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Oregon Road Trip Leg 5 - A 23.1 MPG Exception, Trip Summary - 2015 Ford F-150 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited September 2015 in Ford
imageOregon Road Trip Leg 5 - A 23.1 MPG Exception, Trip Summary - 2015 Ford F-150 Long-Term Road Test

Our 2015 Ford F-150 finally achieves 23 mpg on the final all-highway leg of my summer road trip. But it required a tailwind and very conservative driving.

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  • handbrakehandbrake Member Posts: 99
    Don't EPA ratings assume that you're driving no more than the speed limit and travelling on flat roads? If so, then I actually think that the mileage you got shouldn't subject to an asterisk. Maybe the tailwind justifies a small asterisk, but overall, if you hit EPA numbers under EPA conditions, no asterisk is needed.
  • wrhikerbbwrhikerbb Member Posts: 4
    Just filled up my new F-150 super crew with the 2.7 l V-6. The trip computer said 21.6 mpg but the calculated came out 20.1 mpg. This was mixed driving about 70% highway although most of the highway miles were secondary (65 mph). I did clock one highway trip at 22.7 mpg. So I was thinking there must be something wrong with your truck or your not trying very hard since this was after all my first tank. I'll be taking a trip over labor day that will be about 600 miles of interstate (75-80 mph) most of the way. We'll see what happens with that tank. I did find that it guzzles gas quickly when you get into the turbo.
  • 500rwhp500rwhp Member Posts: 99
    wrhikerbb said:

    Just filled up my new F-150 super crew with the 2.7 l V-6. The trip computer said 21.6 mpg but the calculated came out 20.1 mpg. This was mixed driving about 70% highway although most of the highway miles were secondary (65 mph). I did clock one highway trip at 22.7 mpg. So I was thinking there must be something wrong with your truck or your not trying very hard since this was after all my first tank. I'll be taking a trip over labor day that will be about 600 miles of interstate (75-80 mph) most of the way. We'll see what happens with that tank. I did find that it guzzles gas quickly when you get into the turbo.

    My Ecoboost 2015 F150 had bad gas mileage for the first 2 tanks. After about 5000 miles the mileage began to improve. At 11,000 miles of driving, my economy on the display is 19.7MPG. I have a 2WD supercrew Platinum with the big 6.5' bed and the 3.5EB. Speed has a huge impact with this truck. Worst tank was 15.xx driving 80MPH or so. Best was a trip to the beach where I was crusing at around 70MPH and I got 22.7 indicated.
  • darthbimmerdarthbimmer Member Posts: 606
    edited September 2015
    So, you had near perfect driving conditions. Open roads, smoothly flowing traffic, no extreme temperatures, moderate speed. You did have the Tejon Pass in the way, so that's a minus, but on the plus side you had that tailwind at your back. When I've fought that wind going the opposite direction in the Central Valley my truck that usually gets 19 MPG drops to 15 MPG. Do you think you enjoyed an equally sized benefit from going with the wind? If so that basically erases your win.
  • emajoremajor Member Posts: 332
    There's always a fair amount of grousing about these reported fuel economy trials. To me it seems like there are two types of vehicle: those that achieve or exceed their EPA ratings without much effort, and those that seem to take more, sometimes extraordinary coddling in order to do so. Every car I've owned falls in the former and this F150 (and a lot of Ford Ecoboosts) is in the latter.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,304
    edited September 2015
    Everyone who thinks the EPA test is done with an option loaded 4x4 Crew cab with towing package and running the AC all the time, raise their hand.
    You getting ready to sell that thing?
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • aspadeaspade Member Posts: 42
    EPA test is done at an average of 48 mph with a large fudge factor applied afterwards to bring the result for an "average vehicle" back in line with real world speeds.

    Averages don't work well out on the ends and a pickup truck with A) a boosted powertrain that likely never goes into boost at all at 48 mph, and B) the frontal area of a garden shed is wayyyy out there.
  • newcrowynewcrowy Member Posts: 2
    I usually get good milage on my 215 f-150 4x4 2.7l. My first 10,000mils, I have 19mpg average with heavy city use. I usually get 21-22mpg when I go to my country house (about 60 miles on flat highway at 73mph, then 40miles up and down mountains at 68mph with cruise control)

    I tried an economy run, making the trip at about 60mph, going very light on accelerations and decelerations, I returned 28MPG!
  • thecardoc3thecardoc3 Member Posts: 5,745
    Where is the truck in relation to its next oil change interval? There is a significant difference in mileage to be seen right after the oil is changed as compared to just prior to a service. With a lot of the newer vehicles it can be a swing of some 10% and the surprising part is the oil doesn't even have to appear to be worn out in fact it may be only slightly darker than the new oil right out of the bottle.

    As far as 87 octane getting better fuel economy than 91, that shouldn't be a surprise. 87 has more BTU's per gallon than 91 if they are both straight gasoline, and to make 91 a lot of refiners use a slightly higher ethanol percentage then they do with the 87. The higher the alcohol content, the more fuel it takes to properly charge a cylinder, so some mileage difference is expected right there.
  • actualsizeactualsize Member Posts: 451
    darthbimmer said:

    So, you had near perfect driving conditions. Open roads, smoothly flowing traffic, no extreme temperatures, moderate speed. You did have the Tejon Pass in the way, so that's a minus, but on the plus side you had that tailwind at your back. When I've fought that wind going the opposite direction in the Central Valley my truck that usually gets 19 MPG drops to 15 MPG. Do you think you enjoyed an equally sized benefit from going with the wind? If so that basically erases your win.

    Yes, I do. Equally sized, is maybe too strongly worded, though. Thinking back, the very first northbound leg of this trip was 18.8 mpg, and this last southbound leg was 23.1. That first leg did, in fact, have a headwind for about half the distance. So the dead-calm mpg on this route may hover close to 21 mpg. That would make sense.

    Twitter: @Edmunds_Test

  • gregsfc1gregsfc1 Member Posts: 29
    One direction highway trip is not a fuel economy test. Period! It should never be used and posted under any circumstance. It's almost as bad as looking at instantaneous mpg on one's dash in a moment and time and claiming that number as the mpg. It's nearly worthless information. Unless altitude is the same on both ends of the trip and the vehicle is inside the largest building in the world, the result will be highly skewed one way or the other. I can take any vehicle on a typical day, leave my home and drive to my home town of Knoxville going east on I-40 for 102 miles to my parents' house, and get 10% above my normal trip mpg. However, on the way back home to the Upper Cumberlands of middle TN, I'll get roughly 10% lower than normal. Knoxville sits at a lower altitude and it's east of my home; weather systems nearly always move north east or south east, so it only makes since that this phenomenon will occur almost every time, as well as just about any trip going one direction, anywhere on this planet.
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