[jcantara]

It's a manual, and it's mostly highway, then back roads with few stops, there is traffic some days, but it rarely stops, just slows, where I try to coast.

I don't have any instrumentation on the Focus yet. I just go by how much gas it takes to fill it up at the pump. This was my first real attempt at mpg-by-style aside from just 'taking it easy'. The last car I had would vary 13 mpg from 'taking it easy' to 'drive like a jerk', while the focus only seems to change 1 mpg between the two; it's just very curious.

To get into more detail, when I get 29.5 mpg here's my typical commute to work:
Start car, pull quickly into busy street, if I'm not braking I'm flooring it, or idling stopped. Get onto the highway at full-throttle, blast up to 85 mph. Speed to work for 20 mins braking for traffic. Take the exit, blast down the hilly, twisty back roads having fun going fast then braking hard for the turns.

When I got 30.5 mpg here's what I did:
Start car, very gingerly pull out into traffic making sure to keep back far enough so the stop-and-go turns into one smooth, slow drive forward. Coast as much as possible to stop signs and lights, then get on the highway gently at the least amount of throttle necessary to merge. Stay in the slow lane behind a big, steady moving truck the whole way to work, going 55-65. Get off the highway and drive slowly through the back roads giving myself plenty of time to coast for stops (nobody behind me at this point to worry about).