2700 Mile Trip Impressions in 2.0 Bronco Sport Badlands

[wireman]

Some thoughts here on my 2021 Badlands trip of 2700 miles. First off, I had a lot of mountain climbing throughout my trip to Yellowstone.

Actual pen and paper MPG was 26.8 average for the trip, with my last 1100 miles heading home facing 20-30mph head winds, which affected overall mpg a lot. The lowest was 21.2 and the highest was 33.2 mpg.

The 2.0 was outstanding in the mountains and never any issues passing on 2 lane roads. I've owned 3 Ford Escapes with 2.0's and they always impressed me and the BL wasn't any different. The 8 speed transmission is excellent, much better than the 6 speed in my previous Escapes.

Oil life was at 100% when I left. After 1400 miles it was at 86% and after 2700 miles it sat at 73%. Basically 1% for every 100 miles.

It didn't use any coolant and maybe 1 oz. of oil. My oil was 5W-30 Semi-Synthetic. Only complaint was that we could have used a little more cargo room.

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[Jmuns]

Thanks for sharing. I am leaving tomorrow morning from Florida to drive to Houston, then meander farther west to NM for a week until we head back to FL. Should be between 4k-5k miles all in when we are done over a couple weeks. I'll try and track my numbers and share them when we get back.

 

[MJE]

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.

 

[Mark S.]

But push it to 80mph (speed limit in Montana, unofficial speed limit here too) with some winds & I barely got 22Mpg.

Brick…

 

[fog53]

I've made the florida to wyoming trip twice so far in my 2021. Once in summer and once in the late fall early winter season. Both trips were without any problems, but do agree about more cargo room. The fact that the rear seats do not fold down flat was also and issue with storage but we adapted. Planning out third trip out to Wyoming at the end of July.

 

[MJE]

Brick…

Yup! Brick indeed.

Really this shouldn’t be too surprising to anyone. You can get economy car mileage exceeding the EPA estimates but push it too much & truck like aerodynamics give you truck like mileage.

 

[wireman]

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

 

[NMhunter]

Mine really likes 30 to 70 mph speeds. Traveling to our property where only 20 miles is 70 mph, I get up to 32 mpg (display). I use both an up top box and a hitch rack when I'm cramped for space. Turns out, the roof box kills gas mileage almost as much as pulling my utility trailer (with a cap on it). The hitch rack by itself may even help gas mileage.

 

[wireman]

Just the wife and I so I figure if we can't get everything inside that we're taking, we really don't need it. Some of our gear we have inside, we really don't need either, but you know how that goes.

I do have a hitch carrier, but never have used it.

 

[Robins21]

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.

 

[Bronco2.7]

Just the wife and I so I figure if we can't get everything inside that we're taking, we really don't need it. Some of our gear we have inside, we really don't need either, but you know how that goes.

I do have a hitch carrier, but never have used it.

We just got back from yellerstone on Sat. We got lucky saw some black and grizzly bears.

 

[Wolf256]

I’ve made 6 round trips from the Seattle area to the Los Angeles, in the last year. Just shy of 2400 miles round trip. Average between 26-30 mpg. Handles the passes great.

 

[GoHack]

Some thoughts here on my 2021 Badlands trip of 2700 miles. First off, I had a lot of mountain climbing throughout my trip to Yellowstone.

Actual pen and paper MPG was 26.8 average for the trip, with my last 1100 miles heading home facing 20-30mph head winds, which affected overall mpg a lot. The lowest was 21.2 and the highest was 33.2 mpg.

The 2.0 was outstanding in the mountains and never any issues passing on 2 lane roads. I've owned 3 Ford Escapes with 2.0's and they always impressed me and the BL wasn't any different. The 8 speed transmission is excellent, much better than the 6 speed in my previous Escapes.

Oil life was at 100% when I left. After 1400 miles it was at 86% and after 2700 miles it sat at 73%. Basically 1% for every 100 miles.

It didn't use any coolant and maybe 1 oz. of oil. My oil was 5W-30 Semi-Synthetic. Only complaint was that we could have used a little more cargo room.

What fuel octane did you use 87 or 91+?

 

[wireman]

What fuel octane did you use 87 or 91+?

Usually 87. Some states don't have 87 and went with 88 octane there. Never felt a need for 91.

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Some thoughts here on my 2021 Badlands trip of 2700 miles. First off, I had a lot of mountain climbing throughout my trip to Yellowstone.

Actual pen and paper MPG was 26.8 average for the trip, with my last 1100 miles heading home facing 20-30mph head winds, which affected overall mpg a lot. The lowest was 21.2 and the highest was 33.2 mpg.

The 2.0 was outstanding in the mountains and never any issues passing on 2 lane roads. I've owned 3 Ford Escapes with 2.0's and they always impressed me and the BL wasn't any different. The 8 speed transmission is excellent, much better than the 6 speed in my previous Escapes.

Oil life was at 100% when I left. After 1400 miles it was at 86% and after 2700 miles it sat at 73%. Basically 1% for every 100 miles.

It didn't use any coolant and maybe 1 oz. of oil. My oil was 5W-30 Semi-Synthetic. Only complaint was that we could have used a little more cargo room.

That looks like so much fun, Steve! Thanks for sharing these details about your trip and that beautiful photo of your Bronco Sport!