read 10% more mpg than calculations at the pump...). There are thread(s) here that have the info on how to get into engineering mode and adjust the bias.

 

City commuting, as in driving at 50 or less, lock out 9th and 10th. It helps.

Nothing else……trade for a Prius

 

Accept it or not, 16/24 on the window sticker IS based on optimal conditions. 80 MPH is not optimal. 2K-3K takeoffs is not optimal. Winter gas blend is not optimal. Ford doesn't rag on the truck in Sport mode to determine published city/highway MPG that contribute to fleet CAFE requirements.

Short drives. City stop/go driving. Revving to 2K to 3K RPM initial acceleration. Winter fuel blend. All that will bring MPGs down.

My '21 F150 Platinum 5.0L SuperCrew 6.5' 4x4 averages around 15 in the city and 18-19 (~75 MPH) on the highway in the winter months. Add 1-2 on in the summer months.