Unofficial MPG thread for the 1.5L

Brad Urton

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Whatever is stock on the OB. I know it’s 18”, but I’d have to check the tire manufacturer. I’m also running a higher tire pressure than the standard recommended.
I have 18s also(17 " is standard on the bb I think) Michelin Primacy a/s 225 60
May have air em up a bit see if that makes a difference...
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DMEARC

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I have 18s also(17 " is standard on the bb I think) Michelin Primacy a/s 225 60
May have air em up a bit see if that makes a difference...
It will. Increasing the pressure will decrease the rolling resistance. Just be sure to stay within the tire manufacturers limit.

As far as the Ford recommended tire pressure (33psi, IIRC), keep in mind that this number is obtained through testing in a wide variety of scenarios: high speed, low speed, cornering, heavy load, light load, rain, dry, etc. Fords recommendation is a “jack of all trades” number, in that it does well in all conditions, but exceeds in none.
 

Osco

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Getting any car up to speed takes a tremendous amount of energy. Doing it quickly requires a disproportionately large amount of fuel.
Accelerating briskly but not super fast is a good idea over grandma acceleration because getting into higher gears sooner is better than spending more time and fuel in lower gears.
I say get the engine on the turbo and get up the speedo and tac sooner, quicker.
The sooner your in an overdrive gear the sooner your getting better mpg's.
The less time spent accelerating the better...
I bet this concept gets shot down fast..
Commercial driver here. 3.2 million miles logged in DOT driver log books. Tractor Trailers down to Ford Transit Connect mini vans.
Brisk acceleration is best.
1st off and away from the light is not.
 

DMEARC

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Accelerating briskly but not super fast is a good idea over grandma acceleration because getting into higher gears sooner is better than spending more time and fuel in lower gears.
I say get the engine on the turbo and get up the speedo and tac sooner, quicker.
The sooner your in an overdrive gear the sooner your getting better mpg's.
The less time spent accelerating the better...
I bet this concept gets shot down fast..
Commercial driver here. 3.2 million miles logged in DOT driver log books. Tractor Trailers down to Ford Transit Connect mini vans.
Brisk acceleration is best.
1st off and away from the light is not.
Eco mode up shifts very frequently. You won’t be in low gears for very long, even during slower acceleration.

I agree about acceleration. Too slow is just as bad as too fast.
 


WoodmanMN

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First tank on our Bronco Sport base. 30.004 mpg calculated. 28.4 indicated. Avg 45mph.
And we did 210 miles today. 140 were with cruise set between 60 and 68mph depending on posted limits in northwestern Wisconsin, and 70 miles with cruise set at 75mph through rolling hills of Northern Minnesota. The dash showed 33mpg at the lower speeds, it fell to 30.3 indicated after the 75mph run, with a calculated 29.65 at the same pump we filled up at with 91 non oxy gas (best we can get here).

Not going to complain. Just shy of 500 miles on the Odometer, and getting much better than advertised without trying hard.
 

DMEARC

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And we did 210 miles today. 140 were with cruise set between 60 and 68mph depending on posted limits in northwestern Wisconsin, and 70 miles with cruise set at 75mph through rolling hills of Northern Minnesota. The dash showed 33mpg at the lower speeds, it fell to 30.3 indicated after the 75mph run, with a calculated 29.65 at the same pump we filled up at with 91 non oxy gas (best we can get here).

Not going to complain. Just shy of 500 miles on the Odometer, and getting much better than advertised without trying hard.
That‘s great. As far as exceeding the estimated fuel economy as printed on the Monroney label, it’s fairly easy to do. Those estimates are done under a strict set of conditions and are meant to be what an average driver could expect. They are not the “best” that the vehicle can do.
 

SportWest

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After a little over 1,000 miles:

Displayed: 29.9 mpg
Calculated: 29.1 mpg

35 PSI on the optional 18'' wheels; liberal use of adaptive cruise control; interstates and country roads with little city driving; 87 octane Top Tier gas.
 

WoodmanMN

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That‘s great. As far as exceeding the estimated fuel economy as printed on the Monroney label, it’s fairly easy to do. Those estimates are done under a strict set of conditions and are meant to be what an average driver could expect. They are not the “best” that the vehicle can do.
Yeah, I know the MPG estimate is not real world driving, and I always take them with a grain of salt.
Although I was told different back in 1990 when I took driver's ed, I find on modern cars with modern overdrive transmissions, computer controlled fuel injection, and other technology over the last 20ish years, running on cruise control gets the best overall MPG because you're keeping the car at a constant speed much more reliably than if you were to do it manually. Also much less tiring and allows for you to concentrate more on driving than maintaining speed. But, that's just my experience.

Based on today's adventures, the Bronco Sport is ok at 75mph (approximately 2000 rpm) on flat ground. Any inclines at all and it really hurts the MPG. Keep it around 60mph however, and it has much less effort with minor inclines as far as MPG go at least. I'm sure the headwind I was driving into at 75 this afternoon wasn't helping much either, but we'll see how it does on the next longish highway trip. It's not broken in fully yet, and 90% of it's driving will be getting my wife back and forth to work, which is uphill there, downhill back. So I expect anywhere from 28-30 average for that. Much better than the 24 we were getting with her 2018 Edge 2.0EB.
 

DMEARC

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Yeah, I know the MPG estimate is not real world driving, and I always take them with a grain of salt.
Although I was told different back in 1990 when I took driver's ed, I find on modern cars with modern overdrive transmissions, computer controlled fuel injection, and other technology over the last 20ish years, running on cruise control gets the best overall MPG because you're keeping the car at a constant speed much more reliably than if you were to do it manually. Also much less tiring and allows for you to concentrate more on driving than maintaining speed. But, that's just my experience.

Based on today's adventures, the Bronco Sport is ok at 75mph (approximately 2000 rpm) on flat ground. Any inclines at all and it really hurts the MPG. Keep it around 60mph however, and it has much less effort with minor inclines as far as MPG go at least. I'm sure the headwind I was driving into at 75 this afternoon wasn't helping much either, but we'll see how it does on the next longish highway trip. It's not broken in fully yet, and 90% of it's driving will be getting my wife back and forth to work, which is uphill there, downhill back. So I expect anywhere from 28-30 average for that. Much better than the 24 we were getting with her 2018 Edge 2.0EB.
Cruise control is definitely the way to go.
 


DMEARC

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After a little over 1,000 miles:

Displayed: 29.9 mpg
Calculated: 29.1 mpg

35 PSI on the optional 18'' wheels; liberal use of adaptive cruise control; interstates and country roads with little city driving; 87 octane Top Tier gas.
That‘s pretty good! I’m at 1,820 miles total with an average mpg of 33.7, mostly highway miles. Adaptive cruise is awesome. I use it in the city too.
 

johnardsg

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driven around ~900mi now, 70-80mph on i5 i was getting 30mpg with sport mode. Maybe there's only a small diff on the normal vs sport mode for i've observed is that you get more torque on the sport mode than normal but the rpms are about the same when your speeds go 50+...i might be wrong :)
 

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The only aero part is the automatic front grill shutter (not sure if it counts)
Yes it counts but just a single digit or two I think. I can't believe Ford did that for areodynamic gains. I think it was more for thermo stability.
I'd assume the engine efficiency was more of a reason.
 

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