3 month study, does drive mode affect MPG? Does it matter?

[Cabose-1]

The begining of April I fell and broke 3 ribs, had a concussion in which I am still dealing with its affects, and bruised a lot of my hip and femur. Short stay in the hospital and well, all is mostly well, except for my still lingering concussion.
So, that is what started this long unscientific test. Does drive mode matter, does it really make that big of a difference? since my accident I have not used my ranger for work the way I was doing. Just putting around town and an occasional 60 to 80 mile trip to see family. This is what I found, and I did nothing special but just drive normally around town and kept track of all of my miles. Ill start with my Ranger trim, and get more into how I drove. I have a chart to include as well, thats how I kept track of all of my miles.

2024, XLT, Advance tow, Elocker, 2.3l, 4x2. vehicle is all stock. I have on my leaf springs the RAS springs (road active suspension). wheels, tires all stock.
I use 93 octane from Valero or Shell gas stations.
Auto start/stop off
No tonneau cover.


Eco mode, I started in Eco Mode. I had about 80 Miles of Interstate driving. I hate this mode. The engine was always in a gear way to high and shifted really early in all situations, and had to really push the skinny pedal to get the truck to kick a gear down to pass a car doing way below the speed limit. I did not speed followed all posted speed limits. the part that says eco/slip it was raining. was suprised at the gas results on mpg.

Sport Mode, I love this mode! It is my default drive mode. It keeps the RPMs high, and power is always available with the slight push of the gas pedal. Did about 80 miles on a trip on the Interstate. MPG was what I expected in this mode.

Normal mode. Its meh. still wants to be in 8th gear at 35mph and it lugs a lot. a lot more pep than eco mode, and well, it had the best mpg out of the 3 drive modes I tested! Not to suprised by this as I am sure that this is what the truck was made for. As you can see I traveled more miles in this mode. Not on purpose. And I started working again at the end of this test drive, so I have about 110 miles of interstate miles in this mode. Still only working on a limited basis right now.

This test was not scientific, just trying to drive the way I always do and wanted to see the difference in drive mode. This is the result I got from my vehicle with my driving. No Denver 100 loop or anything like that, just a what if I drive 500 miles in a certain mode and see what the truck does.

I did not test tow or slippery mode. I only us tow mode when I tow or carry heavy cargo. I only use slippery mode when it rains or when I am spinning tires with the lockers on pulling something out of being stuck, onto a trailer or pulling something that does not want to move easily.

conclusion for me here, I am all Sport mode. the savings on mpg is just not big enough for me. I will see you on the road, Keep The Rubber Side Down!

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[mattmico]

The begining of April I fell and broke 3 ribs, had a concussion in which I am still dealing with its affects, and bruised a lot of my hip and femur. Short stay in the hospital and well, all is mostly well, except for my still lingering concussion.
So, that is what started this long unscientific test. Does drive mode matter, does it really make that big of a difference? since my accident I have not used my ranger for work the way I was doing. Just putting around town and an occasional 60 to 80 mile trip to see family. This is what I found, and I did nothing special but just drive normally around town and kept track of all of my miles. Ill start with my Ranger trim, and get more into how I drove. I have a chart to include as well, thats how I kept track of all of my miles.

2024, XLT, Advance tow, Elocker, 2.3l, 4x2. vehicle is all stock. I have on my leaf springs the RAS springs (road active suspension). wheels, tires all stock.
I use 93 octane from Valero or Shell gas stations.
Auto start/stop off
No tonneau cover.


Eco mode, I started in Eco Mode. I had about 80 Miles of Interstate driving. I hate this mode. The engine was always in a gear way to high and shifted really early in all situations, and had to really push the skinny pedal to get the truck to kick a gear down to pass a car doing way below the speed limit. I did not speed followed all posted speed limits. the part that says eco/slip it was raining. was suprised at the gas results on mpg.

Sport Mode, I love this mode! It is my default drive mode. It keeps the RPMs high, and power is always available with the slight push of the gas pedal. Did about 80 miles on a trip on the Interstate. MPG was what I expected in this mode.

Normal mode. Its meh. still wants to be in 8th gear at 35mph and it lugs a lot. a lot more pep than eco mode, and well, it had the best mpg out of the 3 drive modes I tested! Not to suprised by this as I am sure that this is what the truck was made for. As you can see I traveled more miles in this mode. Not on purpose. And I started working again at the end of this test drive, so I have about 110 miles of interstate miles in this mode. Still only working on a limited basis right now.

This test was not scientific, just trying to drive the way I always do and wanted to see the difference in drive mode. This is the result I got from my vehicle with my driving. No Denver 100 loop or anything like that, just a what if I drive 500 miles in a certain mode and see what the truck does.

I did not test tow or slippery mode. I only us tow mode when I tow or carry heavy cargo. I only use slippery mode when it rains or when I am spinning tires with the lockers on pulling something out of being stuck, onto a trailer or pulling something that does not want to move easily.

conclusion for me here, I am all Sport mode. the savings on mpg is just not big enough for me. I will see you on the road, Keep The Rubber Side Down!

Thanks for sharing this. I have a ‘24 Lariat FX4 Adv Tow pkg 2.3 I4.
I used to drive around town in eco mode and wasn’t real happy with the mpg. Your results verified that. I typically run in normal mode lately. Overall mileage and performance is, as you said, what it was designed for. I’ve only used sport a few times and it’s way too much fun for everyday driving for me but I see why you favor it.
We tow a 4400lbs RV and in tow mode it does wonderfully with a mpg avg of 12.7 pulling through the Appalachians.
Thanks again for sharing.

