2.0L MPG Fuel Mileage

[dparleng]

JRL - No. I do not. I have approximately 3400 miles. Does that make a difference in MPG?

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[Jrl]

JRL - No. I do not. I have approximately 3400 miles. Does that make a difference in MPG?

Yes it will improve in the next few months, but here in pittsburgh the winter will play hell with gas mileage.

 

[Outback Texan]

I don't believe for a moment that the auto start stop increases ones MPG at all.

I believe it does, but how much depends on individual vehicle use. If you spend a lot of time in city traffic with lots of long red lights, or spend a lot of time at drive-up windows, it will certainly add up. just the other day I started my BS in a parking lot and immediately got a serious and fairly long phone call... maybe 7-8 minutes... left the car running... should have turned off the engine... with a little over 3/4 full tank... MPG dropped from 24.3 to 23.7!

 

[DemonGT]

I believe it does, but how much depends on individual vehicle use. If you spend a lot of time in city traffic with lots of long red lights, or spend a lot of time at drive-up windows, it will certainly add up. just the other day I started my BS in a parking lot and immediately got a serious and fairly long phone call... maybe 7-8 minutes... left the car running... should have turned off the engine... with a little over 3/4 full tank... MPG dropped from 24.3 to 23.7!

Do you realize how small of a amount of fuel is being used in one of these small engines while at idle?

 

[SgtT11B]

Do you have 5000 miles on by now ?

4500

 

[vegasvic]

BTW, E85 is mandated for government vehicles that are capable of using it. There's one damn pump on the base where I work and it slows to 1 gal/min or less when the tank level gets low. The F150 my division used gets about 150 miles per tank on the corn juice.

Lots of E85 around here. It’s $1.94/gal right now. It’s 6 hours from my house to where my son is going to school and I can easily do it one 1 tank of fuel. All things being equal I wish my BS had that option.

 

[Mark S.]

UPDATE:

I decided to run premium for three tanks just to reconfirm previous testing that showed no improvement in fuel economy. You can view my tracking spreadsheet here. Note that there are two sheets accessible via the tabs at the bottom. One sheet is labeled "Tracking," and the other is "Totals." The totals tab shows lifetime totals for fuel used, miles driven, and average economy.

RESULTS:

Over the last three tanks of premium I averaged 25.7 MPG, which is 1 MPG lower than my lifetime average of 26.7. The first time I did this test, I got 25.1 MPG using premium (you view the data from that test here). That's two different tests at two different times which confirm no gains in fuel economy using premium fuel. Note that my last tankful measured out at 27.6, which is 1 MPG higher than lifetime average, so I refueled one more tankful to see what happens. Some have suggested it takes a few tanks for the PCM to adjust to a new octane before you realize the full benefits of premium. I don't believe this--I think it's more on the order of 100 miles drive or so, depending on your driving habits--but I'm going to try one more tankful just to be sure.

DRIVING IMPRESSIONS:

That said, there is a noticeable seat-of-the-pants boost in power using premium. Lore in the EcoBoost Mustang community suggests a 10-15 percent loss in maximum power using lower octane fuel. The 2.0L EcoBoost as installed in the Badlands is rated at 250 HP using premium. If you assume a 12.5% loss using regular, that drops maximum power to 218 HP. Based on my seat-of-the-pants dyno, that seems like a pretty good assumption. The car accelerates eagerly, seemingly effortlessly, using premium. Using regular, there are times under light acceleration where the shift points don't seem to match very will with engine power, which can make for non-linear acceleration, as if the engine is struggling in certain gears and at certain RPMs. That never happens with premium. Power delivery is always smooth and linear no matter what gear you're in.

There's no question that premium "wakes up" the engine, making for a more pleasant driving experience. Enough to justify the more 20-30 cent/gal increase in cost for premium gasoline? I don't thinks so; not for me anyway. If I tow anything near the maximum tow capacity, or if we load up and head off to the mountains in the summer, a situation that puts a significant load on the engine with high ambient temps, I'll likely fill up with premium to get that little extra oomph. But for my normal, everyday driving here in the lowlands, I'll stick with regular.

 

[PaulOinMA]

My wife recently went on a 1,600-mile MA-NJ-VA-OBX-VA-NJ-MA trip. Lots of local driving, too. And stuck in not-moving traffic at a Hampton Roads tunnel and 95/494 around DC/Maryland.

27.84 mpg. Very pleased.

Not the 33.34 and 32.71 mpg I saw on two, 1,400-mile MA-OBX-MA trips I did in my '22 Escape. But her BS BL is less aerodynamic, and she did a lot more local to stuck-in-traffic driving.

EDIT. For comparison, I did the MA-OBX trip 31 times in my '14 Escape. OEM Continentals, Continental CrossContact LX 25, and winter Michelin X-ICE Xi3 tires. 26.85 mpg over 46,4712 miles

 

[PaulOinMA]

... I you assume a 12.5% loss using regular, that drops maximum power to 218 HP.

That's somewhat more of a drop than published numbers I saw with the previous 240/270 2.0 in my '14 Escape. I was 233 published on regular. Saw another similar number, too. Maybe a little more of a drop.

There was a Ford rep on fordescape.org. We were discussing h.P., and the rep spoke with a Ford engineer. Feedback was that the slight h.p. increase on premium may be felt at WOT or when towing. Other than that save money and buy regular.

 

[Glamdring70]

Regular gas with an almost all highway trip in Eco. Adaptive cruise helps.

 

[DemonGT]

I didnt think Eco mode did anything while highway cruising?

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