2700 Mile Trip Impressions in 2.0 Bronco Sport Badlands

[Ford Motor Company]

We just back from a 900 mile trip to southern NJ & back to southwestern Virginia. We averaged 29.6 MPG by the trip computer while pulling an open motorcycle trailer with my wife's 2016 Kawasaki Vulcan 900 Custom. It never felt like we were pulling a trailer, we encountered a lot of hills in Virginia & the 1.5L pulled like a champ. As far as I can tell we did not use any coolant or oil.

That's awesome, Mike! And what a beautiful Bronco Sport you have as well!

 

[fog53]

Leave later this week for my annual round trip from Florida to Wyoming.

 

[13MikeH]

Yellowstone would be a great trip! & one I want to do again before too long…

I do find the mileage to highly change too depending on wind. 75mph/120kph on a calm day & I can get 30mpg out of this thing (read by the dash)! But push it to 80mph (speed limit in Montana, unofficial speed limit here too) with some winds & I barely got 22Mpg.

As my engineering son put it..."dad the bronco is cool but it's an aerodynamic brick" "just drive it you don't want to see the numbers???" just took my trip through the black hills and had similar fluid comparison. Overall trip MPG 30.3 both ways total. Oil was about 1% per 100 miles ironically. Got an oil change in Rapids City SD as I neared 20% with half a trip to go. Normally do it myself but didn't want to wait.

 

[13MikeH]

Driving any vehicle with a 30 mph headwind like I had will put the kabosh on mileage.

More so with the "brick". The mpg on the display was always from 1 to 1.2 mpg high. The mileage's below were running 70-75 mph with a lot of climbing mountain passes from Ca. to Wyoming.

If you've driven I-15 to Salt Lake City, and then I-80 to Evanston you understand what I mean.

I had 12 fillup's. The actual, not displayed mpg for each was:

To Yellowstone:

28.3
25.0
26.9
28.8
30.4
33.5

Heading home:
26.5
26.5
21.2
24.7
23.0
26.8

My "displayed" was darn close...don't discount the computer it's a good "guide". Running 87 every fill, a few I found without ethanol which was nice.

 

[Mark S.]

Leave later this week for my annual round trip from Florida to Wyoming.

Cody is a gorgeous area. Enjoy!

 

[Mark S.]

As my engineering son put it..."dad the bronco is cool but it's an aerodynamic brick" "just drive it you don't want to see the numbers???" just took my trip through the black hills and had similar fluid comparison. Overall trip MPG 30.3 both ways total. Oil was about 1% per 100 miles ironically. Got an oil change in Rapids City SD as I neared 20% with half a trip to go. Normally do it myself but didn't want to wait.

Altitude is a factor as well. The higher you go the thinner the air, which equals less drag.

 

[wireman]

Altitude is a factor as well. The higher you go the thinner the air, which equals less drag.

Every time I've driven at higher altitudes on previous trips and on this last trip, when I filled up in Jackson, I averaged an actual 33.5 MPG over 285 miles driving around Teton Park, Yellowstone and on to Cody.

I think the ECM adjusts the A/F ratio, leaning out the fuel to compensate for the higher altitude.

This observation reflects numerous vehicles I've driven at higher altitudes. over past years. JMO

 

[Mark S.]

Every time I've driven at higher altitudes on previous trips and on this last trip, when I filled up in Jackson, I averaged an actual 33.5 MPG over 285 miles driving around Teton Park, Yellowstone and on to Cody.

I think the ECM adjusts the A/F ratio, leaning out the fuel to compensate for the higher altitude.

This observation reflects numerous vehicles I've driven at higher altitudes. over past years. JMO

Your engine is turbocharged, which means the air entering the engine is pressurized. The weight of air going into the engine is essentially the same as at sea level until you get to the really thin air. This negates the need to lean the mixture.

 

[wireman]

Your engine is turbocharged, which means the air entering the engine is pressurized. The weight of air going into the engine is essentially the same as at sea level until you get to the really thin air. This negates the need to lean the mixture.

?

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