 

[NM Mike]

I get the best mileage in normal mode as well. Perhaps I’d get better mileage in economy mode, if I lived in flat country. But my mileage drops significantly when going uphill, or driving on windy days.

 

[STEVE_K]

Ouch! I feel your pain since I too have managed to achieve those injuries over the years but luckily not all at once.

Interesting test! Info like that can be helpful when planning out road trips, hauling, and probably other scenarios.

Reminds me of my brothers testing of MPG with the various grades of gas when he was in school and driving back and forth from San Diego to school in San Louis Obispo. He found he got the best MPG when running 89 octane in his Nissan Hardbody.

 

[Michael9218]

I also found that sport mode cost at least 1 mpg, but well worth it! I love the shift logic and the throttle response. Really livens up the truck. The shifts are about what I would be doing if it were a manual. Eco mode is horrible. Hated it. Tow mode is good when towing, but is slower to downshift than sport. I may try sport mode next time I tow my 5,500lb trailer.

My truck is a 2025 2.3 2wd XLT.

 

[Cabose-1]

Thanks for sharing this. I have a ‘24 Lariat FX4 Adv Tow pkg 2.3 I4.
I used to drive around town in eco mode and wasn’t real happy with the mpg. Your results verified that. I typically run in normal mode lately. Overall mileage and performance is, as you said, what it was designed for. I’ve only used sport a few times and it’s way too much fun for everyday driving for me but I see why you favor it.
We tow a 4400lbs RV and in tow mode it does wonderfully with a mpg avg of 12.7 pulling through the Appalachians.
Thanks again for sharing.

I have pulled a 6k travel trailer in the long rolling hills of the south, alabama, Mississippi, and the flat lands of texas. I can say, when i ran in 8th or 7th gear, with higher rpm. I got better mpg and ran cooler than running low rpm in 9th gear. Weird, with the mpg anyway. But i can understand how high rpm runs the engine and transmission cooler.
But i definitely run in tow mode when pulling or hauling. I run 60 or 63 with this rig. Lots of wind resistance. Any faster i get 8mpg.

 

[Cabose-1]

I also found that sport mode cost at least 1 mpg, but well worth it! I love the shift logic and the throttle response. Really livens up the truck. The shifts are about what I would be doing if it were a manual. Eco mode is horrible. Hated it. Tow mode is good when towing, but is slower to downshift than sport. I may try sport mode next time I tow my 5,500lb trailer.

My truck is a 2025 2.3 2wd XLT.

I have never thought of using sport for towing. I wish the 6g had the downshifting the 5g had in tow mode. I should try sport the next time i tow.

 

[Sharpie223]

Any idea of percentage highway vs city driving? Flat or hilly landscape?

 

[Bill Hippel]

I'm glad you are feeling better and back to work. I have a question why do your eco weekly mpg numbers vary so much and your weekly sport mpg only vary by 2 or 3 mpg.

 

[landiscarrier]

Just food for thought. I had a 19 Lariat 2.3 and was tuned by Torrie at Unleashed Tuning. He has a fantastic tune for the 2.3 and also a specific tow mode tune. You definitely get a better low end power and torque and personally I never noticed much of a drop in MPG.

 

[Oregon2025Ranger]

Thanks to original poster. Fun stats.


So is Eco mode useless? Seems like Eco mode would be designed to get better mileage than Normal mode. I use Normal or Sport mostly myself, and Tow/Haul when the bed is full of camping gear and wood.

Side note -- my other drive is a 2012 Challenger R/T, and that also has the Sport mode which makes driving it much more fun and is my normal drive mode when not using the auto-stick.

 

[superj]

I think eco may only save gas on highway trips and using cruise. In normal daily, it never ever gets better mileage

 

[Satex]

I think eco may only save gas on highway trips and using cruise. In normal daily, it never ever gets better mileage

I haven't done a careful analysis, but that seems accurate for my use.

 

[Sharpie223]

I get better economy in eco, but I also have a 2.7. I wonder if eco mode is lugging the 2.3 too much. I know on the broncos, certain trim levels get better mpg with the 2.7 than the 2.3, I wonder if it could be a similar circumstance, here.

I do wonder about your mix of driving and your driving style though, my 2.7 has only seen as bad as 17ish mpg when towing my boat locally with lots of idle time. 19mpg with a teardrop behind it at freeway speeds, and I've been getting 20-21 around town and anywhere between 23-26 on the highway, all using 87 octane. I would think that unloaded the 2.3 should do better. It makes me wonder if your particular vehicle is doing something weird.

 

[purdyd]

Eco does two things as far as I can tell, it shifts up earlier and down later thus maintains a lower rpm

and remaps the throttle so it takes more movement to get the same result. So lightens your foot,

‘’at 60 you may see a difference, but at 70, all modes are in 10th gear.

and while eco can help youpulll away gently I don’t think it does anything if you pull away fast.

in fact I wonder if eco doesn’t hind things like climbing hills or accelerating It can really hold on to 10th gear even when climbing hills if you ease into it. I wonder if that is not an optimum gas consumption mode. Versus say a higher rpm in sport mode.

I keep thinking I should charr field consumption rate in sport versus eco when climbing a hill but I am to forgetful and lazy.

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